Michelle Meacham of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin writes:
“While the company I represent is fairly large (a bank with $1 billion in assets), all of our 27 locations are in small Wisconsin markets. The largest of them is in Green Bay.
“It seems that many (nearly all!) of the public relations resources I have found are oriented to national or at least multi-state (large regional) organizations. How does a big fish in a little pond make a continual splash within the limits of local media and conservative community thinking?
“I know many PR tips can be translated to any scale, but a lot of the really good stuff (i.e. Google searching on media contacts) is of extremely limited value in these itty-bitty markets. Even blogging hasn’t really caught on here yet. I know I’m asking for the best of both worlds, but how do I bring big-city PR value to “I-know-all-my-neighbors” communities?
I was editor of small town newspapers in Minnesota, and people stories always got my attention. Make sure your employees know to share with you their activities and involvements, which you in turn can share with the local newspapers. People are often reluctant to toot their own horns, so this is something nice you can do for your employees. It’s a win all the way around, really. The bank shows pride in its employees and that it values their contributions to the community. When the accomplishment is particularly noteworthy, you might also recognize the employee during a work day and invite the public to stop by.
A caution – make sure the focus of your press release is the person and his/her contribution. Just mentioning this person is a bank employee should be enough, in a small town, everybody will know where to find you.
Try using the same approach when you announce charitable contributions – focus the release on the organization you’re helping first. You’re still getting your name out there in a positive way – again, the up side of being in a small town is that the simple mention of your bank’s name in an article will have a greater impact, because many people already know who you are.
Michelle – Although it may really depend on what you’re trying to achieve, e.g. new customers, increased savings by current customers, etc – and it will sound extremely cheesey – why not tap into the nostalgic baby boom generation by offering everyone who opens a new account a toaster oven.
It might take some doing, but I’m sure there’s a US based appliance company who would work with you to reduce the wholesale price. Play up the nostalgia factor in graphics and advertising the campaign. Acknowledge that it’s a cheesey gimic – poke some fun at yourselves and the banking industry when they did give away such things as toaster ovens years ago. If you’re looking for young people to open up accounts, then is there a toy toaster oven, akin to an Easy Bake Oven, which could be given to kids.
And if giving away an appliance is just too expensive, then on the opposite end of the cost scale, is there a way of morphing the idea and giving away toaster oven fridge magnets.
Michelle,
Being from a small town myself, I can relate to what your saying, but my advice is don’t over look your biggest asset — your self-proclaimed “I-know-all-my-neighbors” mantra. I think you should emphasize this in all your PR/marketing efforts.
People often live in small towns and do business in small towns for that sense of security — that sense of knowing and supporting their neighbors. That is your biggest asset, so promote it.
People still want customer service and want to feel like a name, not just a number, and your small town banks can provide it.
Have local artists display their work in the bank with an art show. Have kids show off their cats
or dogs or rabbits and have judging. Soon it will be Easter…have an Easter show. A singing rabbit, an egg hunt. Have a pianist play at various times during the day. Have the local highschool band serenade customers. Ask the local highschool or college newspaper to send a reporter and question customers on the news of the day. The local department store could put on a
fashion show. Take advantage of anything in the local news–the local department store is 100 years old–put up photos and the history of the store throughout the bank. Advertise pizza at lunch to anyone who wants it or coffee and danish in the morning.
Hi Michelle,
As a general rule, sponsorship is always an effective tool in the communications mix. More and more companies are setting aside marketing dollars for sponsorships because they have multi-faceted advantages for the sponsor organization and the recipient and they are extremely cost effective.
We have found that small communities are a great place to promote sponsorships, in your case, by the bank client, for community groups, such as a local women’s organization or a senior citizens club, etc. The bank sponsors the group when they are planning an event that will benefit either the organization itself or a charity. The theme of the event can then be used as a means to set up some kind of traveling display that advertizes the event and the charity in the different branches of the bank. For example, if the local Chapter of the “Red Hat Society” is having an event to raise money for Womens’ Heart Health Awareness, the Society would design a display that includes a red hat and some facts about the cause and sets it up in the main branch of the bank for a week. They can also include some chance books or order forms for tickets to the event with the display. The display then travels to the other branches for a pre-specified number of days and the event gets broad publicity among bank customers. The bank is credited in the local press with being a supporter of the Red Hat Society and womens’ health issues and attracts new business based on their community involvement. This is more of a human interest method of advertizing and is quite effective in projecting the reputation of the bank as a company with a heart; one that would be open to their customers’ individual needs. The bank could also consider doing this on a quarterly basis with local organizations applying for the sponsorships on a rotating schedule.
