Financial Institution Blogs

Syndicated Report Brochure Financial Institution Blogs: How to Manage Your Brand, Engage Customers and Why You Can’t Afford to Wait July 2007 Telephone: 925.225.9100 Fax: 925.225.9101 Address: 4309 Hacienda Dr., Suite 380 Pleasanton, CA 94588 Email: inquiry@javelinstrategy.com Web site: www.javelinstrategy.com Syndicated Report Brochure Financial Institution Blogs: How to Manage Your Brand, Engage Customers and Why You Can’t Afford to Wait Overview Weblogs (“blogs”) are quickly becoming an integral part of online communication, and banks need to respond by creating blogs on their primary or specific line of business Web sites to address consumer needs. Brand management, customer-centricity and proactive advocacy for customers’ immediate financial needs can be facilitated through a blog, at relatively little cost to the financial institution. This report provides detailed consumer data regarding preferences for FI blog content, likelihood of usage, and the influence that information obtained through blogs has on the customer relationship. This data is supplemented by extensive interviews with executives who have implemented blogs successfully on their sites, and vendors providing unstructured data analysis services, enabling FIs to utilize blogs for more effective CRM. Primary Questions • • • • • • Why do FIs need to create blogs on their Web sites now? What benefits to FIs and consumers do blogs foster? How can an FI use a blog to effectively promote its brand? What information would provide the most value to consumers through a blog? What are best practices for implementing an FI blog? How should FIs address the risks (e.g., privacy, time, negative comments) of blogging? Financial Institutions: Marketing, corporate communications, customer acquisition, innovative media departments. Vendors: Text mining, alerts providers, unstructured data analysis Jean M. Garascia, Research Associate Bruce Cundiff, Senior Analyst Stephen Matava-Knighten, Research Associate James Van Dyke, President and Founder Mary T. Monahan, Editor and Analyst Audience: Author: Contributors: Editor: Publication Date: July 2007 Price: Length: $1,250 ►23 pages ►14 charts/graphs Telephone: 925.225.9100 Fax: 925.225.9101 Address: 4309 Hacienda Dr., Suite 380 Pleasanton, CA 94588 Email: inquiry@javelinstrategy.com Web site: www.javelinstrategy.com Syndicated Report Brochure Financial Institution Blogs: How to Manage Your Brand, Engage Customers and Why You Can’t Afford to Wait Table of Contents Overview ...................................................................................................................................................... 3 Primary Questions ...................................................................................................................................... 3 Findings and Analysis ................................................................................................................................ 3 Blogs: A New Online Channel of Communication for Financial Institutions........................................ 4 They’re Talking about You”: Advanced Tracking for Business Insights.............................................. 6 Use an FI Blog to Positively Affect Reputation and Brand Image Online ............................................. 7 Become an active listener and partner with consumers through the blog ....................................... 9 The Value to Consumers: Customer Support Vital to Create Traffic .................................................. 10 For Larger Institutions, Focus Blogs on Particular Lines of Business............................................... 11 Honesty, Relevancy and Authenticity Key Factors to Successful FI Blogs ....................................... 12 Creating a Blog: Addressing Practical Issues and Concerns .............................................................. 14 What about negative comments? How should we address them? ............................................... 14 I don’t think we have the resources to handle posting and responding to all the comments. ....... 14 How do we deal with legal, compliance and privacy issues? ........................................................ 15 How much does it cost to implement a blog? ................................................................................ 15 Related Research ...................................................................................................................................... 16 Appendices—Additional Data on Blogging for Financial Institutions ................................................ 17 Telephone: 925.225.9100 Fax: 925.225.9101 Address: 4309 Hacienda Dr., Suite 380 Pleasanton, CA 94588 Email: inquiry@javelinstrategy.com Web site: www.javelinstrategy.com Financial Institution Blogs: How to Manage Your Brand, Engage Customers and Why You Can’t Afford to Wait Table of Figures Figure 1: FI-Customer Online Communication Matrix ............................................................................... 4 Figure 2: Effects of Blogs on Banking Relationship by Tech-wise Consumers ..................................... 7 Figure 3: Verity CU's "Our Voices" Blog Front Page ................................................................................. 8 Figure 4: Type of Information Desired on a Blog by Tech-wise.............................................................. 10 Figure 5: Likelihood of Accessing FI Blog by Tech-wise ........................................................................ 11 Figure 6: FI Benefits and Challenges of FI Blogs ..................................................................................... 12 Figure 7: Vancity CU's "Change Everything" Blog Front Page............................................................... 13 Figure 8: Wells Fargo's "The Student LoanDown" Blog Front Page...................................................... 14 Figure 9: Likelihood to Switch Financial Services Provider by Tech-wise............................................ 17 Figure 10: Effect of Blogs on Banking Relationship by Age ................................................................... 18 Figure 11: Likelihood of Accessing FI Blog by Income ........................................................................... 19 Figure 12: Likelihood of Accessing FI Blog by Ethnicity......................................................................... 20 Figure 13: Type of Information Desired on a Blog by Age ...................................................................... 21 Figure 14: Important Criteria for Selecting a New Financial Services Provider .................................... 22 Telephone: 925.225.9100 Fax: 925.225.9101 Address: 4309 Hacienda Dr., Suite 380 Pleasanton, CA 94588 Email: inquiry@javelinstrategy.com Web site: www.javelinstrategy.com Syndicated Report Brochure Financial Institution Blogs: How to Manage Your Brand, Engage Customers and Why You Can’t Afford to Wait Companies/Organizations Mentioned in Report Bazaarvoice Blogger Clarabridge Comala CU Google Nielsen BuzzMetrics Piedmont CU Technorati Toronto Electrical Utilities CU UFirst Federal CU Vancity CU Verity CU Wells Fargo Wesabe Sample Pages Telephone: 925.225.9100 Fax: 925.225.9101 Address: 4309 Hacienda Dr., Suite 380 Pleasanton, CA 94588 Email: inquiry@javelinstrategy.com Web site: www.javelinstrategy.com Syndicated Report Brochure Health Savings Accounts: Focus on Transactions and Product Development Will Lead to Asset Growth Target Place Your Order as Follows: 1) Call us at 925 225 9100, x26 2) Email us at inquiry@javelinstrategy.com 3) Fax or Mail using the form below: Please send me the following report(s): Report Title Publication Date Price Name_____________________________________Title_________________ Organization__________________________ Division or group_______________ Email______________________Phone______________Fax_______________ Address___________________________________________________ Signature to confirm your order: Payment Method: _______________________________ [ ] Check Enclosed [ ] Invoice me Exp date: [ ] Payment card Visa, MC, AE or Disc. card #: Name on Card: _______________________ __/__ _____________________ Signature_____________________ For invoicing, provide PO number: ________________________________________ (Invoicing is available to financial institutions or publicly owned firms) Note: Reports are provided in electronic PDF form only. Javelin reports are subject to standard terms and conditions, as described on our web site. Javelin will contact you in the future to provide our free research newsletter or other mailings. If you do not wish to receive our newsletter or other mailings, you may advise us of this. Your contact information will not be sold to other organizations. Telephone: 925.225.9100 Fax: 925.225.9101 Address: 4309 Hacienda Dr., Suite 380 Pleasanton, CA 94588 Email: inquiry@javelinstrategy.com Web site: www.javelinstrategy.com