Of the millions of Americans with smartphones, 55 percent reported using them for mobile banking last year. This illustrates how mobile banking has transformed the way consumers interact with their financial institutions (FIs).
As social networking, online banking and mobile apps increasingly become consumers’ preferred options for interacting with their FIs, community FIs should leverage mobile banking technology to attract and retain consumers.
A recent TheFinancialBrand.com article highlights three steps FIs can take to build stronger consumer relationships through mobile banking.
- Build the Brand — FIs can use mobile banking apps as strategic extensions of their brands. These apps present opportunities to deliver customized images, consumer-centric messaging and personalized experiences that reflect an FI’s mission and core values. As they compete for consumer attention in a cluttered mobile space, FIs should convey brand continuity across all marketing channels.
- Intent — It’s important FIs reach consumers with targeted messaging. FIs should consider performing advanced market segmentation, which utilizes consumer data and market research to create consumer personas — representative profiles comprised of consumers’ lifestyles, motivations, needs, and more. These personas identify specific audiences based on user activity before serving up appropriate content throughout consumers’ mobile app journeys.
- Purchase — FIs should consider ways to make the “purchase” or finalizing stage of the mobile banking process as simple as possible for consumers. It’s not enough to just upload an existing (printed) application. Mobile devices’ small screens and even smaller keyboards warrant their own mobile-user-friendly applications. This also involves optimizing images for mobile, designing responsive sites, making sure video can be viewed on iOS and more.
