3 Reasons Your In-Branch Messaging Is Being Ignored (& How To Fix It)

As bankers, a goal is to help clients learn about the products and services your financial institution offers and how they align with their financial needs. One problem: the current tools used to engage clients (AKA static signage) aren’t all that exciting, so instead of creating an appetite for discovery, your messages are being ignored.

Tired of all your messages being ignored but can't put your finger on what the problem is or how to fix it? Here are 3 reasons why, and how to fix each:

Found in branches of the past, these static signs attempt to communicate with clients, yet always fall flat. Not only do they get ignored by modern clients, but they are almost always forgotten about by staff.

If you have one of these in your branch, stop and think:

• How often is this board being updated? Answer: never.
• Are the messages on-brand and/or spelled right? Answer: no.
• What are in-branch clients able to learn from these signs? Answer: nothing.

How To Fix This: Use Digital Community Boards

In many branches, old bulletin boards and posters are being replaced by more eye-catching digital versions—and they’re more than just a flashy distraction.

Digital community boards can be an effective way to highlight your value to the communities you serve and differentiate your branches from the competitors. And digital community boards are even customize-able down to each individual branch, letting banks and credit unions display hyper-local and relevant content with ease.

Pro Tip: Keep your messaging hyper-local. Some of the best ways to do that?

Highlight Local Events - Local events are always a staple of community boards. Use an event feed that has information on what’s happening around the branch to automatically pull local events, and easily add your own community meetings, celebrations, and more.

Show Your Community Support - Does your institution sponsor or volunteer for local events and organizations? Show how your branch gives back to the local community with photos, give o’ meters, and even invite your clients to get involved as well.

Spotlight Local Businesses - Help show your support of local businesses (and clients) by giving them some digital community board love. Your clients will be grateful for having the opportunity to be featured (a great value-add for banking with you instead of other competitors), and your branch visitors will get to learn about some local businesses. This way, you can eliminate those pesky fliers and business cards that can clutter the branch, and you can feature multiple businesses at once in a clean, consistent fashion. Think of how easy it will be to spotlight new businesses, business milestones, and seasonal businesses!

Use Local Imagery - The look of your community board can help reinforce your brand and show your local pride with imagery of local landmarks and scenery. The right images, or an animated (moving) background, and design can help your board capture more attention.

Branch Announcements, Weather, and More - Get the word out with a spot on the community board for quick branch tips and other useful info. Other hyper-local info for digital community boards could include the local weather forecast, or social media feeds.

Reason 2: You Expect Brochures To Advertise Your Products And Services

Another staple-piece of an outdated branch is the dust-gathering brochure rack. Packed full of printed tri-folds and pamphlets, the content in this rack is supposed to advertise what the financial institution has to offer. But in reality, these resources become more inaccurate every day, and regularly updating these can be expensive (and not very eco-friendly).

Plus, the chances anyone actually picks a brochure up and reads it is rare nowadays. And if they do pick it up, they won’t remember it. After 3 days, a person remembers less than 10% of the information that they read on that printed brochure.

How To Fix This: Interactive Displays & Kiosks

Almost 60% of people who encounter products and services using a dynamic or interactive display want to learn more about the advertised topic, which makes it more important than ever that branches with digital signage also offer interactive kiosks.  

With these hands-on displays, clients can explore all that your financial institution has to offer with digital brochures and apps using the touch of their finger. Interactive digital brochures can run on all sorts of hardware, in all kinds of places - from free-standing kiosks to monitors on a wall, or in even more creative spots…like a kitchen table!

Here are a few ideas on where to place your screens:

Once you’ve decided where to place the screens, you have to decide what content goes on them. So what does this content look like?

More than an ad, less than a brochure, this custom interactive content is to the point, eye-catching, vibrant, and gives clients insight to how a product can help them and how they can take action. Now that's a way to arouse interest and make it fun to learn about services!

A few amazing examples:

Reason 3: You Still Have Printed And Laminated Signs Hanging Up

The days of printing and laminating belong in the past, along with the branches who still use this type of signage. With static signage, what has the intention of displaying clear, compelling and on-brand messages, instead acts as a barrier to a retail-friendly banking model.

Imagine this: a client is standing in line waiting for a teller and all they have to look at is printed ads and laminated signs. How boring! We call that poor client experience.

How To Fix This: Switch To Dynamic Digital Displays

Digital displays have been shown to capture 4-6 times more views than static displays in a tracking analysis by Intel. So whether you’re displaying slides, video or interactive content, you can bet it’ll be more eye-catching than a printed, laminated sign

Most commonly, these digital screens are used for:

• Brand building – promote the brand and build a consistent identity
• Rate Boards – display bank rates and quotes
• Advertising – promote all the products and services the bank offers
• Education -  educate customers on how to use banking products/general how-to banking videos
• Public Information – news, events, traffic, weather, local information, etc.
• Internal Company Information –information about branch charitable giving, quotes from satisfied clients, etc.

Their leading advantages include the ability to:

• Enhance the customer experience
• Reduce perceived wait times
• Drive sales and influence client behavior
• Deliver more effecting advertising
• Make real-time updates based on audience, time of day, etc.
• Schedule content in advance
• Lower costs and reduce/remove static signage clutter
• Deliver high-tech atmosphere
• Enhance message with animation and sound

Pretty cool stuff right?  Hopefully, it's given you some inspiration on how you can add impactful digital signage to your branches.  If seeing this sort of stuff in person sounds even better, our Digital Signage Agency is just one of the many things we have at our Ideation Center, aka The Banker’s Playground. Check it out here and come visit us!

To speak with a Visual Communications Strategist, schedule a meeting: