Customer engagement is a two-way street.

“Know your customer” (KYC), while a critical regulatory requirement, can quickly get gummy and frustrating when data is scattered across multiple systems.

Can marketing’s creative, spontaneous spirit productively partner with IT’s more structured, security-obsessed culture? It has to.

Let’s say your bank or credit union wants to raise its customer experience game.

Here’s how I think about successful customer relationships these days: Entanglement does not equal engagement.

Despite a newfound fascination with customer engagement, banks know it’s a constantly moving target that doesn’t reward indecision or momentary distractions.

Financial services professionals traditionally see their marketing efforts through the lens of the “sales funnel” or “marketing funnel”; it’s been that way for decades.

It’s been almost 250 years since Adam Smith penned “The Wealth of Nations,” helping set off an industrial revolution now in its fourth iteration.

While social media has become an important marketing channel in the financial services industry, many banks maintain a presence simply for the sake of it.

In financial services, the customer loyalty battle has evolved to where rewards programs must offer more than points—for after all, traditional one-size-fits-all points programs succumb to attrition and inactivity after a few moments of intrigue.

Like an overwhelming number of banks, Wells Fargo wants to treat its customers individually.

It’s no secret that happier customers are our most loyal, dependable customers.

As anyone in financial services knows, an influx of new players has flooded the consumer lending marketplace.

Refinance your home! Buy a car for a low fixed rate! When they interact with consumers, some banks seem to prefer a one-size-fits-all communications model with a heavy emphasis on product pitch.

Velcro, Kleenex and Jell-O: Many brands have become so much a part of people’s lives that they are now used as universal references for all products in that category—or sometimes verbs, as is the case with Google.

Faster than you can say “analytics,” bank marketers have gone gaga for data: Data this, data that, data as the new (choose one) oil, electricity, rocket fuel.

Baby boomers hold the keys to the American Dream.

From small community banks and credit unions to multinational megabanks, the financial services industry has undergone myriad changes thanks to the fintech revolution.

Mobile banking is exploding with new ideas from voice-first development, to putting humans back into the digital experience; to artificial intelligence and advanced biometrics.

Customers continue to value relationships with their banker at the branch.