Banks Include Retargeting As Part Of Digital Marketing Strategy

While not a new tactic in the online world, retargeting is gaining momentum from more than just e-commerce players. 

Due to the ability to target interested consumers as they proceed through the purchase funnel, financial marketers are increasingly leveraging ad-tech advancements to influence financial service buying behavior.

Over the weekend, my son and I were looking at new car options on Edmunds.com. After about 45 minutes on the site, I decided to leave the virtual showroom only to be 'stalked' by car ads for the next two days as I visited totally unrelated locations on the web (I am sure the retargeting won't end soon). Even my entry into the Edmonds.com site was a bit unnerving since the front page of the site was promoting the newest version of the car currently sitting in my garage. 

A coincidence? . . . Not a chance. In fact, illustrating the digital geotargeting prowess of the team at Edmunds.com, the first search I did for the category of car I might be interested in highlighted a sponsored ad from the brand of the other car in our garage . . . from a local dealer. 

It comes as no surprise to today's consumer that the internet knows almost everything about us due to the tagging, tracking and monitoring that is done on an amazing amount of 'big data' flowing in the digital universe. Technology and digital tools have the ability to process our digital footprints almost as fast as we surf the web, predicting what we might do next and what we may be interested in purchasing.

While becoming almost Orwellian in it's omniscience, and a very powerful tool for digital marketers, the process is not always perfect. For instance, because of my profession and my search habits, I am often targeted for financial services I don't need, a new brand of smartphone I don't want and a candidate I would never vote for. Worse yet, I am sometimes targeted for something I already bought (an example of marketing without sufficient channel integration).

Despite the occasional mistargeting, the 2012 Display Advertising Study from Bizrate Insights found that the majority of consumers (60 percent) were neutral on the tactic of retargeting, 25 percent appreciate the ads because they "remind [them] of what [they were] looking at previously, and only 15% do not like the process." Also noted was the convenience of being able to visit a web site users already were intending to visit (28 percent), and the proactive offering of more information on a desired product or service (21 percent).

From a marketers perspective, retargeting allows an organization to customize the overall prospect or customer experience and maintain consistency across all customer touch points. In other words, the retargeting does not need to stop with online ads, but could extend to email and even direct mail as part of an overarching cross-channel strategy.

Types of Retargeting

While most organizations are familiar and use search retargeting due to the reach and ROI of the tactic, there are additional types of retargeting that can prove valuable.

• Search Retargeting: Targets individuals who have searched using keywords or phrases relevant to our business (loans, checking, investments, mobile banking, etc.). With search retargeting, assumptions are made around intent and the consumer's stage in the purchase funnel. Just because a person searches a term doesn't mean they are ready to buy.
• Site Retargeting: In this case, the consumer has visited your site. By 'tagging' them, you can deliver your message as they continue using the Internet (like my Edmunds.com example). Again, identification of intent is important. A customer visiting a bank site to find out hours of a branch is a much different target than a prospect investigating credit card rates.
• SEM/SEO Retargeting: This tactic combines search terms used prior to visiting your site with where on your site the prospect or customer visits. This form of retargeting hones in on the intent of the visit and allows for more specific creative messaging.
• Email Retargeting: As the name suggests, this tactic leverages the actions taken by a customer receiving an email from you. With email retargeting, it is important to differentiate between a customer who just opens an email, a person who visits a landing site after opening an email and a person who simply discards the email. 
• Contextual Retargeting: By exchanging pixels between websites that are relevant, you can target visitors to another site. An example would be what is done between hotels, airlines and car rental companies. 
• Engagement Retargeting: Consumers who visit and engage with your company's blog, Facebook page, YouTube, rich media, etc. can be retargeted using properly placed pixels on keywords. 
• Social Retargeting: Targets individuals who consume social content similar to your current customers.

Infographic Courtesy of Chango

Benefits of Retargeting

comScore recently released a study on the effectiveness of online display advertising based on various media placement strategies. The analysis included 103 campaigns from 39 advertisers covering seven different industries. The categories included:

• Audience Targeting: Based on interaction with related products/content but no visit to site
• Contextual Targeting: Targets sites with related page-level content
• Efficiency: Based on cost-per-click engagement
• Premium Pricing: High visibility placement with premium publishers
• Retargeting: Based on previous visit to site
• RON: Ads appearing anywhere in a network, optimized by conversion

The chart above indicates that retargeting clearly outperforms all other tactics due to the reach, cost and performance lift. This obviously reflects the impact of reaching out to consumers who have already indicated a desire to search, shop of purchase. This strategy also is effective for both brand building and immediate response. The challenge is that there is limited scaleability of this strategy.

According to Lloyd Lee, SVP, Integrated Services for direct and digital agency New Control, "The benefit of retargeting is clear - among all offline and online channels, retargeting is often the most efficient acquisition strategy on a cost-per-approved account basis." Lee added, "For our clients, retargeting has almost become an 'insurance policy' as it ensures that we are capitalizing on all of the traffic we are driving to a client's site from all of the offline and online acquisition efforts. It is at the core of most of our clients' digital strategies."

Tips for Retargeting

As mentioned above, while retargeting is highly effective, there are still some challenges related to scalability since the overall effectiveness of retargeting is related to the ability to have a sufficient target audience. According to Lee, "Often our clients would do more retargeting, but the 'offering pool' is finite by definition. With a strong multichannel marketing strategy, however, a larger potential audience can be identified through direct mail, email, social media, advertising and other forms of marketing."

As with any marketing strategy, there are certain guidelines that can improve results. Here are some tips provided by Lloyd Lee at New Control for success.

• Develop Relevant Audiences: Understand the needs of your customers and places they go to satisfy those needs. Remember that the power of retargeting can create challenges if poor assumptions are made (my examples above). Also, don't take unwarranted liberties. If a customer or prospect has abandoned a loan product page, don't retarget for a checking account. In addition, be careful about retargeting a prospect that has become a customer unless it is for an ancillary, related product.
• Creative is Key: Retargeting success is dependent on good copy and design. Clarity of why the prospect should respond and how to respond is the foundation. You only have a split second to get your prospect's attention and have them take action so make sure the viewer knows what they should do and why. With retargeting, less is usually more.
• K.I.S.S.: Make it easy for your prospect to get what they are looking for. If a prospect responds to a retargeted ad, get them to their desired destination with a single click. If they need to navigate through more than one page to apply for a loan or open an account, they will most likely move on. In addition, if you don't have a way for the prospect to make a purchase or open their account online, you may lose a customer.
• Test, Test, Test: As with any direct marketing initiative, testing (and measuring results) is the key to success. Test ad sizes and creative (including visuals, offers, etc.). Test audience selection and networks that you will use for retargeting. Similar to credit bureaus, not all networks are alike. Finally, test frequency and cadence of communication to understand how often you should reach out to a specific prospect and how soon. Not all products or prospects are alike due to the purchasing process and where the prospect is in the purchase funnel.

