With fewer account holders visiting branches regularly, financial institutions must focus on optimizing their digital channels for maximum engagement. Delivering value through mobile banking software, financial literacy programs, improved communication, and personalization can help you build lasting relationships that already have a foundation of trust established. In this post, we’ll discuss some tips for strengthening your relationships with your account holders so that you remain their trusted financial institution for years to come.

Encourage financial literacy

From opening their first savings account to managing income in retirement, the needs of an account holder will change over time. Banks and credit unions should be ready and able to support these changing needs. By regularly providing informative resources, financial institutions can help their account holders make better decisions at every stage of their financial journey.

Improving financial literacy supports several goals. Most importantly, educating your account holders helps establish your financial institution as a trusted information source and as a partner for success. People who learn from you will trust your institution going forward, and share that trust with their families. Financially literate people are also likely to use a wider range of products.

Find new ways to communicate

Account holders tend to prefer digital channels over going to a nearby branch, and COVID-19 has only accelerated this trend. Therefore, banks and credit unions need to get creative when it comes to communication. There are opportunities at the local levels with community leaders and nonprofits. Consider launching programs and events to promote financial literacy or support local organizations – the more involved you are with promoting the community as a whole, the more people will see you as a trusted source of help. However you decide to be involved, be sure you communicate with your account holders about what you’re doing!

Financial institutions can’t always count on the personal touch of a teller or assistant. As a result, it’s important to deliver a personalized experience through digital channels such as web push notifications. Reaching out to account holders during key moments is a good way of achieving this goal. Build relationships through messages that congratulate a user or offer a next step to help them navigate an important life moment or financial milestone.

Audience segmentation is also an important strategy. Banks and credit unions have a diverse audience. With demographics, it's possible to tailor the voice, messaging, and channel used. This approach can help your financial institution engage each account holder in a way that feels relevant and valuable to them.

Leverage banking software to engage users

Banking software can change how financial institutions engage with their audience. However, banks and credit unions need to build a solid foundation by collecting data first.

Data collection is a valuable tool that can paint a picture of who your account holders are. Using advanced analytics, you can create detailed user profiles. With this approach, you can develop a deeper understanding of their habits, challenges, and goals. In turn, this will show you how your institution can offer more value.

Data analysis can reveal the need for new services. Financial institutions can grow by looking for new ways of meeting their account holders’ needs, including offering more products. Launching new services and partnering with third-party vendors can help you become your account holders’ primary financial institution.

Use banking software to automate communication. For example, web push notifications on desktop and lock screen notifications on mobile can deliver personalized messages. By delivering the right information at the right time, these notifications help keep users engaged. Plus, these notifications are more visible than emails. Web push notifications can also be part of predictive personalization strategies where the financial institution suggests a next step to take.

Improve engagement with Larky nudge®

Larky nudge® is a tool that delivers right place and right time communication through lock screen notifications through the mobile banking app. With 5x more engagement than traditional marketing methods, financial institutions use us to build lasting connections. Get in touch with us to learn more about how you can get your messages seen and keep account holders engaged.

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