Bank Marketing Blogcast

Many people manage with disruption as the goal, but disruption should just be the result of the good judgement we apply. Discerning leaders who understand what needs to change and when have the right idea.

Technology has expanded convenience, but it hasn't made the value of customer service go away. Much has changed over the years, but the need for a personal banker remains the same.

Don't let yourself fall in love with the idea of precision. Bank marketing messages are more effective when they're a little broader than they absolutely have to be. Over-aiming leads to over-missing.

You'd better have a plan before you uncap big data. Are you ready to use your bank's data? Don't let a vendor hype you up with possibility only to leave you high and dry.

Big data brings a lot of promises along with it, but it only works for those who proceed with caution and care. Make sure you know what you expect to do before you begin.

Make sure your bank marketing campaign finds the right balance between action-inducing emotion and decision-supporting logic.

Every element of ADA-compliant web design is something you should want your site to have or do anyway. This is a great way to make sure your busiest branch is always the best it can be.

Nearly two-thirds of bank names contain the same words (not counting the word “bank”). Listen to our latest blogcast to see if your bank stands out from the pack or just blends in.

Your clients don't think about banking, but they think of their money every day, and banking should be a part of that. Don't miss a chance to explain banking on their terms. They'll thank you for it with their business.

Not to oversimplify our jobs, but the whole goal of marketing is to tell more people. And the better you do it—well—the better it is. How can you share the best version of your story with the most people?Listen to Josh's top 10 reasons community banks struggle to compete with their competition and what he does to fix it.

Sure, when it comes down to it, everyone in your organization wants to be compliant. We show you how to make frustrations with compliance a thing of the past—even when your marketing ideas collide with organizational directives, policies, and procedures.

Millennials are buying more homes than any other generation, and if you're ignoring them, you're missing out on an entire generation of bank customers.

Geotargeting and geofencing are two of the trendiest advertising activities going. More than that, they're proving to be the next big thing on the bank marketing frontier.

Developing a comprehensive digital banking solution for your bank is kind of like jumping into the pool. We’re here to say the waters are nice, but even if they weren’t, all your bank’s clients are already in the pool.

If a problem cannot be solved through conventional means then, by its very definition, we must apply bank marketing logic that is unconventional.

The days of boosting deposits by sending new account holders home with a free toaster are long gone. The marketplace that once responded to “value pricing” is now more interested in “value added.” How are you adding value?

As marketers implement marketing automation in greater numbers each year, a new responsibility has emerged: knowing what data matters and what data doesn't.

Line-of-business leaders feel their line of business is the most important to your bank’s success. Here are five tips to help you get that all-important line of business buy-in.

Community banks rarely find their marketing advantage in the size of their budgets. Their ability to react and their connection to their customers make their magic happen.

Does big data feel too big to get your hands around? We've got four data points that will yield measurable results, and any marketer can pull them together—starting with how many clients your bank serves.

Your job is marketing the bank, but who's marketing your department? We have 5 tips for marketing "marketing" to the stakeholders in your bank. And they start with building relationships across departments.

Executing a successful content marketing strategy is hard—especially at a bank. But it doesn't have to be. Bankers have expertise in areas most people long to know more about, you simply have to make it accessible and digestible.

Answering banking's great unanswerable question of how to recruit new customers who don't currently want to move is not impossible. It does require us to fund the answer from a different point of view.

As community banks with smaller marketing budgets, how do we compete against national brands? We do it by playing to the strengths only community banks have.

Failure is the best teacher in the banking world. See what we learned from the failure of Simple.

The key to getting your licks in can often hinge upon being the first to swing. Don’t wait for the big banks to show the way. Identify opportunities for yourself, and strike first.

It’s easy to have a big idea and say, “Let’s get started and we’ll figure out the rest as we go,” but that’s the recipe for a crash landing. It’s better to execute a simple idea 100% than a big idea 85%. You can pick one resolution and plan to make an impact in your bank this year.

Writing can be intimidating. Between the blinking cursor overlooking the blank page and plain old self-doubt, it’s tough to get started. Here’s some good news: there are a few things that separate poor writing from mediocre writing. And one item that can boost mediocre writing to good, or even very good writing.

Poor planning is the most common denominator in subpar social media management. Don’t get me wrong: Planning is tough. In the creative world, a blank canvas is the most intimidating thing we face … and a social media calendar feels like 260 blank canvases.