Michelle,
A year ago I presented a seminar to the New England chapter of the American Banking Association Marketing Network on creative publicity ideas for banks. I suggested dozens of angles for getting local publicity and explained how to execute the ideas. Here are just a few of those dozens:
* Banking trends – local usage of online banking/bill-paying versus national usage
* Banking-related measures consumers can take to prevent identity fraud
* Job growth and how the bank is helping
* Insights from your vantage point on how the local real estate market is changing
* What you’re doing about your environmental impact
And more!
Good luck,
Marcia Yudkin
Author, 6 Steps to Free Publicity and 10 other books
My employer operates in many of the same “I know all my neighbors” communities. We’ve found that the best community relations still come from having our own executives and employees go out and talk with small groups–town hall meetings, civic and religious groups, etc. (Many groups appreciate it if you call and volunteer to speak.) Bring big paper and markers to leave a real picture in people’s minds. You might want to get a few people to volunteer to make the circuit, talking about issues like “How to keep a construction project under budget” or “Creating Kids who are Super Savers” or “What That Credit Card Company Doesn’t Want You To Know” or “Improve Your Finances in Just Two Hours Per Month.” Create reminder cards with your logo and web address that speakers can hand out–something with a shelf life, perhaps with one suggested action item each month.
Also: Some kids get imprinted plastic piggy banks when they open savings accounts. But why limit yourself to customers? School districts might love to use something similar in math classes! (I’d bet some Door County carpenter could even make sturdy wood “coins” to accompany plastic banks as a counting toy for day care centers and schools…and you could probably submit that artist to media as a feature story idea!)
Best of luck–even serving small communities is worth media attention (and applause) these days!
In answer to Michelle Meacham of Sturgeon Bay I googled Wisconsin and found information for Michelle on this excellent site http://www.infoplease.com/atlas/state/wisconsin.html Without realizing it, her words “I-know-all-my-neighbors” communities actually gave me a pretty good hint on what sort of campaign Michelle could run. It reminds me of the Sesame St song about getting to know ‘The people in your neighbourhood.’ That could be a big theme for a campaign to be announced by the bank and run over a number of months to highlight different sectors of each community within the bank’s regions.
On that website she’ll find information about industries, policy development, tourism and recreation in the Wisconsin area.
Wisconsin was a pioneer in social legislation – pensions for the blind, aid to dependant children, old age assistance.
Has the bank initiated any procedures to help people with disabilities have better access to the bank’s services? If so, this would be worthy of a press release. Even better, if you can offer a local TV station a filming opportunity showing someone in this situation actually using this kind of service.
By exploring the website, I noticed the amount of water sports. Maybe the bank could sponsor a current sporting event and even invite a major celebrity to present the award at the local level. The bank could provide a trophy or even better provide a new bank pass book with some money in it to open the account.(also attracting a new customer in the process)
I noticed how many natural features there were in the Wisconsin area. Perhaps the bank could sponsor a couple of photographic exhibitions, one based on photos of the forests, parks and recreational areas. The bank might approach a major camera supplier as a partner for this exhibition and ask them to donate a good camera as a prize.
Another competition might be called ‘the heart of Wisconsin.’ Ask people to submit photos that capture an image from the heart of people from Wisconsin. That may include family photos of special moments, special people, or special places. For the judging team, ask the local newspaper photographer and local TV cameraman to judge the entries. That will give them an incentive to give this some extra publicity.
The bank could ask for special one page stories to be submitted about public ‘heroes’ or moments of great local heroism. They could then put them all in the windows of the bank for the public to read. The local media could be alerted and the best one chosen to be interviewed by the local media.
Put out a couple of tip sheets aimed at the electronically challenged in the community.
Find an older person who would be willing to learn how to use a teller machine or try online banking and approach a local TV programme to ask if they’d be interested in filming this story in order to help the elderly in their community.
Quite a few of my individual suggestions could be run over a month long period with press releases indicating the up to date response and progress to a competition.
Don’t forget the bank could host special events for things like mothers’ or fathers’ days. The bank could have special badges made up to hand out to mothers just prior to the day. The badges could say ???(the name of the bank)and a good quote. The bank might print T-shirts for staff to wear on special occasions. They could include the bank logo and a quote appropriate to the occasion.
That’s it for me for ideas.
Cheers from Australia,
Sophie
“Big City” PR may not really be what you want. I know that you refer to QUALITY — but “big city” and quality do not always go hand in hand. My suggestions is to GO WITH WHAT WORKS. You said that there is a “I-know-all-my-neighbors” mentality — that sounds PERFECT for buzz-marketing. Why not “advertise” by 1)adopting some local schools, 2)creating a “refer-my-neighbor” email campaign, 3)host some community events, and 4)sponsoring or co-sponsoring some projects that the communities have been wanting or needing? Also — what about creating college scholarships for some local kids and also doing some things with some local Nursing Homes?
THANKS to everyone who replied! Your feedback provides great confirmation & inspiration for our PR efforts!