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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
