Top drivers for marketing success. What to budget for in 2015

Top Drivers of Marketing

Success – What to

Budget for in 2015

Mark Gibson

SVP and Chief Marketing Officer

Rockland Trust

Rolland Johannsen

Senior Consulting Associate

Capital Performance Group

Page 2

The Retail Banking Dilemma

REVENUE EXPENSES RETURN INVESTMENT

Retail Banking Financials are Challenging

Page 3

The Retail Banking Dilemma

Build the Brand

Improve Customer

Experience

Design New Products

Support Sales

Activities

Integrate Delivery

Channels Differentiate

Drive X-Sell

Increase Customer

Loyalty

Acquire Profitable

Customers

Demands on Marketing are Increasing

Page 4

The Retail Banking Dilemma

Continued Pressure to Control Expenses and Increase Productivity

Page 5

The Retail Banking Dilemma

So Many Choices – So Few Guarantees

Page 6

The Retail Banking Dilemma

• Understanding the options

• Focusing on a few high potential options

• Determining what each channel/medium can do

• Establishing realistic success criteria

• Creating an integrated mix across all marketing and distribution channels

LET’S EXAMINE TWO OPTIONS – DIGITAL MARKETING AND SOCIAL MEDIA

The Challenge for Community Banks

Page 7

• $6 Billion Commercial bank based in Eastern Massachusetts

• Founded by business owners for business owners

• “The Regional Alternative to large national banks”

• Very colleague and customer focused

• First in market to introduce “mobile banking” TWICE!

Who We Are

Page 8

Brand Building in the Digital Age

• Branding is no longer simply about a prospect’s exposure to your bank

• It’s about their experiences and various interactions they have with your brand

• Traditional media still has a place, but now there’s websites, social media, content, mobile

apps, blogs, video and countless other channels

It only takes 50 milliseconds—a blink of the eye—for users to form an opinion about your website

and therefore your brand*

*Thomson Reuters Web of Science

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Marketing Investments in 2015

SEO and Social Signals will become even more codependent

Social Media Marketing will require more content diversity

Social Marketing

Content Marketing will be bigger than ever

Materials need to be more than copy – think infographics, podcasts, webinars, videos

Mobile-Friendly content will be necessary

Video is a trusted source for research

YouTube is the #2 search engine

Content Marketing & Video

Maintain your Paid Search Program

Improve through testing, keywords, offers, content

Increase or start your Display advertising for wider reach

Paid Search & Display Advertising

Go the next level in your keywords:

• Golden keywords

• Low hanging fruit

• Top 100 PPC Keywords

• Top 100 Search Volume

Ensure your website is built to enhance indexing

Organic Search Performance

Put Your Money on Digital Marketing

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Why Digital?

• 93% of online experiences begin with a Search Engine.

• 81% of all consumers research online before making a decision

• 45% of Baby Boomers and 53% of Gen X’ers (age 34-59) start research online

• 59% of consumers use Google every month to find a reputable, local business.

• Online shoppers tend to have higher-than-typical incomes.

– 55% of e-commerce shoppers in the U.S. live in households with incomes above $75,000

– 40% in households with income of $100,000 and above.

Your digital channel will reach farther than your traditional channels

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Digital Building Blocks

Search Engine | Website Optimization

Display Advertising

Content Marketing

Video Marketing

Paid Search

Social Media Marketing

Start with the basics and grow – the best results use all these tactics but you need to walk

before you can run. Of course, budgets increase with each tactic added to your toolkit.

Good

+

Better

+

Best

Analytics tools to review and optimize performance

Page 12

Focus Your Efforts

• A “Buyer Persona” is a representation of your ideal customer which provides a detailed description

of a typical buyer preferences, habits and values

• By defining a Buyer Persona, you will be able to figure out:

– How can you solve their pain points

– The tone and style you should use

– The topics you should focus on

– Where they go online and what sites they use

– How they respond to advertising, brand messaging

• Delivering the RIGHT MESSAGE to the RIGHT PEOPLE at the

RIGHT TIME is critical to persuading prospects to select

your products

Before you spend a dime on Digital Marketing, narrow your scope to the few critical

customer groups that create the most revenue

Understanding what keeps your prospects up at night

will allow you to better target services to them.

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SEO | Website Optimization

• Golden Keywords: keywords based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis of what the highest

priority keywords are for traffic growth and lead-generation opportunities.

• Low-Hanging Fruit: keywords for which you are currently ranking between 11 - 50. Focus on

content you create for these keywords with the goal of pushing them into the Top 10 listing

positions.

• Top 100 PPC: the 100 keywords with the highest associated pay-per-click costs.

• Top 100 Search Volume: keywords with the highest number of monthly searches.

• Everything impacts how you perform in organic search

– How your site is built

– How your content is keyworded

– How your URLs are structured

– Review at least once a year

Reinvigorate Your Organic Search

Tip: Google Trends is a great tool to

see what terms people search for

Page 14

Paid Search and Display

• According to a study by Zenith Optimedia, 2015 will see spending on display ads pass paid

search for the first time since the dawn of the internet.

– Display spends will swell by 21%

– Paid search is expected to top out at 13%

Why?

