If you work in the banking industry, you know how quickly customer trends can change. With each successive generation of new banking clients, new expectations for digital services that align with their priorities and goals need to be identified and addressed. To be successful in the coming decades, financial institutions have to understand what guides the banking habits of Millennials and deliver services that encourage them to forge lasting banking relationships.

Unfortunately, with the advent of digital banking, it’s trickier than ever to carve out a space in the market. Currently, banks face increased competition from fintech companies and other nontraditional providers of financial services. And even though 79% of Millennials trust traditional financial institutions to provide these services, 75% of people in this generation put the same level of trust in fintechs.

With this situation in mind, the best time to start taking customer acquisition seriously and establishing partnerships with the right fintech firms is now. Here are some of the top strategies to improve customer acquisition for banks that will set your institution apart from the competition for years to come. 

Key Points of Customer Acquisition for Banks

Whether your bank is doubling down on building a Millennial customer base or just trying to optimize its day-to-day business, there are several principles that apply across the board. Digital banking strategies and customer trends will keep evolving, and the following concepts will help you connect with the next generation of customers and develop the relationships you’ve already built. 

Offer Both Digital and Physical Banking Options

As of 2023, 48% of U.S. consumers preferred to handle their banking needs through mobile apps. Meanwhile, 23% of bank customers opted to manage their bank accounts on a desktop or laptop computer, while just 9% did most of their banking at a physical branch. 

Investing in a feature-rich, easy-to-use mobile app and website should be a key part of your customer acquisition strategy. These services can serve a wide range of needs, build comfort and trust in your institution, increase the ease and frequency of transactions, and even break new ground with potential clients in desirable areas like legacy and succession planning. 

Still, this doesn’t mean you should exclusively focus on digital banking from now on. Despite the declining popularity of physical banks for everyday transactions, 82% of people consider having a local bank branch to be a high priority. To maximize your bank’s appeal, you’ll need to provide a solid digital service while continuing to maintain in-person locations that leverage relationship banking strategies. 

Get Active Online

Traditionally, banks only interacted with their customers when they needed to conduct transactions—making it hard for these financial institutions to form relationships with their clients. But thanks to the increasing prominence of social media, banks now have a new way to connect with existing and potential customers.

When you share financial information with prospective clients and communicate directly with them online, you can give these people reasons to care about your bank and engage with multigenerational services. With benefits like these on the table, it’s not hard to understand why 88% of banks are either “active” or “very active” on social media.

Focus on Your Reputation

If you’re trying to attract new customers, nothing matters more than your bank’s reputation. That means it’s a good idea to prioritize online review management—after all, research suggests that 55.2% of customers are influenced by reviews while looking for a bank. Start by establishing a process for getting new reviews, sharing these reviews with the world, and replying to both positive and negative reviews as professionally as possible.

Embracing New Services and Products

Building emotional connections with existing customers through meaningful and valuable services is one of the best ways to foster multigenerational banking habits that will put your institution in a competitive position. Clients who are invested in your institution beyond a transactional context will be less likely to switch to another organization and more likely to recommend your bank to their friends and family. Social media can help in this regard, but offering services intended to foster these relationships can be a game changer. 

Legacy and estate planning are perfect examples of services that can help your bank truly connect with its customers. Surprisingly enough, two-thirds of all U.S. adults don’t have legacy plans in place. By empowering people to engage in long-range financial planning with your institution, you create the opportunity to engage in a wide range of valuable and life-changing financial activities together that lead to customer acquisition for banks. 

Since planning for the future is so important, you might assume that the legacy and estate planning market is already saturated—but that’s not the case in practice. In fact, most banks haven’t started offering services like these yet, making this a golden opportunity to engage Millennials as they become beneficiaries and get their families started on the path to building wealth.

The Benefits of Working With Paige

If your bank is like most financial institutions, it isn’t prepared to offer digital legacy and estate planning services on its own. Basic paperwork and a printed guide for customers is distinctly 20th century, and it takes a well-developed platform of integrated, intuitive digital services to resonate with younger customers—and that’s where Paige comes in.

When you start working with Paige, the first thing you’ll notice is our relationship-driven approach. Unlike other fintechs, our primary goal is to help banks build meaningful, long-lasting relationships with current and incoming customers. But that won’t come at the cost of your bottom line: in fact, banks that work with Paige can see ROI increases of more than 300% in mere months.

Paige’s life planning and succession software platform helps banks deliver:

Services for Individuals

There’s no denying the fact that legacy and estate planning can get complicated, but family members of all ages can keep this process under control when they’re able to work together and share important information. With assistance from Paige, families will have an easier time handling:

• Documents and Data. Wills, passwords, insurance information, and account numbers are just some of the documents and data points that play a crucial role in legacy planning. Paige’s platform serves as a place where families can store this ever-changing data and access it with ease (giving beneficiaries a connection to your financial institution).
• Estate Details. During the estate planning process, people need to keep track of inventories, insurance details, deeds, and broker information. Banks that work with Paige can manage this info on their clients’ behalf.
• Messages and Memories. Along with the documents, data, and details listed above, your clients will want their memories to endure in the form of photos and videos. Paige gives people an opportunity to keep these files in digital vaults and view them with the help of timestamp features. It’s a wonderful way for families to share valuable content and begin familiarizing themselves with—and participating in—the legacy planning process. 

Services for Businesses

Planning for the future isn’t just beneficial for individuals—businesses must go through a similar process to prepare for succession. Even though not having a succession plan can cause significant problems for small and medium businesses (SMBs), two-thirds of these businesses have not created one of these plans. Paige (and, by extension, your bank) can help SMBs and other companies with services related to:

• Details and Assets. When business owners get ready to hand over their companies to someone else, they’ll have to share a great deal of information in the process. Digital legacy planning can help these people organize contacts, accounts, and other data points in advance.
• Vital Documents. Just like personal legacy and estate planning, preparing for a business’s future involves a ton of documents. Paige can make it easier for businesses to keep track of documents outlining their plans, processes, and protections.
• Succession Strategies. For businesses to change hands with zero friction, they must have a clear line of succession and a transparent succession process.

Improve Your Bank’s Customer Acquisition and Retention

Customer acquisition for banks has always been a pressing issue for competitive institutions, but today, investing in the right services is even more important than just perfecting the offerings you already have. If your bank can’t connect with the needs and goals of the next generation of bankers, you’ll never build a reliable customer base that stays engaged for the decades it takes to foster long-term institutional growth. 

By following the tips listed in this article and adopting Paige’s platform, your bank can offer valuable legacy and estate planning services that promote multigenerational banking habits and attract new customers. Beyond that, the emotional connections our services create will give people a reason to stick with your financial institution, improving your retention rates as a direct result. Find out more about what we can do for you by booking a demo today!