Thanks to the pandemic, the pace of digital innovation has accelerated even faster. For banks and credit unions, mobile banking has become a key part of their overall marketing and communications strategy, and for good reason – 79 percent of smartphone owners have used their device to make a purchase in the past six months. Improving that strategy to reach users with maximum impact and ultimately grow revenue isn’t easy, but there are some ways financial institutions can adapt to stand out in the digital world. What can you do? Read on to find out!

Be proactive with your mobile banking strategy

Body: What do you do when you need to get a message across? Don’t wait, that’s for sure. Now more than ever, a proactive marketing approach helps you get in front of people who otherwise might not see what you have to offer or think of you as a solution to their problem. Use a mix of marketing methods, including outbound (where you reach out to people) and inbound (where people come to you). But keep in mind, according to Gartner, by 2025, it’s predicted that proactive outbound interactions will overtake reactive inbound interactions. It’s a natural step – from predictive product recommendations (e.g., “Because you watched X” on Netflix) to contextually relevant messaging, people are more likely to engage with a product when all the work has been done for them to showcase its value.

The benefits of push notifications in mobile banking

Now that we’ve established the importance of being proactive with your communications through your mobile app, how do you do that? One way to take advantage of push notifications. When used properly, push notifications (and push notification marketing in general) are an excellent way to communicate with your users. They can be used to drive any number of initiatives. Below are just a few examples:

·      Reminding them about a low account balance

·      Mentioning a community event near them that they might be interested in attending

·      Informing them of new products or services.

·      Change in branch hours

However you decide to use them, push notifications are designed to deliver important information immediately on the screen without waiting for the user to open your app– super convenient in today’s digital world. Plus, they offer higher rates of engagement than traditional digital marketing methods –offering 7xmore click-through rate than email alone.

Use push notifications wisely

Like any communication channel, it’s important to be mindful of your users. You (hopefully) wouldn’t bombard them with 49 emails a day about your great loan rates, so don’t do it with push notifications, either. They should work together with your other communication channels (email, media advertising, social media, etc.) to deliver your message as cohesively as possible.

If financial institutions want to continue grow revenue and strengthen relationships with their account holders, they must explore new communication channels and do so in a digital-first way. Push notifications and push notification marketing are a relatively untapped channel with great potential for delivering important information with a higher rate of engagement than traditional digital marketing methods. In our next post, we’ll explore some basic best practices for push notification marketing.

Seeking to improve your mobile banking strategy? Larky can help. We deliver turnkey push notification messaging with our Larky nudge® platform. Proactively reach your account holders at the right moment, at the right time. Visit https://nudge.larky.com to learn more.