With financial literacy month coming up, it’s a good time to reevaluate your approach to your financial education efforts. If you don’t have a formal financial education program currently in place, you may be missing a huge opportunity when it comes to empowering and influencing your relationships.
Providing financial education and advice to your customers or members may not always be top of mind when you’re under pressure to specifically grow loans or deposits by pushing product offers. However, a study conducted in 2018 by J.D Power suggests that banks and credit unions could be overlooking a big opportunity to properly connect with their relationships.
Let’s look at some of the key takeaways from the study and brainstorm some ways to improve your own financial education strategy.
Key Takeaways from the Study
78% of retail bank customers want financial advice or guidance from their financial institution
It’s important to remember, as J.D. Power states, that banks and credit unions are a “valuable first line of financial advice” to customers and members. When customers are receiving valuable advice from their trusted financial institution, satisfaction, loyalty, and product adoption will surge.
28% say they actually receive advice
The shocking truth – Only a mere 28% of banking customers are actually receiving the financial education they need and want from their financial institutions. This is a key opportunity for bank and credit unions to revamp their marketing strategy by guiding their relationships through their financial journey with financial education.
Marketing Takeaways
Adding financial advice to your product offers is a perfect way to incorporate your financial literacy program into your product offer communications. Anytime you send a product offer to your relationships, couple it with financial advice or a helpful piece of content.
For example, if you are sending out a mortgage loan offer to prospective relationships, be sure to send along some piece of content walking them through the process, helpful resources like payment calculators, or offering advice for first-time homeowners.
Additionally, consider sending out a monthly savings tip or share retirement strategies. Constantly communicating helpful tips and advice to your relationships is how you can successfully build those loyal relationships and ensure your relationships will continue to look to you for their future financial needs.
If you don’t have the resources to create your own content, don’t worry. You don’t need to create it from scratch. Curate or share links from outside sources as helpful resources to your customers or members.
Additional Ideas:
Here are some additional ideas for how you can combine financial education to your specific products that we have seen financial institutions execute successfully.
Send out an email to all of your relationships offering a free financial consultation. Include a link for setting up an individual appointment and urge them to come to the branch to look over their finances and plan for their financial future. This is a great way to get some face-to-face time with your relationships, advise them on their finances, and lead them in the right direction when it comes to things like IRAs, retirement plans, and basic budgeting.
Host a complimentary retirement planning workshop. Send out an email and offer this workshop to all of your relationships, regardless of whether they currently have a retirement savings product. The type of information you’ll be sharing could be beneficial to help relationships with a retirement savings product get the most out of their account building a lasting, loyal relationship. For those without a retirement savings product, this is a good opportunity for them to get their questions answered and for you to be able to demonstrate the benefits of starting a retirement savings account. If you want to further segment this audience, send it out only to those without a current retirement savings product.
Create an event that targets soon-to-be high school seniors and invites them to an informative event and pizza party. Equipping your young relationships with solid financial advice can help you to keep that relationship once they have graduated and moved on. Encourage them to come ready to ask all of their questions and get answers.
Host a monthly, or quarterly, mortgage lending workshop. Buying a home can be such an overwhelming process for families and individuals. Have a loan officer plan a lunch-and-learn and send out an invitation to all relationships 35 and younger, in good standing, without a current mortgage. Invite them to come and learn the basics of owning a home and the mortgage process. Encourage them to have their questions answered and offer as much advice in a comfortable setting to help them know they can count on you for help during the process.
For additional ideas and strategies for adding financial advice to your product offer communications, sign up for a quick demo of Core iQ to learn more.