Nothing derails a creative conversation more than having to pay for it. You can’t put a dollar amount on a brainstorm or “getting to know you” conversation. But most advertising agencies do it. It’s typical for creative firms to bill for meetings, but that’s where we’re a little different from our peers. Our success comes from building true working relationships.

Marketing to millennials isn’t all that great. They’ve already established their banking relationships. However, there are millions of 18- to 24-year-olds (classified as Gen Z by most) across the country who haven’t done so yet. More importantly, they’ve yet to face all the major life decisions (like graduate school, first direct-deposit jobs, and first car loans) that could impact their choice of banks.Here's what that means: Your college-aged customers—and millions of university students just like them—are going to bring big business your way as they transition into the workforce.

A Rebrand Strategy That Won’t Leave You ReelingRebranding has an almost supernatural reputation. We talk about capturing the essence of an organization or the spirit of the brand. It’s intimidating. It sounds like you need a medium or a spirit guide, or at least, an Ouija board.And the truth is, there are only two outcomes: great or terrible. There is no middle ground.We want to help you through all the prognostication and soul searching, but we’ll skip the Ouija board and hopefully demystify the process.Listen as Josh breaks down the rebranding process, and talks about what you can expect from your agency, and what your agency should be able to expect from you.

10 Questions to Ask Before You Start the SearchMarketing a bank is harder than ever. New techniques and technologies abound. The never-ending cycles of approvals to adopt change are extended as IT and compliance departments balance advancement against risk. On top of that, most banks are actually performing pretty well—which sounds great…until you’re challenged to do better next year.As banks realize the need to grow in marketing sophistication, many are reaching out to agencies for the first time. I want to help you find one—and it doesn’t even have to be mine.Now, let’s address the elephant in the room: “But you own an ad agency!” I sure do. But I’ve learned a big lesson over the years in this business: good relationships are worth their weight in gold. I’ve learned a few other things in that time, and I want to share some of them with you. It’s really not about hiring the best agency, but the best fit. It would be a tragedy to hire an agency with terrible creative talents, but it’s worse (by many orders of magnitude) to hire an agency that’s a bad fit. This is why you can trust my advice as an agency owner. Even if I spent the rest of this article trying to subliminally convince you that we’re the best bank marketing firm out there (even though we are), I couldn’t determine if we are a fit. And I’m much more concerned with fit. You should be, too. Trust me.So how do you find the best fit for your bank?Ask yourself these questions.

Mabus Agency President Josh Mabus discusses the keys to hiring the right agency with agency creatives.

Some of the designers and writers at Mabus Agency discuss Riley's recent post, "Chase’s Twitter Blunder Shows Failure to Offer Value," and talk about how we can learn from the megabank's mistakes.

When a company as big as JP Morgan Chase makes a misstep on Twitter, the clapback is always lit.For Chase’s #MondayMotivation post last week, the biggest bank in the country tweeted a fairly condescending hypothetical conversation between a "You" and your bank accountWhile the advice was pretty spot-on—after all, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that the average American household (including single-person households) spends an average of $3,000 per year eating out—it was incredibly tone deaf.In all fairness, Chase is one of the few banks who fully paid back their part of the $700 billion bailout. Still, it’s hard to swallow “just buckle down” advice from a bank that played a part in one of our nation’s largest financial crises.The biggest problem here is that Chase squandered an opportunity to offer its 365,000 Twitter followers real value.For you community banks, though, Chase’s mistake hints at opportunity. You guys are much closer to your clients. Your clients’ needs and preferences are much more uniform and unique than Chase’s. How can you use that to your advantage to empower your clients with tools and encourage them toward engagement and conversation?

You’re busy with work. We’re busy helping banks like yours (and writing insights about bank marketing).We want to make your life easier. So we made the Bank Marketing Blogcast.Now, on key blogs, we will offer an audio version of the words you love to read. Think audiobook but shorter (and more valuable for your bank).Morning commute? Stream bank marketing knowledge straight from your car’s speakers.Yard work? Crank up the volume on deposit tips.Gym time? Enhance your body and your mind with career-boosting knowledge.Our team of strategists and copywriters works hard to put out new insights and tactical tips on our website. Those same words will now be read aloud by the author and delivered straight to the device of your choice.But wait, there’s more. We’re also going to throw in some bonus conversations about our insights and tactics so you get to hear from more voices in Mabus Agency, not just the writers. Our designers, media strategists, developers, project managers, production team, and relationship managers have a lot of insight into bank marketing as well. To make sure each episode is automatically delivered to your device, subscribe to the podcast feed. You’ll get new episodes any time they come out.