Challenges for Banks

While later to the game than most industries, the larger and mid-sized banks are enjoying the benefits of this digital strategy. Smaller organizations are also starting to test the waters due to the potential for results at a time when budgets are tight. But there are still some challenges.

According to Lee, the most significant challenge is usually around culture and anxiety related to privacy perceptions. "While some of our clients have some IT queue challenges, the biggest hurdle usually comes from legal, compliance and around privacy concerns. With such a powerful tool that utilizes insight collected from so many digital sources, some organizations are wary of negative feedback from prospects and customers. Our experience, however, is that these are concerns that are eventually alleviated through careful targeting, messaging and careful digital strategy development."

2013 Planning Strategy

If you are unsure of whether you should include retargeting in your 2013 marketing plan, simply look at the number of visitors to your site that leave before opening an account, applying for a loan, activating an online banking account or responding to an email or web banner.

Worse yet, look at the number of potential customers that abandon their financial 'shopping cart' before completing an online account opening form or credit application (see Seven Steps to Reduce Offline and Online Product Purchase Abandonment). These are people who have been compelled to visit your site and begin the purchase process, and have either gotten cold feet or decided that the number of hurdles you have placed in front of them are too severe. It's as if a person sat down at your new account desk and left midway through the account opening.

For bank marketers, retargeting should definitely be part of your 2013 marketing plan.

If you currently use retargeting, please share with other readers some of your successes. Have you been faced with any challenges? 

Additional Insight:

"The Future is Now" - Search retargeting white paper from Magnetic (2011)
"When Money Moves to Digital, Where Should it Go?" - Research from comScore (2010)
"Retargeting Exposed: Not Another Whitepaper About Retargeting" - 4 white papers from Chango (2012)

5 Bank Marketing Strategy 'Quick Wins'

With the start of a new year, financial institution marketers are under increased scrutiny to generate measurable returns on marketing investments. While it is important to focus on the 'big picture', moving  your organization forward to create long-term value, many institutions ignore 'quick wins' along the way that can build momentum. 

Winning organizations are advised to leverage a hybrid approach to marketing strategy prioritization, using short-term wins as milestones that are aligned with longer term objectives. When implemented correctly, quick wins have the added advantage of serving as clarion calls that signal deviations from the overarching roadmap to success.

Over the past few years, I have written several blog posts on specific bank marketing strategies for financial institutions looking to acquire new customers, improve product engagement, increase share of wallet, reduce attrition and enhance the customer experience. Some of the strategies are complex and are more difficult to implement, while others represent money that is left on the table if not initiated by a bank or credit union. 

The key is to effectively prioritize your strategies and implement those that meet your organization's goals while not burning unneeded resources.

Strategy Prioritization Matrix

A Strategy Prioritization Matrix (SPM) is an easy to use tool to quickly and easily identify those initiatives from a wish list that offer the highest return for the least amount of effort. This tool is especially useful for organizations that have more marketing initiatives than can be funded, or where human resources are limited (every financial organization I know).

The Strategy Prioritization Matrix quadrants include:

• Quick Wins (High Impact, Low Effort): These are the most attractive projects, giving you a good return for relatively low effort. Focus on these to build momentum and a strong ROI;
• Must Haves (High Impact, High Effort): While these provide strong returns, they take longer and use more resources, potentially crowding out viable 'quick wins'. While these are important, they only bring a return when complete. Set deadlines for completion but don't ignore their importance;
• Low Hanging Fruit (Low Impact, Low Effort): While tempting, don't focus too much on these unless they are creating a distraction to the accomplishment of either of the above. Do these in spare time, but put them to the side if a 'quick win' or 'must have' initiative comes along;
• Money Pits (Low Impact, High Effort): These strategies should always be avoided. Not only do they provide low returns, but they crowd out time that is better used on any of the other three quadrants.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  While the above grid appears rather straightforward and simple, prioritizing initiatives is anything but simple since it requires the understanding of business priorities and the use of multiple evaluation criteria. Because each organization has different objectives and different dynamics around ease of implementation, the grid would not necessarily be the same for any two institutions.
  
  
  By plotting your marketing strategies on the Strategy Prioritization Matrix, it will become apparent which initiatives need your focus. For most banks and credit unions, the first priority will be 'quick wins'. If something is relatively easy to implement and it has the potential to have a large impact on your organization, do it, take the praise, build momentum, and move on to the next priority or quadrant.
  
  
  While low hanging fruit may also be a good area to build momentum and impact a finite need, marketers can't ignore the 'must haves' that provide the largest long-term impact.
  
  

  Quick Wins For Financial Marketing Success

  
  
  Nothing is easy, but there are some strategies that I have found to be both easier to implement as well as significantly impactful to a financial institution's bottom line. Interestingly, many of the banks and credit unions I visit only are doing one or two of these at this time. As a result, almost every financial institution can benefit from implementing more of the strategies below in 2013.
  
  
  New Mover Customer Acquisition
  
  
  There isn't a business today that can exist without new customers. They are the lifeblood of any organization and the foundation for organic growth. Unfortunately, everyone is looking for new customers, so the competition for new customers is fierce and the cost of new customer acquisition continues to rise.
  
  

  

  Although not as frequent as 4-5 years ago, people continue to move. And when people move, they make significant purchases for their new residence and make a conscious decision as to where they will shop, eat and bank going forward. These 'consumers in transition' represent both a risk for current providers as well as an opportunity for organizations wanting to acquire new customers (Bank Brand Loyalty Tested With Every Move).
  