• 42% of internet users don’t consider a single network their primary social platform. They use more

than one search engine for research. Brands may have to double-dip and purchase ads on multiple

networks to reach target customers.

• Facebook, Twitter and Linked|In are just a few of the

social media sites that have rolled out or improved

the targeting on their networks.

2015 Will Be the Year of Display Advertising

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Display Advertising Example

• Impressions 1,154,368

• Total Cost $8,200

• Clicks to Microsite 1,507

• Entrances to Application 97

• Account Open Conversions 11

Pay Per Click/Banner Ad Campaign

Page 16

Content Marketing – Beyond the Basics

• Useful, informative content establishes authority and gains trust

– Steadily build rapport with your target demographics

– Offer valuable, engaging content designed for your specific audiences

– Increased publishing improves your SEO rankings more than any other tactic

• Don’t forget mobile:

– Create an alternate mobile version of a website

– OR, Utilize responsive web design

– It’s important to provide a positive experience

– 87% of sales by 2017 will be on mobile devices

Content Marketing Is Money Well Spent

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Content Marketing

• Blogs

• Brochures

• Case Studies

• Data Sheets

• FAQs

• Feature Articles

• E-books and E-zines

• News

• Podcasts

• Press Releases

• Tips

• Videos

• Webinars

• Web copy

• White Papers

Marketing Assets Banks and Companies are Using

Effective marketers allocate 30% of their marketing

budget to content marketing versus less effective

marketers who allocate only 18%.

Page 18

Video

• YouTube is now the #2 search engine

• Testimonial Videos are powerful:

– Recommendation from someone else still remains the most trusted source of information.

– A well-scripted Video can resolve customer objections and reduce the time it takes to convert a

prospect

– Videos on websites aren’t just powering conversions; they are also keeping consumers on your

website

60% of all consumer traffic on the internet is now video

Tip: Use smaller short video clips as “snackable” social media assets

Page 19

Why Social Media?

It’s Where the Customers Are

Source: www.sociallystacked.com; Search Engine Journal, 2014.

• 72% of all internet users are now active on social media

• 89% of 18-29 year old internet users are active on social media

• 93% of marketers use social media for business

• 70% of brands have a presence on Google+, up from 4% from

Q4 of 2012

• Twitter is the fastest growing social network, up 44% between

June 2012 and March 2013

• Google+ grew 33% during the same period

• Facebook has 1.15 billion monthly active users

• Google sites handle about 100 billion searches each month

• YouTube hosts nearly 14 billion videos

• Google+ has over 500 million users

• Twitter has over 550 million accounts

• LinkedIn is at 225 million users

• Pinterest has more than 70 million users

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Why Social Media?

• Online distribution channels were designed to replace human interaction – transactions, information, etc.

• Social Media is designed to support and enhance the human interaction

• The true value of Social Media is intimacy and engagement

• Social Media can be effective in building networks, enhancing individual relationships, establishing trust,

and increasing banker productivity

• Need to go beyond institutional presence to personal relationship building and management

Supports the Community Bank Value Proposition

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Social Media – Dos and Don’ts

Which FB Page got more Likes and Why?

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Social Media – Dos and Don’ts

DO DON’T

Create Many Individual Networks Expect a Large Institutional Following

Tailor Messages to Individual Situations Create Generic Institutional Messages

Use Social Media to Listen to Customers Use Social Media to Preach

Establish Credibility and Promote Capabilities Try to Promote or Sell Individual Products

Identify Opportunities to Engage Interactively – Be

Prepared for Negative Feedback

Eliminate Negative Feedback or Discourage Input

Have Some Fun Be Boring

Take Some Risks Let Everyone Take Risks

Monitor and Control Content Allow Widespread Content Creation

Treating Social Media as an Extension of Traditional Media is a waste of Time and Money

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Social Media – Dos and Don’ts

Be Prepared for Negative Comments

Page 24

Social Media Challenges

• Understanding the Economics – May appear inexpensive but costs can be significant

• Cutting through the clutter and noise

• Exercising some control in an essentially uncontrollable environment

• Countering internal reluctance and skepticism – Getting started

• Getting and Staying relevant

• Dealing with compressed timeframes and short shelf lives

• Committing to constant management and monitoring

• Understanding and dealing with new, confusing, and changing compliance requirements

Social Media Presents Different Challenges than Traditional Media

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Social Media Critical Issues

• Do your homework – understand the options and the capabilities and challenges of each

• Determine how well each option aligns with overall business and marketing objectives

• Set clear expectations – define what each media should and should not do

• Analyze thoroughly and objectively existing internal capabilities, identify gaps and define

implementation requirements

• Create a “test and learn” environment

• Integrate Social Media activities within other marketing initiatives and across all distribution

channels

• Build enterprise-wide buy-in and commitment

Successful Implementation Requires a Clear Game Plan

Page 26

Takeaways and Predictions for 2015

• Continued focus on expense control requires achieving greater productivity from marketing spend.

• It is becoming more difficult to create differentiation and achieve required business results with

traditional media alone.

• The proliferation of alternative media channels requires community banks to choose wisely which

options have the highest potential for success.

• For the first time in many years, deposit acquisition will become a high priority in 2015.

• The ability to implement new technology capabilities quickly will become a significant competitive

advantage.

Takeaways

Predictions