Banks of every size and location are consistently trying to find ways to engage their website’s visitors, not only with the goal of increasing sales and revenue, but also by providing meaningful value to the consumer. Identifying and implementing the best way to utilize your site’s real estate toward these objectives is multi-faceted, but one of the most critical aspects of this process is personalization.
Consumers today are looking for an experience that has a personal touch, one that makes them feel as though they are being recognized as individuals. With the help of today’s technology, banks and financial institutions are uniquely positioned to take their customers on a tailor fit journey, designed to meet both their current and future needs.
Beyond The Login – Expanding The Bank’s Online Value To Your Audience
Statistics consistently show that the online account section of a bank’s website is by far the most utilized. While this tool has radically changed how most people interact with their financial institution, there is a significant amount of additional engagement that can be gained through personalization. Banks have a distinct advantage over other types of organizations in that they know a lot about their customers, i.e. age, location, homeowner status, average balances, investment portfolio and more. Having this information can play a significant part in the marketing of unique products to each customer. Even better news is that banks can even launch personalized marketing campaigns to people who are not yet current customers.
When an online visitor pulls up a bank’s website, there is already a lot of good information known about them, even if they are currently a customer of another financial institution. Such data as zip code, IP address and prior search history can help banks market local promotions and display information about topics that were searched for such as car loans, new checking accounts, mortgages and other financial products. Visitor targeting provides both banks and consumers much more value, as it greatly increases the chance that an action step will be taken by the consumer looking to fulfill a need.
Personalized marketing to current customers can have virtually unlimited potential for banks looking to grow. Messaging the right campaign to the appropriate audience will dramatically increase the probability of conversion. Displaying information about first time home buyer mortgages to a person about to retire is most likely going to attract zero interest. Guidance about how to withdraw retirement money with regard to taxes will be ignored by the recent college graduate looking for a car loan and a new checking account. Knowing the demographics and life stages of your customers allows banks tremendous opportunity to target the right products to the people who are most inclined to buy them.
Increasing Website Real Estate Value With Real Visitor Data
Studying actual site user behavior patterns can help banks evaluate the effectiveness of their page layouts and promotional placements. There are some very powerful tools that can be used to gauge the impact certain web page design decisions are having on visitors’ behavior.
Heat Mapping - Utilizing a series of colors (red, yellow, blue), a heat map can very effectively illustrate where site visitors are spending most of their time on your website and conversely, what page sections are getting no attention. Heat maps are very good at not only evaluating what topics people are most interested in, but also the positioning of that information.
Clicks & Mouse Movements - Another great way to see what is motivating your site visitors to take action is by studying what links they click on and also where they direct their mouse. Looking at this data can quickly reveal what topics of interest motivate people to open a link, as well as where they naturally point the mouse.
Scrolling – Captured data can show how far most people are scrolling on your pages. If it is found that most site visitors don’t get past the first half of a landing page, it is not an effective strategy to put your banners and other marketing efforts toward the bottom. Grabbing people’s attention is half the battle in online marketing and scrolling history can really help understand where to place your call to action prompts.
Banks have a much coveted opportunity today to use data and technology to greatly increase the chance of a conversion for both current customers and potential ones. Interested in learning more about how Americaneagle.com can help your bank deliver more personalized online experiences?
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