  For reaching these new movers, research found direct mail, email and word of mouth to be the most effective channels. Digital marketing has also increased in effectiveness as more movers use the web for research prior to and immediately following a move.
  
  As I mentioned in my previous post on the subject, Targeting New Movers For Enhanced Growth, the keys to reaching this market in transition include:
  

  • Be the first in the mailbox (or on the computer, phone, etc.) after a household moves to avoid other retailer and bank solicitation clutter and to benefit from early decisions
  • Develop a system of immediate processing of prospects/customers to provide the foundation for being the first to reach the new mover
  • Measure the incremental impact of the program against your alternative acquisition/retention efforts to prove the value of this strategy

  For several of my clients, a new mover program is the foundation of their acquisition efforts, generating a 'quick win' that provides both a significant and consistent inflow of new customers. What is nice about this strategy is that once the process is established, little additional allocation of human resources is required.
  
  Digital Retargeting To Support Online and Offline Marketing
  
  
  

  While there are many forms of retargeting (see Banks Include Retargeting As Part of Digital Marketing Strategy), the concept of reaching out digitally to 'double down' communication messaging is gaining favor quickly as a means to improve results of both online and offline marketing efforts.
  
  

  

  This strategy can include reaching out to people who visit your web page or who have started (and abandoned) a new account opening process, or could be a way to reach out digitally to people who are receiving a direct mail or email communication. Because of the ease and impact of this strategy, retargeting could be considered both a 'quick win' as well as a 'must have' initiative for banks and credit unions in 2013.
  
  According to Lloyd Lee, senior vice president of integrated services for the direct and digital agency New Control, "The benefit of retargeting is clear - among all offline and online channels, retargeting is often the most efficient acquisition strategy on a cost per account basis." Lee added, "For our clients, retargeting has become an 'insurance policy' since it ensures that we are capitalizing on all of the traffic we are driving to the client's site from all of the online and offline acquisition efforts."
  
  As the technology and innovation in the digital space continues to improve, more opportunities are being explored with retargeting. For instance, a bank my firm worked with in late 2012 achieved a lift in results of more than 40% when digital communication was targeted to households receiving a checking account acquisition direct mail package. Neither direct mail or online ads worked well independent of each other, but combined they achieved a very favorable CPA with only a modest amount of additional human or financial resource expended.
  
  New Customer Welcome and Onboarding
  
  
  

  For those who have followed this post, read my tweets, are connected with me on LinkedIn or Facebook, or have heard me speak at a conference over the past several years, there is little doubt about my commitment to the power of a structured new customer onboarding process. From my perspective, onboarding provides a unique opportunity for both a 'quick win' as well as a 'must have' strategy that sets the foundation for long-term customer relationship growth.
  
  

  

  Over the past three years, I have had more than eight posts related to the onboarding process, ranging from The Ten Steps to Onboarding Success to The Business Case for Onboarding. Each post has provided insights into the power of the process and has shared tactics that can be used to build a strong welcome program at a bank or credit union.
  
  Despite my continuous dialogue around this fundamental 'must have' strategy, there are still several institutions that have not taken advantage of the power of the 'thank you'. 2013 should be the year that every institution either starts their onboarding process or enhances the process already in place.
  
  For those organizations that do not have any program in place, it is time to commit to the 'first touch'. This may be nothing more than a thank you letter with suggestions as to how to best utilize the account that has been opened. This letter of appreciation should not be just for new checking customers but also for new loan, credit card and small business customers as well. Outlining how to best use the account and discussing what other services align with the account opened will immediately reduce attrition, increase engagement and generate cross-sold accounts.
  
  For those banks or credit unions that already have an onboarding program in place, the additional 'quick win' can be achieved by expanding your existing program to utilize additional channels such as digital retargeting (discussed above), email and even mobile communication. Some institutions have achieved an immediate WOW factor by sending a text or online offer from a local merchant to customers who opened a new account. Who wouldn't want to receive a text informing them that they can pick up a cup of coffee or ice cream cone immediately after opening a new account in a branch or online?
  
  Increasing Cross-Sales With Event Triggers
  

  
  Today's technology allows banks to identify event triggers more accurately than ever before. Beyond the traditional triggers such as balance increases and decreases and the renewal of a time deposit or opening or closing of an account, a customer's digital footprint can provide insight into shopping behavior before a customer makes a decision.
  
  

  

  'Quick wins' available with trigger marketing range from building a process of capturing a person's email address or phone number when then call or shop for rates online to partnering with a credit bureau data provider who can tell you when your current customers are shopping for a credit product.
  
  In late 2012, I wrote a post entitled, Generating Loans With Behavior Triggers that discussed the power of using a tri-bureau data source to identify customers that may be shopping for a credit card, car loan, equity line of credit or mortgage. Knowing this information can serve to retain your current loan customers who may be looking to acquire new credit or refinance or could provide the foundation for a new loan solicitation.
  
  Similar to all of the initiatives discussed above, setting up a trigger marketing program provides an annuity of revenues once the program is established with only limited human resources required on an ongoing basis. Despite the power of this type of communication, which takes advantage of right timed messaging, a surprisingly few organization have a disciplined approach to event trigger marketing.
  
  Collecting Insights For Improved Communication
  
  
  

  At a time when the term 'big data' is moving from buzzword to competitive weapon, it is time for banks to collect more insight from customers that can improve the relevance, timeliness, and effectiveness of communication. Every program I implement with financial clients is improved with the addition of email to a direct mail strategy yet many banks only have accurate email addresses on less than 50% of their base.
  
  

  

  The results are further enhanced when we can personalize the message to the household decision maker (as opposed to the person who opened the account initially or the person listed first on the relationship file). And programs almost always exceed plan when we understand what products the customer has at other institutions, allowing us to only communicate with people in the position to switch existing relationships.
  
  There is no reason for banks to try to perform analysis on unstructured social media 'big data' from their customers until they have effectively used data already on file within the firewalls or data that can be collected through rudimentary surveys and revised new account processes.
  
  This 'quick win' strategy was discussed by Bob Williams in a guest post on this site entitled, Banks Need to Collect More Insights to Communicate Effectively and in one of my 2011 posts entitled, Collecting Behavioral Insights Increases The Value of Relationships. In both posts, we discussed the ease of data collection and the impact this additional insight can have on marketing ROI and the bank's bottom line. In addition, this insight leads to an enhanced customer experience.
  
