Social media is a key tool for community banks to connect with their local communities and grow their brand, but it’s important to follow the rules and regulations to get it right. Community banks need to be creative in what they post, but they also need to ensure they stay within the social media guidelines to protect both the bank and their customers. That’s why our guest created a solution to help banks balance effective marketing while still following the rules.

In this episode, Chris Bates, Dan Novalis, and Jill Williams discuss managing risks while marketing & posting on social media. With the help of BANK MONITOR, you can monitor and report on your community bank’s social media activity, ensuring your success while meeting all compliance regulations. Jill emphasizes the importance of identifying risks, filling gaps, and understanding what regulators look for during audits.

Having a clear social media policy is crucial to keeping everything in line. With these steps, community banks can confidently use social media to engage with their audience without worrying about compliance issues. Jill also suggests working with a marketing agency that understands banking to help balance compliance and creativity.

Topics Include:

• How social media guidance and compliance has changed over the years
• What happens when something gets flagged on a community bank’s social media
• How BANK MONITOR tracks a community bank’s social media activity and user engagement
• The extra precautions community banks need to take to protect their customers on social media
• What regulators look for during a social media compliance audit
• What it looks like to be both compliant and successful on social media

Jill Williams has spent over two decades as a senior-level banker in human resources, retail, and marketing roles. As a community banker, she struggled to balance the time demands of social media while ensuring adherence to the laws, regulations, and policies governing this type of marketing.

During this time, Jill recognized the critical need for a comprehensive solution to ensure compliance with the FFIEC Social Media Guidance established in 2013. This realization and a lack of existing industry solutions inspired her to develop BANK MONITOR. This program is an all-encompassing answer to the FFIEC Social Media Compliance Risk Management Guidance requirements.

BANK MONITOR's success in safeguarding her community bank spurred her passion for extending this innovative solution to community banks and credit unions nationwide. Jill’s mission is to provide a white-glove service that simplifies and secures social media compliance.

Resources Mentioned:

• BANK MONITOR
  ● LinkedIn: Jill Williams
  ● LinkedIn Group: The Social Media Compliance Collective (Strictly Bankers)
• Website: https://bankmarketingshow.com/

Chris and Dan discuss the importance of leadership in banking, especially focusing on transparency, adaptability, and vision implementation. They dive into how leadership styles impact a bank's marketing strategies, and the necessity for modern leadership that embraces technology and diversity.

Key points include the significance of transparency to foster trust, the need for adaptability in a fast-changing environment, and the importance of defining and implementing a clear vision. This episode encourages listeners to reflect on their personal leadership style and what guides them.

In this episode:

• Leadership in Banking
• The Importance of Transparency
• Implementing Vision and Leadership
• Adaptability in Modern Banking
• Personal Leadership

Resources Mentioned:

• contact@bankmarketingshow.com
• Bank Marketing Minute Newsletter: bankmarketingminute.com
• Website: The Bank Marketing Show: bankmarketingshow.com

It’s strategic planning season – time to start figuring out what your bank should do next year, and get your budget in order. In our work with banks and credit unions across the country, we’ve noticed some themes emerge in the form of common marketing goals.

In this episode, Chris and Dan break down the five most common goals they hear – and give actionable advice for how to make real progress towards them:

• Growing deposits
• Increasing cross-sell
• Attracting younger customers
• Deepening your community relationship
• Growing loan applications

Resources Mentioned:

• contact@bankmarketingshow.com
• Bank Marketing Minute Newsletter: bankmarketingminute.com
• Website: The Bank Marketing Show: bankmarketingshow.com

Most bank marketing teams are cash-, personnel-, and time-strapped. In this episode, we break down ways to get more from what you already have – through strategic partnerships, networking, outsourcing, and tech.

In this episode:

- Why spending more money does not equate to better marketing

- The power of partnerships for social media growth and engagement

- How networking groups can help you learn tricks and shortcuts to marketing success

- Smart ways to outsource that aren’t free, but cheaper than you think

- The role of Tech, like Chat GPT, in stretching your resources further

- Sources for free content (beyond this podcast, obviously!)

Resources Mentioned:

- contact@bankmarketingshow.com

- Bank Marketing Minute Newsletter: bankmarketingminute.com

- Website: The Bank Marketing Show: bankmarketingshow.com

Even though email has been around for decades, surprisingly, many banks are not utilizing the channel optimally (or at all!). In this episode, Chris and Dan dive deep into email marketing for banks – everything from the mundane birthday email to data-driven onboarding and cross-selling campaigns.

If you're a bank marketer or a professional in the financial industry, this episode is a must-listen, providing practical advice, valuable insights, and a friendly, personable approach to email marketing strategies that can enhance customer engagement and drive growth.

In this episode:

- Strategy: Tips for crafting compelling email campaigns that captivate and convert

- Boost Open Rates: Ensure your messages get the attention they deserve.

- Content Ideas for Bank Newsletters: ways to make newsletter creation less of a chore, get more mileage out of the content in between newsletters, and make the topics interesting and valuable

- Customer Onboarding: Learn how to create a seamless and engaging onboarding email series that sets the stage for long-term customer satisfaction and loyalty.

- Maximizing Cross-Selling Opportunities: Unleash the power of cross-selling through email and drive increased business outcomes for your bank.

