Engagement marketing is a strategy that focuses on creating personalized, timely interactions that connect with people in meaningful ways. It goes far beyond generic emails or digital ads.
For banks and credit unions, engagement marketing means leveraging data to deliver relevant, personalized messages that resonate with account holders. This approach not only strengthens relationships but also drives measurable growth.
Today’s account holders expect their financial institutions to understand them—not just by name, but by life stage, financial behavior, and personal preferences. Engagement marketing empowers financial institutions to meet those expectations by turning data insights into action.
This is where financial services marketing automation plays a critical role, enabling institutions to execute smart, scalable campaigns that convert.
Engagement marketing is a key driver of growth and customer loyalty in today’s competitive financial landscape. Here’s why it matters for financial institutions:
It builds trust. Whether it’s a personalized credit card offer or a recommendation to explore mortgage options, each marketing message should feel relevant, not random. When marketing engagement is relevant, account holders feel understood, and they’re more likely to convert.
It improves efficiency. Instead of campaigns with broad targeting and low returns, targeted engagement marketing allows for smarter resource allocation and higher conversion rates.
It boosts revenue. Data-backed engagement marketing is good for both your account holders and your bottom line. Engaged account holders are more likely to use multiple products and services, which increases lifetime value.
To unlock meaningful growth, banks and credit unions must move beyond generic marketing and start leveraging their data. Engagement marketing turns raw insights into personalized, high-impact campaigns, and financial services marketing automation makes this process scalable.
Here’s how data-driven engagement marketing tools support growth for banks and credit unions.
Most financial institutions have more data than they know what to do with, from core systems, digital banking platforms, transactions and more. But without the right tools, that data sits unused. Engagement marketing platforms transform raw data into insights you can act on.
For example, by analyzing insights from account holders’ everyday transaction data, you can identify those who are paying off loans elsewhere and offer refinancing options. Or find who’s using savings apps and promote your institution’s high-yield savings account.
One of the things I marveled at when we launched Alkami Data & Marketing Solutions was our ability to identify microniches, even to the person level if we wanted to.
–Chad Gramling, Assistant Vice President of Business Intelligence, 3Rivers Federal Credit Union
With data-driven audience segmentation, banks and credit unions can build highly targeted marketing campaigns based on real behaviors, not just demographics. Instead of sending the same email to everyone, you can send a personalized offer for an auto loan to someone who frequently visits an auto repair shop. Or highlight travel rewards to someone booking frequent flights. These kinds of relevant, timely messages stand out and drive action.
Prior to having the Alkami Data & Marketing platform, in a lot of cases the targeting would just be age range and which products members already have with us,” Mariah said. “The predictive AI cross-sell model allows us to hit members that we probably wouldn’t be able to identify on our own. It works as an easy button to unlock members that we may have missed otherwise.
–Mariah Martz, Senior Digital Marketing Strategist, Arkansas Federal Credit Union
Read more about how Arkansas Federal uses predictive AI for winning marketing engagement.
Financial services marketing automation doesn’t have to be impersonal. When they’re triggered by real-life actions, automated marketing engagements can actually feel more personal.
Imagine an account holder logs into online banking and pays off their credit card. Within hours, they receive a message congratulating them and introducing your institution’s rewards card. That kind of timely outreach feels thoughtful, not robotic. And it happens automatically, without your team having to lift a finger.
NET Federal Credit Union personalizes cross-sell engagement marketing
NET Federal Credit Union scaled their cross-sell capabilities using Alkami’s financial services marketing solutions. By harnessing data insights and predictive AI, they launched personalized marketing campaigns that resulted in increased product adoption and engagement.
Read more about NET Federal Credit Union’s personalized member outreach here.
High-performance engagement marketing should meet people where they are: on mobile, email, in-branch, or even just browsing the web. Platforms that support omnichannel campaigns allow you to reach account holders through digital banking, SMS, email, digital ads and more. That means you can stay connected with your audience no matter how they choose to interact with you.
You can’t improve what you don’t track. Engagement marketing platforms offer full-cycle attribution reporting that help determine what’s working and what could be improved. Want to know which campaign drove the most loan applications? Or how your checking account campaigns are performing? With the right tools, those answers are just a click away.
By switching to a data-driven marketing strategy, I’ve been able to prove the value of our marketing messages.
–Chris VanAusdale, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications, Westfield Bank
Read more about Westfield Bank’s use of data for engagement marketing here.
It’s time to move beyond generic marketing and start creating experiences that make account holders feel understood and empowered to take action. With engagement marketing, you can get the right messages to the right account holders at the right time, resulting in higher conversions from marketing efforts and ensuring immediate and long-term growth for your financial institution.