  As discussed above, one of the best ways to accelerate 2013 marketing results (and potentially receive additional funding) is to orchestrate a number of relatively small 'quick wins'. These wins not only give your team a reason to celebrate success, but also generates the energy and motivation needed to tackle larger, more ambitious initiatives.
  
  What a great way to start off a new year.
  
  Are there other 'quick wins' your institution has implemented that brought a good return on marketing investment? I would love to hear some additional ideas.
  
  

Improving Bank Onboarding, Cross-Selling and Retention With Personalized Video

At a time when self-service banking models are replacing one-to-one interaction, personalized videos can provide a highly engaging and relevant communication option that can improve engagement, increase sales and reduce churn. 

Combining real-time data with highly customized content, marketers can turn big data insights into differentiated 'wow' experiences.

Online video is coming into its own, no longer being just an add-on component to institution's Web site. Partially due to the explosive growth of tablets, web videos have evolved beyond being used just for education or brand building to become a viable direct marketing messaging and selling tool, deserving of dedicated resources.

Online Content Booming

According to recently released data from comScore, 180 million U.S. Internet users watched almost 36.2 billion online videos in January of 2013. While the majority of these videos were for entertainment purposes, nearly 25 percent were promotional content, helping companies communicate with new and existing customers. In fact, video ads were the fastest growing category of online advertising in 2012, with U.S. spending increasing 46 percent to $2.9 billion.

More and more sophisticated viewers don't want to watch a repurposed 30-second TV spot on their computer, tablet or phone. They want online content that is personalized, compelling and interactive. "People are sitting viewing content online wanting to push a button -- give them a reason to push a button," said Jay Miletsky, CEO of online video network MyPod Studios in an interview with CMO.com. If done right, online video can be both a strong branding opportunity and an effective engagement tool.

A survey by Digitas found that 51 percent of online video viewers in the sought after 18 to 44 year old demographic would look up a new brand or product they saw on an online video, and 58 percent of 18 to 34 year olds who follow brands on social media would watch a video that a brand posted online. In addition, the just released Global Video Index : 2012 Year in Review conducted by video analytics provider Ooyala, found that while viewership differs between devices (desktop, tablet, mobile), the overall amount of viewing doubled in 2012.

Personalized Content Drives Engagement

At a time when video content viewership is rapidly increasing, the State of Online Video Report, published by SundaySky, found that personalization fosters significantly higher levels of viewer engagement. Specifically, short-form videos designed for communication to a mass audience (one-to-many product videos) are viewed with a 50 percent completion rate, while viewers will spend 2.5X more time watching a slightly longer video if the content is personally relevant to them.

The impact of videos has already been seen with email marketing, where it can increase the likelihood of having the email opened. While typical email opening rates can range from 11-22%, the addition of video can improve open rates to as high as 30%. According to SundaySky, open rates can increase to 40-60% if the content is personally relevant. Furthermore, the click-to-play rate for personalized video ranges from 80-99% according to the study. Additional KPIs of personalized videos include:

• 4-8% increase in products per customer
• 5-10% increase in revenue per customer
• 20% reduction in churn rate
• 30-50% lift in value-added service cross-sell rate
• 5-20% increase in offer take rate
• 80-94% positive experience rating
• 5-10% lift in Net Promoter Score (NPS)

These results have not gone unnoticed. Forrester Research indicated in late 2012 that personalized videos are an important emerging technology that can combine big data and digital video content for deeper levels of customer engagement. Early adopters of personalized video include cable operators and telecommunications providers who are using this technology to deliver personalized video billings.

Humana also announced in late 2012 that they would be using personalized videos similar the example below to deliver a customized explanation of benefits to customers.

According to Kelly Ford, vice president of marketing for SundaySky, there are also a handful of 'first mover' financial institutions that are building personalized video solutions for their customers. "Several top U.S. banks, particularly in the credit card and lending businesses, are developing ways to increase engagement and educate customers using personalized videos," states Ford. "We expect many of these applications to go public in the next few months."

How Does Personalized Video Work?

Today, more than 80 percent of online video ads are simply repurposed television campaigns that are either available on demand or included within other forms of communication (email, jump pages, etc.). Going forward, however, it is possible to economically leverage behavioral, transactional and relationship insights to 'build' 1:1 video experiences that are personalized, real-time, measurable and optimized through ongoing analytics.

By addressing the viewer by name, using 'just-in-time' contextual and behavioral insight, an engagement communication, cross-sell message or important retention offer can be delivered to a desktop or mobile device even reflecting the device and time of day the message is consumed.

As shown above and in an available video, in the case of SundaySky, personalized and non-personalized data are integrated and served to a video template system called Videolets™. These Videolets leverage the data, logic, creative, channel and analytics to optimize the delivery of the message to the customer.

Individual scenes and personalization assets are selected for each customer in real time and these are populated along with any animation, custom voiceovers and interactive call to action overlays. This process allows for customization on the personal level that is scalable to the millions.

The resulting videos are also responsive to various delivery methods including websites, email, social networks, mobile devices and even SMS to take advantage of customer or institution preferences. And since the video is created at the moment the viewer clicks 'play', it ensures that the viewer is receiving the most recent and relevant information pertaining to their own relationship with the institution. The platform even gathers and analyzes viewer behavior in real time allowing for immediate analytics and performance optimization.

Financial Institution Customer Lifecycle Applications

At a time when the traditional economics of banking have been forever altered, it is important for financial institutions to embrace the 'New Normal' and look for opportunities that will leverage data and digital technology to improve results at every stage of the customer lifecycle. This will require new ways to engage with customers who are being encouraged to use online and mobile tools as opposed to visiting branches. 

Personalized online video provides a solution that can boost online search engine results, increase engagement, improve cross-selling and reduce churn thereby improving customer base growth, share of wallet and revenues. While the technology is still in its infancy, the potential should be evaluated along with other digital marketing strategies.

New Customer Acquisition

For financial institutions that are already leveraging Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies for generating prospect inquiries and new customers, video is the fastest growing format. This is because Google favors pages and sites that include videos. In a recent report, Forrester found that video results on Google have a 50X better chance of appearing first on results lists compared to text-based sites.

