Believe it or not, there are just 23 business days left before Q4 2009. That means planning season is just around the corner. To help ease the pain, we offer you the ultimate idea-generation tool; our 15th annual Planning Guide for Online & Mobile Banking.  

The 80-page report is packed with more than 500 product and marketing tactics designed to help you generate new ideas, plans, and strategies for 2010 and beyond.

Online Banking Report subscribers, may download it (here) free of charge. Others may purchase it (here).

Note: Yes, that's USAA's awesome native iPhone app on the cover. Mobile banking, specifically via the iPhone and text messaging, are top opportunities for next year.  See below.

  Twenty projects from the report were selected for our 2010 hot list (in alpha order):

• Activity dashboard/ticker
• Archives, long term  
• Automatic alert enrollment
• Blog/Twitter and other social media
• Credit score/report zone
• Friends-and-family loan facilitation
• High-yield online savings/checking
• Home equity center
• Micro/small-business services
• Native mobile app (iPhone/Blackberry/Android)
• Personal finance functionality 
• Premium/VIP online services
• Prepaid/gift cards
• Problem mortgage resource center
• Retirement planning center
• Service standards/guarantees for online/mobile interactions
• Student banking/financial education center
• Text (SMS) banking
• Ultra transparent (flat fee) mortgages
• Usage-based contests/rewards

I was reading Currency Marketing (note 1) founder Tim McAlpine's ten-part blog opus (here) on so-called Challenge Marketing, a mix of social media, sweepstakes and viral marketing. It's great reading, especially if you are thinking of embarking on a new-media marketing campaign.

In part 4, Tim created a list of media available for marketing messages. I started with his list, added to it, and rearranged the topics. Use this as a cheat sheet in your planning meetings to make sure you've covered all the bases. I know I've missed things, please add to the comments and I'll update the list.

• ATMs
  • Screens
  • Enclosures
  • Receipts
• Blogs
  • Posting/commenting on your own blog
  • Guest posts on others
  • Commenting on other blogs
  • Asking for reciprocal blogroll listings
  • Sponsored blog post (tread carefully)
• Branch
  • Posters
  • Brochures
  • Plasma screens
  • Floor decals
  • Window decals
• Call center
  • On-hold messages
  • Press 1 for more info on ____
• Charitable activities
• Cinema advertising
• Door-to-door
  • Flyers
  • Conversations
• Ecommerce
  • Powered by your brand
  • Advertisements on confirmation screens/email receipts
• Direct mail
  • Postcard
  • Letter
  • Welcome packages
• Direct-to-desktop computer applications
• Widgets
• Toolbars
• Buttons/alerts
• E-mail
  • Direct messages to house or rented list
  • Advertisements/sponsorships within third-party email letters
  • Advertisements within triggered account alerts
• Joint marketing (with other companies)
• Mobile
  • Text messages
  • Downloadable app (iphone, Blackberry, Android)
  • Advertising in other apps
  • Sponsoring other apps
  • Featured at carrier/manufacturer site
• Newsletters
  • Your email/printed/RSS  
  • Third-party properties
• Online advertising on outside properties
  • Banners and other on-screen ads 
  • Advertorial
  • Sponsorships
  • RSS feed ads
  • Social networks (Facebook, MySpace, MSN, others)
  • Search engines (Google Adwords, Yahoo, Microsoft, others)
• Online advertising on your properties
  • Main website
  • Online banking site
  • Logon/logoff splash screens
  • Microsites/landing pages
• Outdoor
  • Billboards
  • Transit
  • Wall projection & other non-traditional outlets
  • Building site signage (construction loan clients)
  • Vehicle signage
• Print/newspaper/magazine
  • Display ad
  • Classified ad
  • Column/op-ed articles
  • Inserts
  • College and other niche publications
  • Yellow pages/programs/directories/etc.
• Promotional item giveaways
• Public relations
  • Appearances and interviews
  • Press releases
  • Spokester (see Currency Marketing's Young & Free)
• Radio
  • 15/30 second spot
  • Advertorial
  • Sponsorship
• Social media activity (note 2)
  • Facebook
  • MySpace
  • LinkedIn
  • Microsoft Live
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Forums
  • Wikis
• Sponsorships
  • Sports
  • Events
  • Charitable efforts
  • Schools
  • Green efforts
  • Anti-fraud education
• Statements
  • Stuffers
  • Messages
  • Envelopes
  • Estatement advertising
• Street-team marketing
• Sweepstakes (on- and off-line)
• Telemarketing
• Third-party locations/publications
  • Advertising/messages
  • Signage
  • WiFi sponsorship
  • Billing statements
  • Websites
  • ATMs/kiosks
• Television
  • 15/30 second spot
  • Product placement
  • Sponsorship
  • Infomercial
  • Online streams
• Word of mouth

Notes:
1. Tim McAlpine has achieved near-rock-star status in credit union social media circles as the mastermind of the hugely successful Young & Free campaign.
Update: 18 March 2009, Tim posted a comparison of the latest Y&F campaign at South Carolina Federal Credit Union compared to the original Alberta one. The latest version is up in every category, a partnership with a local radio station is credited with part of the gain.
2. If you need examples from outside banking, here's a 2-part wiki (here and here) created by social media guru Peter Kim with almost 1000 examples of social media efforts by various brands.

