Hit Record Podcast - FI GROW Solutions

Online reviews are important when it comes to people researching your institution and are considering applying for a new account or loan. So what are the benefits of Facebook and Google reviews? The FI Grow team discuss current best practices and how to leverage your bank or credit union's online reviews to enable new business.

When building a client's new website, they often suggest to group multiple products on one website page. We don't recommend putting multiple product lines on your pages because it ruins the SEO value. So when a client says, "I want to put RVs, ATVs, boat loans, and UTVs all on one page" -- we start the conversation by trying to explain the SEO value behind not only the single p...

Image alt tags are the image text phrases that go with every image on your website, which describes the content of said image to Google (Google bots) when they crawl your website. Done correctly, image alt tags can make a huge difference for your bank or credit union. Tune in as we cover best practices for: Creating specific image alt text Alt tags that keep you ADA compliant  Drive the most impac...

 On-boarding programs is not a one-size fits all approach. Your financial institution should have different onboarding programs for the various types of customers including:  New Customers Current Customers Direct Customers Indirect Customers The FI GROW team discusses best onboarding practices to get a larger share of customers' wallets.

One of the biggest challenges with website projects is keeping them moving on time. Typically, we recommend a six-month timeline, which involves creating the content and getting it approved, designed, developed, and launched. To begin, you'll need an understanding of who needs to be involved at which phases of the project and ensure you have the right people from the start. Tune in for the to...

We've shifted the tracking for our Google Ads clients towards a more effective way of tracking and optimizing for concrete conversions - whether it be a customer applying for a new account or a loan product online. The FI GROW team discusses what we're seeing working with third party applications in conjunction with client Google Ad accounts and how we can make that all much more effecti...

Are you considering having your bank or credit union marketing team or sales team start to work remotely or  already working remotely? If so, you should first assess tools to make sure they have not only what they need but that they know how to use those tools. Tune in to for best practices on optimizing workflows for your bank or credit union remote teams.

 A financial institution affiliated with the local college is running a giveaway for football tickets through a social media contest. But a scammer has targeted their social media contest and attempts to hijack this contest by commenting with a copycat page, directing people to a fake website asking for their personal information. The FI GROW team discusses how they took action to prevent further...

Financial institution marketers can sometimes struggle getting internal buy-in for certain strategies, which can make them feel undermined. Fostering growth for you bank and credit union marketers can look like: Making sure they feel appreciated necessarily by their peers, and other department heads. Acknowledgement by the executive team. Maintaining an open line of communication. The FI GROW team...

As interest rates rise, the demand for mortgage products is going down. Naturally that's going to drive up the costs of conversions around mortgage products when it comes to pay-per-click ads. The FI GROW team discusses how to navigate: Less people searching for mortgages Rise of cost for these PPC campaigns Filtering past low quality leads Given these increased rates and costs of acquisition...

We focus on how to use pay per click ads to drive reach and engagement in new markets or regions for financial institutions. Important steps you'll want to follow:  Create a whole new campaign, only targeting the new area to collect accurate market data. The initial goal of your campaign should be to build brand awareness for your bank or credit union, and not to push your products. Consider...

What is the most consistent conversions that marketers and executives at a bank or credit union can hope for when they're running digital ads online for their products and services? Products with the less convoluted or complicated buying journeys tend to do better. The buying journey for financial products and services is very long compared with other products such as consumer goods.  Do not...

When it comes to managing the development of a new website for your financial institution, we recommend a collaborative effort between: Your Financial Institution Third Party Marketing Agency Web Design & Development Company Although your financial institution could directly partner with a web development company, we've learned how important it is to have the right content (marketing) exp...

Sales is very necessary for the growth of your financial institution, but how do we achieve that in a way that is authentic, really meaningful, and led by the buyer? • It starts with employee education on why sales enables your financial institution to give back to your customers and community. • Be authentic and meet customers where they are in their buyers journey. • Understand that the buyer&ap...

We discuss how marketing working in tandem with a robust CRM and marketing automation tool can help business development professionals do a better job of reaching their prospects and growing relationships on behalf of their bank or credit union.

It's important to humanize your brand and really lean into one of your greatest assets as a smaller financial institution, which is your staff. This is how you differentiate yourself from other bigger institutions competing for the same potential customers and/or your existing customers. While they might be able to beat you on rates, they can't beat you on personality, on service, and on...

Your bank or credit union's website needs to have a cutting edge design in order to accomplish not only sales and conversions, but to have a successful digital branch.  Your digital branch is your largest branch. More people are going to see that every day than they are walking into your physical brick and mortar. We discuss the key priorities your website must focus on!

When designing a marketing campaign that is going to deliver for a bank or credit union you want to implement consistency, content, and testing.  You want to be consistent in terms of what you're saying, how you're saying it and where you're saying it.  Create content that goes along with your marketing campaign to help people through their buying process and  buying journey.  Test...

Executives at all levels at community banks and credit unions want to reach younger audiences, but how do you get in front of younger audiences online? The FI GROW team discusses how community financial institutions can reach younger audiences via Facebook and Instagram Ads.

The FI GROW team discusses best practices to drive more online reviews for banks and credit unions. It's key for your financial institution to gain more positive online reviews at the right time, promote them to future potential buyers as a reflection happy experiences with your institution, and much more.

The FI GROW team discusses how to really use keywords and the information around them, especially keyword difficulty, to inform what kind of content you're creating for your bank or credit union. More so, how you position that content on your website, or your blog, and how you're sharing it. Learn the strategy that goes behind using keywords and keyword difficulty when you are designing...

Meredith Olmstead and Ida Burr discuss how to respond and deal with negative comments and feedback, especially on social media for banks and credit unions. FI GROW handles a lot of those situations with its clients. When dealing with negative reviews or feedback online, the first thing you want to do is not be afraid of it. Tune in for the best practices for responding to negative comments!

When it comes to creating content around Mortgage products and services, there a few opportunities for your credit union or bank to capitalize on. Content such as a home buying checklist, a quick ebook, or a how to blog on finding a real estate agent. The FI GROW team discusses the best types of content your financial institution can leverage depending on where the customer is in their buying jour...

Tune in as the FI GROW team discuss how to effectively use text messaging for promotional and sales purposes.

When it comes to maximizing sales at your financial institution,  using videos in your sales follow-up increases response rates and shortens the length of a typical sales cycle. Tune in as the FI GROW team discuss best practices and tips for implementing video into your sales cycle.