Marketing Institute

7:30 a.m. – 8:00 a.m.

Registration

8:00 a.m. – 8:30 a.m.

Welcome & Introduction

8:30 a.m. – 9:15 a.m.

Business of Banking

Understanding the community bank business model and how financial institutions make money is an essential part of a bank marketing professional’s knowledgebase. This class examines how to assess a community bank’s financial performance using standard performance ratios available from call report information. Participants will have the opportunity to review the balance sheet, income statement, and condition ratios applicable to their bank compared to common industry performance standards.

9:15 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.

Break

9:30 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.

Business of Banking - Continued

10:45 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

Break

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Daily Marketing Management

To provide effective marketing resources to their organizations, bank marketers need to develop functional working relationships with senior management, bank departments, and vendors supporting marketing activities. Using a combination of industry information and direct experiences, participants will evaluate common marketing management activities, department staffing, and vendor management practices.

12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Lunch

1:00 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.

Event, Donations, and Sponsorship Management

Every community bank invests time, talent, and money in their local communities. Developing solid best practices to fully leverage community events, donations, and sponsorships provides marketers with an additional layer of resources in their brand management. Properly positioning events and sponsorships can help optimize brand awareness. The class will examine how to set expectations for these activities. Time will be allocated to idea sharing and hearing success stories from class participants.

2:15 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Break

2:30 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.

Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence has moved from buzzword to boardroom in record time, leaving many community bank marketers making decisions about a technology that seems to change by the week. This foundational session cuts through the noise, focusing on durable fundamentals rather than any single tool that will inevitably change.

Participants will establish a common language around AI, separate realistic expectations from the hype, and explore a practical framework for assessing risk, reviewing outputs, selecting the right tools, and training their teams. Throughout, the session reinforces a principle every community banker can appreciate when used well, AI should make your team more human, not less, by freeing people to focus on the relationships that set community banks apart.

3:45 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Break

4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Leveraging AI in Marketing Management

With the fundamentals in place, the real question becomes practical: how do you actually put AI to work in a community bank without losing what makes you different? This session moves from understanding to application, exploring how marketers can use AI as a capable partner rather than a replacement.

Participants will look at real-world ways AI can support everyday marketing work, from content creation and personalization to research and analysis, and discuss how to lead adoption thoughtfully across the organization. The goal is a confident, hands-on perspective on where to start and how to scale, all grounded in the same belief that carries through both sessions: technology should amplify your people and strengthen the relationships at the heart of community banking.

5:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.

Optional - Hot Topic Discussion & Sharing

Review of concepts learned and opportunity to ask questions on marketing hot topics.

8:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.

Brand Management

A bank’s brand is far more than a logo or tagline. It represents the perception customers, employees, and communities form through every interaction they have with your institution. In an industry where products and services are often similar, a well-defined and consistently managed brand helps shape the reputation and trust that ultimately influence how people choose and remember your bank.

Every touchpoint from marketing and digital channels to service experiences and internal communications either strengthens that perception or slowly erodes it. This session explores the principles and practices of effective brand management within the community banking environment.

10:15 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.

Break

10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Promotion and Campaign Management

Effective marketing campaigns do not begin with tactics. They begin with clear objectives, a strong understanding of the target audience, and a defined value proposition that aligns with the bank’s broader strategic goals. For community banks operating in competitive markets, well-planned promotions and campaigns play an important role in driving deposit growth, loan production, and long-term customer relationships. This session explores the practical framework for planning and executing effective marketing promotions and campaigns within the community banking environment.

12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Lunch

1:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.

Promotion and Campaign Management - Continued

1:30 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.

Creating Effective Communications and Advertising

Strong marketing campaigns depend on clear, relevant communication that resonates with the right audience at the right time. For community banks, effective communications and advertising must balance creativity, clarity, and compliance while delivering messages that capture attention and motivate customers to take action.

This session examines the principles of developing effective marketing communications across the channels most commonly used by community banks. Participants will explore how messaging, creative design, and channel selection work together to support broader marketing strategies and campaign objectives.

3:45 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Break

4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Customer, Employee, and Market Research

Conducting research and discovery should be included in every bank’s annual marketing planning process. Understanding the perceptions, expectations, and preferences of customers, employees, and communities will help refine your marketing plan focus and strategies. This class will examine the most common research methodologies for capturing customer and employee insights, as well as ways to evaluate market conditions and trends.

5:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.

Optional - Hot Topic Discussion & Sharing

Review of concepts learned and opportunity to ask questions on marketing hot topics.

8:00 a.m. – 9:15 a.m.

Customer Information and Data Management

The class reviews ways to collect and examine information that will support development of your marketing plan, as well as track and assess the performance of your marketing efforts. Examples and best practices will be shared related to leveraging transaction data, utilizing customer and relationship data, preparing demographic profiling of communities and trade areas, and simple assessments to examine local economic data.

9:15 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.

Break

9:30 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.

Website and Delivery Channel Resource Management

For many customers, a bank’s website serves as the most frequently visited branch. It is often the first place prospective customers research products, evaluate services, and begin their relationship with the bank. Managing a website effectively requires more than simply maintaining pages. It requires ongoing attention to user experience, content quality, search visibility, and the functionality that supports meaningful digital engagement. This session explores the practices that help community banks manage their websites as strategic marketing and customer experience resources.

10:45 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

Break

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Website and Delivery Channel Resource Management – Continued

12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Lunch

1:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.

Website and Delivery Channel Resource Management – Continued

1:30 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.

Social Media for Community Banks

This session examines the digital marketing and social media tools community banks rely on most, with a practical focus on helping small marketing departments do more with limited time and resources. Because so many banks are still working to get full value from their core social channels, the class digs into current best practices for the platforms that matter most, including LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, etc., and translates the latest proven strategies into "bankified" versions that fit a regulated, relationship-driven institution.

2:15 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Break

2:30 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.

Strategic Marketing Planning, Budgeting, and Return on Investment

This class will walk through the design and development of a strategic marketing plan, including budgeting and calculating the return on investment from promotions and events. The class content provides direction for developing an in-depth situation analysis and ways to match performance objectives and goals with action plans, promotions, and related marketing activities. The class also focuses on building an effective budget based on your marketing plan initiatives and how to calculate a return on investment using examples from the community banking industry.

3:45 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Break

4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Strategic Marketing Planning, Budgeting, and Return on Investment - Continued

5:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.

Hot Topic Discussion & Sharing (optional)

Review of concepts learned and opportunity to ask questions on marketing hot topics.

8:00 a.m. – 9:45 a.m.

Team Case Study & Presentation Preparation

The case study focuses on a community bank that is introducing a new checking account. Class participants will work in teams to assess the bank’s market position, branding, trade area demographics, customer relationship information and other background information to develop a campaign to introduce the new checking account. The case study teams will then present their proposed campaign to the marketing institute faculty who will serve as the bank’s senior management team.

9:45 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.

Break

10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

Final Team Presentations

11:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Wrap-up

10:00 AM – 11:45 AM

Certification Exam 

Held via ICBA online portal for those enrolled in Certified Community Bank Marketing Strategist (CCBMS) certification program. The certification exam will be available following the conclusion of the institute. You will be able to access and complete the exam any time after the institute adjourns. However, you must complete the exam no later than the exam time shown above. The exam is timed, and you will be allotted the same amount of time to complete the exam no matter when you choose to take it.

Note - If you do not pass the exam, you will have the opportunity to retake the exam at a later retake date. The retake exam is scheduled for Thursday, October 22.