Intergrated Marketing Campaign Pays Big Dividend for Bank; Creative Marketing Means Empowering Employees.

The following case study illustrates that educating and empowering employees as part of a marketing campaign can be the real difference in achieving successful results with "out-of-the-box" thinking.

Last summer, DMN3 began working with a banking institution, with branches in Texas and Louisiana, to increase mortgage loan applications and mortgage revenue through an intergrated marketing campaign. The primary objectives were to:

1. Increase loan applications by 25%
2. Increase mortgage revenue by 10% in 120 days

DMN3, headquartered in Houston, Texas with offices in Dallas, Texas and Westport, Connecticut, was chosen as the agency for this campaign because

• Typically most advertising or marketing agencies would use direct mail, along with point of sale displays and advertising to current bank customers, to achieve their objectives. But, given the bank's budget and intense competitive mortgage market, an alternative strategy was needed for the best results. So, DMN3 turned to the bank’s employees as the primary source for both referrals and sales, and not just the mortgage loan officers.
• Prior to this campaign, all 500 bank employees had no incentive to provide the bank with mortgage referrals and had very limited knowledge about the various mortgage loan products and the process for obtaining such loans. Unless they were a loan officer, employees had little interest or reason to learn about the mortgage loan business.
• To counter the employee lack of interest and knowledge, DMN3 implemented a major campaign strategy that educated employees about mortgage loan products and to get them actively involved in referring customers for mortgage loans. They did this by sending a series of three weekly internal e-mails, which educated them about mortgages and refinancing. Links were embedded in the e-mails, that sent them to a landing page with three questions relating to the content of the e-mail. Once employees submitted their answers, they were entered to win a cash prize for that week.

Employee Participation Response:

Week 1: 40%

Week 2: 41%

Week 3: 44%

To spur referrals throughout the ten week campaign, weekly drawings were held and cash prizes awarded for any referral that resulted in a completed mortgage or refinance application.

The following end results of the campaign successfuly reflect accomplished objectives, and all without the use of direct mail.

Mortgage Results: Within 120 days

• Mortgage loan applications were up 19%
• Mortgage loan revenue increased by 30%

Thinking "outside the box" and tapping into existing resources can bring big results and save marketing expenses.