One subject that doesn't get enough attention, online lead generation.

Now that most bank websites get more traffic than its branches, at least if you measure total number of visits*, you should be committing resources to maximizing the number of leads generated by your website.

Most banks have the low-hanging fruit covered with prominent phone numbers and website inquiry forms. But what about those prospects less willing to initiate a sales interaction?

My favorite presentation from the recent Net.Finance conference, and one I almost didn't attend because I thought it would be focused on offline activities, was Evaluating Online Lead Generation and Management, from Dave Herpers, Chief Marketing Officer at Amerisave, an online mortgage originator.

If you ever have a chance to hear him speak, I highly recommend it. Previously he was marketing director at DeepGreen Bank and also did a stint at Bank of America, so he has a great background in online lending.

Besides the fascinating discussion of the methodical generation and processing of online and telephone leads, he provided a number of ideas that financial services companies can use on their website to improve the number of leads available to sales people.

Action Items
As customers research products and use your online tools, allow them to have any of the results emailed to them for future reference. Customers like it because they don't lose all the work they've done and it's serves as a reminder as to where they found all the great info.

Mr. Herpers suggested the following email functions:

• Email me the results from the mortgage/refi/HEQ calculator
• Email me my estimated closing costs
• Email me the rate info I was just looking at
• Email me info on the products I was just looking at

Any customer who uses the email functionality becomes a valuable product lead.

Other lead generation opportunities:

• Contact Me buttons
• incomplete applications
• Request a Consultation form
• Rate Alerts

Amerisave reports that there best leads, other than telephone calls which are always first priority, are those from customers preforming rate searches at its website (see inset).

If you'd like to learn more about the best financial online marketing ideas, check out the Interactive Financial Marketing Database from our sister publication, the Online Banking Report.

Citibank has woken my sick-in-bed wife the last two mornings, calling to remind me to submit my paperwork to fund the new checking account I established online two weeks ago.

She's not so thrilled with the bank, but I'm impressed with its tenacity.

Here is the scorecard of bank followup efforts:

• Email = 1 (about 2 weeks after application...almost missed it, thought it was a phish)
• Mail = 1 (technically not a reminder, it was the sig card and new account kit)
• Phone = 3 (first about 1 week after application, then number 2 and 3, about 2 weeks after application

It's an impressive follow-up effort. I've applied for a number of accounts over the years and I can recall receiving only one telephone call, from Salem Five back in 1995, and that wasn't even an application, just a sales lead. The last time I tried to start a checking account, with Washington Mutual, I never heard from them, not so much as a single email or letter thanking me for my application. As far as I know it's still sitting in limbo on some backup tape.

Sorry for the delay Citibank, I really do want that iPod, so I will be sending my $2500 deposit ASAP.

Action Item
If a company with as much experience as Citibank has found it to be profitable to make follow-up phone calls on unfunded new accounts, you should consider doing it as well. However, you may have more luck than Citi does using email followups. Citibank's brand in an email message is practically worthless these days after the pounding it's received from phishers.

--JB

Even with popup blockers wreaking havoc with this marketing technique, it still makes sense to program a popup when users abandon an application or any other important sales page. It's also possible to program a popup after the user lingers in one area for a certain amount of time.

The popup should ask if assistance is needed and provide at minimum a telephone number and email address. Here's an example from National Interbank.

-- JB

WSJ.com - Banks Speed Process For Opening Online Accounts

The Wall Street Journal reports today in its Personal Finance section on the plans at Citibank, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Wachovia, and HSBC to offer instant online checking account signup later this year.

Analysis
While it makes sense for these national powerhouses to enable instant account signup, smaller financial institutions needn't feel they must follow suit.

Bank accounts, especially checking, aren't impulse purchases like the consumer goods sold at other online retailers. Most bank customers won't mind if their checking account is opened by the end of the week.

