Looking For Better Insights On Members? Get The Big Picture!

In past blogs, I have discussed how web analytics can help gain the support of the decision makers and even laid out some great ways to measure traditional marketing with Google Analytics. But how do you get to the point of being able to show the decision makers the right insights in the first place? Today's blog is focused on some of the most common problems we've come across with banks and credit unions that stand between them and gaining greater insights into member behaviors and trends. More importantly, it sets out to show how you can get the most out of your marketing campaigns via analytics and open minds.

The Problem

Institutions often seem to lack visibility into the "big picture". When I say "big picture", I am referring to the complete analytical scene: The website, your institution's social media assets, marketing campaigns (both online AND offline), affiliate sites, and of course conversions (leads & sales) and Return on Investment. There is little-to-no connection between their assets. Why is this?

This fragmented view seems to be caused by several things from internal politics to fears on data collection and security. What banks and credit unions often fail to realize is that tools like Google Analytics do not collect personally identifiable information! Monitoring beyond the main credit union/bank website is often viewed as a risk, when in reality the real risk is in the lack of visibility into the performance of marketing initiatives.

Are you from a bank or credit union that isn't afraid to get the tools in place to uncover some insightful gems? Want to see how to tie everything together? Read on!

Getting the Pieces in Place

The key to putting this analytical puzzle together is to first establish links between the data points. This means that policies and procedures need to be created for every "fragment" of your institution's initiatives:

1. Cross-Domain Tracking - It's imperative to remove any gaps in the clickstream of your website. Credit Unions and banks often use 3rd party loan application platforms. Luckily, web analytics solutions like Google Analytics feature advanced Cross-Domain tracking functionality to ensure the data is preserved all the way from the time the consumer lands on the site to the point that they submit an application.
2. URL Tagging - URLs being used for Pay Per Click & banner ads or being posted to your social media assets should be tagged for easier identification within web analytics tools.
3. Vanity Numbers & URLs - Vanity URLs and phone numbers set up for call tracking can help bridge the gap between web analytics and traditional marketing.
4. Event Tracking - Event Tracking can be used to identify when visitors to your website complete a desired action (like downloading an informational PDF or paper application).

Conclusion

A seamless view of marketing initiatives not obstructed by the glaring gaps and disconnects in data is every financial marketer's dream. Luckily a holistic view can be achieved through a combination of tagging, scripting, and good ol' ingenuity. Connecting the dots using analytical tools can yield opportunities to optimize both traditional and digital campaigns and ultimately increase new memberships and loan & credit applications.

Financial Services: Increase New Accounts & Acquisitions via Web Analytics

Countless industries have made dramatic increases to their web-based marketing efforts as of late. In 2011 alone, budgets usually allocated to print-based efforts were diverted to online ad spending. The Internet Marketing space has proven to be an efficient means to market to specific clientele via various forms of targeting. However, as with almost every instance of change throughout history, there are still those who lag behind in adapting to the circumstances.

In the financial services industry in particular, we have noticed a sizable population of organizations that either lack in marketing in the digital space or are not monitoring their marketing channels effectively (if at all). Large portions of marketing budgets are still being alotted to traditional efforts like print or billboards, which is fine: But how accurately is return-on-investment for these channels being monitored?

If implemented properly with solid policies and procedures, Web Analytics can shine quite a bit of light on the performance of your web efforts as well as how much return traditional channels are really generating. Here's 3 ways Web Analytics can help:

1. Optimization for Increasing Loan Applications & New Accounts: In many ways, your institution's website is as important as your branch tellers and representatives. It is client-facing, has to serve up the information your customers are looking for, and get them to bite on additional products and services you offer. Web Analytics can help shine light on how well the site does at cross-selling and up-selling your clients and point out where improvements could be made.


2. Identification of Seasonal Trends: Different seasons yield different trends with consumers. This is old news to anyone in marketing. Monitoring what non-branded search phrases people are using to find the website on search engines can uncover gems to base marketing strategies on in the next month.


3. Monitoring Effectiveness of Traditional Channels: Web Analytical platforms' visibility can extend beyond the website. Want to determine how much of a return that shiny new billboard your organization has on the interstate is really generating? Using a combination of vanity numbers, URLs, and unique landing pages, you can measure its effectiveness at creating new banking and investment customers right alongside your website's data.

The list of benefits extends well beyond these alone. Not only can you optimize your institution's website, but you can also measure return-on-investment on other channels of marketing as well. Gone are the days of remaining blind to performance and the inability to compare and contrast channels. Use Web Analytics to increase sales and new accounts.

Want an example of how Web Analytics actually helped a Financial Services Institution? Check out this Case Study. Also be sure to Follow Us on Google+ to receive the latest news & tips on Web Analytics, Internet Marketing, SEO, and more!

Event Tracking to Reduce Bounce Rate Due to Affiliate Sites

One of the greatest challenges a web analyst faces in the field is gaining full visibility into all facets of an organization’s online presence. As analysts, we are curious creatures by nature with an unquenchable thirst for data and knowledge. We want to know where traffic is coming from, how these visitors are using the website, and where they are going. Discovering a missing piece to a data collection puzzle can be a double-edged sword: It means we aren’t getting the complete picture, but it also serves as motivation to always be on the lookout for new sources of analytical data.

In the past year, we were approached by a client in the financial services industry that wanted to track their website’s organic performance on search engines as well as receive monthly analytical reporting and recommendations. A few weeks after initial implementation, however, we noticed a consistently high bounce rate to the website. These bounces were primarily happening from the Home page of the website, which is a major red flag to even the most inexperienced of analysts. After some additional analysis and a look at the navigational summary of visitors, we were able to determine that most of these bounces weren’t leaving the website: They were proceeding to the separate secure Online Banking portion of the website. Due to internal security policies of this particular bank, we were unable to implement any direct tracking of this platform beyond the Home page of the website. A new solution to alleviate the high bounce rate needed to be identified.

That’s where event tracking came in. With Google Analytics, event tracking is a method traditionally used to track actions visitors can perform on a website that aren’t captured by the standard analytics script. This often takes the form of a PDF or document download. Since we could not place any sort of tracking code on the Online Banking platform itself, we decided to place the event tracking code on all links on the bank’s website that pointed towards it. The change in the skewed bounce rate for the website was noticeable almost immediately:

Not only did this help alleviate the high bounce rate, but it also provided more insight into how the bank’s customers used the site and where the entered the Online Banking platform from.

There are never perfect circumstances when it comes to web analytics. More often than not, internal policies, procedures and security will stand in the way of getting the complete picture of an organization’s web presence. Learning these policies from the start and identifying alternative solutions will help in overcoming these obstacles.

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