However, simply adding videos to a website or email is only the first step. Google and YouTube are always changing their search algorithms for video (and everything else), seeking the best way to present information that searchers find relevent. In October, YouTube announced that they would rank videos based on 'watch time,' giving prominence to videos that are watched for a longer stretch of time than just a few seconds.

As Google, YouTube and others continue to tinker with their search algorithms, it will be important to continually test your marketing efforts to ensure your placement is where you want it to be as changes happen.

It was also found that click through rates were significantly higher for video links than for text links. One reason was because a video thumbnail appears in the search results, providing greater real estate as well as attracting eyes to the results. Bottom line, including video helps brands to get found online. Digital video technology allows for extensive customization of the video based on product search criteria, including features and benefits.

Digital Retargeting

As discussed in my 2012 blog post on retargeting, banks can no longer afford to have website visitors or online shoppers abandon their search or account opening process without converting the visit to a sale. With more than 95% of website visitors and 50% of prospects who begin an online account opening not resulting in new business, reconnecting and reengaging with these site abandoners is a very worthwhile investment. According to eMarketer, retargeting can increase website visits by 726 percent, with retargeted consumers being 70 percent more likely to complete a sale than other visitors.

Videos personalized based on the shoppers initial search and behavior while on the bank's website takes retargeting a step beyond simply sending a broad product message. Since the retargeting efforts are personally relevant to the prospect's search, there is an improvement in site visits (up to 20% more), conversion (up to 10% more) and spend levels (up to 30% more). 

New Customer Onboarding

No matter what product or service a customer buys from your institution, the likelihood of the customer actively using the product and making your product their primary relationship is determined in the first 90-120 days of the relationship. As referenced many times within the Bank Marketing Strategy blog, as much as 40% of the new accounts opened can be lost in the first year, with many of the relationships established being inactive and unprofitable. 

While there are still many banks that are not doing the 'basics' of onboarding a new customer such as sending a 'thank you' email or direct mail letter that discusses how to use the new service and expand their relationship with the bank, a personalized video would be an excellent way to educate the customer about their specific account. This custom video could outline additional elements of the relationship they may be receiving (cards, PIN numbers, checks, etc.), explain how online banking, mobile banking and bill pay work, provide pertinent contact information and give insight into how to maximize the value of the relationship. 

An example of the way this could be done for insurance is provided below. As can be seen, the ability to customize both the audio and video content is extensive, allowing for an unexpected and pleasant new customer 'first touch'.

Some financial organizations are even pursuing using personalized videos to deliver statements as shown in the example below. Again, the level of real time personalization is possible by connecting customer behavioral and transactional insights with digital video content.

Cross-Selling

Ever since I entered the financial services industry (much) more than two decades ago, cross-selling has been the focal point of a great deal of employee training and marketing investment. It has also been the focus of several Bank Marketing Strategy blog posts due to the potential impact on revenues. With the banking standard of excellence usually considered to be Wells Fargo, with a cross-sell rate of 5.9 products, and with an average household having roughly 16 financial relationships, the objective of every financial institution is to have the greatest 'share of wallet' possible.

While many organizations already have lifestage and event triggers and programmed cross-sell initiatives built into their marketing communication strategies, the ability to leverage highly personalized videos to support current direct mail, email and online communication can only improve results. With the majority of the foundation already set through the development of targeting models, the ability to engage customers in a contextualized manner is a logical next step.

Retention

As the industry saying goes, "It costs 5 times more to acquire a new customer than to retain a current customer." Unfortunately, we sometimes forget those households that provide the highest value until they have either indicated a problem or have already left the bank. As a result, many financial institutions have built rewards and even recapture programs to reduce churn and extend customer lifetime value.

Different forms of loyalty programs include points-based programs as well as merchant-funded rewards. While both usually include the offering of merchandise or discounts, the value of these programs is based on the redemption rate as opposed to the earning rate of rewards. Until the reward is redeemed, the value to the customer is minimal.

Engaging customer in a contextualized manner allows a bank to both show that they understand who the customer is (based on their profile with the bank) as well as what the customer's interests may be (based on purchases). The result is a loyalty communication process that integrates the value of their reward available with an offer based on the customer persona.

As can be seen, the potential use of personalized videos is limited only by a marketer's imagination. While the majority of development in the financial services industry at this time is around onboarding, video statements as well as share of wallet build and retention, there are even some institutions looking into the possibility of using this technology for dispute reviews and dispute status updates.

"There is really no limit to the possibilities of personal videos to support engagement along the entire customer lifecycle, especially with industries like banking where the nurturing of a relationship is ongoing", states SundaySky's Kelly Ford. "The ability to have video engagement on Day 1, Day 7, Day 60 and thereafter that is entirely different, leveraging the latest insight into the customer's behavior, relationship growth and preferred channel of receiving the message is exciting."

Potential Roadblocks

Not surprisingly, the primary challenge for most financial institutions around evaluating and potentially implementing this or any digital marketing solution is centered on prioritization of initiatives. With so many pressures on most bank marketing departments, finding time to pursue a new technology or innovative process is difficult.

While compliance, privacy and security are always concerns for financial organizations, since the videos are encrypted, do not include account numbers and are served in real time, many of these challenges have been addressed.

When SundaySky was asked about primary competition to their service, Kelly Ford said, "At this time, for most financial organizations we have talked to, the alternative to personalized videos is 'do nothing', which is because of competing priorities".

Given the need for revenues and importance of aggressively attracting and retaining customers, it is likely that 'do nothing' will not be an alternative for long.

Additional Resources

SmartVideo Advertising: The Intersection of Brand & Performance Marketing : SundaySky (2012)

2012 State of Online Video Report : SundaySky (December 2012)

How Does SmartVideo Work : SundaySky Video (November 2012)

2012 Global Video Index : Ooyala (February 2013)

Emerging Technologies for CMOs to Watch : Forrester Research (August 2012)

The Future of SmartVideo Advertising : SundaySky (August 2012)

FreeWheel Video Monetization Report - Freewheel (February 2013)

Maximize Bank Marketing Results With CRM Retargeting

From the beginning of a relationship, banks and credit unions capture and store customer data within a CRM database. This data is often enhanced with transaction history, purchase behavior and contact history and used as the foundation for building models to better target communication through direct mail and email marketing.

