HOW TO BUILD

A LIFETIME
OF FINANCIAL
LOYALTY
Digital marketing for all five stages
of the customer lifecycle
Financial services are changing.
Online and mobile-first players are making impressive strides in the
race for customer acquisition:

ɥɥ Marcus—Goldman Sachs’ online consumer bank

—attracted $45 billion in deposits and $5 billion in loans
in fewer than three years.

ɥɥ Apple provides the technology infrastructure for easy and

convenient mobile payments, cash-back rewards and financial
management tools to its 1.4 billion device users.

ɥɥ Online insurance provider Lemonade has more than 250,000

customers and $180 million in funding as of late 2018.
INTRO DUC TI O N

The five stages of the financial

customer lifecycle
These digital disruptors are winning customers from
traditional financial brands and raising customers’ Acquire:
expectations. National and regional banks, credit unions, card Bring new customers to your financial institution.
issuers, lenders and insurance companies still rely on direct mail
and auto-dialers for marketing, but these tactics fall short of these
increasing expectations. This lack of loyalty—and the need to build
it—was underscored when MasterCard CMO Raja Rajamannar Onboard:
famously said, “Three-quarters of brands could disappear and no Make sure they start using the service—whether
one would care. If you look 15 or 20 years back, people were seeking that means setting up direct deposit for their
reassurance from their brands. Today, there are so many choices it’s account or making their first purchase on a
a different kind of fight.” new credit card.

How can financial brands keep up? By changing the game.

Financial marketers need to reach qualified people in meaningful Grow:
ways at the most opportune moments. With the right digital Increase stickiness over time through value-added
marketing solution, they can manage the full financial lifecycle of services and upgrades.
each customer and balance privacy protection. With this approach,
they’ll stop customer attrition, increase engagement and be a better
financial partner to their customers over their lifetimes.
Cross-sell:
This guide shows financial brands how to bring current and Encourage adding relevant product categories
new customers through each stage of the lifecycle with a single, to deepen relationships.
integrated approach. Marketers will see that focusing on the
customer, not the brand, makes customers feel recognized,
valued and appreciated for years.
Retain:
Optimize your portfolio to stop
customer leakage.

3
INTRO DUC TI O N

What I buy

Who I am What I browse

It all starts with identity

management—and privacy
The average U.S. adult spends more than six hours a day
on digital media. All these online interactions leave digital signals
that marketers can use to understand people: their channel
preferences, purchase habits, wants, needs, life
events and more.

With this deep customer knowledge, financial brands can create

relevant, meaningful marketing for everyone they reach, and have
consistent conversations across devices and channels. This
is all achievable with identity management.

How I connect What I watch

Where I go

4
INTRO DUC TI O N

Identity management is all about knowing who customers are,

recognizing them online for years, and tailoring the messages based
on what they need and want. That way, the customer feels like the
brand truly knows them—like every message is part of an ongoing
conversation that grows over time, through every stage of the
financial lifecycle.

Brands, beware
Without quality identity management, many brands resort to
spray-and-pray marketing, using broad segments and minimal
contextualizing for the individual. This strategy is ineffective and
outdated. It wastes ad spend and creates negative perceptions in
many ways:

ɥɥ Promoting a financial product that’s irrelevant to the customer

or prospect
ɥɥ Featuring a financial product that someone already has
ɥɥ Treating existing customers like new prospects
ɥɥ Tailoring messages to the wrong person (e.g., a spouse) who
shares the device
ɥɥ Exposing someone to the same ad, over and over, across
their devices
ɥɥ Messaging someone after they’ve opted out of brand
communications
PAGESDUC TI O N
INTRO

Operating within a
privacy framework
Many customers take privacy into consideration when
choosing their financial provider because they understand
the importance of having their privacy protected. This is
especially true in this shifting privacy landscape. In order to
make customers feel comfortable and ensure that you are
truly complying with laws, a “Privacy by Design” program is
crucial. A critical component of this is following the principle of
data minimization, which means that you only collect the data
that you need and retain that data only as long as you need
it. In many cases, although it may take extra work, collecting
and retaining data that directly identifies an individual is not
necessary.

As the privacy landscape continues to shift, it is important that

financial brands make “Privacy by Design” a priority for both
their internal compliance efforts and their vendor selection.
Recent privacy laws such as the European General Data
Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy
Act (CCPA) are quickly becoming the standard for privacy and
data protection. Other states have already started to introduce
or enact their own privacy laws, and there is serious discussion
of an all-encompassing federal privacy law.

