By Taylor Richardson
Sr. Marketing Cloud Consultant, EMS Consulting
There are countless reasons that marketers choose Salesforce Marketing Cloud, and a few of mine are certainly Journey Builder, backed by Automation Studio and data extensions. And one of the big reasons Marketing Cloud was so exciting to me as a financial services marketer years ago was the promise of creating onboarding journeys that were tailored to each different type of loan and account we offered. That’s why I’ve taken the time to share the types of onboarding journeys every bank and credit union can and should have, along with potential goals each journey could attempt to accomplish through email, SMS, social media content, and any other journey activities you have available.
For simplicity’s sake, this article will assume Salesforce CRM as the primary data source in Marketing Cloud, but nearly any other system can be substituted in its place.
Every journey will contain some combination of emails, decision splits, and waits; if you have additional Marketing Cloud add-ons like Mobile Studio or Ad Studio, those activities should also be available to use in your journey.
Data Pre-Requisites for Marketing Cloud Journeys
The journeys you can do in Marketing Cloud depend on the data and frequency you have flowing into Marketing Cloud from another system such as Salesforce CRM.
For example:
- If you don’t have card data coming into Marketing Cloud, you cannot do card journeys or have decision splits based on card data.
- If you don’t have real-time/ near-time data coming into Marketing Cloud, your journey entries and decision splits will need at least appropriate wait activities to allow the data to update in Salesforce before Journey Builder can use it.
To verify the Salesforce objects and fields you have currently flowing into Marketing Cloud, simply login to your Marketing Cloud instance and navigate to Contact Builder > Data Sources > Synchronized; click on your Salesforce org card to view your synchronized objects.
Onboarding Journeys for Banks & Credit Unions Using Marketing Cloud
Brand-New Customer/Member
Welcoming a brand-new customer or member is a great way to introduce your organization and give a great first impression. Take this opportunity to show off perks, rewards, and other benefits of being a customer or member. An appropriate cadence of emails and service calls should do the trick.
It’s also a good idea to think about your “Brand-New Customer/Member” Onboarding journey as truly separate from a New Account or New Loan journey. Why? Think about it this way – the New Customer/Member Onboarding Journey should introduce people to your bank or credit union as a first-timer, regardless of the product they got. Separately, your New Account or New Loan onboarding journeys can focus on fulfilling their account- or loan-specific goals. You don’t have to complicate this journey by trying to make it conform to the exact loan and account spread each person got.
Depending on your business processes and data architecture, however, it may require some careful planning to correctly identify the entry criteria and journey eligibility from a data standpoint. For example, some financial institutions may be able to identify a brand-new customer/member by the fact that a new Contact record is created in Salesforce coupled with either a new Account or new Loan. But every financial institution’s processes and data architecture is different, so be sure to involve a business analyst or even a data engineer from your team to help nail down the entry criteria.
New Account Onboarding Journeys
Because your Brand-New Customer/Member Journey is focused on welcoming brand-new customers/members to the bank or credit union, these New Account Onboarding journeys can focus on communication and goals specific to the account type. That also means that these New Account journeys don’t have to consider whether someone is a new or existing customer/member.
- New Checking Onboarding Journey
- Goals to Consider: set up direct deposit, ensure debit card was ordered, encourage Online Banking login, encourage Mobile App download and login, etc.
- New Savings Onboarding Journey
- Goals to Consider: encourage Online Banking login, encourage Mobile App download, encourage setting up recurring deposits, enroll in educational email journey, move a portion to a CD, etc.
- New Money Market Onboarding Journey
- Goals to Consider: any of the aforementioned goals, or even cross-selling investment services, appointments with wealth advisors, etc.
- New CDs/ Share Certificates Onboarding Journey
- Goals to Consider: explaining how the CD works, withdrawing funds if needed, renewing the CD upon maturity, adding additional funds to it, setting appointments with wealth advisors, etc.
- New IRAs Onboarding Journeys
- Goals to Consider: meetings with retirement planning and wealth management advisors, attend educational events, etc.
If you’re afraid that it’ll take you six months or more to build and launch all of these New Account Onboarding Journeys, talk to the Marketing Cloud experts at EMS Consulting. We can act as an extension of your team and help do the heavy lifting in Marketing Cloud to bring your customer experience dreams to life.
New Loan Onboarding Journeys
Onboarding new borrowers with an automated journey can achieve many different goals, but no matter what, it can help ensure your new borrowers make their first payment on time and that there are no surprises or lapses in communication.
- Auto/ Vehicle/ RV/ Boat/ Motorcycle and Vehicle Loan Refinances
- Goals to Consider: provide proof of insurance to avoid CPI, set up automatic payments, refinance additional vehicles from other institutions, etc.
- Personal Loans, LOCs, and Credit Cards
- Goals to Consider: set up automatic payments, open a checking account with a line of credit as overdraft protection, learn about rewards and benefits, etc.
- Mortgages and Mortgage Refinances
- Goals to Consider: set up automatic payments, read necessary disclosures and important information, refer friends and family, open a checking, etc.
- Home Equity Loans & HELOCs
- Goals to Consider: set up automatic payments, learn options for making HELOC withdrawals, understand important facts about equity loans, etc.
Don’t wait another month without giving your customers/members the important loan information they need to make their first payments and ultimately have a positive borrowing experience. Talk to the Marketing Cloud Consultants at EMS Consulting about your customer/member onboarding vision.
New Services & Program Onboarding Journeys
Create automated, personalized emails from service specialists when your customers and members enroll in new services and programs that can help enhance their relationship with your bank or credit union.
- Insurance onboarding journeys that create a welcoming tone and help with progressive customer profiling.
- Wealth Management onboarding journeys that establish a strong and consistent line of communication between investment advisors and your customers/members.
- Card Replacement (Debit/ Credit) journeys that help educate and/or encourage your customers and members to take a certain action or receive quick tips on how to file a claim for a fraudulent charge on their card.
Let EMS Consulting Build Your Onboarding Journey Suite in Marketing Cloud
EMS Consulting can help you quickly build, customize, and launch powerful onboarding journeys that can truly help your organization achieve results that drive more return on your Salesforce investment. Talk to us today about any Marketing Cloud journey or development work you may have in mind.
