We've got money to lend: loan demand is weak, so bank marketers are experimenting with ways to bolster volume. Here are four examples of different approaches.

• Author: Albro, Walt

THESE DAYS, DEPOSITS ARE PLENTIFUL, but loans are scarce. What can a marketer do to bump up consumer demand for loans? Develop new loan products? Find new and better ways to identify likely loan prospects?

We spoke to a sample of three bank marketers and a service provider to seek out some of the ways that banks currently are attempting to buoy up their loan activity. Each of the sections below describes a loan-amplification tactic that a bank is currently utilizing.

Reach Home Loan Customers Who Are Likely to Add Business

Bruce Clapp, CFMP, President

MarketMatch, Englewood, Ohio

The company worked with a $1.9 billion bank that was interested in stimulating loan demand. Together the service provider and the bank developed a campaign that targeted two types of customers: those who already had existing home equity lines of credit and those with existing mortgages of longer than one year, but with no line of credit.

The bank deployed a scratch-off card campaign for each of these audiences. The campaign was designed to engage customers in a nontraditional way. By leveraging the idea of a contest, customers instinctively felt like a winner, just by being selected to take advantage of their pre-existing financial equity, Clapp observes.

The strategic approach was designed to leverage available loan dollars--thus helping the bank to improve assets and revenue. "Through our analysis and research, we discovered that medium-sized banks often have millions in available HELOC opportunity, and that reaching out to these customers takes little investment to have big impact" says Clapp.

He adds that in today's economic environment banking, customers are less likely to invest in loans and other programs that are seen as nonessential. Many of the home improvement, retirement and educational dreams are being put on the back burner while customers work to regain their confidence in the economy and in their ability to spend.

One of the targeted groups was existing customers with an available line of credit of more than $10,000. This group was already established with the lines of credit, but had not yet used any dollars. The goal of the campaign was to motivate them to use the available credit to fulfill their goals. With preapproval, the call to action of the campaign was straightforward, and therefore, cost effective: Use the credit you already have to make your dreams come true. "Many banks often don't see this audience as a revenue opportunity," says Clapp. "The campaign was successful...