Tips for Engaging Customers Through Your Website

Banks and credits unions which fail to utilize their website as part of their bank marketing plan are doomed to fail. Incentive marketing doesn't necessarily mean offering your client a gift, perk or reward, although that is the first thing we think of when someone mentions a bank incentive. There are many ways to invest in your website and turn it into one of your most prominent bank marketing tools.

For those who don't feel their website directly affects their business,answer these questions:

How can you compete with:

* 24/7 service
* Expansion (minus the brick and mortar aspect)
* POS lending
* Handling of clients' buying process
* The ability to open an account anywhere, and at any time
* On demand customer service?
* Communications that are safe and secured
* Computerized cross-sales

Ultimately, you can't compete with any of these, or, at least, not without keeping up with bank marketing trends. Incentive marketing means offering something to customers in exchange for their valued business. What the actual incentive is remains entirely up to the bank or credit union. Many people value financial help and advice more than a trinket or gadget, and savvy banks are making a financial education website a part of their bank marketing plans.

Education Websites

If you've chosen a professional incentive marketing company, they'll be able to provide you with a custom financial education site branded to your institution. This will focus on bringing you leads and will be developed as a site secondary to your core site. You would own the site and the material created by the company, so the property is your responsibility, though the company will assist you in most changes and updates that need to be done.

Your bank marketing plan would then include a financial education website that is styled after your main site, yet offers user-friendly and creative options to help your clients and potential clients gain information on financial matters. Your site will be fully integrated with widgets and tools to give your users maximum benefit from utilizing the site.

Aside from improving public relations, this type of incentive marketing can achieve the following:

* Generate quality leads for your staff by targeting your potential clients' specific interests and then connecting the visitors with those who handle that area of your business.

* Help you to retain current members or clients by providing them with a plethora of easy-to-navigate financial resources and knowledge, without having to leave your website. Including this in your bank marketing strategy provides your customers with resources such as financial content, financial calculators, quizzes, frequently asked questions, a glossary, etc.

The pieces of information and tools that are available in your website are the incentive itself in this kind of incentive marketing. It can be crafted to persuade a client to register and log in using their account number or a particular code sent to them when they confirm that they are a client or possible client. Several parts of your website should still be available for the public to view, but there should be content that would only be accessible by a select group such as customers or prospective clients. This type of bank marketing can make a big difference in generating referrals through word of mouth, giving your business more benefits.


We have many years of work in this industry and focus on writing about marketing incentives. For more information about the benefits of incentive marketing as well as the advantages that it can offer, give us a call or visit our website.