Resources Mentioned:

- contact@bankmarketingshow.com

- Go deeper on content: Hollie Brown Episode 58

- Bank Marketing Minute Newsletter: bankmarketingminute.com

- Website: The Bank Marketing Show: bankmarketingshow.com

It's a Bank Marketing Show Best-Ever Summer Replay!

This week, we replay one of our most downloaded episodes ever - 'How Targeted Marketing Gives You ROI'. Listen in on why targeted marketing matters and gives you returns, and what you should do about it in your bank.

Stop thinking about selling your product. Start thinking about how it benefits your customer. Data-driven campaigns are the future of marketing. By gathering data on your existing customers, large and small banks can use this information to create better-targeted advertising campaigns.

In this episode, Dan Novalis, Chris Bates, and Ria Iyengar discuss how data-driven, targeted marketing gives banks a better return on their investment. Benefit-driven marketing helps you map out which products make sense for your customers. Banks can start using the information they already have about their customers to create better, more engaged campaigns. Ria also recommends directly asking your customers what interests them about your bank and what products they want more information about.

What is your role and experience as a bank marketer? Connect with us on our website to share your bank marketing stories.

Topics Include:

• Why data-driven marketing is the future
• How segmented marketing can help drive your campaigns
• How to use data to acquire new customers
• How data lets you know your customers and their needs better
• How to start a data-driven marketing campaign

Ria Iyengar is Business Director at Cossette, a Toronto, Canada-based creative marketing and communications agency. She excels at leveraging the power of CRM to deliver highly efficient data-driven campaigns for her clients, including TD Bank. Ria says data has the power to transform customer relationships and better decision-making through optimized campaigns. She believes the future of marketing will be in personalized content driven by customer data. As a first-generation immigrant to Canada, a person of color and a member of the LGBTQ2+1 community, Ria has a unique perspective on how personalized and data-driven marketing can speak to all stakeholders and customers. Ria also speaks on the topic of DEI.

Resources Mentioned:

• Bank Marketing Minute Newsletter: bankmarketingminute.com
• Website: The Bank Marketing Show: bankmarketingshow.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/riaiyengar/
• Email: riaiyengar@gmail.com
• For a free guide to creating your brand voice, email: contact@bankmarketingshow.com with Subject Line “Brand Voice”

It's a Bank Marketing Show Best-Ever Summer Replay!

This week, we replay one of our most downloaded episodes ever - The Importance of Brand Voice. Listen in on why brand voice matters and what you should do about it in your bank.

A great brand voice has the same effect as a finely-tuned orchestra playing an unforgettable melody. For your bank, this means memorable differentiation from your competitors. Developing your brand voice involves determining the right tone, communication style, and emotions that echo the bank's mission. It’s not just the realm of marketing. Like creating a great culture, developing a brand’s voice starts from the top of the organization.

In this week’s podcast, we share salient advice on striking the right balance – finding the right chord with your chosen target audience without alienating others. This harmonization creates deeper connections between customers and your bank’s values and culture, hence increasing the customer retention and attraction.

In this episode, we talk about:

- Discovering the critical role of a distinctive brand voice in banking.

- Gaining insights into why bank executives themselves need to shape their brand voice.

- Uncovering the power of favoring unique identity over generic descriptions for your bank.

- Understanding how aligning your brand voice with the desired customer experience can reshape your institution’s public perception.

- Learning how to set your brand voice apart from competitors to stand out in the industry.

Resources Mentioned:

- Bank Marketing Minute Newsletter: bankmarketingminute.com

- Website: The Bank Marketing Show: bankmarketingshow.com

- For a free guide to creating your brand voice, email: contact@bankmarketingshow.com with Subject Line “Brand Voice”

Generative AI, like ChatGPT, can be a helpful tool alongside what you already use at your community bank. But many banks don’t know where to start, or are worried about compliance issues from using it. Banks need to think about how they talk to AI, the rules that guide its use, and what role it plays in their teams.

In this episode, Chris and Dan interview Ben Udell, SVP of Digital Innovation at Lake Ridge Bank, about how he uses Gen AI at his bank and teaches other banks how to get the most out of it.

Topics Include:

● The regulatory and compliance landscape around Gen AI

● How treating Gen AI as a team member, not a replacement, changes how you use it (for the better)

● Creating better prompts for more useful output

● The right way to train ChatGPT on your brand voice

With more than 25 years of financial expertise, Ben Udell, SVP Digital Innovation, is the driving force behind "future proofing" Lake Ridge Bank, a $2.9B community bank in Wisconsin. As a leader in digital innovation, he enjoys working where technology, marketing, and data analytics intersect with consumer financial needs.

He’s a leading banking expert in leveraging practical applications of generative AI and is never afraid to be disruptive went it allows him to find innovative ways to improve the client and associate experience. Recently named one of Bank Beat’s “Rising Starts in Banking”, Ben’s been helping train and consult with other bankers to help them see how AI can transform their organization.

In his free time, he creates content for robotsarepeople.net, an AI and technology focused site, speaks on digital transformation, and writes about the financial industry.”

Resources Mentioned:

● Presentation Deck

● LinkedIn: Ben Udell

● Website: Robotsarepeople.net

● Website: https://bankmarketingshow.com/