AMPERAGE Marketing & Fundraising

One-Minute MarketerDo People Stay In-Channel When on Their Journeys?

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Do People Stay In-Channel When on Their Journeys?

In an article titled, “Why the Customer Journey in Banking will Never Be ‘Digital Only,’” in the Financial Brand Newsletter, it states, “Banks and credit unions tend to approach the consumer journey as a logical progression from point A to point B, and therefore assume that consumers want to remain in the channel they started in.”Bank building

The assumption is people stay “in-channel”—once they start in one channel they stay for the duration of the journey. But just like TV, it’s easy to change the channel. New research by ForeSee (January 2018) finds the customer journey is one of many channels and touch points.

The research found that for regional banks:

  • 36% of journeys start on the web> then 73% end up in a branch> 22% end on the phone
  • 5% start in a contact center > 67% end in a branch
  • 40% start in a branch > 94% end in a branch
  • 18% start on mobile > 59% end in a branch > 25% end on mobile

There were similar results for credit unions and national banks.

It’s human nature to try to oversimplify the process and point to “one thing” that makes all the difference. But for savvy marketers, who deeply understand their customers’ journeys and know that there are multiple paths and an infinite variety of complex touch points, the success and conversion rates will be much higher. Each touch point, digital and non-digital, makes “all the difference.”

When the customer does walk into a branch, “you need to ask them about their journey.” It’s this real market research that will reveal what is actually happening in an omni-channel, digital/non-digital world.

Written by:

Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle.

After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant.

He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.”

Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.”

One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College.

Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board.

Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.