ABA Banking Journal
No Result
View All Result
  • Topics
    • Ag Banking
    • Commercial Lending
    • Community Banking
    • Compliance and Risk
    • Cybersecurity
    • Economy
    • Human Resources
    • Insurance
    • Legal
    • Mortgage
    • Mutual Funds
    • Payments
    • Policy
    • Retail and Marketing
    • Tax and Accounting
    • Technology
    • Wealth Management
  • Newsbytes
  • Podcasts
  • Magazine
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
    • Magazine Archive
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Podcast Archive
    • Sponsored Content Archive
SUBSCRIBE
ABA Banking Journal
  • Topics
    • Ag Banking
    • Commercial Lending
    • Community Banking
    • Compliance and Risk
    • Cybersecurity
    • Economy
    • Human Resources
    • Insurance
    • Legal
    • Mortgage
    • Mutual Funds
    • Payments
    • Policy
    • Retail and Marketing
    • Tax and Accounting
    • Technology
    • Wealth Management
  • Newsbytes
  • Podcasts
  • Magazine
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
    • Magazine Archive
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Podcast Archive
    • Sponsored Content Archive
No Result
View All Result
No Result
View All Result
ADVERTISEMENT
Home Retail and Marketing

Email Integration Strategies

October 27, 2015
Reading Time: 3 mins read

ABA President and CEO Frank Keating welcomed Richard Shelby’s regulatory reform bill as a “wonderful first step” during an interview on Fox Business’ “Before the Closing Bell” program today.

By Ray Parenteau

Email is not a standalone channel. Far from it, it touches nearly every aspect of a bank’s operation and interactions with customers and prospects. In this article, we will discuss three types of integration: operational, channel and strategic. We will also outline the different benefits realized from using an integrated approach when planning your email program.

Operational

Imagine trying to run a bank today without email? Sure, it could be done, but it would leave the bank at a severe competitive disadvantage. E-statement notifications, fraud alerts, system updates and more would run at a snail’s pace. Postal and call center costs would soar. And digital marketing would be nearly impossible.

Until recently, email in banking operations has been a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. How do you manage the email “system-of-record?” What types of messages are subject to CAN-SPAM and which are exempt? How are email addresses shared by multiple accounts handled? How do we get our important messages through without looking like phishing scams?

These are challenging questions that require vision, support and tenacity. But once the hurdles are behind, the benefits are significant. Lower costs, timely communications, and digital integration with other systems produce significant return-on-investment. One client was able to save well over $300,000 by using email rather than postal mail to deliver privacy notices. That starts adding up to real money.

Channel

Effective bank marketing requires a unified, cohesive and coordinated use of various channels. Without getting into the details of multichannel versus omnichannel, it’s clear that email plays a key role in both approaches. Multiple studies show that email is the consumer’s channel of preference for marketing communications from their financial institutions. (Actual numbers vary, but the results are similar.)

This doesn’t mean you have to lead with email all the time. In fact, we see that the most potent channel combination is direct mail plus email. Interestingly, one client learned that adding phone contact to the mix actually reduced campaign effectiveness.

Want to automate your sales process? Put together a targeted campaign—email, direct mail or search/banner advertising—and drive your prospects to a landing page that asks for an email address. Or, better yet, pre-populate the landing page with the information you already have. You probably know this as a PURL (personalized URL).

Once you have your “inbound” prospect, deliver the information needed to continue the sales process with a drip campaign. At the same time, send a prospect notification to your CRM, sales team or branch manager for follow-up. One bank did this with various website capture forms and generated 133 loan applications in 22 weeks just from that “silent salesperson.”

Email is best used for customer retention and cross-selling. One bank sent a single targeted mail to home equity prospects and generated $1.5 million in new loan volume attributable to the campaign. (No other channel was used in this case.) The key here was the targeting. If you email the wrong offer to the wrong audience at the wrong time, you will lose your recipients’ trust that you know them and that your email adds value to your relationship.

Strategic

Too often, email is an afterthought of a campaign or a product strategy. As noted above, email works great with direct mail, targeted offers, search campaigns, onboarding /re-boarding and even product awareness. Your cost-per-impression is dependable and is reduced to pennies. It’s also an effective channel to communicate brand strategy and showcase community contributions and involvement.

The key to success in using email for these different strategic efforts is to have a multi-faceted program based on audience segmentation and preferences. If you try to achieve all these goals with a basic monthly newsletter, you will gain only limited traction. But you risk losing impact with “one-message-fits-all” approach.

