Top 4 Digital Marketing Ideas & Strategies for Banks and Online Banks

Digital banking: outright boring or fun?

Well, the bank marketing strategies that make banking interesting are pioneers in digital banking.

If you’re in a similar sector, your aim is also likely to be the flagbearer in some way. Doing so, however, requires you to create strategies that inspire people to take action. Consumers have switched to digital banking because it offers good returns and low fees. There’s value in it for the customers. 

Your job is to find innovative ways to add value to your users. Be it through fun online quizzes, polls, videos, or contests! 

Through this blog, we’ll explore the multi-faceted digital banking– marketing ideas, strategies, and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) with examples from towering names in the banking sector. 

Ready to get to the know-how?

Key Components of a Successful Bank Marketing Strategy

Understanding the pillars of a successful bank marketing plan is no rocket science. Eventually, it always boils down to the basics! 

Understand Your Target Audience 

Learning about your target audience makes it possible to create strategies that give you results. 

Let’s answer a few questions below: 

• Who are your target users? 
• What age range do they belong to?
• Do you have services catering to different age groups? 
• What type of communication style do they prefer?  

The TG may differ depending on whether you have an online presence. Answer the questions keeping in mind the current state of your bank. 

Create a Personality For Your Bank 

“Your brand isn’t what you sell; it’s the experience you deliver.” 

-Tony Hsieh, Former CEO, Zappos

The quote stands true regardless of the business sector. Your bank must have a unique personality to sell its services to people.

• How does the bank talk? 
• Is the language quirky, formal, fun, or a mix of two? 
• Who does it talk to? (This is your target audience.) 
• How does it view its customers? 

These questions will help you define a unique brand identity and create personality traits that users can relate to and trust.  

Drive Consumer Engagement 

If the strategy works, it translates to numbers. 

To learn about your users’ likes and dislikes, just go through the analytics of your last five posts to measure how engaged your users are. (If your bank has no digital presence, this is your alarm bell!) 

Once you figure out the metrics, you’ll gain better insights into what your users find valuable and what doesn’t work. Take the data and create strategies that work! Studying HSBC’s secret to successful marketing strategies or any other such towering giant will help you learn about consumer engagement. 

We have yet to get to the specifics of bank marketing strategy. 

Now that we have the general points sorted, let’s move on to four marketing strategies along with case studies. 

Top 4 Digital Marketing Strategies For Banks 

Creating an SEO-friendly and mobile banking web application is the first step in marketing banking services. Have you cleared step one? If not, there’s no time better than now! 

Let’s dive deep into the four strategies. 

1. Use Gamification to Engage Customers

Gamification means incorporating game-like elements in web and mobile apps to increase customer engagement. 

The banking sector has leveraged this technology to make apps more consumer-friendly. In fact, the gamification market is expected to be worth over 30 billion dollars by 2025. studies say. 

Where can you leverage such elements? 

• Reward points, 
• Weekly goals, 
• Streaks, 
• Weekly/monthly challenges.

Let’s see an example!

Revolut’s Cashback and Rewards on Online Purchases 

In 2022, Revolut, the global financial super app with over 20 million customers, launched a savvy way to keep customers engaged. 

Its “Shops” service lets users search and browse products from over a thousand leading brands, ranging from Amazon and Ikea to Nike, Adidas, and other luxury brands. So if a Revolut Shops user purchases from the app and pays with their Revolut cards in full, the brand rewards them with 3% instant cashback, unlike other cashback offers that take up to three months to credit.

When a user checks out, the cashback automatically gets applied. 

The other example is Emirates NBD. 

The company made a fitness account where it gives up to 2% interest for n number of steps every day. 

So the more you move, the more you earn. 

While it’s quite an old campaign idea, it still works today since it pushes its consumers to stay fit and rewards them in return. 

