Four Ways to Attract New Digital Banking Users

By Jennifer Dimenna, SVP Product at Apiture

After some uncertainty in the banking industry, community banks and credit unions are focusing efforts on growth, specifically in growing deposits. In fact, the number of banks seeking to grow retail deposits more than doubled, from 21% in 2022 to 51% in 2023, according to this study by Cornerstone Advisors.

What community financial institutions have been forced to acknowledge is that competing against larger financial institutions is difficult. Big banks and credit unions have the budgets to offer top-of-the-line products and services and the internal staff to develop and maintain them. Your institution likely doesn’t have the same level of resources, which means you need to find alternate ways to achieve parity.

To better compete against big banks, look for ways to upgrade your digital banking platform to provide the financial tools your users need. Because users have so many banking options available to them, you should ensure your institution’s digital banking platform stands out with a modern UI, easy-to-use functionality, and the banking capabilities they require. Set your financial institution up for success by following these four methods to modernize your platform and attract new users:

1. Level the playing field with digital onboarding. Consumers and small businesses are increasingly turning to digital banking channels. Help them begin their digital journey by incorporating a digital account opening solution that makes it easy for them to open an account with you. And ensure that the experience is smooth and convenient for both consumers and small businesses.
2. Build a commercial channel to attract valuable clients. Small businesses have unique needs for digital banking to keep their business running smoothly. Simply trying to adapt a consumer banking platform for small business use is not a good solution. If your goal is to grow your commercial client base, you need a commercial platform that offers what they need — positive pay, cash management, granular entitlements, and robust payments options — that are not typically offered in a retail banking platform.
3. Offer personalized content to connect with users. Many users are willing to provide data so their institution will understand their unique needs and provide a tailored experience. By integrating a data intelligence tool into your digital banking platform, you can sort through available data from your users to find critical business data to use to your advantage. A good data solution will allow you to plug in internal and external data sets, support a variety of use cases and stakeholders, and seamlessly tie to tools that trigger user engagement.
4. Foster innovation through partnerships. Because consumers and businesses are doing a growing amount of business online, the most innovative institutions are looking at strategies to get in front of these users and support them where they already are. A new concept — embedded banking — allows financial institutions to establish partnerships with nonfinancial entities to expand their reach beyond their current digital footprint. You can use embedded banking to incorporate some of your financial service components, such as opening an account or viewing account balances, into a nonfinancial partner’s software, giving you the opportunity to grow your user base.

For more information about these strategies to fuel growth and attract new users, contact Apiture.