The digital advertising landscape is undergoing a significant transformation with the impending deprecation of third-party cookies. This shift, driven by growing privacy concerns and regulatory changes, is forcing businesses to rethink their marketing strategies and adopt new approaches to reach and engage customers.

For banks, a sector where trust and privacy are paramount, this transition presents both challenges and opportunities. On the one hand, the loss of third-party cookies will make it more difficult to track customer behavior across the web and deliver targeted advertising campaigns. On the other hand, it provides an opportunity to build stronger customer relationships, enhance data privacy, and differentiate from competitors.

To navigate this evolving landscape effectively, banks need to adopt a proactive and strategic approach to cookie-less marketing. Here are some key considerations and recommendations for banks:

Prioritize First-Party Data

First-party data, collected with explicit customer consent, is the cornerstone of cookie-less marketing. Banks have a wealth of first-party data, including transaction history, demographic information, and customer preferences. By leveraging this data, banks can gain deeper insights into customer needs and behaviors, enabling them to deliver personalized experiences and drive targeted marketing campaigns.

Invest in Customer Identity and Consent Management

A robust customer identity and consent management (CIAM) platform is essential to collect, manage, and store customer data securely and compliantly. This platform should also provide a transparent consent management process, ensuring customers have control over their data sharing preferences.

Explore Contextual and Predictive Targeting

Contextual targeting utilizes information about the current website or app context to deliver relevant ads. This approach is less reliant on individual user tracking and can be effective in reaching the right audience with the right message. Predictive analytics can also be used to identify potential customers based on their past behavior and online activity.

Collaborate with Trusted Partners

Data clean rooms provide a secure environment for banks to share and analyze data with trusted partners without compromising customer privacy. Collaborations with these partners can enhance marketing efforts by expanding reach and providing access to valuable insights.

Embrace Privacy-Focused Measurement and Attribution

Measuring marketing campaign performance and attributing conversions will require new methods in the cookie-less era. Privacy-centric measurement tools and attribution models will be essential to evaluate the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and optimize resource allocation.

Foster Transparency and Build Trust

Transparency and trust are critical in the cookie-less era. Banks should clearly communicate their data collection practices and provide customers with easy-to-understand options for managing their data preferences. Building strong customer relationships based on trust will be essential for long-term success.

Adopt a Data-Driven Approach

Data is the fuel of cookie-less marketing. Banks need to invest in data analytics tools and expertise to extract insights from their first-party data and use them to inform their marketing strategies.

Stay Informed and Adapt to Evolving Trends

The cookie-less marketing landscape is constantly evolving. Banks should stay up-to-date on emerging trends and adapt their strategies accordingly.

Conclusion

The transition to a cookie-less marketing environment presents both challenges and opportunities for banks. By prioritizing first-party data, investing in customer identity and consent management, exploring contextual and predictive targeting, collaborating with trusted partners, embracing privacy-focused measurement and attribution, fostering transparency and trust, adopting a data-driven approach, and staying informed and adapting to evolving trends, banks can navigate this shift effectively and emerge stronger in the long run.

Over the past few weeks, I have been speaking with a few Bank CEOs, and I want to share with you some of the reasons why Most Community Banks don’t invest in proper marketing strategy.

I will focus on one area this week and cover the others over the next few weeks. Today, we start with Lack of Understanding.

Remember this customer journey map I introduced to you in the last few weeks? If you don’t have a game plan like this, it won’t be easy to Track, Evaluate, and or Optimize your marketing efforts.

If we, as Chief Marketing Officers, lay out the plan like this, the CEOs will understand the strategy we are putting in place. Most times, the marketing strategy is driven by the CEO, but in all actuality, it needs to be caused by the CMO to align with the goals of the Community Bank.

Here’s what happens: you are given a goal to increase the “Loan” portfolio or find a way to increase “Deposit growth,” and if you haven’t implemented a marketing strategy with a journey document like the above, you will resort to what most marketers do;

1. Buy a sign at the local high school
2. Offer Pens and trinkets to customers
3. Give away tool kits when customers open accounts
4. Post on Social media without tracking the results or knowing why you are posting.
5. Run Ads by boosting your latest post.
6. Create a Podcast because it’s cool.
7. Buy a Billboard or Magazine slot alone

Don’t get me wrong, some of these things are not awful; you need to know when and how to move customers from Awareness to Raving fans of your Bank.

So, what do you think happens next?

The CEO and Board question why the needle was not moved in your goal areas. Then, marketing budgets are cut, and marketing becomes less important than something that drives the needle.

Resistance to Change:

I’ve also realized that most Bankers have a resistance to change. It’s not because they don’t believe in what needs to happen; they have never been exposed to an actual Marketing strategy, and it’s okay! However, you can’t stay in that place; you must implement a plan.

So please look below at this Growth Triad and see the critical pieces of the puzzle.

1. Documented Journey
2. Actionable Metrics
3. Tools & Tactics

Most Bank Marketers operate on one spoke: the Tools and Tactics, with Actionable metrics sprinkled in like Google Analytics. If you need to learn to have all 3 of these in play, you should do so immediately.

You are stuck in the mud if you have a Documented Journey and actionable Metrics. You need the tools & tactics to move forward.

You will be a One Hit Wonder if you have Actionable Metrics & Tools, and tactics. It may work one time, but then you need to know what you did for it to work.

See where I’m going? You need all three working together for Growth!

Understanding your Customer Data:

Another critical factor is truly understanding your customer data. You know they have relationships with other Banks, right? Would you want to know who they are? How about if they are planning for a significant purchase and need a Line of Credit? Using your customer data to understand how to market to your customers is critical, and you should be doing that.

Over the next few weeks, we will also share a new partnership that can help open the floodgates for your Bank. We can’t wait to share everything with you.

P.S. – If you are not using a documented approach to your marketing, you are throwing tactics on the wall and expecting them to stick. Don’t allow your marketing teams to make you miss the mark.

Book a Free Discovery Session with us!