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With a new year comes new opportunities and plans. We all want to experience positive growth and improvements. To achieve that, ads in newspapers or on the radio are a common thing for local financial institutions to do. Targeted direct mailings are even better and we all know they can work when done right.

So, what more can you do? Consider digital marketing strategies. They can connect your financial institution with potential customers who are in the market for certain accounts or loan products. The following strategies present many opportunities you may be missing out on, and often come at a cost-effective price.

Facebook Advertising

Facebook remains a very effective way to connect with new and existing account holders. As users scroll down their news feed, you have an opportunity to deliver targeted advertisements promoting your financial institution.

Targeting specific audiences and demographics remains the social media platform’s biggest advantage. This really can’t be matched by any other online advertising service. Even though Facebook has removed some targeting options over the last year, there are still plenty of combinations marketers can utilize.

Imagine targeting ads for first-time home buyer loans to couples who mark their relationship status as engaged or to married couples between the ages of 24 and 35. Deliver ads to parents with young children promoting youth accounts. Use Facebook to build up your brand awareness by delivering ads to people in your area. You can also serve ads to people who’ve visited specific pages of your website.

Facebook’s costs remain relatively low. Many ad campaigns LKCS manages have had a big impact for as little as $5 a day.

Getting started with ads is as simple as having a Facebook Account. Team up with social media marketers who can create unique eye-catching advertisements and ad copy that’s targeted to the right audience.

Build Reviews

If you’ve been following our blog, then you may have read my posts on reviews and why they are so important. I can’t stress this enough. Consumers read reviews for nearly every purchasing decision. You can bet they’re researching to see what others are saying about your financial institution before they open an account or apply for a loan.

Reviews about your site should obviously be positive, but also plentiful and recent. Many consumers do not consider reviews older than 3 months to be relevant anymore.

So, in 2019, have a review building strategy in place. First, find a tool that will make the process of requesting and leaving a review easy for your staff and your account holders. LKCS offers a tool which allows you to request reviews via email or a text message. Your tellers or loan officers can ask happy customers if they wouldn’t mind leaving a review. If they don’t mind, the request can be sent directly from any computer right there. You can also wait and send them once a week to multiple customers all at once via a spreadsheet. Ask for a demo to get a better sense of how easy it works.

Once you’ve chosen your review request tool, get with your staff at each branch and let them know how important this is to grow new accounts. If it helps, offer incentives internally to the branches that can build the most positive reviews.

Business Citations

There are many websites which list your branch’s name, address, phone number and other details. However, not all of these websites are listing the correct information. Some even feed their information on to other websites, which then list incorrect data.

You can see how accurate your listings are by using our free Local Listings Scanner.

Obviously, it’s important to make sure these details or citations are correct so customers can contact you. It is also good for search engines like Google. Google is looking for consistency among listings to ensure the businesses or websites they display are valid. If I’m looking for a financial institution near me, they want to make sure they’re listing actual places that are physically nearby. Correct business citations will help make those connections.

With so many websites to update, it can be difficult and time consuming to get to each and every one. Even when you do update a listing, you can’t guarantee that it will stay correct. Information from other sites or submitted by users can change what you’ve just posted. In many cases, it can be a never-ending cycle.

Seek out a tool that will help you streamline this process and make it easy to update each website without having to visit every single one. Check out LKCS’ Local Listing Management service which does just that.

Online Advertising with Google and Bing

Often times, a person’s first experience with a brand starts with a search on Google or Bing. It’s an easy way for new customers to discover and get acquainted with you. Purchasing ad space directly on the search results page means you could be among the top results and eligible to get people to click on your ad and visit your website.

With online ads, you’ll have a lot of control over many aspects of your advertising. You’ll get to:

• Choose which keyword searches your ads can show up for.
• Set how much you’re willing to pay per click or spend per day.
• Define locations customers must be within to be eligible to view your ads.
• Target past website visitors with specific banner ads.

There are many more advertising options to take advantage of on both Google and Bing. Speak with experts in online advertising to get a better idea of how your financial institution can benefit in a cost-effective way.

What’s Next

How would you use each of these strategies to reach next year’s goals? What can your team take care of and where would you need some extra help? Answering these questions will help you understand how you can implement these strategies into your upcoming marketing plans. Contact LKCS to learn how we’re helping local financial institutions like yours to grow using digital marketing.