As much as people assume that the younger generation is online and wants to take advantage of online banking products, it is often baby boomers and retirees that most often are looking for great interest rates, CD products and even auto loans.

By Jeff Bartlett, GoBankingRates.com

Though the Internet makes it really easy to shop, find answers to just about anything, book travel and handle all your banking, what is even more interesting and possibly useful, is that it offers a great deal of data and metrics.

When banks set their marketing plans or build websites, what data are they using to craft each strategy? Are they even using any data?

Banks, whether large institutions like Ally Bank or Bank of America, to smaller banks with one branch in your neighborhood, all have access to incredible amounts of data about online consumers, such as what they are searching for, who they are and what interests them.

Banks do not need to violate any privacy laws or ethics to get this data – it is all readily available, often times at no cost through Google Analytics, great research tools, innovative websites and countless industry experts.

However, the first hurdle in making good use of all this data is to change your bank’s current modus operandi, and then use the information to craft your digital marketing plans and the look and feel of your bank’s website. Again, it’s not especially difficult to begin, but of course, it can become very complex during a deeper dive into data and behavior.

Tools for Data Gathering

To keep it simple, use the numerous, effective tools out there that can help you track not only your current audience, but where to go and what keywords to use to find your target audience.

1. Demographics

An easy place to start is with sites like Quantcast, where there are free options to pull your bank website’s general demographics in easy to read tables like the example below:

Now this data is not 100 percent accurate, but it does provide a great foundation to understanding the types of visitors that come to your site. You can also purchase deeper and more accurate data to gain even more insight.

2. Keywords

Learning more about the keywords consumers are using to find your bank website is possibly the most powerful method to understanding who your audience is and why they are looking for you. Using keyword research tools (Google offers a free, easy to use Keyword Tool) can open up a great deal of data about your current audience, and how to reach your target audience.

3. Social Media

Social Media can be a great wealth of demographic and behavioral audience data as well. There are a number of free and paid tools that provide intelligence into the demographic breakdown of who’s who on social media. It’s important to get to know high-level social media demographic statistics in order to narrow down the demographics of your target audience.

The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project conducts regular surveys of social media users in the United States, while ComScore’s Data Mine also explores social media demographics regularly. Nielsen puts together studies on social media demographics as well.

These tools can help you determine which social networks are best for your business, since they’ll give you a glimpse into the age, gender, income and more of specific sites.

When using these tools, you may quickly find that the audience you thought your were targeting to promote online banking, new product promotion and mobile options may not be the same audience visiting your website to learn about your CD account rates or IRA accounts.

Start now with these simple tools, and as you compile additional data, you can research how to use polls and surveys to get an even deeper understanding of what your customers and audience think of your bank and your products. The results may change your entire 2014 marketing plan!

Jeff Bartlett leads ConsumerTrack.com which owns www.GoBankingRates.com. GoBankingRates helps banks and credit union reach new customers and members searching for banking products, local interest rates and personal finance news.