{"id":2080,"date":"2022-05-26T08:00:36","date_gmt":"2022-05-26T12:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelightstreamgroup.com\/?p=2080"},"modified":"2022-11-16T16:59:33","modified_gmt":"2022-11-16T21:59:33","slug":"marketing-the-interactive-teller-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelightstreamgroup.com\/old_bak\/blogs\/financial\/marketing-the-interactive-teller-machine\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Your ITM Rollout Needs a Great Marketing Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s consumers are driven by efficiency \u2013 and yearning for human connection.<\/p>\n

Across nearly every industry worldwide, brands are striving to offer technological conveniences with a personalized touch. For many community banks and credit unions across the U.S., one solution has been Interactive Teller Machines, or ITMs. These “branches in a box” can help both rural and urban financial institutions enhance their account holder experience and brand identity. But given the overall gradual decline in the use of drive-up amenities, a successful ITM rollout requires a solid internal and external marketing strategy.<\/p>\n

If your financial institution is trying to decide whether to invest in ITMs \u2013 or if you already have and are looking to gain more traction \u2013 read on for some valuable insights about marketing them to your community.<\/p>\n

HOW INSTITUTIONS CAN EFFECTIVELY MARKET ITMs<\/h2>\n

Effective ITM implementation requires the right marketing plan. Here are some important steps:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Train Your Associates<\/strong>: Human-powered technology is only as good as the humans making it work. Make sure that your onscreen tellers have a thorough understanding of ITM functionalities from both the front and back ends. They\u2019ll be called on to talk users through their transactions step by step and troubleshoot any problems in addition to providing their usual services. First impressions count for a lot, so at deployment, consider having branch staff available on the floor to educate and reassure new users, and put easy-to-follow tutorials on your website.<\/li>\n
  2. Choose a Memorable Name<\/strong>: The jury\u2019s still out as to whether ITM is a durable generic term; currently, \u201cITM near me\u201d has under a thousand Google results while \u201cATM near me\u201d has millions. Take the opportunity to give your system a name that will stick. Some institutions have opted for personal names (along the lines of Siri and Alexa) that evoke the technology\u2019s human element. Regardless of what name you choose, we recommend always using it with a descriptor like Your Friendly Video Teller<\/em> that conveys exactly what the ITM does.<\/li>\n
  3. Alert<\/strong>: Many community banks and credit unions report that their account holders have been slow to discover and adopt ITM capabilities. Implementing a cohesive, methodical messaging strategy is vital to ensuring consumer uptake. Start by simply raising awareness across all your available channels \u2013 from in-branch signage to social media posts. You can even get your campaign started before machines are installed: consider creating a subtle “curiosity gap” to pique your account holders\u2019 interest and raise anticipation for the arrival of these new tools.<\/li>\n
  4. Inform<\/strong>: The next phase of your campaign should focus on proactively providing answers to expected questions like Why are these here now? <\/em>and What\u2019s in it for me? <\/em>It\u2019s important to align your messaging with key consumer benefits. For example, if your institution is expanding ITM placement into rural areas, lead with a tagline like We\u2019re Bringing the Branch to You<\/em>. Think about a focused digital campaign with SEO and SEM elements targeting new prospects in the regions and demographics that could benefit most from ITMs.<\/li>\n
  5. Enable<\/strong>: Several recent studies show that only small minority of users are entirely satisfied with their ITM experience \u2013 while their institutions believe that a majority are. There\u2019s a lack of trust with certain functionalities: for example, many respondents say they are comfortable making deposits but aren\u2019t<\/em> comfortable making credit card payments. Overall, older users express more discomfort. Communicating benefits is essential, but so is optimizing user experience and addressing persistent concerns. One solution could be how-to videos on YouTube that target and retarget users based on age group and engagement.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    \n

    When you work with LIGHTSTREAM, you\u2019re working with a full-service marketing team that knows community banking inside and out. For 15 years, we\u2019ve helped banks and credit unions across the country to develop dynamic content and connect with their ideal audiences. Ready to take your brand to the next level? Get in touch today<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    What ITMs are, why they can deliver value to community banks and credit unions, and how financial brands can effectively market the technology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2088,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_wds_title":"Marketing the Interactive Teller Machine (ITM) | LIGHTSTREAM","_wds_metadesc":"What ITMs are, why they can deliver value to community banks and credit unions, and how financial brands can effectively market the technology.","_wds_focus-keywords":"","_wds_meta-robots-adv":"","_wds_meta-robots-noindex":false,"_wds_meta-robots-nofollow":false,"_wds_meta-robots-index":false,"_wds_meta-robots-follow":false,"_wds_autolinks-exclude":false,"_wds_canonical":"","_wds_opengraph":{"title":"","description":"","images":[""]},"_wds_twitter":{"title":"","description":"","images":[""]},"wds_primary_category":8,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[11,10],"class_list":["post-2080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-financial","tag-bank-credit-brand-building","tag-bank-credit-union-marketing-strategy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelightstreamgroup.com\/old_bak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelightstreamgroup.com\/old_bak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelightstreamgroup.com\/old_bak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelightstreamgroup.com\/old_bak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelightstreamgroup.com\/old_bak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2080"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelightstreamgroup.com\/old_bak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2093,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelightstreamgroup.com\/old_bak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2080\/revisions\/2093"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelightstreamgroup.com\/old_bak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelightstreamgroup.com\/old_bak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelightstreamgroup.com\/old_bak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelightstreamgroup.com\/old_bak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}