With the financial crisis still in full swing, it's not easy to concentrate on the 2009 plan. But focus you must.

You can bet that companies emerging from this mess as winners are working overtime right now, plotting how they will grab your market share next year. Yes, budgets will be down, but thanks to the Web and social media, there are more cost-effective opportunities than ever to get your message out.

With that in mind, we offer the latest issue from Online Banking Report, our 14th annual Planning Guide for Online & Mobile Banking (see note 1).  

It includes 72 pages of ideas, tips and tools to help you generate new ideas, plans, and strategies for 2009 and beyond. Subscribers, Online Banking Report subscribers, may download it (here) free of charge. Others may purchase (here).

While more than 500 online banking product and marketing ideas are published in the report, we hand-selected 20 projects for the 2009 hot list (in alpha order):

• Activity ticker
• Balance conversions
• Credit score/report zone
• Flat-fee mortgage
• Green banking
• High-yield deposit accounts
• Home equity center
• iPhone/Android native app
• Long-term archives
• Micro/small-business services
• Peer-to-peer loan facilitation
• Personal finance functionality 
• Premium/VIP online services
• Prepaid/gift cards
• Problem mortgage resource center
• Retirement center
• Service standards/guarantees
• Social media/blogging
• Usage-based contests/rewards
• Widgets

Note:
1. The Netbanker blog (established 2004) and Online Banking Report (established 1994), are written and published by the same company.

A crucial part of the planning process is reaching deeply to find the best ideas. Many companies already have a process in place, but if you are looking for inspiration, consider the following six-step approach.

Six Steps to the Big Idea

1.       Do Your Homework (Immersion): Study the situation, visit competitors, read new research, talk to customers, interview employees, attend a conference, poll your customer base, and so on.

2.       Optimize the Environment: Clear away constraints to thinking, go off site, stockpile the food and coffee, play music; do whatever it takes to let your thoughts flow freely.

3.       Rattle the Brain: Perform “thinking exercises” to limber up the brain before tackling your specific problem (see our ideas, left, or Jump Start Your Brain by Doug Hall for 37 more).

4.       Generate Idea Nuggets (free form): Think of every possible solution to the problem, regardless of how crazy; write them down without judgments or justifications.

5.       Assemble Idea Nuggets Into Strategies and Tactics: Transcribe each nugget on a
3x5 card and arrange the cards into bigger concepts and ideas.

6.       Be Bold: Don’t immediately dismiss strategies that seem too big for your budget; winners
could be shopped to strategic investors or other financial institutions for additional funding.

Source: Adapted from Jump Start Your Brain by Doug Hall, Warner Books, 1995. A new version, Jump Start Your Business Brain was published in Sept. 2001. Both are available in paperback from Amazon for about $12 each.

Do Your Homework

To see potential opportunities in a new light, look beyond your normal circle of peers, subordinates, and other industry sources.

Observe First-Hand: Find out how consumers really use online financial services and observe how the services could be improved. For example:

•               Enter into a far-reaching conversation with an important vendor, preferably in person
•                Arrange for a classroom of MBA students to debate the pros and cons of online services
•                Attend a focus group on online financial services
•                Hire a consultant for a brainstorm session
•                Sponsor focus groups for branch and call center staff to discuss serving/selling customers online
•                Post a short questionnaire on your website; have a copy of each response forwarded directly to you (no staff filters)
•                Issue an RFP (request for proposal) for the development of a “next-generation” service

Attend an industry conference: Away from the daily grind, surrounded by the latest technology and bombarded by new ideas: a perfect prescription for breakthrough thinking. The two biggest U.S. online banking conferences take place in the fall, the American Banker’s just-completed Financial Services Technology Forum and BAI’s Retail Delivery which will be held next month in Las Vegas.

Dive in to third-party research: Grab a few research reports, head to a quiet table in your favorite coffee shop, and turn off your Blackberry. Now, really read the whole report, skipping the executive summary until the very end. Take notes and highlight pertinent pages. At the end of the day, create your own executive summary with a list of possible action ideas and questions to share with your team.

Commission your own research: Research culled from your own customers and in-market prospects is infinitely more believable than national studies. If research budgets are nil, you can still post a short survey on your Web for next to nothing and have results tomorrow. The data won’t be applicable to your entire customer base, but it might provide a number of good ideas and insights.

Or if you’d prefer to take a quick reading of consumer sentiment without tipping your hand to the competition, consider tapping into the preassembled panels of Web research companies. At InsightExpress  http://www.insightexpress.com/  it’s possible to ask 200 consumers what they think of your idea for an out-of-pocket expense of about $1,500. Questionnaires are easily composed using online templates, and you’ll have results back within hours. All results are stored online where you can run your own reports and cross tabs.                     

