MEDFORD, Ore.-More than 33% of marketers at financial institutions say they continue to struggle with insufficient budgets and staffing. Meanwhile, four out of five of those same marketers say they continue to struggle to effectively measure ROI on social media.
Those are just two of the conclusions drawn from the 2013 "State of Bank and Credit Union Marketing" report from The Financial Brand. This is the third year the company has commissioned such a report.
Among the other "major challenges" cited by marketers:
* Inadequate MCIF/CRM databases (29.7%).
* Taking too long to make internal decisions (29.6%).
* Limited data analytics capabilities (25.9%).
* More than 25% of participants also cited too many initiatives and being too risk-averse or too slow to adopt new ideas as being significant challenges at their institutions.
Loan growth was far and away the top marketing priority for 2013, followed by cross selling, deepening wallet share and gaining PFI status, and new customer/member acquisition. Only 27% cited increased adoption of online and mobile channels as one of their top three priorities for the year, and only 15% cited checking account growth as a priority.
Yet those same marketers cited mobile banking solutions as the No. 1 product or service to promote in 2013. A variety of lending options (auto, home, credit card and more) comprise seven of the top 10 products and services FIs plan to focus on in 2013.
Media Being Deployed
Nearly half of participants cited print advertising as less important than in the past, while 71% responded that online advertising was more important.
Among the other findings related to media usage:
* More than 40% of respondents said they still do not use scanable QR codes in their marketing.
* Nearly 50% said they do not have an online switch kit for new members.
* Between 65% and 70% of participants said they use social media, e-mail and e-statements as part of their marketing efforts.
* Nearly 75% of FIs that responded said they use Facebook as part of their marketing strategy, with another 12% saying they plan to begin doing so in 2013. Fifty-three percent use Twitter (again, 12% plan to begin in 2013), while only 19% have latched on to Google+, and just 9% use Pinterest.
When it comes to the amount of time devoted to social media efforts, 36% said they spent five or fewer hours managing those channels, and 21% spent as many as ten hours on it per week. For 21%, it takes up more than 11 hours each week.
Almost 300 banks and credit unions participated in the study, 77% of which were based in the United States. A wide variety of asset classes took part in the survey, and banks and CUs were nearly evenly represented, the company said.
