The DigitalMailer Blog

May 8, 2013

Mobile Banking and Consumers: Making the Connection

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 10:21 am

After a decade of trial and error, mobile banking finally seems to be taking hold among consumers…although there is still a lot of room for growth.

A December 2011-January 2012 survey by the Federal Reserve looked at consumers’ use of mobile technology; essentially, its role in accessing financial services and making financial decisions. Among the 87 percent of mobile phone owners in the United States, 21 percent say they have used mobile banking in the past year, with another 11 percent reporting they plan to use it.

The survey also found that mobile banking is most often used to check account balances and recent transactions (90 percent of users), followed by transferring money (42 percent). But, perhaps surprisingly, only 12 percent of mobile phone users report making a mobile payment in the past 12 months.

Why the hesitation? Maybe it’s the result of lingering concerns about mobile banking’s security and limited usefulness on some devices – 42 percent reported that security doubts keeps them from using mobile payments. Further, more than half of respondents (58 percent) felt traditional banking adequately met their needs, so they had no need for mobile banking. More than a third said they either don’t see a benefit in making payments by mobile device or they find other payment methods easier.

So, despite mobile’s growth, it’s clear that safety fears and ease of use have created hurdles to growing consumer adoption.

Armed with this knowledge, credit unions can develop more effective mobile banking programs or reexamine their current mobile programs and make adjustments. Here are some ideas:

Increase the focus on member education to address ease-of-use issues.
Add incentives to strengthen the perceived benefits for members making mobile payments versus traditional payments.
Promote security measures that work to keep members’ financial activities safe.

With the large majority of the U.S. population having mobile phones, credit unions have a good opportunity to grow their mobile-banking programs. But the key is to know your audience, including their mobile preferences and their concerns about “going mobile”, and then create your program accordingly.

[This article originally ran in the DigitalMailer Newsletter. To sign up for this free, monthly email newsletter, visit our newsletter page and subscribe with our easy-to-use webform.]

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April 17, 2013

Earth Day, Arbor Day – Any Day’s a Good Day to Save Trees!

Filed under: electronic statements,green,green technology,One Click,technology — admin @ 10:41 am

The “Big Green Holidays” are coming up fast – Earth Day, April 22 and Arbor Day, April 26. As usual, we want to encourage our clients and partners to get more people on board with eStatements and digital documents. They’re compliant, they save your organization money, and best of all, they help cut down on paper waste in a BIG way. You don’t need a holiday to encourage more eStatement adoption – all you need is to encourage more people to receive their statements electronically.

See how many trees you save each year with our handy-dandy Green Checkup Calculator.

Are you a credit union or bank that really values “green business”? We’d like to hear from you. Drop us an email at blogs@digitalmailer.com and tell us what you’re doing to promote planet-friendly initiatives at your place of business.

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March 28, 2013

Backing Up in (Way Less Than) 60 Seconds

Filed under: technology,World Backup Day — admin @ 12:44 pm

by Jimmy Marks

So you’ve taken our advice and decided to invest in a proper backup strategy. Cool! But have you actually backed up your computer yet? What’s keeping you?

I wanted to try and show the skeptics out there that backing up a computer isn’t that tough – in fact, you can get it going in less than 60 seconds. And what better way to show a process moving quickly than with Vine?

Here are a few less-than-six-second videos I shot of me backing up my computer.

First: the equipment.

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March 19, 2013

It’s Our 13th Birthday!

Filed under: DigitalMailer — admin @ 12:46 pm

It’s our 13th anniversary. We’re officially a teenager!

We can’t tell you how thankful we are to our staff, our partners, our board, and most importantly, our clients, for the past 13 years in business. We’re so happy to be here after these 13 years and we’re excited for all the years to come. We are working hard, even as you read this, to develop newer and even more exciting technologies designed to help financial institutions connect, communicate, and grow.

Like most teenagers, we’re looking to stay connected, so feel free to drop us a line on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. And thanks again to everyone who made this milestone possible!

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March 13, 2013

How Many Backups Do I Need? [A World Backup Day Post]

Filed under: mobile technology,My Virtual StrongBox,technology,World Backup Day — admin @ 12:42 pm

by Jimmy Marks

I’ve been on the lookout for good articles to share for the World Backup Day on March 31. I’ve been trying out the tips and tricks offered by these articles and I’ve found a few of them quite useful.

