By Mark Gibson
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According to the ABA survey, 52% of respondents are currently utilizing marketing automation platforms, making it the second most widely adopted technology behind CRMs at 53%. This marks a notable increase from the 2025 survey, when just 44% reported using marketing automation platforms, signaling continued momentum in adoption across the banking industry.
Among institutions utilizing marketing automation, email marketing continues to be the dominant use case by a wide margin, with 82% leveraging automation to power their email campaigns. This mirrors the findings from last year’s ABA survey, reinforcing that email remains the foundational channel for marketing automation strategies. But what types of email marketing campaigns are being run, and what advancements are being implemented by industry leaders?
Most banks deploy email marketing for four primary uses: Onboarding (lifecycle); product marketing; relationship building; and trigger events.
Onboarding – Email is typically a critical component of a multi-channel onboarding effort at most banks. It is low cost compared to direct mail and typically has higher reach than bankers making outbound phone calls. Individual campaigns are established to encourage the customer to sign up for direct deposit, activate online and mobile banking, and use the debit card. Marketing automation makes it even more powerful by personalizing the message to each customer’s specific engagement level in the activation and usage journey.
Product marketing – The second most popular email campaign type is product cross-sell and upsell. The most basic of these is to offer complementary products such as savings accounts to checking-only customers. Increasingly, marketers are using more sophisticated data to predict which customers are most likely to want a given product, and even to use behavioral data that demonstrates an intent to purchase a specific product. Often email is used to supplement or even replace direct mail for this purpose.
Relationship building – Many banks use email to periodically engage with customers. This communication can take many forms, from sending relevant financial education content and highlighting community involvement, to inviting customers to appreciation events. These email ‘touches’ typically supplement rather than replace banker outreach, but can happen more frequently and cost effectively, and can go a long way toward building brand and trust.
Trigger events – Increasingly, banks are using email or SMS to alert customers regarding given banking behaviors such as low balance levels, detection of possible fraud or acknowledgement of payment received. Emails are much more timely and less expensive than mail or other contact methods. A challenge is that some banks do not have current email addresses for all their customers, necessitating a multi-channel approach.
Emerging opportunities
Leading banks are pushing the boundaries in four specific areas as it relates to email marketing: behavioral triggers, abandonment follow-up, predictive next-best-action and segmented journeys.
Behavioral triggers – Data savvy marketers are using transaction behavior or even internet search behavior to determine what an individual customer is trying to accomplish (‘intent’), and how the bank can assist with that effort. A popular use case here is to identify consumer or business customers who are searching for credit. Some banks are even using this approach to identify other banks’ business customers who are thinking about changing banks. This approach can dramatically increase the relevance of the message, and therefore the response rate and ROI of the email program.
Abandonment follow-Up – This email program takes a page from internet retailers, who monitor when a customer is placing an item in the cart or partially completing the check-out process, and following up with an email urging the customer to complete the process. Any bank that has online opening for deposit accounts or online loan applications can deploy a similar process, and the ROI on this type of program is one of the highest of any marketing campaign.
Predictive next-best-action – While not as powerful as behavior triggers, predictive models use bank data (‘first party’) along with appended third-party data (demographics, life stage, interests) to refine customer targeting for a given product. This can be particularly useful for loan, credit card, investment and insurance products.
Segmented journeys – Some banks have moved beyond tailoring onboarding and cross-sell programs by product (new checking, credit card, or mortgage customer) and are also customizing their approach based on customer life stage. For instance, messaging and content might vary depending upon whether the new customer is a young family or newly retired.
Bank marketers have found that email marketing is indispensable. It is fast, low-cost and widely adopted by customers. Email plays a critical role in onboarding, supports cross-sell efforts, and provides an efficient way for banks to maintain ongoing engagement.
It also serves as a valuable complement to banker outreach, reinforcing product awareness and keeping the bank top-of-mind with customers. When paired with marketing automation platforms and data integration, email allows banks to move from a ‘sell a product’ approach to a more informed ‘educate and help solve a problem’ approach which creates more financially successful customers and deeper banking relationships.
Mark Gibson is co-leader of the sales and marketing practice at Capital Performance Group, a strategic consulting firm that helps financial institutions maximize the ROI of their marketing efforts. He can also be reached on LinkedIn or at [email protected].
