The Internet has revolutionized the way consumers choose and use financial services.
Financial institutions have made giant strides in harnessing the Internet to make it easy for customers to conduct an array of transactions from their desktops. This has helped institutions develop deeper relationships with their customers in ways that were never before possible.
But when it comes to marketing, the otherwise tech-savvy banking industry might be considered a “late adopter.”
It’s not that the industry doesn’t get the value of the Internet as a marketing vehicle. Many smart financial marketers have come to depend on the Internet as a way to acquire accounts and cross-sell to customers.
As habits rapidly changed in the late 1990s and people began conducting many of their financial management activities online, the Internet made perfect sense as a customer acquisition platform. The rapid evolution of its targeting capabilities, as well as the changing consumer landscape, have made it easy to reach people while they are researching mortgages, investments, or retirement options.
But financial institutions that think of Internet advertising only as a direct response tool are missing out on its full potential. Fast-changing consumer behavior and rapidly advancing technology have accelerated the rise of the Internet as a mass media outlet — the place where strong brands are built as the foundation for programs aimed at acquiring and keeping customers.
According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 73% of Americans use the Web, and those people spend 15% of their media time online. That’s a huge shift in behavior, fueled by affordable broadband connections that, in turn, have fueled an explosion of rich multimedia experiences. Instant messaging, blogging, sharing photos, watching video clips, and online social interaction are gaining popularity and creating audience niches ripe for clever, innovative marketing.
Think of the best attributes of advertising on various “traditional” media — the targeted demographics of radio shows and television programs, or the broad, local reach that newspapers provide. The Internet delivers all that, perhaps explaining why the online advertising units at the nation’s top newspapers are profitable while their print counterparts are struggling.
This has major ramifications for banks of all sizes that are realigning their marketing to catch (and catch up with) consumers. Clearly it’s not time to abandon traditional advertising programs, but it is time to fully integrate them with the power of online branding.
Whether this is a zero-sum game — more time online means less time watching television — depends on your marketing budget and goals. The point is to consider whether to reevaluate spending priorities, recognizing that the Internet plays well with other media and delivers highly measurable results.
New technology means television and print campaigns can be complemented and extended online. With video and sound, ads can tell stories and take people to special places online, rather than just deliver copy that shouts, “Buy me!”
The bonus that online advertising provides is the ability to continue the conversation with potential customers by guiding them to additional information, experiences, and communities that will help them make a decision. As all online marketers know, success can be measured in a matter of hours and days, not weeks and months.
The online opportunity can be especially effective in helping small banks maintain their visibility.
A hallmark of their marketing is to identify creative ways to link their brand with the truly local information their customers need. In the past consumers relied on newspapers for routine information such as weather, TV listings, and movie times. Today they increasingly go online to find this information, creating an opportunity for local banks to invest in affordable advertising that will be displayed only to the specific audience they’re trying to reach.
This helps level the playing field for small institutions that previously could never dream of competing with superregional or national ones that can conduct large-scale TV or radio campaigns.
The Internet is also an effective venue for reinforcing a bank’s connection to community activities and sponsorships.
Until recently the ads often looked completely different from their offline counterparts. Because marketers were acquiring customers with Internet advertising, they didn’t always see the added value in delivering consistent brand messaging online.
Today online ads can look and feel like print and television ones, reinforcing messages rather than seeming like separate initiatives with different objectives. This presents advertisers with an opportunity to create truly integrated, multichannel campaigns, compounding their effect on brand perception and buying decisions.
Consumers are clearly comfortable living in a world where the Internet resides side by side with television, radio, and print media.
