Mar 11
21
A Look into the Retail Financial Services Symposium
Welcome to the new world of banking. If last year was the year that saw the rulebook rewritten, 2011 will be the year companies transform their business plans to meet the new challenges and embrace opportunities.
One area those opportunities will be prevalent is within technology and innovation. At the Retail Financial Services Symposium I was fortunate to spend several days discussing these opportunities (and challenges) with banks of various sizes.
Two areas that received most of the attention were mobile banking and social media. The number of banks with mobile banking and a social media presence has grown dramatically over the past year. However, many are still asking the question – What’s our next move? There is no clear cut answer to this question, but many banks have begun to brace themselves for this new world of banking.
I was quite impressed to see the number of banks who have “gone social.” Banks of all sizes are now engaged on social platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Many are unclear on their next move, but simply knew they needed to be present. The same held true for mobile banking. The number of banks that now support some form of mobile banking has grown immensely. However, beyond being another simple transaction channel, banks are still scratching their heads around the true power behind mobile banking.
My conversations led me to believe that looking beyond the basics of these two emerging channels is vital to the success of this organization and an area where many banks have yet to explore. However, this must be done in the constructs of a strong strategy and shared vision. Winston Churchill once said, “It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see. “ Following this simple guidance is the first step to integrating mobile and social as part of our everyday business plans. If not, they can quickly become the next “shiny objects” we don’t chase until it is too late…
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South by Southwest (SXSW) is a group of interactive, film and music festivals/conferences that take place every spring in Austin. The interactive portion has become known for being the launch pad for startups that really revolutionize the way we communicate. Think: Foursquare…Twitter…just to name a few. SXSW 2011 begins next week and the buzz is really starting to build.
Last year was all about location, with location-based networks and apps dominating the conference. There are many predictions as to who the break-out star may be this year, but I’m hedging my bets that a big focus is going to be more on local vs. location.
We’ve seen the popularity of concepts like Groupon and Living Social really grow this past year, bringing you deals localized to your area (and even gender). I think the next evolution will be apps that further localize your online experience – connecting you with people in your area, local marketplaces that let you borrow or rent gear/equipment/supplies from people within your network or neighborhood, etc. It could be all about the hook-up. 
Mashable did a great write-up on the 13 potential breakout apps to watch for at SXSW. Within that, some of my favorites that focus on localization include:
1. Yobongo: Places nearby users into a chat room with each other, where you can see other’s avatars, talk to the group or start private conversations. Great for networking opportunities and it seems like this could have some pretty interesting applications at industry conferences.
2. Hashable: A check-in service where users can broadcast who they are #meeting, #raninto or had #lunch with. This can be put out on Twitter or just to a set group of individuals. It also builds a database of “relationship records” so you can see who in your network is connecting. Would also be interesting to try this one at a conference to keep track of connections you are making.
3. Lanyrd: Lanyrd is a guide specifically for conferences. You sign in with your Twitter profile and it automatically shows you what conferences people who you follow are speaking at or attending. Your contacts don’t even need to be Lanyrd users in order to be included, which is a great feature.
From a marketers perspective, I like to keep an eye on SXSW trends to help give some indication of the way our strategies to connect with customers and prospects will need to evolve in the upcoming months/years. Would love to hear if anyone else has heard other predictions for what may be trending at SXSW next week.
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Mar 11
8
6 Ways to Learn from Customers through Analytics
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that if a particular fishing lure works, you should keep using it. Or that if a particular shortcut consistently saves you time, you should keep taking it.
Yet surprisingly few companies apply the same sort of logic to enhance online marketing effectiveness.
Dropping a lure in the water or taking a shortcut provides instant feedback, in the form of more fish or saved time. The web provides instant feedback too, in the form of web analytics.
If you really want to, you can spend big money creating a detailed, custom analytics program. But if resources are scarce, there are plenty of free or low-cost, reliable easy-to-use options out there.
A number of web browsers like Yahoo, Google and Bing also offer robust analytics tool. These tools are more or less ready to plug in and use, apply to both personal and commercial use, and integrate neatly with most websites.
Once you choose an analytics resource, you’re ready to start counting. Here are some basics as to which numbers matters most (and least).
1. Total traffic (that is, the number of hits a website receives).
2. Which individual pages of your website receive the most traffic? This tells you something about what interests your visitors, and offers you an opportunity to capitalize on that knowledge.
3. On average, how long does each user spend on each page? Are some pages better at holding attention than others? Why? How can you use this information to strengthen other pages?
4. What websites refer visitors to yours? This can reveal much about your users’ interests, and about the kinds of sites you want linking to yours.
5. What words do people search to find you? Be sure to work the most searched-for words into your content as often as possible in order to make your site more “searchable.”
6. Notice trends. Perhaps users consistently visit at a certain time or on a certain day. Perhaps you attract one customer demographic or psychographic more than another. Challenging yourself and your website with questions like these should be an ongoing process. Put a web analytics review on your weekly or monthly schedule, or add it to the job description of key staff.
As you follow the numbers, be sure to consider what they reveal about your customers, how you might use that information to better serve them and, hopefully, to sell more. This process can inspire valuable insights, creative solutions and new tactics. All of which will lead to incremental — and sometimes significant — gains in online marketing effectiveness.
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I have had the opportunity to speak at some great conferences over the past few years and 2011 will be no exception. I just presented at the American Bankers Association Insurance Risk Management Forum (blog post on conference highlights forthcoming) and I’m gearing up to present at the following conferences over the next few months:
- March 13-15: Retail Financial Services Symposium – I’ll be part of a panel on channel delivery for the Millenial market
- May 10-11: Social Media Customer Response Summit II – Presenting on how to build a comprehensive social engagement strategy
- May 23-24: Customer Experience & Retention Conference – Topic in the works
- June 5-7: Mobile Banking & Emerging Application Summit – Topic in the works
If you plan to be in attendance at any of these, please shoot me an email or comment.
Free choice is a wonderful thing. At least, it is when one of the options happens to be desirable. When none is, you have on your hands what is known as a dilemma.
At first, a dilemma was exactly what online banking seemed to present to bankers. The fear was that offering online services would reduce or even eliminate personal contact, which isn’t helpful in a relationship business. Yet with growing demand, not offering online services could mean losing clients to competitors, not to mention forgoing the benefits of increased speed and error reduction.
However, the days of impersonal transactions are safely behind us. A bank that still limits its view of online services to inquiries, transfers and payments needs to wake up and smell the virtual coffee. In fact, it should banish the term online banking from its lexicon for a more apt and visionary term. Like, say, interactive banking. Because today, a well-conceived and organized interactive banking division can be — or at least feel — every bit as relationship-building as in-person one. Read the rest of Resolving the Banker’s Dilemma »