But what if you could leverage your offline CRM database for digital marketing campaigns as well, transforming your data into anonymized online segments through a process called data onboarding? These segments would then receive messages as a follow-up to your direct mail and email campaigns, improving all direct marketing results.

In the whitepaper, "Data Onboarding: The Key to a Successful Marketing Kingdom," Epsilon and LiveRamp discuss the benefits of integrating offline CRM data with online digital marketing. "Using CRM data to market effectively across channels is essential for marketers who want to reach their target audience multiple times with engaging, relevant and consistent messaging," says Auren Hoffman, CEO of LiveRamp.

What is CRM Retargeting?

Unlike regular retargeting (covered in Bank Marketing Strategy last October), CRM retargeting uses your internal offline customer and/or prospect database to reach individuals and households online, not just after they visit your website. By 'onboarding' your offline data, you can reach your customer and/or prospect segments with highly targeted display ads appropriate to their purchase history and interests.

CRM retargeting provider ReTargeter founder and CEO Arjun Dev Arora says, “With CRM Retargeting, marketers can seamlessly integrate display ads with their existing email and direct mail initiatives to create effective cross-channel campaigns with ease.”

Simply put, it's the marriage of the precision of using direct mail or email combined with the rich content and context of display - bridging the worlds of offline and online marketing for more successful customer communication. Since not every customer visits your website regularly (if at all), CRM retargeting is a great way to re-engage these customers and welcome them to key areas of your site.

How Does CRM Retargeting Work?

CRM Retargeting (also referred to as Data Onboarding) matches your internal CRM data with online registration information from hundreds of websites to allow marketers to reach a customer (or prospect) as they search the web as a follow-up to an offline campaign as shown below.

While there are several approaches to this matching process, here is how LiveRamp (Direct and Digital Marketing Agency New Control's primary CRM Retargeting vendor) does it:

• We provide LiveRamp with a client's encoded CRM file safely through a secure upload portal
• LiveRamp matches our client's offline customer and/or prospect data keyed off either an email or postal address to an anonymous online audience via cookies with extensive coverage and high accuracy
• LiveRamp places the matched online audience on our client's existing DSP or DMP and the campaign runs in conjunction with a direct mail and/or email campaign
• Our client's customers see a relevant and timely message supporting other media communications
• There is no buying or selling of data, cookies do not contain any PII, and no audience information is passed to a third party (thereby adhering to privacy regulations)

Source: LiveRamp (2013)

It is important to note that onboarding data is anonymized -- aggregated based on customer segments (such as customers without a specific product) who will receive a specific message (special offer to open an account). And while each physical address can't be matched to a digital online counterpart, the ability to have customers or prospects who have been marketed through email or direct mail see your display ads as they search the web and brought back to your sales site is a powerful enhancement to your marketing efforts.

What Are The Benefits of CRM Retargeting?

How powerful could CRM retargeting be? According to a recent study by Oracle, 78% of people will research a product over at least two channels before committing to a purchase. Serving a retargeted online ad to those that have receive direct mail or email will remind them of your brand and the product/service being marketed. Retargeting also can reinforce a desired action from the customer without leading to direct mail or email fatigue.

By adding an additional channel to your targeted direct marketing program, you are more likely to reach your targeted audience with their preferred channel. And, each time your audience sees your retargeted ads, your brand gains more traction and recognition. The results is higher click-through rates and increased conversions.

Should Banks and Credit Unions Do CRM Retargeting?

Banks and credit unions have the most thorough and up-to-date customer databases of any industry. In addition, many financial institutions have prospect databases for their primary trade areas that have almost as much valuable data which is the perfect foundation for CRM retargeting.

With most marketing budgets of financial institutions being kept flat or even reduced over time, the importance of using relatively inexpensive marketing tools that can improve ROMI has never been greater. In addition, with every basis point of response rate and account opening rate for direct mail and email programs being scrutinized, the value of a tool that can improve the returns on both channels is well times.

Best use cases for financial institutions include:

• Leverage CRM retargeting as an enhancement to a direct mail and/or email cross-sell campaign, generating a higher response rate for every channel (see below)
• Use CRM retargeting to quickly respond to trigger marketing opportunities. Due to the speed and channel benefits of CRM retargeting, this is an excellent way to connect with a customer that has a lifestage, behavioral and/or purchase level opportunity
• Test attribution models using direct mail, email and online display advertising
• Leverage CRM retargeting to enhance the power of a prospect direct mail campaign, matching postal addresses to online databases

CRM Retargeting FInancial Case Study

New Control tested the value of CRM retargeting with a client wanting to generate new checking account customers from both current non-checking account customers and pure prospects in current branch trade areas. Rather than simply using saturation mail or traditional targeted direct mail for this effort, we assisted the client by developing three different communication strategies for the proposed target audiences:

• Direct mail to prospects (50% of targeted audience also included CRM retargeting)
• Direct mail to current non-checking customers where email address was not available (50% of targeted audience also included CRM retargeting)
• Direct mail and email to current non-checking customers where email was available (50% of this audience received an email follow-up with the other 50% receiving only direct mail. Both of these sub-audiences had a 50/50 slip of CRM retargeting)

The results of this test showed that the most powerful combination from a ROMI perspective was the audience that received direct mail, email and a CRM retargeted display ad. The segment with the lowest ROMI was the prospect segment that received just direct mail, while the volume of accounts generated from the customer group receiving direct mail was the highest of all combinations. The customer segment with direct mail and email was the second most powerful ROMI.

Overall, CRM retargeting improved the ROMI in every case where used due to the lower cost of engagement and the power of the other channels. CRM retargeting used alone was not effective with any segment in our test.

Selecting a CRM Retargeting Partner

When selecting a CRM onboarding partner, the following questions should be asked:

• Scale: Look for a partner that has the largest scale of the existing match networks. The best partners should be able to match 30% to 40% of your offline database with online cookies.
• Accuracy: You should be looking for the strongest 1:1 matching between the offline data and the online network. Inference or model matching may provide a higher match rate, but the accuracy of the match will be less. In financial services, accuracy of the match avoids issues down the road.
• Security, Compliance and Privacy: Make sure the partner selected has demonstrated experience in handling sensitive CRM data and that they adhere to strict data privacy standards.
• Integration: Your partner should be integrated into all of the Demand Side Platforms (DSPs), Data Management Platforms (DMPs) and online measurement tools.
• Speed: Top CRM retargeting partners have engineered systems that allow for matching and marketing within hours. This is important when you are trying to do trigger marketing programs where minutes count.

