Independent Banker - November 2021 - 23

Next: How to get your employees to brainstorm new ideas 
about community banks is that they
don't have to think globally; they
don't have to think nationwide.
They just have to think about their
local markets. "
2. Create a unique URL,
QR code or phone number
Even if you're taking your marketing
efforts offline by sending out flyers
or running a print advertisement,
you can still track the effectiveness
of your campaign by embedding
your marketing material with a
unique URL, QR code or phone
number specific to your campaign.
" Maybe there's a small offer to
encourage them to actually type in
that URL and not just Google your
bank's name, " says Marriott. " That
way, you can actually test whether or
not people are reading your mailers
and engaging with them. "
3. Track email open
and click-through rates
The email marketing software
you use to send e-newsletters can
track what's resonating with your
subscribers based on open and clickthrough
rates. According to a report
from Campaign Monitor, these
numbers hovered around 24.8% and
2.7%, respectively, for the financial
services industry in 2020.
4. Designate a control group
No matter what message or offer
you're projecting to your customers,
a control group-a randomly
selected group of recipients you
purposefully exclude from receiving
your marketing material-should
always be part of your campaign.
This allows you to compare the
success of the product or service
you're marketing against the
responses from the control group
to " see how well your campaign is
performing, " says Marriott. He adds
Creative marketing
pays off for Chelsea
Groton Bank
When $1.5 billion-asset
Chelsea Groton Bank in
Groton, Conn., was set to
launch a handful of video
banking ATMs across its 14
branches, it gave customers
an extra incentive to test out
part of the community bank's
suite of digital tools dubbed
" Chelsea LIVE. " Anyone
who came to complete a
transaction with one of its video bankers could cast a vote for their
favorite local nonprofit. The nonprofit with the most votes would
receive a donation from the community bank.
Advertised on the bank's social media and in its e-newsletters, this
Chelsea Groton
Bank uses video
bankers to serve
customers.
marketing campaign was a simple way to promote the community
bank's new digital tools to a wider audience. All Chelsea Groton
Bank had to do was count the number of votes received.
" This was one of many ways we introduced the video banking
ATMs to the community, " says Barb Curto, Chelsea Groton
Bank's vice president and marketing manager. The bank also ran
marketing initiatives like traditional advertising, PR efforts, social
media, signage and more.
" We have seen an increased use of the video banking ATMs
since we introduced them, " says Curto, " due in part to the many
components of the campaign, as well as teaching customers how
to use the new technology on-site and the installation of more
video banking ATMs across our footprint. "
that this strategy is also a smart
way to test an initiative on a small
sample, for a small expense, before
rolling it out to all your customers.
Above all, it's important to
remember that there is no one-sizefits-all
measure of success when
it comes to marketing campaigns.
Your definition of success will vary
based on your community bank's
customer base, asset size and
even location. Instead of trying
to compare apples to oranges,
" start off with a benchmark, "
Marriott advises.
" Look at where you currently
are and say, 'We're going to be
5% better every year.' And just go
from there. " 
Taylor Hugo is a writer in Colorado.
independentbanker.org Q 23
http://www.independentbanker.org
Independent Banker - November 2021

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