Turning Everyday Banking Into Marketing & Branding Gold

Local and regional banks parcel out billions of dollars in personal and business loans each year. It’s possibly the most basic thing they do, besides offering free checking and interest-generating savings accounts.

But basic doesn’t mean unimportant. Without that capital, companies would be left in the lurch, unable to afford to hire employees, pay for infrastructure improvements, or expand geographic and industry footprints. Our personal and professional lives would be far worse off without banks providing liquid support.

Banks fuel America’s local and regional business growth, in good times and bad – and, for the most part, behind the scenes. But maybe the work bankers do shouldn’t be kept so quiet. Rather, a little publicity can help them generate marketing and branding gold to grow assets and become an even more part of their communities.

Lending

For years, retirement community developer Mather organized local and regional support behind the construction of a new high-end senior living facility just outside of Washington, DC.  Despite the challenges of a worldwide pandemic and everything else that goes into a major project, the company kept things mostly on-track and announced that it was ready to break ground in 2021.

What Mather didn’t have was $500 million in cash to pay for construction, so management turned to The Huntington National Bank for a loan to cover 60% of the cost. Once the loan was secured, Mather told everyone about its financial partnership in a press release that earned Huntington placement in real estate and senior living trade outlets.

This scenario plays out every day in communities across America – and not just when the financing deal is signed. When a new senior living center opened in the suburbs of Chicago, it wasn’t just the local mayor and a state politician who showed up for the ribbon-cutting and coverage in the paper. A Bank of America representative stood right with them.

And even without press coverage, business loans provide valuable marketing and branding opportunities. The lending institution involved at a ribbon-cutting can take advantage of the event to:

• Post photos of client successes for social media, the bank website, and handouts.

• Network for new relationships with other stakeholders.

• Turn the success story into content for an e-newsetter.

Incorporating new technology/services/tools

One of the ways banks compete is by developing products, services, and platforms that make customers’ lives easier. Being the first to have certain technologies or services can give an edge in local press and on social media, and create other opportunities like webinars and investor presentations.

Earlier this year, Evans Bank became the first bank in Buffalo, New York to accept marijuana companies as customers. This decision earned multiple pieces of local and regional favorable media coverage on top of posts on X, Reddit, and other websites that generated downstream credibility and expanded reach.

It doesn’t take going against the grain. AI, for example, is a hot-button topic for investments across all industries. Computer Weekly gave glowing coverage to Wells Fargo’s use of AI to help families navigate estate settlements after deaths, providing an in-depth interview to a company spokesperson about how the new program was generating improved customer satisfaction and bringing new customers in the door.

You don’t have to be the first, either, to generate marketing and branding gold through new technology and services. Bloomberg and TechCrunch – leaders in financial and technology news, respectively – ran profiles about HSBC’s payments app, which launched early this year. It isn’t new technology, and yet two major media outlets nonetheless ran two types of stories on it. This was just the kind of coverage needed to bring credibility to HSBC as it competes against Wise, Revolut, and its competitors’ other payment apps.

Team member news

Business journals love banking news, and the Kansas City Business Journal is no exception. When a regional bank’s founder joined a larger bank’s board of directors, the Journal tackled it like a linebacker sacking a quarterback.

That’s because local and regional press love featuring local and regional businesses. The same is true for outlets that cover the financial and banking industries; Deutsche Bank AG generated similar coverage from Reuters when it hired Ainslee Withey as a managing director for the company’s tech investment banking arm. The best part? The announcement that she was hired came three months before she actually started – leaving a great opportunity for another round of headlines and social media posts.

Of course, you may think that hiring people is just a behind-the-scenes HR function unless it’s a major hire or appointment. But new hires generating strong media coverage up and down the banking hierarchy say otherwise.

Hitting new metrics of growth and success

Heavy regulations and past banking failures mean that many stakeholders keenly watch banks’ metrics of success. But financial numbers are about more than compliance, making money, and generating profit. If nobody knows that your fundamentals are sound, or that you’ve expanded into a new geographic location, your successes don’t earn the marketing capital they deserve.

Meredith Savings Bank saw the value in spreading the word about its 14th location, which opened in Exeter, New Hampshire earlier this year. Its grand opening included games for kids, a charitable fundraiser, and ice cream – as well as a softball article by a regional media outlet about its community focus, and a photo on its Instagram page.

Similarly, the then-new Agility Bank in Houston, Texas raised $41 million in investor capital in 2022. It was news because the bank was new and because the owners are women – but mostly because the amount was $11 million greater than the stated asset goal. And the success generated mentions on a number of social media platforms and other organizations’ websites.

Providing the fuel to your bank’s growth

Bank loans and announcements of assets under management aren’t the kind of things that drive sensational headlines. But that doesn’t mean that banks don’t have much to say. On the contrary, when you think about how much of our daily life and local communities which banks underwrite, it makes sense that journalists, talking heads, and potential new customers can be keenly interested in what they’re up to. And that’s a rule that works for more than just the big guys. Upstarts and trailblazers can cash in on it, too.

This piece was originally published by Todd Rowley & Dustin Siggins at Real Clear Markets.