Most bank marketing doesn’t fail because the copy is weak. It fails because the bank has no market position worth noticing.
In this week’s video, Roxanne Emmerich calls out the expensive mistake too many community banks make: confusing branding with positioning. A polished logo, a clever tagline, or a faster turnaround time is not enough to make your ideal customer choose you. If your team cannot clearly explain why your bank is the best or the only one, you are not differentiated. You are replaceable.
In this video, you’ll discover:
Roxanne also makes the case for why recognition matters when it proves performance. A credible award can do more than decorate a lobby. It can open doors, validate your claims, and help your team close.
If your bank has built real discipline, real alignment, and real results, this is your moment to step forward.
Banky Award applications are open now at BankyAwards.com
Watch now.
Let’s get honest about something that’s quietly killing your deposit growth, sabotaging your pricing power, and making your marketing dollars evaporate.
It’s not your message. It’s your positioning.
Most community banks have been duped by well-intentioned branding firms who took hundreds of thousands of dollars, designed beautiful logos and catchy taglines, and then gave you one half of a decent USP like, “We approve loans in thirty-six hours,” which, okay, that’s something. But is it enough to make your ideal customer say, “Woah, we have to talk to that bank?”
Not even close. Marketing only works when it’s tied to one thing: positioning. If you can’t articulate why your bank is the best or the only, you’re just another option in a saturated market. And your team, when they get asked, “Why should I bank with you instead of the other guy?” they’re saying things like, “We’ve been around for eighty years. We have great people. You’ll get me.” Let’s be real.
These aren’t selling points. They’re red flags that you have no positioning.
A real unique selling proposition does one of two things. It proves that you’re the best or it proves that you’re the only. If your USP doesn’t do that, it’s not a USP, or a unique selling proposition.
It’s wallpaper.
And here’s the real cost. Without a strong USP, your marketing falls flat, your sales team doesn’t have the tools to close premium business, and you’re forced to compete on rate instead of value, which is a race to the bottom. So here’s the test. Ask your frontline team this question: “Why should someone bank with us instead of anyone else?” If you hear silence or clichés, you’ve got a positioning problem.
Incidentally, there’s one USP that instantly separates a bank from the rest of the pack. The one line that makes prospects stop scrolling, stop hesitating, and start saying, “Well, obviously, we should talk to them.” That USP: “We’ve been named one of the best banks in America by the Institute for Extraordinary Banking.” That, my friend, is positioning.
The bank award doesn’t just sit on the shelf. It gets you into the room. It closes the deal. It proves what your marketing claims. So if you’ve already built a performance culture, if your team is aligned, if you’re growing low-cost deposits and delivering real results, get your Banky Award application in at BankyAwards.com. Because the banks that win this award don’t just market better, they close better, they lead better, and they bank better.
Who hasn’t seen a salesperson, fresh from a seminar on cross-selling, suddenly spread a dozen different account options like a Japanese fan in front of the poor customer, whose expression falls into a blank and frightened stare?
We’ve all been there. The car salesman slides the paperwork across the desk at you, pointing at the signature line. Just this one last step, he says, and there’ll be no way out.
You’ve decided to create and implement a killer strategy. So where do you look for ideas?
There are hundreds of tried and true strategies out there. Some have taken companies from just marking time to the big time in no time. But which ones should you consider?
one company does something different and effective, then everyone imitates it. Then you’ve got yourself a field of purple cows. That’s when it’s time to go white. Or brown. Or zebra-striped. If they zig, you zag.
Here are three of the seven most effective secrets to finding and catching the hungriest fish—the customers who will add to your bottom line instead of nibbling from it:
Are you playing the wrong game?
Are you playing the wrong game?
Are you as good as you think you are? Whether the economy gets better or not is out of your control. But YOU getting better—that’s entirely in your control, and it’s non-negotiable.
You’re doing the old “Mission Statement, SWOT, and Goals” thing. That’s fine. I’m SURE you don’t think that’s the same thing as strategic planning.
You’ve heard it before – the bankers who are STILL calling on clients asking hideously inept questions such as, “What kind of things are you looking for in a bank?” or “Tell me about your business,” or “What kind of things are keeping you up at night?” UGH.