Kevin Tynan

The ad tech industry is so fraught with misleading and deceptive data that it's difficult for marketers to make smart advertising choices. Even the most reputable of firms spew unreliable data.

The only tactic for survival is brutal honesty. So let's accept the very real risk of disappearing and do the heavy lifting required to persevere.

Paper-based marketing — not digital communication — remains a more promising way to reach customers 50 and older, who also tend to be a bank's wealthiest client segment.

The inconsistency between what millennials say on surveys and their actual behavior should make bank marketers skeptical about building programs around such research.

Banks must use analytics — rather than customer surveys — to determine what does and what does not inspire prospects to become customers.

Social media may be the soup de jour of bank marketing, but its value as a business acquisition tool may be greatly exaggerated unless banks fine-tune their strategies.

As banks try to acquire new customers via digital channels, they should add content marketing strategies into their lineups.

For a more immediate payoff, community banks should focus marketing on older customers that are facing a new set of economic pressures.

As smartphone-carrying baby boomers retire, banks can no longer ignore seniors' unique digital banking needs.

In many cases, customers aren't staying with a bank's brand because they are satisfied. They are staying with the brand because it's too hard to leave.