Help For Marketing To Financial Consumers

If you're looking to improve your marketing efforts (who isn't?), then you should be aware of several research reports we've recently published. They answer three key questions:

1) Who are your target customers?
2) How do firms use their customer data?
3) What's the best way to reach customers?

Here's what we found: SouthTrust has the highest number of customers older than 60; Charles Schwab has the highest number of high-income customers; USAA has the highest number of customers with college degrees; and Washington Mutual has the highest number of Hispanic customers.

We also examined the media habits of direct brokerage customers to help marketers invest in the right channels. Here's what we found: E*TRADE customers are the most frequent Google users; Scottrade customers are the most frequent Wall Street Journal readers; and Charles Schwab customers are the most frequent PBS watchers.

How do firms use their customer data?
To understand how companies use their customer data, we surveyed 124 database marketing executives at large direct-to-consumer companies. In many ways, we found financial services firms to be the most sophisticated database marketers around: They aggressively apply analytic techniques and have plenty of analysts and statisticians. The most advanced employ integrated, segment-specific customer contact strategies. Despite all this, though, the industry has been remarkably slow to embrace email.

Across industries, we found a strong correlation between analytical sophistication and direct mail volume -- but no correlation whatsoever with email volume. The marketers' defense that it makes sense to "email the whole list because it's dirt cheap" ignores marketing's shadow currency: consumers' precious time. Firms that use advanced analytics to crack the code on message alignment, event triggers, frequency optimization, and program integration will bask in record response rates and ongoing customer engagement.

What's the best way to reach customers?
Several of our recent research efforts provide best practices for reaching customers. In "How Credit Card Brands Succeed Online," we apply our brand-image evaluation to four large credit card Web sites. Discover.com received the highest score, benefiting from its simple, clearly articulated brand positioning: no annual fee and cash back on every purchase. In "Case Studies In Event-Triggered Marketing," we highlight how Scotiabank triggers leads based on significant deposits and how E-LOAN succesfully targets individuals who abandon an online mortgage application. In "RSS 101 For Marketers," we provide advice on how to best deploy Real Simple Syndication (RSS) -- a technology that is still only used by 2% of North American online households.

Let Us Know If We Can Help
Here are some areas where we've helped financial services firms:

• Online activity benchmarking. Compare your firm's online efforts with that of other banks and credit unions. We are also kicking off a multiclient research project on organizational models and staffing levels.

• Customer experience reviews. We can evaluate the usability of your Web sites, emails, and phone apps.

• Web assessments. We can compare the features on your site with those of competitors.

• Market research. We can provide insights on consumers from our existing Consumer Technographics® data or through customized research.

• Fraud avoidance. We can help develop strategies for protecting against phishing attacks.

Research Referenced In This Issue Case Studies In Event-Triggered Marketing (37467) Customer Advocacy: The Secret To Loyal Financial Services Customers (35057) Demographics Of Financial Consumers (37466) How Consumers Research Financial Decisions (37448) How Credit Card Brands Succeed Online (37458) Insurance Company IT Spending Plans (37440) Online Design That Promotes Cross-Selling (37481) RSS 101 For Marketers (37422) Same-Day Payments: A New Revenue Stream From The Online Channel (37314) Seven Habits Of Highly Effective Compliance Programs (37240) The Forrester Wave™ 2005 (36769) The Forrester Wave™: Customer Data Integration, Q2 2005 (35963) The Forrester Wave™: Database Encryption Solutions, Q3 2005 (36486) The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise CRM Suites, Q2 2005 (37214) The Forrester Wave™: Integration Suites, Q3 2005 (35795) The Ongoing Industrialization Of Financial Services (37439) The State Of The Customer Database (36982) Where Do Big Bank Customers Do Their Investing? (37425) Who Researches And Applies For Insurance Online? (37491)

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