Help Your Customers, Help Yourself: 20 Marketing Strategies for Banks and Credit Unions to Boost Security

In a digital landscape where new cyber threats emerge daily, customers depend on banks and credit unions to keep their money safe. You’re already protecting it with internal measures like encryption, firewalls, and vetting third-party vendors, but so many don’t realize how much they can do to protect themselves.

For savvy financial marketers, this is an opportunity to add value for clients and boost your brand at the same time. Using your communications touchpoints to educate members or customers empowers them to bolster their own defenses against fraud. At the same time, you’re validating your position as a proactive, caring partner and go-to information resource. It’s a win-win!

At KidGlov, we love helping our financial services clients find new ways to build trust with customers and members. Here are 20 of our favorite marketing strategies that can help you, too.

Remember, people digest information differently, so sharing best practices in verbal, visual, and even video formats gives everyone something to love. Once you’ve created your assets, step two is repurposing this content through all your communications channels – website, email, social, direct mail, and even special events.

 

1. Educational Email Campaigns

Targeted email campaigns provide customers and members with practical tips on recognizing phishing scams, protecting personal information, and safely using banking services. The format makes it easy to combine visual information with long-form copy to give detailed how-to instructions.

2. Infographics

Visually appealing infographics are the perfect tool to complement text and highlight essential security tips, such as creating strong passwords or spotting phishing websites. Share these online and in your physical locations.

3. Interactive Quizzes

Incorporate online quizzes on your websites to engage and educate your audiences on security. Gamification invites participation, helps clarify common misconceptions, and reinforces key security concepts in a memorable way. Best of all, wrong answers educate users without real-life consequences.

4. Video Tutorials

Develop concise, easy-to-understand video tutorials that guide customers and members through processes like setting up two-factor authentication and identifying secure connections. People love to engage with video, and it’s a powerful teaching medium.

5. Customer and Member Stories

Share anonymized stories from customers and members about how they avoided fraud. Real-life examples resonate well and provide practical insights. They also humanize the bonds you form with your customers.

6. Security Checklists

Offer comprehensive checklists that help customers and members secure every aspect of their banking experience, from online logins to mobile app usage. Checklists are easy, durable reference tools that users like to hang onto.

7. Blog Posts

Regularly update your blog with in-depth financial content marketing articles on topics ranging from the importance of regular software updates to tips for the safe use of public Wi-Fi. Blogs are quick to create and informative, and their impact and usefulness accumulate over time.

8. Partnerships with Experts

Collaborate with cybersecurity experts to create authoritative content. This not only enhances your credibility but also provides your customers and members with reliable information.

9. Security Workshops

Host free, local workshops at your branches or offices. These sessions, led by experts, can cover everything from basic fraud prevention to advanced security measures.

10. Mobile App Notifications

Use your mobile banking apps to send timely notifications about best security practices and alert users to prevalent scams. Leveraging all your channels will reach a greater cross-section of your users, and it’s the perfect way to cross-promote everything else you’re doing.

11. Social Media Campaigns

Using your social channels to post security tips and updates kills two birds with one stone: You’ll boost your financial digital marketing skills and keep security at the forefront of your customers’ and members’ minds. Plus, this will promote you to prospective customers.

12. Customer and Member Testimonials

Feature testimonials that highlight the effectiveness of your security practices, showing new customers and members the proactive steps you’re taking. Not only does this bring personality and emotion to your message, but it also reassures clients that you’re taking steps beyond what they can see.

13. Webinars

Host webinars with cybersecurity experts who can discuss current threats and protective strategies, offering an interactive learning experience. Again, it’s all about leveraging your relationships, expertise, and communication assets in as many ways as possible.

14. Fraud Alert Systems

Promote your fraud alert systems in all marketing materials, encouraging users to sign up for real-time notifications about suspicious activity. The more people you get to participate, the safer everyone is.

15. Reward Programs

Encourage learning by offering rewards for those who engage with your educational content or complete security checkups.

16. Annual Security Summaries

Provide an annual report on the security landscape, detailing how your institution has helped protect its customers and members and the latest in security technology.

17. Direct Mail

Send out physical brochures or flyers with security information, ensuring that those who prefer traditional banking methods are also well-informed. Remember, your least digital-savvy customers and members are also often among the most vulnerable to fraud.

18. Interactive Displays

Install interactive displays in your branches or offices that provide engaging educational content about various aspects of banking security. This is a wonderful opportunity to reinforce all your new messaging and add value and interest to all your face-to-face interactions.

19. Online Security Hub

Create a dedicated section on your website for security resources, ensuring that customers and members always have a place to find current information and advice.

20. Live Chat Features

Incorporate a live chat feature on your website for customers and members to directly ask security-related questions, providing them with immediate support.

The greatest strength of all these financial marketing strategies lies in their synergy. Each new tactic can reinforce and be reinforced by all the others. Look for new information worth sharing and challenge yourself to keep inventing new ways to share it.

At KidGlov, we specialize in helping financial institutions communicate effectively with their clients. Your authentic message helps translate your commitment to security into greater trust and loyalty with the people you serve.

Interested in boosting your next customer and member education campaign? Connect with us today to learn about how we can elevate your marketing efforts and safeguard your clients against fraud.

KidGlov is a boutique, full-service, advertising, branding and content marketing agency and certified B Corp, with offices in Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska, specializing in nonprofit marketing, healthcare marketing, financial services marketing, social impact marketing, and purpose-driven businesses.