As the economic downturn wears on, banks big and small are taking sledgehammers to their budgets — trimming staff, hours of operation and expenses such as travel.
A growing number, it appears, are also looking to cut costs on advertising and marketing. At least that’s what Atlanta ad man Neal Reynolds is banking on.
Reynolds has created a Web-based platform that he says offers an inexpensive way for banks to create their own ads and other marketing material. Business on the 5-year-old site, bankmarketingcenter.com, has doubled over the past six months, he says.
About 80 lenders, most of them small, community-based banks, are now signed up to use the service. Customers pay monthly fees based on their size, starting at about $300 a month.
In February, Reynolds snagged his biggest client yet: Synovus, Georgia’s second-largest banking company.
“Banks are trying to find ways to cut back on their expenses,” he said. “When regulators come in and say you’ve got to get profitable, you have to cut back.”
Reynolds created the site about five years ago after an “a-ha!” moment: Why not automate the process for creating ads and other marketing products to give clients the power to customize materials on their own?
He’s spent $1.5 million developing the technology and building a network of Web sites, each targeting a niche business. In addition to banks, he’s built sites for outdoor stores, municipal natural gas providers and eyeglass retailers. A site for auto dealers is in development.
Marketing experts say Reynolds’ service may prove attractive to some businesses, though it’s not revolutionary. Advertising agencies already offer similar Web-based services to their clients, said Ken Bernhardt, a marketing professor at Georgia State University.
How does the system work? Reynolds provides an example: Say a small-town bank wants to run an ad in the local paper to highlight new deposit rates.
Instead of paying an advertising firm to create a new ad or modify an existing one, banks that sign up with Reynolds’ service are able to browse through thousands of professionally created ads.
After an ad is selected, the bank is able to alter the text, swap out photos, attach its logo and send it on for publication, all in minutes.
If a change requires approval from higher-ups at the bank, that process is automated, too.
GSU’s Bernhardt said the service could work well for small banks with limited resources. But larger institutions need more sophisticated, distinctive campaigns to stand out in the crowded marketplace, he said.
“It could be very attractive to a smaller bank who wants to invest their ad dollars in buying media instead of on creative and production costs,” Bernhardt said.
On the other hand, he said, with the premade ads on bankmarketingcenter.com, “you still don’t have somebody who creates advertising totally geared to your own strategy and brand personality.”
Synovus has signed on to use the bank marketing center, but in a way that’s tailored to its 30 subsidiaries, including Alpharetta-based Bank of North Georgia.
The company plans to download its own ads and marketing materials to a part of the site accessible only to the company’s banks.
Synovus’ 30 banks can peruse the online catalog and tailor materials to their own needs.
Loree Link, marketing director for Synovus, said the company has long made its marketing materials available to its banks, but Reynolds’ Web site automates the process, making it much easier and cheaper.
“I wish I had thought of it,” Link said with a laugh.
In the past, a Synovus bank that wanted to use company-generated material would have to download it and take it to a graphic designer to be modified. Now, a bank’s marketing manager will be able to do it himself, Link said.
Reynolds thinks his concept has broader application. Other industries he’s targeted include outdoors stores, eyeglass retailers and natural gas suppliers.
An auto dealer site is in development, while Reynolds is considering branching into health care and restaurant chains.
Reynolds outsources most of the work, from the creative teams that develop the campaigns to the computer programmers who build the sites. He estimates he’s invested about $1.5 million on the enterprise so far.
Each site is tailored to the needs of the specific industry, he said.
Doug Pritchard, chief financial officer of New Horizons Bank in East Ellijay, said the service is cost-effective for his small bank.
“We don’t do a lot of advertising, so it’s an economical way for us to produce ads,” he said. “It’s efficient, and it’s quick.”
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