The banking and financial industry has changed dramatically due to the internet. Consumers can now sign up for and manage all of their banking and financial activities online. There is no longer a need for in-person branch visits for most individuals.

From opening additional checking accounts to making mortgage and loan payments – it can all be done online. Every bank needs to have a solid digital marketing strategy to stay current and attract new customers while also retaining current banking customers.

The rights online marketing plan can leverage the available online platforms to attract new customers and exponentially increase the bank’s monthly revenue. If online marketing is something new or you simply need some suggestions on where to focus your marketing effort, we are here to help.

We are going to break down several basic must-do online marketing strategies for banks and lenders. These are the absolute bare essentials for any digital marketing strategy, and a great starting point to help your institution begin to attract more attention and customers online.

SEO for Banks

Banks need to be found on the top of Google search just like any other business, and the approach used will differ slightly depending on the size of the bank and its locations.

A small local bank with a single location or a smaller credit union with a few branches within a small radius will have a more traditional local SEO approach, whereas a large national chain with hundreds of branches will require a much deeper intertwined banking SEO strategy.

Every bank needs a Google My Business page set up, and in the case of a bank having multiple locations, you can utilize the “location groups” option to enter in multiple addresses. Then you need to shift your focus from the GMB listing to the actual website of the bank.

Every location will need its dedicated page, and then there needs to be a main “locations” page that links out to each, serving as a directory. This type of interlinking is healthy on-page optimization and will help the individual pages show up in the search results.

Each service also needs its page, from mortgage lending and auto loans to savings and investments. Bank SEO is very complex due to the complexity of the average bank website. There is a lot of information to optimize and rank.

Organic competition is difficult, and it can be difficult for smaller regional banks to outperform the larger national banks in the organic results, which makes the Google Maps section the more opportunistic target to rank for.

Social Media Marketing for Banks

The social media marketing strategy for a bank is going to be very different than a consumer apparel brand or another D2C brand. The goal is the same – create engagement, but it’s more about personal relationship building to keep that consumer happy and not necessarily pushing them towards a purchase or direct-revenue generating action.

Social media gives banks a platform to create awareness for new financial products and services, while also educating customers on news and happenings in the financial world. Social media needs to be looked at as a long-term marketing play, designed to build long-lasting customer relationships.

Social media has also turned into a very active customer support channel, and it needs to be prioritized in the same manner as a traditional phone or chat support channel. Many customers will turn to social media for answers to their issues or questions, and if the bank isn’t responsive it will result in customer displeasure and disconnect.

There is no shortage of options available, with many banks offering to match deposits on new accounts to get consumers to switch. Banks need to use social media to build and maintain a strong relationship so the thought of switching banks doesn’t enter the mind of current customers.

Content Marketing for Banks

A bank’s content marketing strategy will include several different formats – blog posts, social media material, video content, and interactive content like infographics and data charts. A successful content marketing plan will focus on helping consumers learn about the products or services offered by the particular bank.

The information needs to be organized and be presented in more of a content library manner, more than just a blog. When you create a large content resource directory you can organize it properly so the consumer can easily access it, while giving each content asset its dedicated page on the bank’s website.

This is an opportunity to optimize each page for a specific keyword are attract organic search traffic from Google search. You can create excellent content resources that benefit the consumer while also allowing the target banking keywords to be included in the SEO effort.

For example, if you want to rank for “mortgage lender in Nashville” you could create an online guide titled, “How to Select the Best Mortgage Lender in Nashville” and provide excellent information about the entire mortgage process, while also including and optimizing for multiple long-tail versions of the keyword to attract a plethora of search traffic to that page. Then, include a call-to-action at the end for a free mortgage consultation and the page becomes a valuable lead generation tool for the bank.

Reputation Management for Banks

Banks receive some of the most criticism online in terms of negative reviews. From Better Business Bureau complaints to single-star reviews on Google and Facebook, it’s one of the industries that just attracts negative feedback.

Most of it is due to misunderstandings, unfortunate circumstances, and consumers’ frustration in the heat of the moment. When a customer is hit with a late fee, for example, rather than calling the bank they will often turn to the internet to voice their displeasure and leave a lengthy review.

While there is no regulation when it comes to online reviews – anyone, customer or not, can leave a review about a business. Many consumers understand this and take reviews with a grain of salt, but they can still hurt the image of a bank.

Reputation management for banks is a way to help maintain control of the company’s image across the internet. Many confuse reputation management with deleting negative reviews, and that is very hard to do.

What you can do though, is to respond to all reviews, even the gut-wrenching ones, and provide a solution or explanation to the person that left it, but even more importantly, to those who will read it in the future.

A well-executed reputation management campaign for a bank acts almost like a PR campaign. It helps to clean up the bank’s image while putting more positive information out there to be found via Google search. Blog content, executive interviews, etc. – all of this can fill the top of the search results, suppressing the negative “bad” press.

PPC for Banks

As mentioned, the competition on Google amongst banks is very high. The Google Maps and search results require a large-scale SEO effort to show up on top, and if your bank is a regional or local branch it can be very difficult to rank against the industry giants like Bank of America and Chase.

This is where pay-per-click advertising can be leveraged to place your bank at the top of the search results for any keyword you are willing to competitively bid for. The cost is high – financial PPC keywords are some of the most expensive – but when you combine the right offer it can be a very profitable online marketing campaign.

Since PPC ads show on top, they can also help a bank achieve complete market domination in terms of brand recognition. If you are on top of the paid ads, showing up in the Maps, and have your website in the search results your bank is viewed as the most authoritative choice.

Many consumers are persuaded by this type of blanket domination marketing. The great thing about bank PPC ads is that they are highly measurable. We can determine what each click costs, and how much revenue it is responsible for generating. This allows for growth at scale while also maintaining the campaign’s desired ROI.

Final Thoughts

Marketing a bank online requires a solid grasp of the fundamentals, including search engine optimization and social media marketing to attract organic traffic, and then pay-per-click ads and social media ads on the paid media side.

Reputation management is also important, as the banking and financial services industry is one of the most active in terms of negative online reviews and customer complaints. This is a major component that many overlook, and addressing it correctly will allow the other marketing channels to be more effective.

To learn more about our online marketing services for banks, or to ask questions related to the strategies and tips outlined above, please contact us for more information. We will be more than happy to look at your current marketing efforts and identifies areas of improvement, while also providing clarity on specific strategies and techniques used to help our banking and financial clients succeed online.

See More Helpful Tips