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Marketing is often about predicting the future. Instead of crystal balls, we rely on psychology and sociology, instinct and emotion, to anticipate customer behavior. But in the end, we have to admit that customer behavior is… unpredictable. What should work and what actually works are often worlds apart.

For clearer predictions, we need information. Yet data and intuition don’t always mix easily—one feels abstract, while the other is concrete and exact. Thankfully, Data-driven marketing doesn’t have to be scary – especially if we desire conversions and proof of ROI more than anything else.

So, before you rely on guesswork or gut feelings alone, consider these simple data strategies to improve outcomes today.

Master the Art of Data-Driven Marketing with These 5 Easy Strategies

For some, the word “data” can feel intimidating. But it doesn’t have to. These straightforward tips are accessible for financial institutions of any size.

Pick one and give it a try! Or choose several and get your team involved.

Tip 1: Make the Most of First-Party Data

Whether you’ve been using it or not, you have been collecting data this whole time. Every email you send reveals something about the recipient. Opens, clicks, and even no engagement at all can be used as data personalization fuel for the next communication.

Example 1

A Mortgage Offer Email Transforms Into a Phone Call

Many marketers review email performance data but stop short of acting on it. This strategy uses open and click behavior to automatically trigger follow-up actions, turning insights into results.

  • Action: Your institution sends a mortgage offer email to account holders
  • Response: A recipient clicks the “Learn More” button (click-through data)
  • Next Step: Using that click-through data, schedule a call from a rep within 24 hours
  • Insights: Clicking “Learn More” suggests strong interest, which a phone call can capitalize on to accelerate outcomes
Example 2

A Behavioral CD Journey with Multiple Touchpoints

Sending a single message through just one channel only goes so far. Multi-touch campaigns that combine print and digital increase both engagement and results.

  • Action: Your institution sends a three-part email campaign promoting CDs
  • Response: Visitors who check rates are entered into a personalized drip campaign across email and direct mail
  • Next Step: Highly engaged users trigger an outbound phone call to drive conversions
  • Insights: The campaign adapts to trackable behaviors, creating a responsive, targeted approach

Tip 2: Turn Survey Data Into Wins

Survey responses are more than just answers – they’re opportunities waiting to be unlocked. A low NPS score, a financial needs survey reply, or any piece of feedback can spark actions that retain customers or grow relationships.

Example 1

NPS Survey Response Prevents Attrition

Acting on survey responses can not only save relationships – it can expand them, too. A demonstration of care at just the right time creates new possibilities.

  • Action: Your institution sends out an NPS survey to gauge customer sentiment
  • Response: A customer grades you at a 6 or below
  • Next Step: This score triggers a call from a branch manager to address concerns
  • Insights: Actions like this turn a disengaged customer into an engaged and enthusiastic one.
Example 2

Ask Your Customers What They Need with a Financial Goals Survey

It’s not always about us. Sometimes, the quickest way to determine what your customers need is to ask them. A financial goal survey reveals who’s saving for retirement, trying to buy a home, needing a new car, or starting a small business.

  • Action: Create and send a financial goals survey based on your community
  • Response: Account holders tell you what they need and are sorted by those needs for follow-up outreach
  • Next Step: Now that you know what each account holder needs, you can send appropriate offers and promotions directly to them
  • Insights: By sending out this survey, your account holders are essentially segmenting themselves into lists for immediate retargeting efforts

Tip 3: Explore Third-Party Data

You know your customers—but third-party data lets you see them in greater detail. With deeper insight into both current customers and prospects, you can build stronger personalized marketing campaigns, refine targeting, and deepen relationships at a faster pace.

Example 1

Lifestage Campaigns for Timely Offers

It’s not always about us. Sometimes, the quickest way to determine what your customers need is to ask them. A financial goal survey reveals who’s saving for retirement, trying to buy a home, needing a new car, or starting a small business.

  • Action: Third-party data reveals account holders of a certain age who may be ideal for wealth management (IRAs, investments, etc.)
  • Response: By segmenting these customers into a targeted list, you can make the right offer at the right time
  • Next Step: Direct mail and email campaigns aimed at only these candidates increase your odds of success while limiting your investment
  • Insights: Third-party data allows us to connect the dots, creating a clearer picture of an account holder and their product adoption likelihood
Example 2

Competitive Financing Targeted Campaign

Third-party data is about more than demographics – it can also reveal what products and services prospects have from other institutions.

