Community Bank Doubles their Monthly Account Opens
““40% more new accounts…our best month for account opens…ever.””
The Opportunity
A 4-branch community bank in Missouri was looking for ways to drive awareness after a nearby competitor was acquired by a larger regional bank.
The bank had a strong and popular free checking program, central branch locations, and had recently launched an online account opening system.
But, like many community banks, their loan business was decelerating, and the bank was sitting at a net loss of 45 accounts on the year. Previously, the bank had done all marketing in-house, and knew the acquisition gave them a unique and urgent opportunity to capture attention in their communities.
The bank needed a more comprehensive and proactive marketing program to drive more of their desired customers to their bank.
The Solution
We took the bank through our proprietary Bank Accelerator, a 12-week intensive program that establishes and launches a new marketing program.
In a comprehensive executive workshop, we dove into the bank's strategic goals and current marketing reality, uncovered who their ideal customers are, and analyzed their competitive landscape.
From this, we discovered the bank had had success with digital marketing in the past, but the effort never got off the ground due to staff time constraints and training roadblocks. We also found inconsistencies in branding across the branches and internal operational bottlenecks that led to previous marketing efforts stalling out
We created a detailed 90-day plan to ramp up and optimize a digital marketing program and clean up the bank's brand so it would stick in the mind of their potential customers.
We teamed with the bank to execute the plan, which included Google Search Ads, consistent social media presence, a brand standards guide and staff training, and a targeted digital banner advertising program. On top of this, we freshened up their traditional newspaper ads, sponsorship signage, and brochures using the brand standards guide.
On the digital front, the bank was, for the first time, able to see the process of how money spent on digital ads resulted in traffic to their website, downstream emails, website chats, phone calls, lobby visits, and ultimately: account opens and loan applications.
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ACCOUNT OPENS UP > 100%
47 new accounts opened in the second month of the Accelerator: 40% more than the previous single-month record, and more than double the typical volume for that month.
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NEW $1.2M LOAN
Directly acquired as a result of digital advertising.
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INCREASE IN LOAN APPS
Overall loan applications increased, reversing a downward trend.
The Results
By the end of the Accelerator, the bank reversed the year's downward net accounts trend, and opened 47 new accounts in the first month of digital advertising. Typical for that month of the year was 22.
As a direct result of the digital ads, the bank also got on the radar of a successful local business owner, who transferred 13 accounts to the bank and opened a $1.2M loan. In fact, the bank saw an increase in total loan applications - but historically the season we ran the Accelerator usually saw a decline.
The bank improved its position from -45 net accounts on the year, to just -16 (the best year for the bank since before the 2008 financial crisis).
Google Reviews and Search Rankings were increasing. Most of the calls they were getting were from customers of their competitor looking to switch, and a majority of those were younger Millennial customers attracted to the bank's free checking and fully-featured mobile banking.
A comprehensive strategy, consistent brand standards, and a new digital marketing program allowed this bank to increase awareness in their communities and attract their ideal customers.
“Dan, Erik, and their team do a really good job. Their ability to understand the uniqueness of our market surpassed that of any other firm I’ve worked with. They were open to our suggestions while giving the advanced input we needed to reach our goals.”