Capturing e-mail addresses: staff needs to be trained to collect e-mail addresses at every touch point. Contests and promotions are useful.

AuthorNeiman, Tom

WITH MORE PEOPLE GETTING INFORMATION on products and services from the Internet and mobile devices, the critical success factor forbanks' proactive e-marketing is the ability to collect their customers' e-mail address.

The Internet has had a huge impact on the way customers interact and conduct business with their banks. According to the ABA, in 2009,25 percent of bank customers identified the Internet as their preferred method for transacting business compared to 21 percent of customers citing the branch. With the huge growth in mobile banking and other electronic channels such as remote deposit capture, banks will continue to see fewer customers coming into their branches.

To counteract this trend, bankers are putting additional emphasis on electronic forms of communication to stay in touch with customers.

Three bank marketers recently shared their processes for acquiring e-mail addresses. These people were:

* Ellen Dorian, senior vice president, marketing and human resources at Marlborough Savings Bank, Marlborough, Mass.

* Jim Badger, senior vice president and director of marketing at Salin Bank, Indianapolis, Ind.

* Susan Ouellet, marketing officer at NewportFed, Newport, R.I.

Each of these banks has a common set of activities and processes for collecting e-mail addresses, but what is most interesting is the unique strategy and approach that each bank has taken.

Collecting E-Mail Addresses at Every Customer Touch Point

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Marlborough Savings Bank Marlborough, Mass. Assets: $400 million

The managers at this savings bank have several guiding principles behind their e-mail address collection strategy. Their primary approach is to collect e-mail addresses at every customer touch point--new account opening, daily interactions between branch personnel and customers, and community events and fairs. Marlborough has modified all of its customer forms to encourage branch personnel to always ask and collect the e-mail address if possible.

"We are asking for peoples' Social Security numbers; we should be comfortable with asking for their e-mail addresses," says Dorian.

A second principle has been to educate employees and tell them why it is important. "The customer experience is extremely important to us. It is critical that front line personnel understand the reasons behind our requests and the importance of the e-mail address for continuous communications."

A third principle reflects the bank's trust in its branch management...

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