The challenge for any brand will be to maintain a privacy-

friendly environment without risking the quality of their
identity management or sacrificing their ability to provide
relevant, valuable solutions. In addition to that, high-quality
identity management is necessary to understand where your
data flows and maintain proper opt-out status of individuals.

6
INTRO DUC TI O N

Meet your customers

Shannon, Mason and Rich are all at very different life stages and have different financial needs.
But they all expect highly personalized marketing that speaks to each of them in the right moments.

Shannon Mason Rich

Shannon wants to upgrade from a condo to a Mason is a recent college grad Rich is looking forward to retirement
house after securing a higher-paying job. who just landed his first job. and wants to leave a sizeable inheritance
for his children.

7
INTRO DUC TI O N

Shannon Mason Rich

Privacy-protected ID: 4BD02913 Privacy-protected ID: 9PD04513 Privacy-protected ID: 1AD02879
Female, 34 | Single Male, 22 | Single Male, 59 | Married, grown kids
Income: $140K | Chicago, IL Income: $50K | Seattle, WA Income: $220K | Atlanta, GA

Card history Card history Financial products with bank

ɥɥ Basic debit card ɥɥ None ɥɥ Debit card

ɥɥ Platinum credit card
Recent browsing Recent browsing
ɥɥ Mortgage
ɥɥ Finance Co. > Account options ɥɥ Finance Co. > Credit cards
Recent browsing
Historical browsing Historical browsing
ɥɥ Finance Co. > Insights >
ɥɥ Banking & cards > ɥɥ Finance Co. > Savings Wealth management
Explore your options & checking
Historical browsing
ɥɥ Earn bonus points ɥɥ Homepage > Student banking
ɥɥ App > Mobile check deposit ɥɥ Homepage >
Devices Savings & checking
Devices
ɥɥ Borrowing >
ɥɥ iPhone
Mortgage refinancing
ɥɥ Apple iPad ɥɥ Android phone
ɥɥ IE, Chrome ɥɥ Chrome desktop Devices
and Android app
Dominant categories ɥɥ iPhone
Dominant categories ɥɥ Android tablet
ɥɥ Credit cards
ɥɥ IE (desktop)
ɥɥ Business ɥɥ Savings & checking
Dominant categories
Individual attributes Individual attributes
ɥɥ Savings & checking
ɥɥ City style ɥɥ Works in finance
ɥɥ Mortgages
ɥɥ Full-price shopper ɥɥ Frequent traveler
ɥɥ Works in marketing ɥɥ Outdoor enthusiast Individual attributes
ɥɥ Discount shopper
ɥɥ Car enthusiast
ɥɥ Family vacationer
ɥɥ Business traveler

8
ACQUIRE:
Engage with the right people
Acquisition is all about getting high-value, in-market
people in the door. As the number of providers and
financial services continues to grow, financial brands
have to know when people are hitting their next
financial milestone, from opening their first
account to saving for retirement.
PAGES
ACQ U IR E

There are two keys

to acquisition success:
Find the right people to acquire (e.g., not just looking for
1 the $500 bonus or free balance transfer).

Have more useful and relevant communications with these

2 people.

Instead of offering incentives to a large audience of potential

customers, identity management gives financial brands a holistic
view of each person, including their online behavior and browsing
history. This way, they’ll know when prospects are in-market for
specific financial products. This generates high-quality leads
and accounts by identifying new, high-value customers who are
ready to start a lifetime relationship with a financial partner.

24%
of people are looking for a better omnichannel
banking experience. But improving the omnichannel
experience isn’t a top priority for banks.
Source: BAI

10
ACQ U IR E

Identity management
in action

Mason

Mason is looking forward to traveling after his

recent college graduation. He has a basic savings
account but no credit card. He reads the news
online and checks the weather on his Android
phone every morning.

His bank identifies him as a great prospect for

a credit card with travel rewards. They deliver
messaging that offers 2x travel points on purchases
and an easy online application and management
interface. These communications are consistently
reinforced with emails, digital ads on his favorite
news sites and pop-up ads in his weather app.

NOTE: It’s a best practice to use digital prescreening to avoid the biggest challenge in loan acquisitions: offering products that your prospects will qualify
for. Identity management future-proofs your new customers by identifying the people who are likely to convert and adopt other products, resulting in
increased stickiness and customer loyalty.

11
ACQ U IR E

Real results 29%

more new card signups over KPI
A national private-label credit card (PLCC) issuer wanted to drive
quality new accounts for their premium products through digital
channels, but they weren’t meeting their goals with list retargeting.

Working with Conversant and TransUnion, they created a scalable,

accurate and transparent prescreen solution that combined real-
time behavioral data with their own financial services knowledge.

