By Mark Gibson
The banking industry may look back to 2025 as the year marketing technology went mainstream. The most recent American Bankers Association survey of bank marketers revealed three important trends that all point in that direction. First, martech tool usage has increased significantly since last year’s survey. Second, marketing teams have become more comfortable with technology tools. And perhaps most critically, many more marketers agree that martech, analytics and artificial intelligence will significantly enhance the effectiveness of marketing efforts.
Banks see big increase in martech use
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However, the crown for the most-used tool is still worn by CRM platforms, which held steady from last year at 48% of marketers using them. The only technology that saw a slight decrease in usage year over year was data management platforms, down to 30.8% from 32.5% last year.
Sales and marketing technology tool usage
Marketers become more conversant in technology
Not only are banks more likely to be investing in and using marketing technology, marketers are becoming more familiar with it as well. Marketing respondents’ level of understanding increased in all five technology tools in the latest survey. Not surprisingly, marketers say they are most comfortable with marketing automation and CRM platforms. However, with a comfortability rating of less than 3.5 out of 5, and only 11% rating themselves at a 5, there is still room for increased education and knowledge for most respondents.
Q: On a scale of 1-5, with 1 being the least comfortable, and 5 being most comfortable, rate your level of understanding of the following technologies:
The majority of banks are now using customer analytics
Effectively capturing and analyzing data is a necessary precursor to serving customers better and developing deeper relationships. Another encouraging development from this year’s survey is that 52% of respondents report that their institution regularly analyzes customer information to identify sales and service opportunities. This is an increase from less than 45% last year.
Q: Does your bank regularly analyze and mine its existing customer data for opportunities?
Marketing technology and AI are seen to add value
Arguably, the most important finding from ABA’s new survey is that most bank marketers believe that marketing technology will add value to their future efforts. Sixty percent believe that ”marketing technology, analytics and AI will significantly enhance marketing effectiveness,” a dramatic increase from last year’s 44%. An additional 26% believe these tools will lead to moderate improvements. Only 14% believe the benefits will be minimal or that it is too soon to tell, compared to 29% who felt that way last year.
Q: How do you think the use of marketing technology, analytics, and AI will impact the future of bank marketing?
Regarding artificial intelligence-powered marketing tools specifically, 2025 is the year AI moved from being a curiosity to be monitored to a powerful tool to be deployed, as evidenced by its near doubling in usage, from 17% to 30%. While risks must be effectively managed, the effectiveness and efficiencies provided by generative AI, media optimization, social media monitoring and other AI applications have apparently become too large to ignore.
Martech comes of age
While CRM and marketing automation have been around for more than 20 years, they were initially very expensive and cumbersome to use. This year’s ABA survey indicates that a turning point has been reached, where most bank respondents have deployed a system, and believe it’s going to significantly enhance marketing effectiveness. This is further evidence that the necessary skills of a marketer have moved beyond advertising and events to also include creating spreadsheets, designing automated campaigns and measuring the results of their efforts.
Mark Gibson is a senior consulting associate 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],
