During these uncertain times, I want to assure you that the BKM Marketing team continues to work hard for you, and we will continue to fulfill our daily commitments without interruption. We deeply appreciate the relationships we have built with you, and we understand this is a challenging time for your families as well as your brands and businesses.

BKM Marketing is pleased to announce the launch of our newly formed Banking and Financial Services practice. Richard A. Hall, a 20-year financial services industry veteran and 10-year client of BKM Marketing recently joined the firm to lead the practice.

As Head of Banking and Financial Services, Rick will focus on developing strategic solutions for BKM’s banking clients and expand the necessary capabilities for BKM to address the increasing demand for banks to build innovative and differentiated competitive offerings. In addition, he will focus on expanding the company’s market leading bank merger communications offering.

Everyone can agree that in 2015, if you're a marketer with no digital presence you're out of the game. With round the clock updates and messages from social networks, texts, and emails that we're accessing through a range of mobile devices, we are all constantly connected. To reach prospective customers and clients, your company has to be where those customers are looking for your goods or services.

So, with all of this activity online, does direct mail still matter? 

Without a doubt, YES!! To go even further, direct mail is seeing a resurgence and clear uptick in usage and performance. Between constant mobile notifications and our email inboxes flooded with messages (some helpful and others not so helpful), properly targeted direct mail with information that is relevant to the recipient can be a welcome change! 

More importantly, why is this so important for marketers?

In your organization's marketing efforts, are you a hunter or a trapper? Most likely you are both. The bottom line is that the outcome is the same. Understanding the differences and how your organization approaches new business is critical and can make the difference between thriving and barely surviving. And, in today’s competitive climate, there is no room for barely surviving.

So as you begin to evaluate where your company is in the sales and marketing process, it is important to understand the internal marketing philosophy. Does it lean towards inbound marketing - which is about pulling customers in, ie. trapping - or are they interested in going out and pushing the marketing message to the prospect no matter if they are ready or not, ie. hunting? Both are necessary and having a deeper understanding of both and maintaining the right balance is critical.

77% of marketers are not exceeding their revenue goals, according to a recent study by HubSpot.

No question, the focus of today’s marketing organizations is all about social media, SEO, Inbound Marketing, etc. Should it be? Of course. You cannot grow and thrive without it. But what is overlooked are the principles that those marketing disciplines are rooted in: the expertise of targeted Outbound marketing efforts. So should you shift to Outbound initiatives? Not necessarily. You need a balanced, integrated approach to become one of the 23% of marketers who are exceeding the revenue goals.

Here’s the issue—many marketers are using plans built solely around search engine marketing, social media, email marketing, or some other individual channel. Why? Because they’ve become intoxicated by the lure of astronomically high ROI claims, virtually meaningless when viewed outside the vacuum in which they are seen. This buzz has been generated by companies and people deeply invested in its success. These include companies that are still predominantly staffed by marketing automation solutions engineers, who are actually software wizards, not marketers. And all the talk isn’t limited to the marketing operations and automation folks who are making claims. There are also many strategic consulting firms and agencies that are doing the same, but they don’t have enough experience as practitioners to execute on the very recommendations they’re recommending to clients.

Directing a bank merger is a tremendous undertaking. Between consolidating systems, reviewing brand implications, evaluating locations, assessing operational impact and reassuring employees, there are countless decisions to make every day. 

With executives focusing so much energy on operational details, existing customers are often overlooked. The mom, dad, business owner, student, not for profit group...all are people who chose to bank with a specific institution for very real and personal reasons. Was it the ease of the location or the branch manager or teller? Was it the interest rate or products and services being offered? Does it really matter?

The answer is YES, and understanding what motivates these new customers is critical in keeping them as customers for years to come.

The most critical factor and thus the most important part of a bank merger is making sure the value of the merger doesn’t walk out the door. Literally, preventing customers from leaving the bank you just acquired is by far the most important thought on everyone’s mind involved in leading a bank merger. Customers will react in funny ways after a bank merger announcement  - including wandering across the street to the competition for the most basic of offers and for promises that are short-lived.

So why do 17% of customers leave or ‘attrite’ during and after a merger anyway?

According to Deloitte Center for Banking, there are two top reasons why customers switch banks after a merger: purely emotional reasons and a competitor’s offer.