When you start your annual marketing plan and fill in the various initiatives, ask yourself: “Can I get email with that?” We recently completed a 13-month study of email frequency and found that financial institutions that contacted their customers more than once per month had cumulative reach and engagement rates of up to three times those that mailed only monthly.

Once you have (1) a critical mass of customer email addresses, (2) repeatable, reliable processes for identifying target segments, (3) the ability to translate marketing efforts to the email spectrum, you gain a formidable tool that delivers consistent and significant return-on-investment.

This is a great time of the year to add or expand email in your marketing program. Put in the plan now, and it will quickly become your favorite channel.

Ray Parenteau is founder and president of ClickRSVP, an email provider specializing in financial institutions. Email: [email protected]

Online training in digital, mobile and social media from ABA.

ADVERTISEMENT

Tags: Email marketing
ShareTweetPin

Related Posts

Podcast: Old National’s Jim Ryan on the things that really matter

Podcast: Old National’s Jim Ryan on the things that really matter

ABA Banking Journal Podcast
June 12, 2025

Jim Ryan has led Old National Bank to 250% asset growth. On the podcast, the ABA American Bankers Council chair discusses the bank's growing profile and footprint, his views on deposit insurance reform and the experience of leading...

Bank community engagement: Yes, you can help bank veterans

Bank community engagement: Yes, you can help bank veterans

Retail and Marketing
June 9, 2025

AMBA partners with the ABA Foundation to recruit banks to provide our nation’s veterans access to safe, reliable and flexible financial products and services.

FHFA finalizes strategic plan for 2022-2026

Marketing Money Podcast: Why leadership matters more than likes

Retail and Marketing
June 6, 2025

For bank marketers, the value of being strategic is great.

Looking for trouble?

Podcast: What bankers need to know about ‘First Amendment audits’

ABA Banking Journal Podcast
June 5, 2025

"First Amendment auditors" have long tried to provoke public officials into stopping them from recording in public settings. Now, some auditors are targeting banks.

ABA: Proposed quality control rule for AVMs would overburden banks

Bank survey: Uncertainty weighing on prospective homebuyers

Community Banking
June 4, 2025

Roughly 60% of current homeowners and prospective homebuyers are uncertain whether now is a good time to buy a home, up from 48% two years ago, according to a recent survey by Bank of America.

Looking for trouble?

Looking for trouble?

Compliance and Risk
June 4, 2025

So-called ‘First Amendment auditors’ target bank employees with provocative filming. Here are tips on responding.

NEWSBYTES

ABA, associations urge CFPB to rescind changes to adjudication process

June 13, 2025

ABA DataBank: May inflation cooler than expected, but still above Fed’s 2% target

June 13, 2025

Consumer sentiment rebounds in June

June 13, 2025

SPONSORED CONTENT

AI Compliance and Regulation: What Financial Institutions Need to Know

Unlocking Deposit Growth: How Financial Institutions Can Activate Data for Precision Cross-Sell

June 1, 2025
Choosing the Right Account Opening Platform: 10 Key Considerations for Long-Term Success

Choosing the Right Account Opening Platform: 10 Key Considerations for Long-Term Success

April 25, 2025
Outsourcing: Getting to Go/No-Go

Outsourcing: Getting to Go/No-Go

April 5, 2025
Six Payments Trends Driving the Future of Transactions

Six Payments Trends Driving the Future of Transactions

March 15, 2025

PODCASTS

Podcast: Old National’s Jim Ryan on the things that really matter

June 12, 2025

Podcast: What bankers need to know about ‘First Amendment audits’

June 5, 2025

Podcast: Accelerating banking for quick-service restaurants

May 8, 2025
ADVERTISEMENT

American Bankers Association
1333 New Hampshire Ave NW
Washington, DC 20036
1-800-BANKERS (800-226-5377)
www.aba.com
About ABA
Privacy Policy
Contact ABA

ABA Banking Journal
About ABA Banking Journal
Media Kit
Advertising
Subscribe

© 2025 American Bankers Association. All rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Topics
    • Ag Banking
    • Commercial Lending
    • Community Banking
    • Compliance and Risk
    • Cybersecurity
    • Economy
    • Human Resources
    • Insurance
    • Legal
    • Mortgage
    • Mutual Funds
    • Payments
    • Policy
    • Retail and Marketing
    • Tax and Accounting
    • Technology
    • Wealth Management
  • Newsbytes
  • Podcasts
  • Magazine
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
    • Magazine Archive
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Podcast Archive
    • Sponsored Content Archive

© 2025 American Bankers Association. All rights reserved.