“CRM Retargeting represents a leap forward in terms of serving the right users the right ads at the right time,” said ReTargeter Director of Marketing Hafez Adel. “It offers the unparalleled ability to leverage a business’s existing CRM to create a compelling new engagement channel that works for both brand advertisers and direct response marketers alike.”

Additional Resources

Data Onboarding: The Key to a Successful Marketing Kingdom: LiveRamp and Epsilon (March 2013)

Cross-Channel Commerce: A Consumer Research Study: Oracle White Paper (March 2011)

LiveRamp Blog

Top 8 Financial Marketing Resolutions For a Successful 2014

For the past three years, I have published an article on resolutions bank and credit union marketers should make for the upcoming year. While these posts have always been extremely popular and well read, many marketers still have difficulty achieving some of the most important resolutions.

Despite this lack of success by some, I am again providing suggested resolutions for financial marketers since research shows that people who make resolutions are ten times more likely to attain their goals.

When I published my first financial marketing resolution post in 2011(Ten Bank Marketer Resolutions for 2011), the primary emphasis was on replacing lost fee income caused by the Card Act, Reg. E and the Durbin Amendment. Most of the other resolutions addressed ways to either generate new revenues or reduce costs. I did discuss the need to test social media marketing, deliver on the mobile banking promise and reconfigure the branch model, but these were not the highest priorities in 2011.

My resolution post for 2012 (10 Resolutions Bank Marketers Can't Ignore in 2012) enlisted the support of more than 20 global banking industry leaders to help develop suggested strategies for the upcoming year. While the focus of many of the resolutions were similar to the prior year (communication channel mix, customer centricity, social media testing and building share of wallet), discussion expanded to include the importance of leveraging big data and embracing innovation.

As with any list of resolutions, last year's banking industry leader crowdsourcing post (22 Industry Leaders Provide New Years Resolutions for Bank Marketers) included several resolutions from prior years that still presented a challenge, such as enhancing the customer experience, improving measurement of results, integrating the mobile channel and continuing to innovate. The major difference last year was the increasing importance of focus and grabbing the lower hanging fruit due to all of the distractions caused by new regulations and compliance initiatives.

This year, I again collected ideas from some of the most prominent names in the banking industry in the development of my top resolutions for financial marketers. I also researched trends in other industries that are served by my firm, New Control. While some of the suggested resolutions are similar to those in the past, the impact of digital shopping, big data, the mobile channel and a contextual customer experience is evident.


Resolutions are intended to represent major transformational shifts in behavior that will impact personal or professional success in the future. With that in mind, the following resolutions are what some of the best global marketers believe are important for financial institution marketers in 2014.

1. I will move some budget from offline channels to digital channels.

With limited budgets and reduced response rates for almost all traditional marketing channels, there has never been a greater need to optimize marketing spend for bank and credit union marketers. One way to improve results is to supplement your investment in offline channels like direct mail, email and mass media with online tools that can improve results while decreasing costs.

One highly effective way to take advantage of the shift in the consumer's purchase funnel, where they begin their shopping experience online as opposed to in the branch, is to leverage digital retargeting. First discussed in a Bank Marketing Strategy article entitled, 'Banks Include Retargeting as Part of Digital Marketing Strategy' and also written about in a guest post for The Financial Brand, retargeting allows a financial marketer to improve the results of traditional marketing by reaching customers and prospects across their digital footprint in real time as they search the web on their computer or mobile device.

Providing additional touches at a fraction of the cost of traditional media, retargeting allows financial marketers to improve the results of direct mail acquisition or cross-sell campaigns, email programs, social media initiatives or other digital marketing programs while also reaching those prospects and customers who visit your web site or do searches in the financial services category.

While not stopping traditional direct mailings, customers of New Control have moved as much as half of their direct marketing budget to digital channels for one reason . . . it works in conjunction with offline media. That is why this is the first resolution for financial marketers in 2014.

2. I will engage with my customers on mobile channels. 

While referenced in previous resolution posts, the need to engage customers on both web and mobile channels has usually been more talk than action. Another relatively inexpensive initiative for bank and credit union marketers, the need to build engagement and sales across mobile touchpoints is akin to the first resolution regarding retargeting. 

Financial marketers need to leverage the mobile banking platform they already control to reach out to customers with contextual offers that reflect their current relationship, transactional behavior and potentially even their location. With the advanced tools and technologies available, banks and credit unions are in a position to integrate highly personalized offers within mobile banking applications that reflect the next most likely product or service needed by a customer.

As discussed in my post entitled, 'Banks Accelerate Mobile Banking Innovation', the most progressive banks are already monetizing their mobile channel by including custom product offers within their mobile banking application. In 2014, we will begin to see many more financial institutions enhance their merchant funded reward programs by taking advantage of location optimized offers that reflect both the customer's buying behavior as well as their specific location. 

3. I won't get distracted by 'big data'.

Thankfully, much of the hype has died down over the past 12 months, but there are still those who want to chase the next shiny object around big data. The key for 2014 is to capitalize on the ever growing silo of data already available within your organization. Sometimes referred to as structured data, this includes customer demographics, product ownership insight, transactional data, channel usage behavior as well as digital and social interactions with your organization.

In addition to narrowing the scope of data to more easily accessible insights within your firewalls, the importance of moving from data manipulation and reporting to data usage and application has never been more important. As I mentioned in my BankDirector.Com article entitled, 'When It Comes to Big Data, Start Small', competitive advantage is achievable through the better use of data in the development of lifestage trigger cross-sell programs, optimal branch configuration, pricing decisions and risk and fraud monitoring.

In my travels, I have seen that only the very largest of financial institutions are effectively using unstructured (big) data in the development and implementation of marketing programs. For the rest of us, it is better to focus on using the data at our fingertips to improve targeting, communicating, building offers and measurement of results on a real-time (vs. campaign-based) basis.

4. I will innovate through simplification.

According to Siegel + Gale's Fourth Annual Brand Simplicity Index, 75% of customers will recommend brands that provide a simple experience and use simple communications. In other words, if you offer products and services that make it easy to do business with you, your customers will spread the word.

