Pub. 7 2017-2018 Issue 1

8 O V E R A C E N T U R Y : B U I L D I N G B E T T E R B A N K S - H E L P I N G C O L O R A D A N S R E A L I Z E D R E A M S Attracting Deposits: The Marketing Value of Branches Yet, despite the large shift towards digital banking, branches are still considered a vital source for attracting deposits to banks, partic- ularly retail deposits, which remain the prima- ry funding source for most community banks. A large majority of respondents to Prom- ontory Interfinancial Network’s Q3 2016 Bank Executive Business Outlook Survey (63.2%) indicated that they see in-branch sales as an es- sential channel for attracting retail deposits— double that of any other marketing channel. Branches play a more secondary role for other types of deposits, though they are still considered valuable for corporate deposits. Forty-two percent of respondents identified branches as being “very” or “somewhat” im- portant for attracting corporate deposits, be- hind only direct sales outreach. The response was nearly identical by bank size, with both larger and smaller community banks seeing value in branches. Adding Bricks To Clicks While traditional branches have remained vital to community banks, the same cannot be said of traditional media marketing. Outside of branch marketing, community banks are T he value of maintaining physical branch lo- cations has been a hotly contested topic for years as more and more customers move their banking activities online and even to their phones. Banks have been responding tomarket demandby focusing investments ononline andmobile banking applications that enable everything fromba- sic balance checking to check deposits and payments. FEATURE ARTICLE GLENN MARTIN REGIONAL DIRECTOR, PROMONTORY INTERFINANCIAL NETWORK Community banks have, on occasion, been characterized as lagging wider business trends when it comes to the adoption of technology. However, in this regard, community banks may actually have adapted ahead of wider marketing trends.