My 4 biggest takeaways from Financial Brand Forum 2022

In November, I was lucky enough to attend Financial Brand Forum 2022 in Las Vegas. I’m always impressed by the quality of content at The Forum, and this year was no exception.  

The Financial Brand staff has shared fantastic recaps of Day 1 and Day 2 of the event; as you can see from their coverage, the agenda was packed with valuable ideas and discussion. Several weeks (and one turkey coma) later, I’m still thinking about what I learned, so in the spirit of sharing ideas, here are my top takeaways from The Forum 2022:

1. Show me the money (deposits)

After years of few worries about raising deposits, the need to raise low cost deposits is now top of mind. Pandemic-era deposit levels are drawing down, particularly for two segments of the banking population—consumers and large corporates. On the consumer side, deposits are starting to flow out because of inflation and pent-up shopping demand. And on the commercial side, treasurers are starting to make different decisions in placing excess cash.

This need for deposits has trickled down from line of business heads to bank marketers, who are fielding questions like, “What would we do if we needed to raise $100 million of deposits in Q1 or Q2?” and, “What levers do we have to avoid a rate panic, so we're not overpaying for those deposits?”

During deposits’ time on the back burner, the marketing landscape itself evolved, allowing marketers to be more precision-targeted in raising low-cost core deposits—if they have access to the right data, plus the analytics capabilities and channel-level knowledge to apply it.  

Great data exists today to understand consumers (both in terms of affluence, and how households hold their money across financial products), so marketers can ensure their deposits-oriented messages are targeted to those who are most interested and capable of funding accounts at attractive levels.

Plus, enhancements in channel addressability means that interested consumers can be reached across channels with direct response marketing wherever they may be on their customer journey.

2. What to do about mortgage

The mortgage market is tough across the board. We’re experiencing one of the most challenging times in mortgage in a generation or more, but for the determined, there is still an opportunity to gain share. New marketing techniques make this possible.

A year ago, refi customers practically fell out of the sky. Or at least it feels that way, compared to today: according to recent research, of all the homeowners in the United States, just 133,000 could benefit from refinancing their mortgage at this time. That's a shockingly small market.

For most lenders, that means seeking their mortgage fortunes elsewhere and making a pivot from refi to purchase. And from a data perspective, there’s some good news on that front.

For years, the marketing gold standard has been using intent-based signals to target customers who have already applied for a mortgage with another lender. Tri-bureau credit triggers are still the most powerful way to find those customers already engaged with another financial institution. That said, many marketers are now leveraging pre-mover triggers data to move further upstream to the pre-intent stage of buying.

Advances in marketing technology have made it possible to quickly aggregate pre-mover data from multiple sources, on a massive scale, and the most sophisticated marketers are using this data to fill their purchase mortgage pipelines. (And yes, Deluxe does this. I am not above self-serving!)

Standing up these programs is relatively straightforward. Pre-movers programs don’t rely on regulated credit data, so you don't have to make a firm offer of credit. And instead of trying to fight for the mortgage after someone has already applied elsewhere, you can try to capture the pre-qualification or pre-approval before other lenders even enter the picture.

3. Attribution: Don’t call it a comeback

Just like a heavily syndicated 90s sitcom that’s been rebooted on a streaming service, attribution is having a comeback without ever really going away in the first place. Why is it top of mind again? I see two forces working in tandem to drive attribution even further into the spotlight.

The first is the rise of the “data scientist CMO.” Increasingly, bank CMOs are coming from a place of deep knowledge of data science and a greater desire to understand exactly what they’re getting for their marketing spend at an account, balance and profit level.  

The second is a general shift towards prioritizing profitable growth over growth at any cost. The entire world is looking anxiously at the coming year. As banks become more cautious with spend, marketing dollars are becoming scarcer, and marketing practitioners will want to know exactly what they’re getting in return for every dollar spent.

As a result, we’re seeing a greater focus on spending dollars in performance marketing channels that 1) are highly measurable, and 2) show a causal, statistical link between dollars spent and benefit derived.

4. Data. And personalization. And more data.

Today’s consumers expect you to know them—and to approach them with relevance.

Take Instagram, for example. You have a very personalized, curated experience on that platform. Personally, I see only pictures of French Bulldogs because Instagram knows that’s what I want to see. When you open Instagram, the ads and recommended posts you probably see feature your version of French Bulldogs. The point is, people expect personalization on social media, and they expect it in their marketing too.

Nearly every presentation at Financial Brand Forum was anchored around delivering a personalized customer experience driven by data. At Deluxe, we know personalization matters. We’ve found that targeting marketing around a consumer’s recent milestone life event can improve conversion by 2.5x or more.

But assembling the data necessary to market with relevance can be challenging. Turning that data into actual customer experiences takes resources too.

But you don’t have to go it alone. There are highly sophisticated partners (ahem!)—with the data, technology, processes and expertise it takes—who can help you along that journey.

In conclusion: The sky’s the limit

I realize that might sound overly optimistic given some of the predictions for 2023, but it’s true. So much opportunity lies ahead for marketers that use new data, sophisticated technology and better attribution to power their programs.

Of course, every opportunity comes with challenges. Collecting and aggregating all that data, and making it usable, is hard work—so again, don't be afraid to pick the right partners as you plan your journey.