19%
With this unique data source, they defined a credit-ready audience
to message against their direct mail campaign.

under their CPA goal

Generate new customer opportunities

Competitive conquesting: Attract competitors’

accountholders and people establishing their first
deposit accounts.

Product spotlight: Market relevant tools such as

financial advice, a mortgage or a car loan.

New customers only: Suppress existing customers

from irrelevant acquisition messages in a privacy-
5%
incremental CPA
protected way.

12
2 ONBOARD:
Stop attrition
Many banks struggle to onboard new customers, leading
to high attrition rates. According to JD Power and
Associates, new customers are nearly three times more
likely to show attrition during the first 90 days of opening
an account. Fixing this problem starts with acquiring the
right customers in the first place.
O N BOAR D

According to The Financial Brand, customer satisfaction and

cross-sell successes improve when customers are contacted 4–7
times in their first 90 days. The sooner and more comprehensive
the follow-up, the sooner financial brands see an increase in
revenue per customer, average balance growth and products
adopted per customer.

Reinforcing the onboarding process across multiple channels often

leads to a 1.5–2x lift in results. With identity management, financial
brands can reach recently acquired customers across all their
devices and channels to encourage them to make a first deposit,
activate their new card or set up auto-pay for their mortgage.

14
O N BOAR D

Identity management in action

2018 research from Epsilon-Conversant
on personalization found:

Mason
of people are more likely to do business with a company
80% that offers personalized experiences.

The bank’s efforts to connect with Mason worked. He applied for the
are more likely to do business with a financial institution
cobranded travel card and was approved. It’s been a few weeks, and 89% that offers personalized experiences.
he hasn’t activated the card yet. The bank starts serving him ads with
messaging to activate his new card and start earning points today.

Consistently reaching him with relevant messaging in his preferred say personalization means customization and service for
channels increases the likelihood of activation and creates stickiness 64% them.
over time.
Source: Epsilon-Conversant, Power of me: More than a [firstname], 2018

Digital services that offer convenience and stickiness:

ɥɥ Bill pay from deposit accounts
ɥɥ Anytime deposits
ɥɥ Payroll, benefits, tax refund or rewards direct deposit
ɥɥ Remote banking
ɥɥ Mortgage and loan auto-pay
ɥɥ Scheduled savings or investment contributions

15
O N BOAR D

46K
purchases made

Real results
A national retailer wanted to increase their private-label credit
card (PLCC) use and avoid attrition. 30% of cardholders often
used tender other than their PLCC, so the goal was to deliver
relevant offers to cardholders to get them to use their PLCC more
frequently.

Using identity-based marketing, Conversant helped the retailer

find cardholders across channels, apps and devices and served
$6.5M
in sales driven
them relevant offers, which significantly increased their
transactions.

5%
lift in spend and usage

16
3 GROW:
Mature with each customer
Offering valued-added services and upgrades, especially
on digital channels, will continue to build customers’
relationships and improve their stickiness.

In fact, BCG recently explained that “digitizing for

value” is a key objective for financial brands. Using
digital technologies, such as mobile apps, websites
and interactive voice response, creates fundamentally
better experiences for customers. Adding this value can
“translate into an increase in each customer’s lifetime
revenue potential through higher average sales per
customer and a higher retention rate across the
whole customer base.”
GROW

To stay relevant, brands need to have a holistic view of their

customers’ interactions, and provide tailored offers that
reflect their current life events and triggers, all while adhering
to privacy guidelines. Traditional channels such as email and direct
mail are still valuable, but should be coupled with digital media on the
websites and apps each person visits most for a true omnichannel
approach.

Growing accounts across categories

Deposits
Increase deposits by showcasing the benefits of
converting to premier accounts. Once a customer
is in that segment, cross-sell additional premier
opportunities.

Spend
Incentivize customers to spend more, and more
often, on their credit card. Share personalized
opportunities and rewards for maximizing points
or gaining double rewards for specific purchases.

Services
Encourage customers to use offerings such as
subscribing to SMS, mobile and online account
management to keep their transactions simple and
stress-free.

18
GROW

Identity management in action

Driving growth with relevance
What customer experiences do financial institutions need to provide
Shannon to make a difference?

From the financial institution’s website or mobile app:

opens to each person’s preferred page

As a marketing executive, Shannon visits industry websites and
reads a news app on her phone every morning. Her bank has
29%
mailed and emailed her an offer to upgrade to a premier account,
but she hasn’t converted. The bank complements these owned
tactics with relevant messaging on the sites and apps she visits
most, reminding her of the upgrade benefits. Two weeks after 29% stores financial activity history to reference later
she sees the digital advertising, Shannon converts to a premium
account.