This article, “The Computer Backup Rule of Three” by Scott Hanselman, is a good read. Much more than telling you what a backup is, the article tells you what a backup isn’t. Namely, a backup is not a copy of the file stored in the same storage space as the original. Backing up your photo library to another place on your computer hard drive is NOT backing up your library, for instance.

Have I committed a few of these sins? Yes. And MAN, have I been burned for it.

I backed up a copy of my old photos and moved them off my computer to organize the newer photos…and the .zip file got corrupted. Who knows where those images are now. Do I have another copy? Can I undo what’s been done? I’m honestly not sure. I wish I could go back in time and smack the younger me in the head. Alas, we can’t look back – only forward, to a future where we don’t make such foolish mistakes.

From the article mentioned above, a practical guideline for backups – how, how often, and how important:

Here’s the rule of three. It’s a long time computer-person rule of thumb that you can apply to your life now. It’s also called the Backup 3-2-1 rule.

3 copies of anything you care about - Two isn’t enough if it’s important.

2 different formats - Example: Dropbox+DVDs or Hard Drive+Memory Stick or CD+Crash Plan, or more

1 off-site backup - If the house burns down, how will you get your memories back?

After I read this, I went home and gave it a try. I already have external backup disks (about 1TB apiece, one for each computer in my home), but I wanted to look into the other ways to store my important stuff.

One easy way to store a few gigs worth of files? Thumb drives and DVDs. Fewer computers are coming with optical disk drives nowadays, but my computer burns DVDs which, on average, hold about 4 GB worth of data. Thumb drives, once an expensive convenience, are now cheap, cheap, cheap and come in many sizes. Moore’s law is your computer’s best friend and makes the once-hard-to-get 8 GB thumb drive a thing of beauty and thrift (they’re about $8 at your local Walmart).

Now, these aren’t built for full-computer backups. They are, however, perfect for photo libraries, documents, music, and more. Buy a few and cycle them, backing up your important files every so often on one, then the other. You probably won’t even fill that 8GB every time. DVDs come fifty to a spindle and cost roughly $20, depending on where you shop. 50 DVDs x 4GB apiece = 200 gigs, which is pretty hefty. Use these for files that aren’t going to be updated regularly.

Three copies of things you care about is an achievable goal. Multiple formats? Got that covered, too. Off-site backups? That can be tough. But not to worry, you can achieve this in two ways:

One at home, one somewhere you trust – Do you have a locking drawer at work? Do you have a friend or family member that wouldn’t mind you keeping sensitive material in their home? Get creative, then get quiet. Don’t go bragging about how hard to find your backup disk is, because…well, that’s the whole point.
Online – There are a number of solutions for this, but you know which one we’ll recommend. Online, secure storage options that you can use easily and effectively are worth the time.

I think the takeaway for all this can be simplified to “even your backup needs a backup”. Never trust just one disk. Never trust your computer to “be in tip-top shape”. Never assume your in-laws won’t click on a virus in an email. Never, ever, ever assume.

Know for sure. Follow the rules. Back it all up!

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March 6, 2013

Fortune Favors the Prepared: World Backup Day, All Month Long

Filed under: emergency,My Virtual StrongBox,technology — admin @ 10:46 am

by Jimmy Marks

Louis Pasteur, inventor of pasteurization and the vaccines for anthrax and rabies, once said “fortune favors the prepared”. If your computer is fried in an electrical surge, or submerged in a flood, or stolen, what would you do? Many people – nearly one-third – have never backed up their computer. Of those that have backed up, more than half haven’t backed up in a year or more. And when a computer disaster hits, whether it’s big or small, you need more than “luck” to get through it. You need a stable, reliable backup to get back on your feet.

That’s why a group of thoughtful techies created World Backup Day, a day to get folks to back up their important files and documents and to convince those that do so to back up more frequently and more reliably.

At DigitalMailer, we’re big proponents of World Backup Day. We hope more folks take part in a proper backup strategy. And backups aren’t just for computers, they’re for tablets, smartphones, email, and so much more. We’ll be sharing important stories and strategies as we find them, on our Twitter feed and our Facebook page. Join us and let’s get “lucky”…by being prepared for anything.