Unfortunately, banks and credit unions sometimes equate innovation with 'adding on new bells and whistles'. Instead, 2014 should be the year we eliminate steps, simplify communication, and even simplify processes within your organization that can foster simplification and innovation.

Over the past few months, I referenced important innovations that simplified the customer experience when I reviewed the way Mitek Systems has leveraged the picture taking capability of a smartphone to remove steps from depositing checks, opening an account, transferring a credit card balance or completing forms ('Banking Innovation for the Fat-Fingered'). I also discussed research by A.T. Kearney and how Fifth Third increased sales and revenue by reducing their deposit services portfolio from 42 to 8 products ('Bank Product Proliferation: Too Much of a Good Thing'). 

Innovating through simplification is not simple. It just takes a dedication to stripping away legacy steps and messages, leaving behind only key elements. But it is a necessary role for financial CMOs in the future as we try to respond to the needs of the digital consumer.

5. I will maximize the value of my current customers.

Similar to the resolutions that most people have around losing weight or getting fit, the financial marketing resolution of maximizing the value of current customers needs to appear on each year's list of resolutions. This is not because bank and credit union marketers don't already make attempts in this area. It is because so many of the basic tenets of success are either missed or not allocated the appropriate human and/or financial resources.

In 2010, 2011, 2012 and again in 2013, I provided the business case and steps required to implement a successful new customer onboarding program. In the next few weeks, I will update some of my recommendations to include digital and mobile components that can improve the important welcome process. Despite this emphasis (and documented financial success in the marketplace), more than half of the financial institutions still haven't introduced a multitouch, multichannel onboarding program that encourages engagement in the first 90 days of the relationship.

In addition, many financial institutions are not leveraging the customer insight they have at their disposal to build a real-time cross-sell process that is based on customer insight as opposed to product goals. It's time to break down the product silos at your organization and use trigger marketing to communicate to customers when their needs are highest as opposed to when your institution's needs are highest.

6. I will get actively involved in branch transformation efforts.

As noted in my Top 10 Retail Banking Trends and Predictions for 2014, while we may not be moving to a branchless banking environment anytime soon, it is clear we are moving to a 'less-branch' distribution structure due to the rapid acceptance of online and mobile banking and the resultant reduction in branch-based transactions.

Bank and credit union marketers may or may not be at the table during the discussions around branch transformation, but the outcome of these discussions will definitely impact customer communications. So make a resolution to get involved.

In the future, a customer will engage with our bank or credit union using multiple channels based on their needs and channel preferences. As noted in two 2013 posts entitled, 'Migrating Banking Customers to Digital Channels' and 'Rethinking the Multichannel Banking Experience', it is not a good strategy to 'force' a customer to use a specific channel. It is also clear that as a customer uses multiple channels (including digital channels within a physical branch), they will expect marketing communications to be consistent across channels.

Its time to become a holistic financial marketer, moving from developing programs for specific channels to supporting real-time marketing experience across all channels the customer may use.

7. I will increase my use of email.

I realize that my resolution of moving budget from offline channels like direct mail, email, and other traditional channels to digital channels may sound counter to a resolution of increasing email, but it comes down to segmenting lists and improving the content of email, resulting in better leads. As one of the most important tactics in achieving the share of wallet goal in resolution 5, personalized emails can improve open rates by 14% and conversion rates by 10% according to recent research by Hubspot.

Despite Google's assault on email last year, the power of personalization, improved segmentation, linked videos ('Improving Bank Onboarding, Cross-Selling and Retention With Personalized Video') and improved response tools positions email as one of the strongest marketing tools for communicating to current customers.

It is time for financial marketing CMOs to demand the ability to effectively leverage the email channel at those institutions that have either restricted or severely limited the use of this channel.

8. I will assume the role of Chief Experience Officer.

At the end of the day, all of the above resolutions will fail if your customer has a poor experience when engaging with your bank or credit union. Unfortunately, as technology has advanced, communication channels have multiplied and the customer has assumed control of the sales and engagement processes, the ability to 'manage' the customer experience is no longer viable. Instead, it becomes the CMOs role (or a designated team) to view your organization from the customer's perspective.

The good news is that the customer has the ability to share their (good or bad) feelings about your organization whenever they desire through a vast array of social channels or using various channels we have developed for transacting and communicating. The bad news is that most of this sharing is now done in public where the interaction can be viewed by hundreds of thousands of other unrelated people.

While the ultimate responsibility for the customer experience needs to reside in one place, the ongoing responsibility needs to be shared with everyone within the organization. When everyone feels empowered to 'make things right' with the customer, the customer usually wins.

My Resolution

Resolutions are usually only successful when they are embraced and measured. I only scratched the surface on resolutions I believe are important for 2014. I may have listed too many and I am sure I missed several.

The key is to make whatever resolutions you set central to what you want to achieve in the new year. In the meantime, I will be collecting research and insights on all of the resolutions above to help readers achieve the above goals using the experiences and findings of others.

My resolution (beyond losing weight and becoming more fit) is:

I will be the 'go to' resource needed by C-level executives and their teams for insights into the constantly changing retail banking marketplace.

Good luck on your resolutions in 2014 and feel free to provide input into how I am doing on my resolution.

Additional Resources

Ten Bank Marketer Resolutions for 2011 - Bank Marketing Strategy (Jan. 2011)

10 Resolutions Bank Marketers Can't Ignore in 2012 - Bank Marketing Strategy (Jan. 2012)

22 Industry Leaders Provide New Years Resolutions for Bank Marketers - Bank Marketing Strategy (Jan. 2013)

New Years Resolution Statistics - Statistic Brain (Jan. 2014)

5 New Years Resolutions for Marketers - Mashable (Dec. 2013)

7 Marketing Resolutions to Start The New Year Right - Hubspot (Jan. 2014)

9 Marketing Resolutions for 2014 - Eloqua (Jan. 2014)

Marketing Predictions Hits and Misses for 2013 and 2014 - Hubspot (Jan 2014)

5 Marketing Resolutions for 2014 - The O'Hara Project (Jan. 2014)

Digital Marketing: 12 Predictions and Resolutions for 2014 - eWeek (Dec. 2013)