2. Leverage Chatbots to Increase Customer Engagement and Educate Them 

A user visits your website or calls a customer service executive because:

1. They want a solution to their query 
2. They want to learn about a new service. 

This is the best point of contact to engage well with your customers. Use the automated voice recording to inform them about a new service or the add-on benefit of availing of a service. A few common pointers are:

• How to use a feature
• How to get money
• How to open an account or start a new service

Bank of America’s Erica 

Erica, an AI-powered chatbot, handles over a billion client interactions. The bot helped nearly 32 million clients manage their financial lives. The bot, 

• Gives updates,
• Shares credit reports, 
• Gives information about account balance, 
• Offers financial advice to clients 
• Helps clients complete their transactions.

Investing in AI-powered bots won’t just make your clients happy but will also help you reduce costs in the long run. If you’re struggling to find ways to market banking services, leverage AI bots. 

3. Leverage Social Media for Content Marketing 

Be their partner, not a teacher.

Finance is sensitive and requires customers to pay extra attention when they avail of any services. So naturally, the banks that keep the best interests of their customers in mind when offering services directly translate into We care for you! 

Here’s when social media fills the gap. 

The generation most interested in digital banking is millennials (79.3 percent), which makes up a big chunk. However, only a few of them know the banking basics. As per a 2019 stat by Yahoo Finance, 69% of Americans don’t know the basics of banking. 

Barclays, UK, has done a stellar job at this. 

Barclay’s “Street Talk” Campaign 

Barclays, UK, launched “Street Talk” – a series where the host randomly asks people on the street what the basic home-buying terminologies mean. 

It works because it humorously addresses the lack of awareness regarding banking basics among people (this bank marketing strategy won’t ever get old!). By the end of the video, it asks its users to Google “Barclays first-time buyer” to take them through the journey of buying a home.  

The other side of this coin is that users know more but the banks don’t. Juni is a financial service provider for digital commerce that creatively filled this gap with its YouTube series “If banks don’t get it, get Juni!”

Figure out the needs of your target audience and brainstorm ways to fulfill those as their financial partner.

Pro tip: Keep an eye on the social media business trends for 2024 to stay updated and ahead of the curve.  

4. Reward People for Availing of Digital Banking Services 

Rewarding people for digital banking is a strategic way to encourage the adoption of digital channels and enhance customer loyalty. 

You could integrate gamification here to make it more fun. JP Morgan’s One Card is a fine example. 

JP Morgan’s Point-Based Bank Loyalty Rewards  

JP Morgan, the largest U.S. bank and a global financial service provider, has a points-based bank loyalty rewards program, One Card. 

It revolves around rewarding consumers with points for using the JP Morgan card. The points are easy to manage, especially for consumers who spend a lot using the card. 

Customers can use the points for travel, cash credit, gift cards, or merchandise. If you’re a business, you could reinvest the points into the business or reward your employees as a perk. 

Now that we know about bank marketing strategies, the next step is to implement them and then keep an eye on the key performance indicators. 

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Banks

Few bankers may believe that the holy grail of a bank marketing plan is profit or increased revenue. While true, the factors leading up to these often get undermined. 

Customers Lifetime Value (CLTV) 

Customers are truth-tellers. If you’ve gained a loyal customer base with your bank marketing strategies, it’s a solid indicator you’re going in the right direction! 

Calculating CLTV is simple: multiply customer value by the average customer lifespan.

Cost to Acquire a Customer

Cost to acquire a customer = the expenses incurred by sales and marketing teams/number of new customers. 

You could also include infrastructure and production costs for an even more accurate figure. 

Number of Sales Leads 

After revenue, the next most important metric is the sales lead, followed by a marketing lead. Your customers may find your content valuable, but is it leading up to a sales lead?

In Conclusion 

Use the strategies mentioned in the article as inspiration for creating digital marketing strategies. Every bank’s persona, services, and needs differ. And blindly copying competitors’ strategies will only take you so far. If strategizing feels overwhelming, it’s always wise to reach out to reputed finance marketing agencies. 

At the end of the day, you want a marketing strategy for banks that makes your customers tick and drives sales, and you want to get there quickly! 

Are you up to a brand new strategy for your bank already?