What the Pandemic Taught Us About Successful Bank Websites

If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that being able to stay connected to your customers in a digital world is more important than ever. When in-person interactions were not possible, banks that embraced and enhanced their digital marketing and service offerings earned the admiration and respect of their customers. But what strategies did the most successful banks use during the pandemic?

Let Customers Complete Their Business Online

If a customer can’t make it into your office, how easily can they interact with your bank? Many community banks pride themselves on their customer services and knowing how to meet each customer’s unique needs. But when in-person service isn’t available, your website becomes a critical tool to allow your customers to stay connected to their finances. The most successful banks embraced digital tools that allowed their customers to take their banking into their own hands, including:

• Seamless online banking experience with your core provider

• Online account opening

• Online loan applications

• Digital document signing

Embrace Digital Marketing Strategies

If your website is going to be a tool for your customers, you need to make sure your customers can be easily found. Your competitors offer the same products and services you do, so how do you attract new customers to your bank rather than seeing them choose a competitor? Your online marketing should center around proven content and technical strategies that search engines reward. These elements include:

• Responsive financial institution websites provide a strong mobile user experience

• A website that loads fast and allows users to interact with content quickly

• Engaging content with strong calls to action that gives users an avenue to better connect with your bank

These strategies will improve your chances of appearing highly in organic searches for the products and services at your bank but will also enhance any paid search campaigns you may be running. These elements improve the quality of your landing page to give your ads a better chance of appearing over competitors’ ads.

Highlight Key Products and Services in the Main Navigation

Your site’s navigation should be intuitive and easy to follow. It should also provide a direct path to the products and services you want your customers to view most. For example, many banks prioritize their lending products but choose to bury those products on their sites. Instead, you could choose to make “Lending” a section of your main navigation and list all your loan products as subpages. This lends more visibility to a critical service offering. When combined with strong content, you could see better conversion rates by simply restructuring your existing page structure.

VGM Forbin works with community banks across the country to improve their financial institution websites and digital marketing practices. If you’d like to speak to our team, please contact us today!