The beauty of this approach is that it’s personalized to her 23% stores billing information and preferences
individual preferences and behaviors. This mix of ad placements
would be different for Mason and Rich, adapting to each of their
online behaviors.
From the financial institution’s physical location:

reminds consumer of outstanding financial transactions

43% that need to be completed

43% allows consumer to set up recurring financial transaction

recommends financial products appropriate for

32% consumer’s financial situation

Source: Epsilon-Conversant, Power of me: More than a [firstname], 2018

19
GROW

82%
increased reach
Real results
A leading online bank wanted to generate approved student loan
applications from parents and college-bound students during a
short, three-month seasonal window.

By matching their customer list to privacy-protected online

profiles, Conversant helped the bank quickly find their desired

72%
audience and message those individuals, driving more efficiency
and effectiveness than other channels.

under their CPA goal

90%+
approval rate

20
4 CROSS-SELL:
Develop deeper, longer-lasting
connections
According to PwC, customers who use just one product
at a financial institution are less profitable than those who
use multiple products, and they also tend to be less sticky.
After acquiring, onboarding and growing each customer,
it’s time to see what other solutions they need, depending
on their life stage.

To stay top-of-mind, financial brands need to know what’s

relevant to each customer as their needs change. Weaving
products in with their customers’ lives will help build a
long-term relationship.
CROSS -S ELL

The cross-sell framework

What are customers likely to want, based on the one product they
Nurture multi-line, digitally engaged customers
already use?

Current product Cross-sell potential Multiple-line-of-business customers generate 2.5x

2.5X the amount of pretax income than their single-line
counterparts.
credit cards loans mortgages investments
Digitally engaged customers are 2x more likely to be
Deposits 2X multi-line customers than offline ones.

deposits credit cards mortgages investments

Multi-line customers spend 2x more on credit cards
2X than single-line.
Loans
Source: PwC

deposits investments home equity

Data-driven digital relationships are the most logical path to cross-
sell success. They help financial institutions break down marketing
Mortgages
barriers across products to actually cross-sell solutions to existing
customers.
deposits balance transfer investments
PwC found that traditional product-based
Credit cards acquisition strategies often lead to only a
single-product relationship.
deposits credit cards loans mortgages
PwC also found that digitally engaged customers are twice as likely
Investments to be multi-line customers than those primarily using offline service
channels. In credit cards alone, they spend twice as much.

22
CROSS -S ELL

Identity management in action

Rich

Rich has been a loyal customer with

his bank for years. As he approaches
retirement, the bank wants to discuss
longer-term financial planning with him
through owned communication channels.
But it’s a long decision-making process.

The bank sends him digital marketing through

the channels and apps he uses most, reminding
him of the benefits of bringing his retirement
savings to the same institution as his deposit
and checking accounts. Soon after seeing the
messages, Rich requests a meeting with the
bank’s wealth management team to discuss
bringing his retirement savings to the bank.

23
CROSS -S ELL

2,200
new accounts monthly
Real results 6x over monthly goal

One of the largest national banks wanted to cross-sell credit

cards, but their typical methods for digital marketing fell short.
They couldn’t identify a significant percentage of their highly
approvable accountholders and reach them across channels and
devices to hit an effective cost per acquisition (CPA) on a large
scale.

By connecting their customer file with privacy-protected online

profiles and reaching these individuals on digital channels,
Conversant helped the bank significantly grow their business.

$125+
under their CPA goal

24
5
RETAIN:
Be a partner for life
By acquiring the right high-value customers,
onboarding them and growing them through relevant
upsell and cross-sell offers, financial brands are well
positioned to retain customers over time.

Conversely, if brands acquire customers who are only

looking for short-term incentives, or if they haven’t fully
activated and engaged their customers from the start,
they’re probably still seeing a lot of attrition. Financial
institutions must continue to provide personalized
value to each customer as their needs evolve. Done
right, optimized lifecycle management can bring
customers through to new products, and even
re-engage and win back customers who have been
lost over time.
R E TAIN

According to the Digital Banking Report, effective

personalization throughout the customer’s lifecycle can:

Reduce customer churn rates by

10–30%
Lift customer
engagement scores by

2–3X
Lead to annual
revenue uplifts of

10%

26
R E TAIN

Identity management
in action

Mason

Mason continues to need financial services

throughout his life, such as financing for a car and
condo, and saving for college and retirement. There
are so many opportunities for the bank to be there
for Mason during these life changes—anticipating
and offering the solutions that make the most
sense for him at each step.

All of this increases brand engagement and

prevents attrition. But it’s only possible with a deep
understanding of each person’s brand interactions,
plus years of non-brand interactions online and
offline, all connecting back to a privacy-protected
online profile.