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February 13, 2013

Thoughts on the State of the (Credit) Union (and Bank Marketing Survey), 2013

Filed under: Banks,Credit Unions,DigitalMailer,e-Statements,email marketing,mobile technology,ROI,Special Reports,Survey,targeted marketing,Twitter,web sites — admin @ 12:23 pm

by Jimmy Marks

Last night was the State of the Union address. All the big-wigs in Washington, D.C. gathered together to applaud, not-applaud, talk, listen, and pretend to listen to a summary of how America’s doing and what the administration is likely to do in the coming year.

But nothing President Obama said was as stirring or shocking as what I read yesterday in the State of Bank & Credit Union Marketing report from the Financial Brand and Aite’s Ron Shevlin.

[Author's Note -- As this is a "State of the Union" themed post, please feel free to stand up and clap or sit and stare disapprovingly as you choose. Make a real show of it and disturb everyone in your office. That's what I'm doing.]

In the past, this report has been an eye-opener about the world of credit union and bank marketing and this year did not disappoint. Well, it sort of disappointed…because there are a lot of roadblocks for banks and credit unions (and yes, us CUSOs and vendors) to overcome this year.

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February 5, 2013

Why Stop There? How “Going Back” Brings You So Much Closer to Success

Filed under: On-Boarding,smart marketing — admin @ 11:57 am

Remember the movie Big Fish? The main character, Edward Bloom, tries everything in the book to get the attention of his dream girl, Sandra. He works as a utility man at a circus just to get information about her. He buys out a whole florist’s worth of daffodils, her favorite flower. He gets in a fist fight with her fiancé…but promises her he won’t do anything to hurt the other man and takes a beating instead. After getting shelacked, he finally gets her to take an interest in him. His persistance paid off and she later became his wife.

There are some things that are worth the effort. A deep, lasting relationship with a customer or member is certainly one of those things. According to CUNA’s E-Scan, the odds of losing a member who has a checking account, a savings account, a loan and any fourth product is one hundred to one (via Mark Arnold). That means getting the members and customers informed and ready to buy. How?

Step 1: Make the pitch.

Step 2: Repeat the pitch.

Step 3: Repeat step 2.

But why stop there? The National Sales Executive Association has some eye-opening statistics about sales success compared to the number of contacts with a potential customer. The breakdown goes like this:

2% of sales are made on the first contact your business has with a potential customer
3% of sales are made on the second contact
5% of sales are made on the third
10% of sales are made on the fourth
80% of sales are made on the fifth contact

Astonishing, isn’t it? What’s sad is that so many efforts burn up right between the third and fourth contact. Persistance is key, and it’s not something many financial institutions are used to having.

So, how do you work this focused, repetitive sales approach into your culture?

Training - Working with employees to make sure they know these numbers and that they know the value of that precious few seconds they have with the customer or member.
Divide and Conquer - Obviously, not all of your interactions with your customers and members are face-to-face. Send emails, write notes, make phone calls – keep digging. Remember, you’re trying to keep that person around for the rest of their financial lives.
Know When You’re Done - This isn’t the same as saying “give up after too many tries”. This is a common sense end-point you develop, one that lets you know you’re starting to lose money in a given pursuit. This also covers customers who get the product you wanted them to have…if they buy after the third contact, don’t burn up the fourth and fifth. When you get your “yes”, there’s no more selling to be done.

It’s never too soon to make a lifetime user. Why not the first few weeks after they open their first account? Click here to visit our Onboarding Page.

This post originally appeared in our email newsletter. To subscribe to our free monthly email digest, sign up here at our newsletter page.

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January 16, 2013

DigitalMailer Benchmarks: How many of your consumers should be using eStatements?

Filed under: e-Statements,electronic statements,enrollment campaigns,eStrategy,One Click,One Click Campaign,technology,Uncategorized — admin @ 10:13 am

by Ron Daly

Recently, a number of clients have written us emails asking for the “industry standard” of eStatement penetration. While there are any number of results in your typical Google search, we wanted to offer our clients and, in turn, our blog readers a thoughtful answer. So we took the number of eStatement users each of our clients had, compiled our data into an Excel spreadsheet, ran some of the averages and came up with some numbers we think are quite interesting.

