Lean-budget marketing: Hemmed in by spending constraints, marketers need to aggressively prune expenses that do not align with strategic priorities--and maintain those that do.

• Author: Mambrino, Vanessa

THE RECESSION MAY HAVE ENDED and bank earnings have started to recover, but financial institutions, like their customers, continue to keep a close eye on spending--and marketers are being asked to do more with less money.

In this new environment, the bank marketer needs to work harder to make up for income lost due to regulation or low loan demand, to better differentiate the bank, to deliver value to customers in new ways and to regain the trust of a wary populace. This atmosphere, while presenting challenges, is also full of opportunities for marketers to innovate and to do things better, faster and more efficiently--ultimately driving more revenues to the bank and improving its bottom line. The bank marketer is therefore more important than ever.

So, practically speaking, how does one take advantage of these opportunities with fewer full-time employees and fewer dollars at one's disposal?

Start with a blank slate

"The first thing you should do is throw everything out," says Eric Lucero, vice president and director of marketing for the Marketing Solutions Group at Umpqua Bank, Roseburg, Ore. (assets: $9.3 billion). "This helps to get rid of 'sacred cows'," items that are in the budget simply because they have always been in the budget. For example, Umpqua no longer purchases ads in the Yellow Pages. With more and more customers moving to Web-based searches to find a bank (or anything else, for that matter), the money previously spent on the Yellow Pages can now best be used to help customers find Umpqua online.

Umpqua makes good use of paid search advertising instead. This is both more relevant to its customers and more efficient for the bank. Umpqua can be much more specific with regards to where it advertises online versus in print. This helps to ensure that ads are seen by those most likely to find its value proposition appealing, thereby increasing customer response rates.

In addition, the bank stopped printing its annual report three years ago, based on careful consideration of what its shareholders really needed--an easy way to access financial information, not a glossy report. With a few exceptions, all information regarding the company's year-end financials and status is provided electronically.

The delivery of information via online channels is helping Umpqua to improve service and be more responsive to its customers and shareholders--and to be more efficient with its marketing dollars.

Marketers at institutions of all sizes should look at what is most important to their bank's target audiences and work to identify the most effective and efficient manner in which to provide this information. These little changes can add up fast, creating space in the budget for other items.

Those other items should be only those things that most closely align with the bank's strategic priorities. The same basic principles that govern the decision to scrap a particular budget item should guide decisions about what to keep: Is this item necessary to build/maintain brand awareness? To generate revenue and/or meet other strategic goals? To meet key customer and/or shareholder needs?

Carefully aligning spending initiatives and investments with the bank's overall strategic goals is an important consideration at all times, but becomes especially important when budgets are tight. This alignment can help bank marketers to maintain investments that will contribute to strategic growth in the long term despite high upfront cost--positioning their institutions for success during the eventual recovery.

Use analytics to prioritize investments

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