By Martha Bartlett Piland
Banks often put on special events for customers and prospects to enhance relationships or attract new ones. But these events can rack up a significant cost of both money and time. What is the business case for continuing them?
Marketers bring value to the bank when they focus on business objectives, establish success measures and ensure there’s follow up that drives results.
Leading bank marketers build their events around these must-dos:
Connect the event to the brand
Events should help set the bank apart from its competitors. It’s important to ensure the event is in sync with the brand and its purpose.
Climate First Bank hosts digital “fireside chats” for its customers and prospects with topics like “Let’s Talk Trash” and “Maximizing Solar Opportunities.” These give virtual attendees an in-depth view of the bank’s mission and allow them to learn more about bank products like solar lending programs. An added benefit: These events offer tremendous increased visibility for the bank customers who are featured in the chats.
Landmark National Bank recently held their annual Women’s Business Summit. The program facilitated networking and featured a keynote from Misty L. Heggeness, the author of a new book, Swiftynomics. Also on the agenda was bank customer and board member Sarah Hill-Nelson, President and CEO of The Bowersock Mills & Power Company. She shared stories of her journey as a woman business owner and how the bank has been a vital partner.
Involve banker colleagues
Listening to colleagues share their initiatives and goals helps build more attractive programming that supports the bank overall. And getting their input on content and format inspires bankers to be proactive about promoting the event to their circles of bank customers and prospects. This amplifies your marketing efforts.
“We’ve worked hard to establish a regular meeting cadence with our branch and regional leadership. This allows us to provide updates and reinforce the marketing initiatives we need their help with,” says Jenny Olson, CFMP, second vice president, community engagement officer at MidwestOne Bank. “I think this has elevated marketing’s position within the bank and has increased understanding among our teams about the role of marketing. Through these meetings, we are able to gather feedback about what would be valuable to them in reaching their audiences and what they would be excited to promote.”
Shannon Smith, CFMP, AVP, CRM and marketing database specialist at Norway Savings Bank says the marketing team helps organize events tailored to specific business lines and their clients. She also emphasizes the importance of collaboration with business lines to provide relevant swag and materials for events.
Build anticipation and strong attendance
No one wants to invest time and money into an event only to have weak attendance. A half-empty room is a poor reflection on the bank — especially if there are more bankers there than customers.
Think ahead. Send a “save the date” well in advance, then send teasers and reminders at regular intervals to create buzz and ensure robust attendance.
Katherine Gray, CFMP, SVP, marketing and sales development at Independent Bank says her bank found that extending the invitation to a customer and encouraging that person to bring a friend has been an effective attendance builder. “We’ve learned people feel more comfortable bringing a friend along, rather than attending solo,” she said. “That’s boosted attendance and extended the reach and visibility for our bank.”
Gray also emphasizes the importance of personal invitations from account officers because the invitation feels more individualized (and harder to ignore).
Set the groundwork for sales
Script what do to and say at the event. A mix of value-add programming and mentioning some bank services/products without being “salesy” is important, because ultimately, that’s what you’re trying to do: build business.
Bank employees should dress appropriately, wear name tags and facilitate introductions of attendees. In a room full of people, guests should easily be able to distinguish hosts from other guests. Help people make connections. There should be value beyond your pitch.
“Overall, we try to focus on relationship building, brand building and thought leadership at events instead sales,” Olson says. “Once some trust is established, we can work on sales.”
Landmark’s women’s event with the enthusiastic testimonial from Sarah Hill-Nelson must certainly have spurred keen interest from attendees who have complicated business financing needs.
And Climate First’s programming about solar power could educate and build interest for their very specialized solar lending program.
Follow up
Don’t let attendees go cold. Follow up: Add attendees to the CRM and reconnect with them at intervals, as appropriate.
Olson advises, “Be sure to collect contact information through RSVPs or a drawing at the event. Then begin with an email drip campaign featuring thought leadership or other content they might find helpful. After 3+ email opens, we would consider it a ‘warm’ lead and have a banker follow up with a phone call to see if they are interested in learning more.”
Other kinds of follow up could be invitations to smaller group events that bring prospects and customers closer over time. As detailed in my book, Beyond Sticky, one high-performing institution we have observed offers exclusive ongoing small group meetings where members with noncompeting businesses come together and share ideas. These meetings are facilitated by a consultant or expert, free to customers and at a nominal charge for prospects. It’s a tremendous value to everyone attending and a big differentiator for this financial institution.
Measure
Events are an investment of precious resources. Calculate and stay aware of the cost per lead. It will be higher than through other avenues. But with best practices, the quality of the lead will also be higher.
Use your CRM to note the number of touchpoints and opportunities — and ultimately — the new deposits, loans and other services generated.
With proper planning and nurturing, this partnership of marketing and sales can convert bank invitation events into leads, then valuable relationships — and impact the bank’s bottom line. This is the business case bank leadership wants to see.
Martha Bartlett Piland, CFMP, is president and CEO of BANKTASTIC®, banktastic.com., a marketing agency. Her best-selling book, Don’t Just Brand There, Do Something, is available at all major booksellers. Connect with Martha on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marthabpiland
