Community banks spend considerable time and money to make customers and prospects feel welcome in their branches. But do their websites impart the same welcoming feeling? If not, it might be time for an overhaul.
“You really have to treat your website with as much care and attention as you would treat a physical location,” says Stacy Kendall, vice president of marketing and community impact at $1.6 billion‑asset Plumas Bank in Quincy, Calif.
Using language that’s in line with your brand, clear navigation and other website best practices is vital to drawing in customers and prospects. Given that fewer people regularly visit physical branches these days, making a good digital impression is critical.
“Websites are your front door because of the fact that more folks are going to engage with you online than will step into your branch,” Kendall says.
So, it’s time to put your best interface forward. Here are five tips for spicing up your community bank’s website.
1. Seek feedback
Before $430 million-asset Woodsboro Bank in Woodsboro, Md., did its most recent website redesign, staff members perused other websites to get ideas on what worked and what didn’t, says Steve Heine, president and CEO. The community bank also polled a group of clients about what they wanted the site to include and what would make it more user-friendly, says marketing director Samantha Cutrona. Woodsboro Bank then used this feedback as a template to guide its redesign plan.
2. Focus on user experience
Strive to make things easy for customers in terms of navigating your site and understanding the content. “If your website experience is time-consuming, clunky and frustrating, that’s the impression of the bank you’re leaving with consumers,” Kendall says.
Drop-down menus can be a helpful way to organize content so customers can more easily find what they’re looking for. Plumas Bank has one menu for business customers and prospects to find information on equipment financing, SBA loans and commercial real estate loans, among other offerings. There’s another drop-down menu where customers can find information on personal banking topics.
Better Banks, a $500 million-asset employee-owned community bank in Peoria, Ill., has drop-down menus for business and agriculture, investment and personal banking. Under each menu, there are subcategories with links to various topics including loans, credit cards, retirement planning and college planning.
Even the search tool on a community bank’s website should be user-friendly, Kendall says. To help customers reach their destination faster, Plumas Bank designed its search function to include certain prepopulated terms. Someone who types in the word “loan” can click on a variety of links that are relevant to that search. If those links are not what a user is looking for, they can review the full website search results.
“It’s old-school thinking that a bank’s website is like a digital brochure. It’s not. It’s got to constantly evolve.”—Elizabeth Allen, Better Banks
3. Don’t be generic
Community banks should identify their focus—whether that’s a specific geography, niche or customer base—and write content that speaks to those communities, says Ben Pankonin, cofounder and CEO of Social Assurance, a provider of compliant community impact and content management solutions for financial services companies. Case studies are a great way to prove a bank’s value to its customers. If a community bank focuses on dentists, for example, it could highlight stories of dental customers the bank serves.
Showing how real customers use your products and services is much more effective than just listing them on the website, Pankonin adds. Another example is a community bank that wants to highlight its treasury management services. It could create specific stories—in written or video format—that show how it simplified the collections process or credit card processing for a particular small business. This makes it real to customers and doesn’t assume they know what treasury management is, Pankonin says.
Woodsboro Bank wanted to make sure its site would be relevant as a resource for clients and its community, so it added content about topics such as starting a new business and growing one, Cutrona says.
4. Pay attention to language
Emma Darnell, senior web developer for ICBA, stresses the importance of tailoring a website’s language to a bank’s audience. “Your job is to make it as easy as possible for customers to find the products they need and connect with the bank,” she says.
Elizabeth Allen, marketing director of Better Banks, strives to write text for the website so someone in high school can understand it, while also providing content that isn’t too high-level and doesn’t talk down to customers and prospects.
Better Banks’ goal is to help customers research and make informed decisions—whether that’s taking out a home loan, a home equity loan, a car loan, opening a credit card or using one of the bank’s checking products. Allen advises other bank marketers not to assume everyone is familiar with terms like ACH or even CDs. Clear explanations and links to more information ensure everyone, no matter their familiarity with financial products, finds what they need.
5. Change content regularly
Kendall refreshes Plumas Bank’s website content in some fashion about once a week. The community bank also frequently updates its blog to share breaking news or information. It also makes sure to update phone numbers, locations and bank performance awards as needed, and rotates the videos it displays on its home page.
Allen notes many banks create websites and don’t update them, which is a missed opportunity. “It’s old-school thinking that a bank’s website is like a digital brochure,” she says. “It’s not. It’s got to constantly evolve.”