As we discussed last month , there’s a real void in the marketplace when it comes to premium online banking services. In today’s retail environment, where you can choose from hundreds of varieties of every product on the shelf, it’s shocking that Bank of America provides just a single flavor of online banking to its 11+ million subscribers. Granted, users choose which features to use, so the service isn’t truly identical for all.

But surprisingly, everyone still pays a single price: $0. For Bank of America, that price point has been an important and highly visible component of its strategic branding message. However, we view 100%-free online banking as a temporary aberration. U.S. banks have had their hands full during the past few years complying with new regulatory initiatives and fighting fraudsters from around the globe.

And it’s a relatively recent phenomenon that online banking penetration has surpassed 20% at many banks. Below that point, there aren’t enough customers to make a segmented offering profitable. So even though it will require extensive buyer education, we believe that by this time next year, at least one, and possible two or three, top-10 U.S. banks will offer premium online banking options.

The pioneer in this area is Online Resources, which began offering MoneyHQ, a premium online banking option, late last year. Early results are mixed. While Online Resources admits that client adoption has been slower than expected, it is pleased with consumer adoption, which stands at 9% of bill pay customers across the 45 clients who’ve been live for at least four months. In total (as of Sep. 29, 2004), 120 clients are signed, with 90 operational, representing 33% and 25% respectively of eligible clients.

Strategically, we have no doubt that MoneyHQ is the right direction, and the 9% initial adoption rate is encouraging. However, it’s difficult for ORCC’s community bank and credit union clientele to successfully educate the market on the benefits of premium online banking. It may take the multi-million dollar advertising budgets of the big players to really jump-start the service. We should know a lot more as 2005 unfolds.

Jim Bruene, Editor & Founder

A crucial part of the planning process is reaching deeply to find the best ideas. Many companies already have a process in place, but if you are looking for inspiration, consider the following six-step approach.

Six Steps to the Big Idea

1.       Do Your Homework (Immersion): Study the situation, visit competitors, read new research, talk to customers, interview employees, attend a conference, poll your customer base, and so on.

2.       Optimize the Environment: Clear away constraints to thinking, go off site, stockpile the food and coffee, play music; do whatever it takes to let your thoughts flow freely.

3.       Rattle the Brain: Perform “thinking exercises” to limber up the brain before tackling your specific problem (see our ideas, left, or Jump Start Your Brain by Doug Hall for 37 more).

4.       Generate Idea Nuggets (free form): Think of every possible solution to the problem, regardless of how crazy; write them down without judgments or justifications.

5.       Assemble Idea Nuggets Into Strategies and Tactics: Transcribe each nugget on a
3x5 card and arrange the cards into bigger concepts and ideas.

6.       Be Bold: Don’t immediately dismiss strategies that seem too big for your budget; winners
could be shopped to strategic investors or other financial institutions for additional funding.

Source: Adapted from Jump Start Your Brain by Doug Hall, Warner Books, 1995. A new version, Jump Start Your Business Brain was published in Sept. 2001. Both are available in paperback from Amazon for about $12 each.

Doing Your Homework

To see potential opportunities in a new light, look beyond your normal circle of peers, subordinates, and other industry sources.

Launch a Personal Fact-Finding Mission: Find out how consumers currently use online financial services and observe how the services could be improved. For example:

•       Enter into a far-reaching conversation with an important vendor, preferably in person
•       Arrange for a classroom of MBA students to debate the pros and cons of your online services
•       Attend a focus group on online financial services
•       Hire a consultant for a brainstorm session
•       Sponsor focus groups for branch and call center staff to discuss serving/selling customers online
•       Post a short questionnaire on your website; have a copy of each response forwarded directly to you (no staff filters)
•       Issue an RFP (request for proposal) for the development of a “next-generation” service

Attend an industry Conference: Away from the daily grind, surrounded by the latest technology and bombarded by new ideas: a perfect prescription for breakthrough thinking. For example,
the DaVinci Institute’s Future of Money Summit www.futureofmoneysummit.com  looks to be an especially thought-provoking event.

Read a Research Report Cover-to-Cover: We know this is going to hurt, but plunk down a couple grand for the latest online banking research, clear a half-day on your calendar, and really read the whole report, not just the executive summary. Even if you don’t believe the conclusions, think about the implications for your company were they to come true. It might help you see things in a new light. See the next page for a list of research companies.

Conduct your Own Research: Research culled from your own customers and in-market prospects is infinitely more believable than national studies. If research budgets are nil, you can still post a short survey on your Web for next to nothing and have results tomorrow. The data won’t be projectable to your entire customer base, but it might provide a number of good ideas and insights.

Or if you’d prefer to take a quick reading of consumer sentiment without tipping your hand to the competition, consider tapping into the preassembled panels of Web research companies. At InsightExpress  www.insightexpress.com , developed by NFO Worldwide, you can ask 200 consumers what they think of your idea for an out-of-pocket expense of about $1,000. Questionnaires are easily composed using online templates, and you’ll have results back within hours. All results are stored online where you can run your own reports and crosstabs.

Online Banking Research Sources
 

 
 
Source: Online Banking Report, 9/03