Strategic Connections: Tapping into the Power of AI for Bank Marketing

By Lauren Moran

If you are like me, you often consider technology a blessing and a curse. However, when it comes to a small marketing team with an endless to-do list, some recent advancements in technology are welcome conveniences. With staff shortages and conservative budgets becoming more common, artificial intelligence (AI) is allowing marketers to do more with less.

AI: The Game Changer

While the vast capability of AI has yet to be fully uncovered, a variety of industries have benefitted from AI’s automation and agility — especially marketing. Although many banks are approaching AI with caution from a risk perspective, I’d like to share a few AI-driven tools that can help lighten the load of a busy bank marketer. Please be sure to connect with your IT, compliance, and/or risk management teams before diving into any AI platforms.

• Copywriting

Writer’s block is no longer a threat. Tools like ChatGPT or Bard can help create content or copy for blogs, email campaigns, webpages, social media posts, or even radio ads by simply writing one line of text explaining what you are looking for.

• Design

Illustrator or Photoshop aren’t your strong suits? No problem. Canva has taken what used to be a tedious creative process and has made it quick and easy with boatloads of design templates, pre-sized canvases, and instant background removers. More recent features like “magic design” allow users to insert a photo and have a multitude of custom templates created within seconds. The “text to image” feature lets users type a description of an image and the AI will generate suggested images instantaneously. Both of these tools have proven to be extremely useful, especially for social media content.

• Video

My skills as a videographer are limited to filming my kid’s tee ball game, so I need all the help I can get. Have an idea in your head but don’t have the time or film crew to make it a reality? Platforms like Runway can help bring your ideas to life with text-to-video AI-generation. Runway allows users to type in a description of the video footage they’d like to see, and the program generates it on the spot. Other platforms like Fliki can help marketers create a narrated and captioned how-to video that’s ready for the bank’s website or social media in minutes.

• Headshots

In community banking, our people are our greatest asset. However, it can be tough to keep up with current staff headshots to use in marketing materials. AI apps like Fotor can help. With submission of some current casual photos of your staff members, Fotor can spit out 40 or more professional headshots at a cost that’s likely less than a professional photographer’s studio fee.

• Presentations

Need an eye-catching presentation in a flash? Platforms like Tome can help build presentations with a simple description of your subject matter.

AI technology is moving even faster than the community banks who stay on the bleeding edge of new technologies. While it can be hard to keep up, AI can provide bank marketers with the tools to be more efficient and effective in their positions. Who knows, one of the platforms mentioned above could be a game changer in your daily work life.

Moran is marketing director at Wolf River Community Bank, Greenville, and vice chair of the 2023–2024 WBA Marketing Committee.