Last month Andera hosted a webinar with Sean Mulvaney and Steve Bieber from ACTON Marketing explaining the 5 essential “ingredients” for successful customer acquisition for banks and credit unions. ACTON specializes in customer and member acquisition and writes one of the best bank and credit union marketing blogs in the business today, so their recipe is defintitely worth sharing.

On the surface, it’s pretty simple, but if done right, it produces a wonderful dish:

1.  Use your data

Don’t neglect the data you have. As Mulvaney says, your goal should be to “understand who your current customers are and where they are coming from, and then to find prospects that look, act, and feel just like them.”

When looking at your data, focus on age, gender, income, and most importantly, where customers live in relation to your branches. Ultimately, convenience is the number one reason why someone would choose to open a checking account with your institution. Take a look at all nearby customers to identify where your institution has the most penetration and make sure you understand why that’s happening. With this information, you can then easily target prospects with the highest propensity to respond.

2.  Market your products

Different consumers want different products, and it may be tempting to put your most profitable product first. But when marketing to a wide demographic segment, always be sure to always lead with the product that has the broadest appeal. This will allow you to speak to the widest range of prospects possible. After introducing the product, focus on the benefits-especially the free ones.

3. Make an Offer

You may think your great rate is enough, but an extra incentive never hurts. The incentive serves as a “thank you” to customers for the time they spend opening the account, and should have no strings attached. The offer can be a simple gift, a gift card pack, a premium, or even cash.

4.  Know your Audience

When thinking about your audience, ask yourself: is there anything we know about our audience that would change the way we market to them? For example, 95% of women are financial decision makers in their household, and data also shows that more women bring in and read the mail, so they are the predominant audience reading mailed materials. Accordingly, identify touch points that resonate with women and apply them to your marketing materials.

Additionally, keep the following 5 elements in mind when creating marketing materials: people, storytelling, benefits, convenience, and community. When combined, these components heighten the impact that your materials have on your audience.

5.  Train Your Staff

Training your staff achieves three objectives: it educates, it motivates, and it coordinates.  Education is imperative, as employees need to know the products and how to sell them. All employees should also have an understanding of the strategies driving their institution. Understanding creates buy-in, which creates motivation.  And lastly, training coordinates the staff and ensures that everyone is hearing the same message and is on the same page.

To hear more and to learn about the additional “7 Significant Spices to Ensure Acquisition Success”, view the webinar here.

Originally posted by Julia Verbrugge on blog.andera.com. Follow us on twitter @AnderaInc