Critical Digital Marketing & Superior Data Analytics in 2019

The marketing strategies of before no longer cut it. With advancements in technology and a rapid movement to an Internet-connected era, organizations across all industries are shifting gears and looking into digital strategies that align with consumer expectations and position them more competitively.

Financial institutions are no exception to this digital shift, however, many credit unions and banks lack the staff and skill set required to create a strong digital marketing experience. They are going to stumble creating and implementing marketing platforms, as well as creating the right content to deliver to customers and prospects at the right time.

To avoid common digital marketing pitfalls, financial institutions must tap into their data and use the information to create a proven digital marketing strategy.

Collect the Right Data

Historically, marketing decisions have relied on experience and instinct. A marketer had a hunch of what messaging would work and produced marketing campaigns from there.

Today, there is a wealth of data at marketers’ fingertips, enabling them to create data-driven, proven marketing campaigns that are substantially more successful.

Financial institutions collect data daily in regular business operations. By tapping into this abundant amount of valuable information, banks and credit unions can derive insights that inspire a successful marketing strategy. It’s no longer driven by guess work.

Segment Your Data

Having the data is only part of the equation. Financial institutions must then segment that data to accurately target customers with relevant offers and messaging. Tightly segmenting data based on similar criteria can help financial institutions get to know their customers on a more granular level and highlight intel that could be otherwise obscured by the massive volume of information. Ultimately, segmentation helps banks and credit unions better understand the customer journey and predict customer behavior.

There are many ways to segment customers or members according to data, including geographic, demographic, product ownership, behavior and life stage, but relying on one is not enough. Banks and credit unions must build a segmentation framework to see and understand how segments overlap and correlate. In turn, they gain more valuable insight to identify opportunities with the highest profitability potential.

What is the institution’s most profitable customer segment? What segments should we be cross-selling? And with what products? With this information, financial institutions can develop a highly targeted marketing campaign with a unique communications strategy for each audience.

Analyze Your Data

Once the data has been collected and segmented, financial institutions must then analyze it, helping to identify which factors drive costs and expenses. From there, these drivers can be used to assess the impact of new opportunities, such as new products or customer relationships, on the institution’s overall risk and performance.

Because there are different types of analytics, it can be difficult to determine the most appropriate analysis to deploy. Ultimately, it should be based on the bank or credit union’s end goal.

Applying Analytics to Marketing Strategies

Once the data is analyzed, banks and credit unions must then apply the insights to their marketing strategies. They are able to realize more opportunities to generate more leads, improve customer retention, grow market share and increase share of wallet.

But for financial institutions to truly maximize marketing ROI, it is critical to merge its data analytics with marketing automation tools. Banks and credit unions can then quickly and easily deliver targeted communication that is personalized to a customer’s unique financial needs, thus creating a successful digital marketing strategy.

Marketing automation platforms facilitate the execution of marketing activities across multiple channels, helping financial institutions define workflows. While these platforms empower financial institutions to promote products and engage with their customer base, these tools do not tell institutions how to accomplish this. This is why data analytics is critical.

Clearly, analytics is useful in many areas, but applying it to marketing efforts can quickly and significantly drive ROI for a financial institution. Combined, analytics and marketing automation tools help financial institutions create powerful digital marketing campaigns – critical in 2019 as consumer interactions and expectations shift.

Data analytics and the right marketing tools help financial institutions determine which leads should be sent to sales, nurtured or discarded, enabling banks and credit unions to focus efforts on the most likely and profitable leads. It also helps determine which marketing programs should end or should be a higher priority; which customers are good targets for cross-selling; etc. Financial institutions that fail to embrace data analytics and automation will miss out on opportunities.

Author Bio

Baker Hill empowers progressive financial institutions to increase revenue, reduce risk, and drive more profitable relationships.

Streamline business, consumer direct and indirect lending with our common origination platform. Understand profitability and risk at every level with our sophisticated business intelligence and analytics. Monitor and maintain a healthy financial portfolio with our statement analysis, exception, and risk management solutions.

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