Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Publish or perish: why does a TV talk-show host like Oprah publish a magazine? For the same reason that financial services institutions generate newsletters, magazines and various types of Internet periodicals: It's an effective way to stimulate dialog with your target segment.

• Author: Wax, Bill
• Position: Custom Publications

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Creating genuine connections between the consumer and the brand: It's Marketing 101.

As basic a concept as this may be, it can still bedevil bank marketers. How do you cut through the clutter at the customer mailbox (or in-box)? Just as important, how do you communicate with customers and prospects in a meaningful way--one that establishes your institution as an expert and credible financial partner?

During the last decade, there has been a revolution in the use of branded content to reach customers and enhance brand awareness. From Oprah to Charles Schwab to Home Depot, marketers have discovered that custom publishing is a powerful way to create a meaningful dialog with their audience segments.

Indeed, a recent study by the Custom Publishing Council (CPC) and the newsletter "Publications Management" shows that leading U.S. companies are now spending, on average, nearly a quarter of their marketing, advertising and communication budgets on custom publications.

Why they work

Plain and simple, custom publications work because they create an emotional connection with readers. Custom content and design, whether that's in a print newsletter or an online piece, allow bank marketers to communicate specific messages to targeted audiences in a way that is meaningful to these audiences. It's an editorial-rich environment where people want to spend time.

Jerry Harpstrite, chief marketing officer at Farmers & Merchants Bank in Long Beach, Calif., produces an eight-page "Forum" newsletter targeted at its affluent customers. The periodical is a newsy ,nix of community events, value-added educational information and soft-sell product/service messages. "I really see it as our main communication strategy for reaching our bank clientele, especially the upper 25 percent," Harpstrite says. "This segment, which tends to skew older, appreciates receiving a high-quality communication piece from the bank under separate cover, as opposed to getting something stuffed in with a statement."

A short history of the bank newsletter

The concept of custom publishing is certainly not a new one. As early as the 1970s, banks were using newsletters to regularly communicate with their retail customers.

Glen Sale was one of them. Now director of organizational communication for Temple-Inland, a Fortune 500 company and parent of Dallas-based Guaranty Bank, Sale jumped on the newsletter bandwagon in the early '70s when he bought into a franchised newsletter...