27
R E TAIN

Real results
$168:1
return on ad spend

A leading Fortune 100 financial services organization wanted to

increase retention of accountholders by expanding their marketing
beyond email and direct mail.

Conversant helped the brand match their customer file to the

online profiles of 200M+ people linked to unique IDs (with PII
removed). They found 89% of their customers online and served
them personalized digital ads across channels and devices.

$72M+
contribution growth

28
R ECOM M EN DATI O NS

Recommendations
The path forward: Managing across customers’
financial lifecycles

If financial brands want to deliver more relevant marketing, they

need to use identity management to get a deep understanding of
each customer.

Understand customers as a segment of one. Personalize the customer lifecycle.

1 Segmented messaging becomes one-size-fits-
none when segments are too big. Knowing and
4 With the right data, you’ll know when customers’ needs
change, and you’ll deliver relevant messages about the
understanding each customer as an individual allows next financial product they’re ready for.
financial brands to deliver relevant messages during
key decision-making moments.
Ensure efficient marketing spend.
Ensure privacy and compliance. 5 Delivering the right messages requires an always-on
2 Keeping digital marketing initiatives free of PII ensures
that information remains protected in all instances.
approach that can only be achieved with machine learning
that optimizes every interaction in real time.

Use customer data to strengthen connections Measure, optimize and measure again.
3 and establish new ones.
You can reach new and existing customers, but what
6 Predetermined seasonality and product pushes don’t take
the individual into account. Financial marketers need to
else do you know about them? Complement customer adopt a plan that is fluid and flexible, adjusting messaging
data with known online activity and devices for a to each customer’s wants and needs.
more complete picture of each customer.
*Repeat steps 2–6 for continuous improvement.

29
R ECOM M EN DATI O NS

2.2M+unique, qualified prospects

received messages
Real results
A Fortune 500 insurance company wanted to drive a niche
business line by reaching qualified, new leads, but their previous
digital attempts resulted in low reach and high cost per lead.

They matched their customer list to Conversant’s online profiles,

allowing them to model their policyholders to find ideal prospects.
Then they reached these new, in-market leads across devices,
while suppressing current policyholders. They achieved scale and
accuracy across locations—driving efficiency and performance.

95%
below cost-per-lead
40%
of leads requested
benchmark from policy coverage
previous partner

30
CO NCLUSIO N

Conclusion
Meeting customer expectations—set by industry disruptors and
platform providers such as Amazon, Facebook and Google—is made
even more difficult by increasing regulations and privacy concerns.

To grow profits, financial brands need to think differently

and evolve with customer demands.

How to compete in a changing market:

Focus on each customer as an individual.

1 “CMOs want a deeper understanding of their
Strive for an omnipresent marketing strategy across
2 channels and devices.
Personalize every interaction to deepen and extend
3 relationships over time.
Expand digital marketing beyond the typical spray-and-pray
4 approach to have direct, one-to-one conversations with
people, everywhere they are online.
customers and the ability to reach them at
moments of interest, across channels and
devices, with personalized communications.
Delivering real-time personalized
communications requires powerful solutions
that activate insights by fusing data,
technology and creative.”
– Wayne Townsend, President, Epsilon, from MarTech Series

This approach is an evolution of traditional customer relationship

management, pulling together CRM data (email, direct mail), online
behavioral data (cookies, device IDs) and transactions (online and
offline) to build a complete, holistic view of each customer.

This integration of data insights provides a full view of each

customer and helps to better serve them throughout their lifecycle:
acquire, onboard, grow, cross-sell and retain.

It’s time to get started. Shannon, Mason and Rich will thank you for
it—with their lifelong business and loyalty.

31
 How Epsilon-Conversant can help
At Epsilon-Conversant, we empower brands to place humans at the center
of their marketing. Our technology and data-driven insights help brands
make every customer interaction more personal and purposeful to devel-
op relationships that actually mean something. Using our connected suite
of products and services across leading-edge identity management and in-
dustrial-strength data and technology expertise, we help brands eliminate
irrelevant, confusing or unwanted customer experiences and build human
connections that drive exceptional business outcomes.

Visit our financial services page to learn more.

Ready to create real connections with your customers? Contact us today.

For media and press inquiries, please contact pr@conversantmedia.com.

This document is intended solely for distribution by Conversant, Epsilon and their affiliated companies. Do not copy, distribute or otherwise
share. © 2019 Conversant LLC and Epsilon Management, LLC. All rights reserved. Epsilon-Conversant™, Epsilon® and Conversant ® are
trademarks of Epsilon Data Systems, LLC or its affiliated companies.