Before COVID-19 burst onto the scene and changed our world in irreparable ways, onboarding, reboarding and Marketing Automation may have been viewed more as niceties than necessities. But that’s no longer the case. Here’s why:
According to a pre-pandemic survey conducted by Foresight Research, respondents who said they planned to switch financial institutions within a year or two numbered at 12 percent. After the start of the pandemic, however, the survey was conducted again – and this time, the number of respondents planning to switch financial institutions within a year or two jumped to 22 percent (thefinancialbrand.com).
If the findings in this survey accurately represent American consumers as a whole, that means more than one in five of your accountholders plan to find a new financial partner within the next two years – almost double the pre-pandemic amount. The reason? According to Foresight Research’s analysis, it all comes down to money. With economic hardships still affecting many, consumers are looking for ways to spend less and save more, which may prompt them to seek out better loan rates, higher savings rates and lower fees at other banks and credit unions (thefinancialbrand.com).
As a marketer, you may not have a lot of control over the rates and fees offered at your financial institution, but that doesn’t mean you’re powerless in the battle to retain consumers. Simply use our onboarding and reboarding programs (which target new and existing accountholders, respectively) to deepen relationships and, consequently, reduce attrition. We’ll communicate with your accountholders via emails or postcards (or both!) to promote your products and services.
If you’re already planning your onboarding and reboarding strategies, here’s a top tip to keep in mind: Consider using these programs to encourage the adoption of your digital banking services (such as online banking, mobile banking, bill pay, etc.). These digital services are viewed as “sticky” products, as they cause the accountholder to become more entrenched in your financial institution – making it more difficult for them to leave.
Another tip to keep in mind for your onboarding and reboarding programs? Pair them with our Marketing Automation platform! We can use landing page surveys to gather information about your accountholders and then target individuals with automatic emails about the products and services they care about most. Plus, we can transform your accountholders into trackable leads, so you can monitor their activity on your website and trigger additional automated emails based on their website behaviors. This form of targeted marketing is now critical, as the pandemic shutdown “brought about some major behavioral shifts for consumers – shifts that included a whole new set of expectations surrounding remote access, online services and personalization” (thefinancialbrand.com).
Be careful, though, about who you partner with when it comes to Marketing Automation. “Some financial institutions … let themselves be sold deluxe software packages and empty promises. Many such teams sign on with tech-giant platforms that charge monstrous upfront costs and require exhaustive training. Months later – sometimes longer – these institutions still won’t have the software up and running” (thefinancialbrand.com).
By comparison, when you partner with image.works, you’ll enjoy affordable pricing, streamlined implementation and direct access to our Marketing Automation specialists, who will work with you to develop an effective and efficient strategy. We have a Platinum Certification in Marketing Automation (the highest certification available), and we’re ready to put our experience and expertise to work for you.
To start your onboarding, reboarding and Marketing Automation programs, contact us today at info@imageworksdirect.com or 800.777.1663. With the COVID-19 pandemic still raging across the globe – affecting consumers and shaping their expectations along the way – it isn’t an exaggeration to say that this powerful marketing trio is now more important than ever before.
Sources:
https://thefinancialbrand.com/101390/post-covid-consumer-switching-banks-credit-unions-rates-fees/?edigest
https://thefinancialbrand.com/97420/banks-credit-unions-marketing-automation-martech-technology-trend/?edigest