The Stern Marketing Group in Berkeley, California interviewed 100 women in four different cities. The Wall Street Journal reports that they found that those women visited their bank branches three times a month to get cash. Only five of the women said that they used their banks for financial advice.
WALLY'S COMMENT: Why is this? Probably because banks don't seem to make the effort. Banks do very little marketing of their financial services to pretty much anybody, but even then it seems to be a muddled process.
How could this be done better? One friend of mine found the financial planning services for her bank because a teller pointed her in that direction. That will work as long as people are visiting tellers. If they're spending lots of time grabbing cash from the ATM, some other form of communication will be necessary. With ATMs that include small video screens, messages on the screen might do the trick.
No matter what business you're in, you can't expect your customers to root around like hogs hunting truffles to find your very best services. Examine the points of contact that your current customers have with your business. Then look for ways to communicate with them at those points for the services, products and value-added items that you can provide.
Make it easy to respond. Build the response mechanism into the message if you can.
Find ways to identify when folks will need particular services. I like what lifestyle marketing can do for a financial institution. If you pay attention to where your customers are in their life cycle, then you know when they're going to be prospects for certain kinds of products. Mortgages, seconds, tuition and computer loans, etc.
If you're a bank, try to make every customer see your institution as their primary financial institution. Those are the most profitable customers, but you have to cultivate them. Of course, you can always trust to luck, but generally luck is not a method you can count upon.
Finally, look for alliances that put you in touch with prospects at multiple contact points. For a bank, that might mean alliances with auto dealers, realtors and appliance stores. What might it mean for you and your business?
This article originally appeared in Wally Bock's Briefing Memo newsletter in 1999.
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