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Marketing teams continue to feel the pressure of executives and board members looking to save money and cut costs. They discuss their website needs by asking “Can’t we use Wix, Squarespace, or AI to create our new website?”.

Maybe some marketing teams can use these tools. But the results we have seen when these tools are used are less than ideal. Often websites created using these tools lack personality, emotion, and brand moments. For banks and credit unions, those pieces are critical for their website. They help convey trust and security; both are the foundation of a financial website.

The hidden cost of DIY tools like Wix and Squarespace

Even though Wix and Squarespace are DIY tools, they do require a moderate understanding of how the internet works. From domain names and DNS updates to security certificate installation and content security policies and all the things in between. If these things are handled incorrectly you may end up requiring the help of someone who can fix these issues. On top of that you need to create a design that conveys your brand and its message.

Using these DIY tools can sometimes be difficult to accomplish that. Templates can be very limited in customizations and even if you can start with a blank canvas, often the look and feel you want is still out of reach without a professional designer. So, you end up with a website that is costing you money in terms of deposit and loan growth. And after going through all that you may realize you need to partner with a vendor that can create a 100% custom designed and developed website.

AI isn’t ready to create a financial website

Just about every conversation in the corporate world has AI intertwined in it. And rightfully so, AI is a powerful tool. At LKCS we utilize it for our projects, but more on that later.

If you were to test AI’s design skills you would quickly see that no matter what the prompt, it provides similar design elements from design to design. Of course, you can re-prompt and continue to tweak the design. But in the end, you will most likely realize the design is just not what you want.

In fact, all the AI website design tools we’ve tested severely lacked all the things we mentioned before in their website designs. Personality, emotion, and brand moments. Even if you provide some details about these things in your prompt, AI can’t compete with the human touch for these things. Maybe you do get to point where the AI created design is “good enough” for you. There are so many more questions and steps to get the website live on the internet in a secure and compliant way.

The most important part of a bank or credit union website

It’s no surprise that the online banking login is the most important piece of a website for a bank or credit union. What happens when the website you created in Wix or Squarespace doesn’t support the login on your website? Or you can’t figure out how to tell AI to install your online banking login on your website. You fall back to creating a Login button on your website that links to your online banking vendor login page.

Not only does this create some friction because users can’t simply come to your website and login. But then users’ self-help to reduce the friction and all your online banking users just bookmark the online banking login screen. Now they bypass your home page and website all together. Avoiding all the campaigns and promotions you’ve spent money on creating. Again, it costs you money in the long run.

How does LKCS do it differently?

If we use AI on a project, we do so early and as a jumping off point for the design and organizing home page content. But LKCS relies on the human touch to create a website design that has personality and evokes emotion.

Our web designers analyze your logo and brand, then extract and create elements that can be used on the website to reinforce your brand. These elements are carefully and subtlety weaved into a 100% custom website design. The result is a website that only your bank or credit union can use.

For example, Brokaw Credit Union, the buttons, icons above the rates, and a lot of the imagery on the home page all incorporate their brand shape. It would be difficult if not impossible for another credit union to use this design.

Another example is BankORION, not only are design elements pulled in from the logo, but our team took it one step further and created an animated banner section to really make their website custom to them (hover over the banner too see the animation in action).

We occasionally run into an online banking provider that does not have the capability to provide the code to place the login directly on the website. But most do, and you will notice that the LKCS team creates a customized login experience for most banks and credit unions. We don’t place the login in a simple box on your website. We integrate it into the design.

From full screen takeovers like Maine Family Credit Union, and simple drop down boxes like Fibre Federal Credit Union to a sidebar slide-in like Midland, and your standard login box like The Atlantic Federal Credit Union. LKCS can create the login experience that works best for your audience.

These are just a few of the examples in a portfolio of exceptional work. The design and development teams at LKCS truly work together to create the best possible website we can. We will work endlessly to provide you with the final product you are 100% satisfied with.

And not only do we create a 100% custom designed and developed website, but we also create custom forms to help with lead generation. Website tracking to track users that are engaged on your website and what they are doing. Website personalization based on user data. We have all the tools and services to create and support your online presence.

On top of all that we also provide support for any edits or changes you need made to your website. We have a team dedicated to handling these requests. Typically change requests are handled within two business days, but often the changes are made much quicker.

Options are endless

If you’ve done your research, you know there are a lot of options for credit union and bank website design. Each vendor says their system and process is the best. And each DIY option says they are the best. All while AI website design tools are becoming more prominent.

At LKCS we recommend partnering with a vendor and not trying to tackle this project on your own or with your team and not with AI alone. There are too many risks involved. Countless times we have seen a bank or credit union website designed by a firm that normally does not handle bank and credit union website designs. And you can clearly tell. We recommend reviewing bank and credit union websites you like, hate, are competitors, are similar in size, larger, smaller. Review as many as you can, see what you like. But more importantly what your audience likes.

The last thing to consider

When you are reviewing your options for a new website, consider the fact that the website is a digital branch. It’s open 24/7, it’s your first impression for potential new account holders. And it’s a tool for current account holders to handle financial tasks and help in their financial journey. If it was a physical location, would you look for the lowest price? Would you ask employees if they can help build the physical location? Or ask AI to create blueprints? Often that low price comes with significant feature cuts, like design, development, and security.