5 Categories of Promotions — Listed by Chances of Success

by. Joe Swatek

You want every promotion you put in front of the public to attract more customers and open more accounts at your financial institution. But some promotions, by their general makeup, are more likely to be successful than others.

Here’s my rundown of the likelihood these five types of promotions will succeed.

First, let’s agree these types of promotions cover any media — direct mail, print ads, email marketing, billboards, and so on. Also, let’s define success. For a bank or credit union, it means your promotion added to your customer or member roll, opened additional accounts, and in some way generated revenue.

Now let’s begin with the method least likely to succeed.

No. 5 — Branding Ads. By definition, a branding ad or promotion does not feature a product and makes no offer. The basic message is, “We’re a nice financial institution. That’s why you should bank with us.”

It’s not unusual to find a branding message that is really no message. For instance, a billboard might read…

“The bank others want to imitate!”

While I made up that line, I’ve seen plenty of branding messages equally as vague and meaningless to consumers. It doesn’t give a prospect a reason to become a customer. Remember, customers are interested in What’s In It For Me? — WIIFM?

No. 4 — Halo Ads. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you might say, “Hey, he always says a corporate halo promotion is a good idea.” That’s true, unless that’s all your promotion includes. People can get a warm, fuzzy feeling from reading a corporate halo story. It gives them a good impression of your bank or credit union. But you need to combine the story with something more substantial to give the prospect a reason to act.

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