More important than instant signup are clear explanations of what happens next, email status reports as the process progresses, and clear privacy and security guarantees. A personal telephone call or email followup from a new account rep wouldn't hurt either.

-- JB

Case Study: How First Tech CU Overcame the
“I-m not on the Net” or “I don’t trust the Net” Sales Objection

First Technology Credit Union (Beaverton, OR) www.1sttech.com is well known in online financial circles as a technology innovator. As Microsoft’s credit union, it’s a necessity. However, not all of the company’s consumers are connected to the Net, and some have been reticent to take the leap due to security concerns. First Tech offered dial-up character-based home banking via VT100 emulation terminals long before a Web-based product was available.

When evaluating how to migrate its dialup base to a browser one, the company ran into a pair of speed bumps: some users hadn’t yet signed up for an ISP, while others were too intimidated to conduct financial transactions on the Net. To solve both problems, First Tech teamed up with ISP (Internet service provider) Easy Street (Portland, OR) to offer Net access for a discounted rate of $15.50/month compared to the normal $19.95/month. First Tech buys the service from the ISP at an undisclosed wholesale rate and handles billing for its members on a single, consolidated monthly statement. Member can also earn an additional $1/month discount for accepting an electronic bill.

To provide browser-based connectivity for members who don’t want full Net access or who were had security concerns about the Internet banking connection, another alternative was created. These members are sent a CD with a pre-loaded dialing configuration that connects to the credit union via a non-Internet connection from the ISP. The CU has effectively removed connectivity issues from the list of member objections to Net banking.

Note: Concentrex uses 800 Support.

The screenshot right shows how the CU uses pop-up windows for Webmail input. Each department has its own Webmail address.

Use Non-Financial Content Areas to Support Your Online Strategies with

Yahoo promotes its email service when
searching on “free email.”

One of the hotter areas online is “free email” Web sites. The largest of the group, Hotmail purchased in January by Microsoft for $400 million, is registering 80,000 new users each day. These Webs allow users to set-up a unique email address, such as yourname@hotmail.com, and then send and receive email directly from that Web site at no charge. Banner ads and other forms of promotion foot the bill for the email services. Users must still purchase Internet access elsewhere.

Users usually have free email bundled with their Internet service, so why would anyone subject themselves to numerous advertising pitches in order to use free email at these sites?

•  Email Address for Life: No matter where you work, or where you purchase Internet access, your HotMail email address stays with you.
•  Better/Disguised Email Address: Many users would prefer not to disclose their employer, university or ISP within their email address. Email addresses such as anyname@hotmail.com meet that need.
•  Privacy: Users accessing the Internet from their company’s machines can use the email services at HotMail to keep their email off the corporate servers where it could potentially be read.
•  Simplicity: During the past two weeks I visited with two new Web users who were successfully using the Web but were frustrated because they couldn’t use services that required an email address. As far as these users were concerned, they didn’t have an email address. Of course, they did have one, they just didn’t know how to use it. Heavily promoted free email services with simple, intuitive user interfaces can snag new users before they learn how to use the email in their browsers.
•  Public Terminal Users. The growing number of users accessing the Web from Internet cafes, Kinko’s, and other public venues, need email.
•  Travelers. Travelers accessing the Internet from a variety of places may find a central Web-based site the most convenient method of staying on top of their email.

Financial institutions could offer “advertising free” email on their Webs. Free email could be a standalone function designed to draw traffic, or it could be partitioned off within your online banking service, augmenting the standard “email the bank” function. Either way, users would register, select an email identity and password, then send and receive email directly from your site. For maximum appeal, select a generic domain name such as yourtown.net. Be sure to incorporate anti-spam functions such as a limit on the number of recipients for each email message.

A number of licensing sources are available for the email software. The largest providers are listed in the table to the left, others are available on Yahoo! www.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Companies/Internet_Services/Email_Providers/Free_Email/ .

and www.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Companies/Internet_Services/Email_Providers/ .