The banking industry has become increasingly competitive. Brick-and-mortar financial institutions now have to compete with virtual banks, robo-advisors, and online brokerage firms for market share.
The market is also saturated. Banks and credit unions often have similar advertising strategies, customer demographics, and rates and services. So many banks struggle to differentiate themselves from competitors.
Why You Need a Bank Marketing Plan
An effective bank brand needs a solid bank marketing plan.
From short-term branding and sales efforts to long-term mission and goals, your bank's marketing plan should be your brand's roadmap to growth.
In this article, you'll learn:
- The basics of a bank marketing plan
- Key features of a marketing plan
- Successful banking sales strategies
How to Build a Bank Marketing Plan
A bank marketing plan is a template of tactics to increase brand awareness and sales. As part of this plan, you’ll also set a schedule for these marketing activities.
3 Steps to Building Your Plan
Let’s get started. To build your plan, you’ll:
- Define your institution’s long-term vision and mission.
- Establish short-term goals for the business.
- Outline specific tactics from there.
Remain agile by integrating ample opportunities to recalibrate short-term efforts to keep the bank strategy for growth on track.
Set Smart Goals
Once you’ve set your vision for your brand, it’s time to come up with your goals.
Your goals should be both long- and short-term as well as quantifiable.
Pro tip: When determining goals, use the “SMART” acronym: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. Evaluate each goal to ensure it meets these five parameters before moving forward.
Turn Goals into Tactics
Now, it’s time to turn your broad goals into short-term milestones you can evaluate monthly, quarterly, and/or annually.
An effective bank marketing plan goes beyond a simple compilation of bank marketing ideas. Follow the checklist below.
- Summary: Present your plan, beginning with your bank’s overall vision and mission statement, proposed marketing efforts, timeline, tactics, and budget.
- Theme: Articulate a unifying theme that ties together the elements of your marketing campaigns.
- Demographic: Define your target customers and identify their financial service needs to focus marketing efforts on the correct demographic.
- Value and pricing: Highlight your value by underlining what sets you apart from competitors and set a pricing strategy that positions you correctly in the market.
- Channel and geography: Evaluate and select the most efficient channels to deliver your marketing message. Determine promising geographic markets for your demographic.
- Methods: Define how you will allocate your marketing resources among channels, from traditional print ads to digital content marketing.
- Partnerships and referrals: Penetrate new markets by setting up partnerships with other businesses and customer referral programs.
- Retention: Establish a set of focused efforts aimed at bolstering loyalty among existing customers and enhancing the overall customer experience.
- Budget: Establish a budget for each line item in your overall plan to prioritize the most effective tactics and channels.
Key Elements of Your Bank Marketing Plan
The following factors merit special consideration.
Social Media
Successful bank marketing plans include digital marketing. Everything from a user-friendly website (ideally with an AI-driven chatbot to offer 24/7 customer service) to digital banking services help attract and retain today’s modern customers.
Round out your online presence with social media marketing.
Spend time evaluating which platforms best fit the demographic you would like to target.
- Facebook and Twitter work well for text-heavy and straightforward informational posts. These channels target an older demographic.
- Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok are image and video-focused. They invite more playful messages and are popular among a younger demographic.
When creating content, tailor it to both the specific platform and target demographic. Unsure what to post? Here are some ideas.
- Financial literacy tips
- Customer loyalty information and promotions
- Value-rich posts addressing customer pain points
All social media platforms reward consistent, original content, so establishing and maintaining a posting schedule will widen your reach. Define platform-specific KPIs (views, engagements click-throughs) and check the analytics regularly.
Marketing Partnerships
Partnerships are one of the most often overlooked marketing ideas for banks. But they are an excellent way to penetrate new markets and increase brand awareness.
Align with other local businesses to cross-promote your services. Related local businesses include real estate agencies, insurance companies, and hospitals. For example, you could offer programs that coordinate home loans with purchases or that offer low-cost savings accounts to new parents.
Customer Retention Programs
The cost of maintaining clients is much lower than bringing in new ones. So keeping the customers you already have is as important as attracting new business (if not more).
A few ways to add value for existing customers:
- Periodically review and update your product offerings to keep pace with customer needs and innovations in the market.
- Incentivize in-person visits with free financial advisory services.
- Ensure in-person visits are pleasant by creating a cheerful, welcoming atmosphere with décor, lighting, and music.
How to Set Yourself Apart from the Competition
Each time a new or current customer interacts with your bank, the experience should be positive, helpful, and professional. In addition to offering state-of-the-art intuitive technology and friendly customer service specialists, you should invest in creating a welcoming location with a calm, reassuring atmosphere that reinforces your brand image as trustworthy and reliable.
One creative idea for enhancing the mood at your branch location is incorporating music.
Pandora CloudCover offers an extensive catalog of playlists that are ad-free and licensed for business use. You can choose a streaming station by business type, mood, or genre that matches the voice of your brand or combine stations for a customized playlist.
Try our 14-day free trial and see for yourself how a tailored playlist can enhance your brand. Terms and conditions apply.