Tactics to Drive Conversions and Engagement on Your Bank Site

We recently worked with a leading regional consumer bank to boost conversion and upsells and decided to share everything we learned in the process so that you can apply these tactics yourself. 

We started with an initial site audit to analyze the user experience, then moved on to a deep dive into what’s working well today, what could be improved upon, and what can be learned from the bank’s competitors. We established distinct findings to equip us for the next step in the process: creating the site roadmap.

From there, we got even more specialized within the four key areas of focus of the project; analytics, SEO, site experience, and leveling up. 

Capturing the right data 

Your customer’s interactions are the driving force behind understanding your site’s needs. Reading and staying on top of your analytic reports is how you find out what those needs are.   

Keep it clean
To achieve a more accurate reporting structure, we recommend enhancing account configurations to track KPIs more accurately and effectively. 

Adjust the views to follow best practices
 and add site search tracking to understand your customers.

Align
Monitoring user interaction and engagement on your site is critical to understanding whether your users are finding products and behaving in a way that supports larger business goals and initiatives. 

We recommend using the following KPIs to align overall website goals:

• CTR on recommended content
 
• Decrease bounce rate
 
• Increase conversion rate
 
• Increase account sign-ups 

 
Bounce Rate
Double down on understanding your page bounce rates. This will allow you to know if something needs to be fixed, revised, or completely reworked. 

Crawlability, Crawlability, Crawlability 

Want to know why SEO is so critical? Think about the last time you clicked on the second page of a Google search. Does never or once in a blue moon come to mind? People believe anything worth searching for should be on the first page and the first page alone. 

In our experience, foundational SEO issues that hold brands back are far more common than you might think.

You have the opportunity to optimize to improve rankings and on-page SEO using Google’s Page Crawler. 

Example issues include: 

• Generic meta descriptions
• URLs too long

• Duplicate titles

• Duplicate content

• Images missing alt text

Rank has its privileges
There is always an opportunity to take a step back and do competitor keyword research to create a fresh, non-branded keyword strategy for your site. 

For example:

The customer is not a moron

Whether your site is performing optimally, or you’re currently going through a massive overhaul, taking time to audit your user experience to reduce friction is crucial. We’ve added a few key ideas to get you started. 

Navigation
Allowing the user to flow through your site without frustration will bring about a better user experience. The ripple effect for poor nav flow is increased bounce rates, poor conversions, and little to no engagement. 

A few quick fix areas to start:

• Create multiple ways to get to the same content
• Format bug
s
• Remove unnecessary clicks in user paths

• Add a clear indicator of what section of the site the user is on

URL Paths
Users and search engines rely on URL paths to understand what page they are on and where it lives in the larger hierarchy of the site. URL structure should be intuitive and consistent.

Cross-promote
There is an opportunity to feature relevant services and resource content on service landing pages.

Find a branch
If your location finder and experience doesn’t make it clear how many branches there are, add a total number of locations plus the general region you serve.

Resources
Your blogs, educational insights, and articles are valuable content that can help drive traffic, so make sure they are easily accessible to your users. 

Onsite search
A search feature offers users a last resort to find exactly what they are looking for, or an avenue to get information on a particular topic. Consider adding predictive search and making advanced search more user-friendly.

Leveling up, or, go the distance

Everyone knows the basic features of a bank, but they don’t know what makes yours unique. What is it you can provide over other banks? You have the opportunity to upsell on your key features beyond the basics. 

Find an advisor
Create a guided experience for users to be matched with a financial advisor based on their needs.

Advanced contact
Create an option for potential customers to contact you straight from the homepage based on their specific product needs.

Calculator library
Provide interactive tools for users to engage with to get their questions answered. This will also show them how your bank knows what to do to fix their exact dilemma or situation.

Summary: Your interest rates might be the same as your competitors’, but customer experience never is. There’s no shortage of opportunities to enhance the user experience for your banking customers, but knowing which ones will work best takes expertise. Beyond what has been addressed in this insight, we have a few more tricks and tips up our sleeve. To learn more, reach out, and we will be happy to assist you.