Yep, you’re reading that correctly – nearly 80% of online banking users have eStatements. These folks manage their money online and take advantage of eStatements. This number grew twenty percentage points in one year, leading us to believe that more and more people are making the connection between electronic documents and smart money management.

A little more than half of all the customers/members we evaluated were checking account holders. It stands to reason more checking users would be using eStatements just to avoid getting a paper statement that’s weeks behind their online banking reports, ATM receipts, or mobile alerts. Still, that number grew 19 percentage points in a year…that’s a big gain.

Even though this number grew 11 percentage points in a year, it’s still a little low for my tastes. Only 28% of members use eStatements? Why so low? Here’s why:

Most financial institutions still have eStatements inside online banking and only online banking members can get them (see the first percentage number we listed, for eStatement/OLB users? Make sense now?)
Very few financial institutions have marketing campaigns to increase adoption anymore. Those that do typically see great ROI.
Most financial institutions don’t make eStatements the default for online banking users. Reg E says you have to give your users a choice of paper or electronic…but it doesn’t say what the default option must be. Why not start those users with eStatements and make them ask for paper statements?

If only credit unions and banks would make eStatements the default. Most users would never bother to make the switch or make a stink – they’d probably never even think about it again.

Check out our one-click program and see if this simple solution is right for you.

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January 2, 2013

The Case for Onboarding: A Timely Way to Help Financial Institutions Build Loyalty

Filed under: Banks,Credit Unions,On-Boarding,technology — admin @ 10:35 am

Technology continues to eliminate face-to-face contact and cross-sell opportunities. With the proliferation of online account opening platforms, now is the time for a formal onboarding process.

Challenges of the past few years have changed how consumers view their primary financial institutions. Loyalty is harder to come by these days. According to the 2011 U.S. Retail Banking Satisfaction Survey by J.D. Power and Associates, more people are willing to switch their PFIs, more financial institutions are being considered in the PFI selection process, and more consumers are turning to non-PFIs for additional banking products they may need. It seems the days of checking accounts making for “sticky” PFIs may be numbered.

But that’s not necessarily true for financial institutions with effective onboarding programs. These institutions are seeing real success in building stronger, deeper relationships with new members from the first day of opening an account.

Onboarding involves introducing new members to your credit union during their early weeks or months of membership. Part educational and part promotional, the process helps your members see the full value of your credit union. When done effectively, the results show higher retention rates, broader product usage and lower servicing costs.

So how are these effective financial institutions doing it? The key is using well-planned, sustained and value-driven email messages. The most common timeframe for an onboarding program is 90 days to six months. Included among the elements of successful onboarding practices are:

Simple, easy-to-read emails
Similar design styles and formats across all messages
Deliberate, slow-and-steady delivery schedules
Supplemental welcome calls at two-week and 60-day intervals

Happily, today’s technology allows for the onboarding process to be simplified and cost-effective. Messages can be personalized based on members’ individual profiles, often synchronized with credit union data files. Certified email engines can automatically deliver customized emails at timed intervals to keep the credit union name in front of members, without being pushy. And systems can manage email lists for bad or duplicate addresses, while collecting delivery and open-rate measurements.

The shifting consumer trends affecting today’s financial services industry are providing financial institutions with great opportunities to draw in – and retain – new members through initiating a strong onboarding program. It’s a proven marketing strategy that, when done right, can build loyalty, trust and “stickiness” among your membership.

For financial institutions, the timing has never been better.

This article originally ran in our free, monthly e-newsletter. Are you signed up already? If not, sign up here to receive a monthly collection of helpful articles and interesting tidbits right in your inbox.

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Categories

The DigitalMailer Blog

Mobile Banking and Consumers: Making the Connection

Earth Day, Arbor Day – Any Day’s a Good Day to Save Trees!

Backing Up in (Way Less Than) 60 Seconds

It’s Our 13th Birthday!

How Many Backups Do I Need? [A World Backup Day Post]

Fortune Favors the Prepared: World Backup Day, All Month Long

Thoughts on the State of the (Credit) Union (and Bank Marketing Survey), 2013

Why Stop There? How “Going Back” Brings You So Much Closer to Success

DigitalMailer Benchmarks: How many of your consumers should be using eStatements?

The Case for Onboarding: A Timely Way to Help Financial Institutions Build Loyalty

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