With their vast array of articles, consumer guides,
videos, podcasts and tips designed to help visitors through the
intricacies of shopping for financial services, some banks are
using microsites within their own websites to break the marketing
mould and attract niche markets. Charles Davis
reports.
First there were the standalone
financial services websites, which gave way to the trendy do-it-all
portals, then back to websites, and now, there are microsites –
sites within bank web sites that target carefully defined niches
with tailored marketing pitches.
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Some bank microsites are dedicated
to demographic segments, others tout a single product. Most are
informational in nature, leaning heavily on the web equivalent of
brochures to state their case.
Some banks are stepping out of that
mould, however, launching microsites that capture attention, engage
entire market segments and redefine the genre in the process.
US-based regional lender SunTrust
recently launched its own microsite, called LiveSolid.com, which
combines a vast array of articles, consumer guides, financial
planning tools, videos, podcasts and hundreds of tips designed to
walk visitors through the intricacies of shopping for financial
services.
More than 100 calculators help
answer questions such as: How much mortage can I afford? How can I
pay down my debt? How can I budget for a vacation and unforeseen
expenses? Moreover, individuals can access tools to budget
effectively, teach children about money, learn about retirement
planning, or discover ways to balance life and manage stress.
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By GlobalDataLaid-back tone
Broud Kuhn, SunTrust’s
vice-president of digital and direct marketing, says the microsite
took about five months to complete and involved the assistance of a
web development firm. The firm worked closely with the bank to
incorporate social networking media and hone the messaging, which
combines professionalism with a laid-back conversational tone that
calms the jittery visitor looking for financial options.
“The business intent was to provide
a set of resources to help consumers manage their finances better,”
Kuhn said. We saw that people don’t compartmentalise their finances
the way banks think they do – they talk about their financial life
in terms of their life in general.
“You have to make decisions around
the intended use and purpose of the site – it is not heavily
branded, it serves a different purpose. You need to have an
experience suitable for the purpose of what you are trying to
accomplish.”
Kuhn said that, while SunTrust did
not want to downplay the purpose or ownership of the site as it
would be disingenuous to
not be clear about who is providing the resources, LiveSolid does
not overtly sell products and services.
“It is a delicate balance between
traffic and sales, traffic that creates loyalty to the brand,” Kuhn
said. “We feel good about the balance we have struck. It is hard
for us to get out of the mode of selling all the time, but it was
important in the microsite to set the proper tone.
“When we have reasonable
permission, deep in the site, where a user is really clearly
interested in a product, we’ll say, ‘Hey, if you are interested in
that product, let’s talk’.”
Kuhn said SunTrust is extremely
pleased with the traffic so far, and bank officials have been
surprised to find that average visit times exceeded expectations.
Despite the conventional wisdom, old-fashioned text articles are
among the sites most popular features.
“It tells us that people are using
the microsite to really dig down into this stuff,” he said.
“Fundamental to the microsite is the reality that it has never been
a standalone but exists as part of a SunTrust ecosystem, working
with Facebook and other social media spaces as well. One of our
greatest sources of traffic back and forth is our Facebook
page.”
Other players aim their microsites
at demographic segments, such as GTE Federal Credit Union, whose
U224U.com was an instant success in the Tampa, Florida market. The
microsite targets customers and potential customers in the 12 to 22
age group – a particularly tough target for banks.
Working with an external developer,
CAE Marketing Group, GTE had the site up and running and cleverly
incorporating Facebook and YouTube within 60 days. GTE Federal
Credit Union credits the microsite for more than 2,700 new accounts
thus far.
The microsite is closely tied to
the credit union’s U22 account, a speciality product aimed at the
first-time customer set. U22 educational materials include
brochures and an online library of articles about personal finance
written expressly for this age group. Account tools include a debit
card with reward points, online and mobile account access, free
bill pay, and one overdraft fee forgiven per month.
U22 can be found on MySpace,
Facebook and Twitter. To entice 12 to 22-year-olds to visit MyU22
on MySpace and become a friend of the page, draws were held for a
number of prizes, including tickets to concerts and sporting
events.
Parents can monitor their child’s
spending and progress toward goals established for the child, such
as carrying out household chores, and put money into the child’s
account as the goals are achieved. Alerts can be set for when
balances become low, and parents can set daily spending limits.
‘Kick the bank
habit’
Perhaps the most creative microsite
belongs to California-based Addison Avenue Federal Credit Union
(CU), which has launched an ‘intervention centre’ that playfully
urges consumers to “kick the bank habit” as part of a campaign that
forcefully tells consumers CUs are a better option than banks. Its
motto: Friends don’t let friends use big banks.
Visitors to the microsite at
www.bankintervention.com can watch ‘Intervent-O-Vision’. There are
seven of what the CU calls ‘webisodes’ dealing with protagonist
Carl’s ‘bank dependency’ and his on-screen family’s desperate
attempts to help cure him.
As the story progresses through the
seven webisodes, Carl becomes increasingly hostile to banks,
climaxing with him taking out his rage on a pillow labeled ‘BANK’
as a therapist says: “Carl, pretend this pillow is your bank.”
For information, for demographic targeting or for plain old fun,
microsites allow financial services to let their hair down a bit
with no impact on the bank’s website.
