Organizing Marketing Materials in preparation for an Audit.

• Position: Reprint

The following query and the replies are reprinted from the ABA Marketing Network's Professional Online Community.

Query:

Historically, we have not done a good job of documenting our marketing efforts. I am concerned about organizing all the marketing efforts for an audit at the end of the year. Is there a best practice for organizing and presenting the bank's marketing efforts to the regulator?

Eric Myers

Director of Marketing

Transportation Alliance Bank Inc.

Ogden, Utah

Replies:

A Three-Ring Binder Works Great

I, too, keep a binder of our advertising, but it is mostly for my use as a quick reference. It includes. a worksheet for each piece to make sure I've hit all the compliance issues. I attach it to the piece and then provide it to compliance for signing off. I think the original may have come from this group at some time in the past, but it works great.

Audri Godfrey, CFMP

First Vice President/Marketing

Security National Bank

Omaha, Neb.

For an Audit, Transfer Electronic Files Containing Marketing Materials to a Flash Drive

I create all ads and marketing materials that the bank uses. Anything anyone else designs has to be approved by me. If I have any compliance questions, I run a proof by our compliance officer. Once an ad is designed, I save it (with the date published as part of the title) on one of the bank's servers in labeled folders, i.e., advertising 2011/ branch (market) with subfolders for newspaper, radio, posters, model releases, etc. When it comes time for audit, we transfer the folders to a flash drive and hand the drive to the auditor. I don't keep paper files.

I do ask for tear sheets from print media, and we scan and save tear sheets in a folder, but the tear sheets are for our bookkeeper as proof of publication. We did not include the tear sheet folder in the data on the flash drive we gave to the auditor. Our auditors have said the flash drive is easy to use, and they appreciate the manner in which we organize our advertising files. By the way, I save all printed materials as a PDF. The radio we save as scripts and as .mp3 sound files.

One of the benefits of organizing the ads in this manner is when I want to reuse or update an old ad, it is easy to do.

Sally Domeier

Marketing Director

Pathway Bank

Ord, Neb.

Filing Materials in a Binder Only Takes a Few Minutes

I don't know if this is the best way, but it's working for me. I...