As we ring in the new year and all its possibilities, we can’t help but look back on all that has come before. Reflecting on 2023, it was one that had its share of bumps for the banking industry as a whole, with the failure of three larger financial institutions, while also providing some solid wins for those of us in the community banking world. The timing was perfect for the community banking industry to step into the spotlight and promote itself, shining a bright light on all the reasons that set community bankers apart from the big banks.
The association finished the year strong doing just that in promoting its community banking members in Montana. The BankLocallyMontana.org video marketing campaign had incredible results in the fourth quarter that not only beat my expectations but performed better than any campaign our contracted marketing firm had ever run in Montana. This was largely due to the quality of the video we were able to borrow from ICBA’s national BankLocally campaign, one that our organization would not have been able to produce without their assistance and belief in our ability to run a state-level campaign. I don’t want to throw too many numbers at you, but I do want to share some of the more impressive numbers that stood out to me from this campaign.
During the three-month run, our promotional video appeared on consumers’ devices across the state roughly 770,000 times. Of those, it played to completion 483,000 times. Unfortunately, there are no metrics available to indicate what percentage of these viewers actually paid attention to the video. However, drawing on my personal experience with these types of ads, while I may not actually watch most of them, the audio still plays in my background for me to listen to. If this holds true for most consumers, that equates to a significant amount of people who at least heard the message, “Don’t make a big bank make you feel small.” I’m confident enough in the quality of the video content that I believe even those who ignored the visual aspect of it in the beginning may have ended up watching it by the end.
As excited as I was about the broader success of this promotional campaign, I was even more excited to see the effect it had on MIB’s website traffic. The BankLocallyMontana.org website, which redirects visitors to MIB’s “Find a Community Bank” webpage, lists numerous reasons to support Montana’s independently owned community banks and includes a listing of MIB’s member banks. It also has a search function that allows users to search for member banks in their areas with links to their individual websites. Prior to the launch of the marketing campaign, this specific page saw an average of only one user per day. During the campaign, this average took a massive leap to 37 unique users per day. Over the course of the three-month campaign, roughly 3,400 new unique users visited MIB’s “Find a Community Bank” page. Not only was this a successful promotion of Montana’s community banking industry, but it was an incredible benefit for those MIB member banks listed on the “Find a Community Bank” page as well.
While the primary goal of the campaign was to educate and promote community banking to the general consumer, our secondary goal was to drive traffic to MIB’s website and ultimately to our members’ individual websites. With the results just mentioned, I can safely say that we accomplished these goals. I’m encouraged as our local banking community enters this new year with such positive momentum. Here’s to 2024.
