There is a whole lot of noise being made about the best marketing tactics for financial institutions. The general consensus seems to be: get personal! Sean McDonald even titled his article, Marketing: Make it Personal, Touch the Soul! The FI that knows the customer best, will get more business. To impress the customer (ie show the most customer knowledge) and earn their business FIs need to follow three steps:

Discussions of new regulations for banks and credit unions are huge right now. I’ll be honest and admit that I don’t know all the details about the proposals being made, but I know that banks aren’t happy about more regulation. I can’t say that I blame them, but there is a flip side, as Alan Kline points out in his article, Regulation is a Fair Price for Government Support on American Banker.

“Who are your competitors?” I’ve been asked this question by potential clients, friends, and colleagues. It is a seemingly easy question, but the answer is far less direct than you might expect. Micronotes is a new business, with a new idea, and to be perfectly honest we do not have any direct competitors (to our knowledge).

It’s no secret that banks and credit unions are looking for revenue sources. Cross-sell is a top priority in 2012 with financial institution managers and marketers dreaming of auto loans, mortgages, and sugar plums. While loan products may bring in revenue immediately, deepening customer relationships through financial advising sessions, bill pay enrollment, etc. should not be overlooked.

If you have it, you know it’s a problem, and if you don’t your customers are probably more satisfied—I’m talking about old, outdated legacy technology.  Financial Institutions are at a major cross-roads having to cut costs, find new revenue streams, and interact with customers through a multitude of different communication channels (twitter, facebook, online banking etc.). Many FIs are lacking the technical infrastructure to adapt to the changing environment. In effect FIs are being forced to upgrade their core systems, or fall behind the pack.

Bank of America needs to recover lost interchange and fee revenue, but are new fees really the best answer?

There is nothing like walking through the front door of your home after a long day at work or hard workout and being greeted by the aroma of dinner, realizing how hungry you are, and having dinner already cooked and waiting. Essentially what happens in that moment is that you are hungry and your husband, wife or roommate predicts your need and meets it before you are even fully aware it exists. Wouldn’t it be awesome if things like this happened all the time?

I’ve been disheartened this week for bank marketers. I came across a blog entry on Optirate.com titled, “Correlation vs Causation – Crucial Distinction for Marketers in Banking industry” that implied that increased revenue cannot be linked directly back to marketers.

Bacon had it right in the early 16^th century.  Few bankers will dispute that face-to-face sales interviews with customers produce cross-sell results.  Financial products are relatively complex purchases when compared to most consumer products (e.g. it takes a little more work to select the right mortgage than it does to buy a pair of shoes – and the cost of getting it wrong is a lot higher too!  You can’t send your mortgage back if it’s the wrong size).  Most people would still like to talk with a competent human being before signing at the X. 

The banking industry is on the verge of change on all sides—retail, technology, security, customer landscape etc. As the banking industry transforms and adapts to technological advances and customer demands and expectations financial institutions have the opportunity to redefine their goals. The emerging banking environments are dependent on financial institution marketers and their vision for the future.  So what’s on the minds of financial institution marketers this year?