Invest Financial Corp. is leaving no stone unturned in its search for new mutual fund customers.
The Tampa, Fla.-based investment marketer is touting a handful of new targeted marketing services meant to boost banks' investment products sales production by 25%.
The services, MetroLead, NeighborLead, BusinessLead, BankLead, and ClientLead, carry the InvestLink brand name. Each of programs generates lists of marketing prospects by analyzing banks' customer records and general-purpose consumer databases.
The banks receive exclusive rights to the lists and the information is not distributed to potential competitors for the duration of the contract, according to Invest.
The aim, said John Richter, senior vice president and director of marketing for Invest, is to construct easy-to-implement marketing plans.
Instead of incurring the costs of mailing marketing material to every customer, banks "would only have to mail to the 20% of those (customers) most likely to invest in mutual funds, annuities, and unit investment trusts," Mr. Richter said.
MetroLead, for example, uses bank records to figure out which of a bank's customers are most likely to purchase mutual funds and annuities. This product was laUnched late last year and is in use in more than 100 banks,
Used in conjunction with MetroLead or as a stand-alone program, NeighborLead can locate 30 individuals who live near a bank's best customers. This program employs the proprietary databases of National Decision Systems, a division of the credit and consumer information company, Equifax.
The burgeoning 401(k) market led Invest to develop BusinessLead to help identify local businesses that are likely to need employee-retirement services.
That program, launched earlier this year, targets both small and large companies.
BankLead, which is already being tested in seven banks, and ClientLead, due to be launched in the fall, use demographic profiling, and transaction histories of current clients to construct lists of leads and sales strategies.
How Invest Generates Leads for Banks
* With the METROLEAD service, bank records are culled to see which customers are most likely to buy mutual funds and annuities.
* With the NEIGHBORLEAD service, 30 neighbors living near good customers are contacted.
* With the BUSINESSLEAD service, local businesses likely to need retirement services are identified.
* The BANKLEAD and CLIENTLEAD services use demographic profiling and transaction histories to construct lists of leads or sales strategies,
Source: Invest Financial Corp.