  • Action: You identify prospects and current customers with loans at other institutions
  • Response: You craft refinance offers built around details in the third-party data
  • Next Step: You devise a direct mail and email campaign to engage these customers
  • Insights: Extending competitive offers with direct knowledge of competitor rates can be a major inducement for new business

Tip 4: Unlock Core Data

Every account, loan, or transaction contributes to ongoing data collection that contains valuable clues. By mapping what a customer already has, your institution can spot what comes next—revealing marketing strategies in plain sight.

Example 1

CD Cross-Sell Offer

Even a number as commonplace as an account balance can point us in the right direction. It follows that those customers with higher balances are primed for wealth management and investment services.

  • Action: A new or existing account holder deposits funds into a checking or savings account
  • Response: Core data interpretation identifies account holders with higher-than-average account balances but no investment products/services with your institution
  • Next Step: Print and digital communications aimed at these account holders promote high-value CDs, rates, and more
  • Insights: Instead of moving their funds elsewhere to invest, these account holders see value in your offer at just the right time
Example 2

Attrition Risk Detection Campaign

Identifying opportunities is one thing, but preventing attrition is another. Account holders often leave breadcrumbs in their activity that can point to (and ultimately prevent) the loss of business.

  • Action: Core data reveals that an account holder has disengaged with deposits, withdrawals, and other loan products or investment services
  • Response: You create a list of disengaged account holders
  • Next Step: Extending bonus offers, personal calls, and emails can save the account before it closes
  • Insights: A personal touch when it’s needed most can bring lost account holders back to the fold

Tip 5: Time Your Offers with Search Trends

There’s a well-established seasonality for financial products. Home equity line of credit (HELOC) and mortgage loans see a spike in demand during the summer months, for example. But these larger patterns lack the detail that community financial institutions need. Search trends can fill in the rest.

Example 1

Summer HELOC Promotion

Why do we search for products and services online? We may be looking for a provider, researching our options, or looking to make a transaction. Hyper-local search trends can reveal opportunities within your very zip code.

  • Action: Using Google Trends (or another search trend analyzer), you notice an uptick in local searches for HELOC loans during certain weeks or months
  • Response: To capitalize on increased interest, you can segment audiences along core and third-party data or devise a mass comm campaign to cast a wider net
  • Next Step: A digital and direct mail campaign promotes HELOC loans at your institution, syncing with seasonal behavior
  • Insights: Search trends help us distinguish between perceived and actual interest, putting data first
Example 2

Creating a 12-Month Campaign Calendar

Timely offers aren’t unique to the summer months. Search trends can reveal a week-by-week or month-by-month interest in your products or services. It’s easy (and lucrative) to create a 12-month campaign calendar based on these trends.

  • Action: Scan a year’s worth of search trends in your area to determine when products and services are popular
  • Response: Using this data, create a 12-month campaign calendar designed around the spikes in interest
  • Next Step: Map each promotion to coincide with increased searches (e.g. auto loans, IRAs, credit cards, etc.) to determine your campaign needs and PPC (pay-per-click) budget
  • Insights: Starting with search trends saves you time, spares you the guesswork, and conserves your budget

Data-Driven Marketing Isn’t Scary – It’s a Demonstrable Way to Grow

It’s natural to worry that we lack the understanding or skill to make the most of data. But more often than not, these anxieties arise because we lack the right tool.

Connect by Main Street is a marketing and engagement hub purpose-built for banks and credit unions. By making data accessible – alongside a powerful email builder and built-in print functionality – Connect shortens the distance between insights and action.

Even the best marketing platform can’t reveal the future, but the right tool for you can certainly make the future brighter. Remember that the institutions that embrace the digital transformation today will lead the industry tomorrow.

Vanquish Your Data Fears with Connect by Main Street

Intuitive, affordable, and backed by constant support, Connect by Main Street is just built differently. Programmed with your products and services in mind, and including creative support services like graphic design and copywriting, reaching the right people with the right message at the right time has never been easier

The post Data-Driven Marketing Doesn’t Have to Be Scary – 5 Easy Strategies appeared first on Main Street Inc..

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