Episode 74 - Using a 3rd Party to Build a Better Website for Your Bank or Credit Union

In this podcast episode, Meredith Olmstead, the CEO and founder of FI GROW Solutions, discusses the unique challenges and solutions in managing website projects for financial institutions. Joined by inbound marketing strategist Kristin Mock, they explore the critical role of their team in project management and content creation, detailing how their expertise helps bridge gaps between web developers, designers, and the specialized needs of banks and credit unions.

• Specialized Project Management: FI GROW Solutions enhances the website development process by providing specialized project management and content creation tailored to the financial industry. This approach helps ensure website projects stay on schedule and meet the specific needs of banks and credit unions.

• Understanding Financial Products: The discussion highlights the importance of a team understanding financial products and services. This knowledge is crucial for avoiding common pitfalls in web design and development that may not suit the specific requirements of financial institutions.

• Balancing Industry Expertise with Fresh Perspectives: While it's beneficial to work with developers who have broad experience across industries, it's equally important to integrate team members who understand the unique user experience, compliance, and complexity of financial products. This balance helps financial institutions leverage new technologies and design trends effectively.

Transcription:

Meredith Olmstead:

Hi, there. I'm Meredith Olmsted, CEO and founder of FI GROW Solutions. We work with banks and credit unions on digital marketing and sales consulting, websites, content, all those different things to try to help regional institutions stay up to speed in the digital space these days. And I am here with one of our inbound marketing strategists, Kristin Mock. Say, "Hi," Kristin. And Kristin also works with a lot of our clients around our website projects. And so, one of the things that we were talking about recently is what is the value that our team brings to the table when it comes to website projects for our clients or for new clients at banks or credit unions? So I was like, well, let's hit record and talk about this, because some of what she's learning is really insightful when it comes to the team that your institution puts together for your next website build, right? So one of the things that we wanted, first thing I wanted to start out with is, Kristin, kind of explain our role to everybody when it comes to these big projects.

Kristin Mock:

Of course. So the two really big pieces that we take care of is project management, and then the website content. We typically work with a separate developer and then your financial institution. So those are kind of the three groups that we typically recommend.

Meredith Olmstead:

Gotcha. So it's basically, and the reason we do this is because we've found over the years that you can get people who are experts in design and development in the website space, right? And those are the lanes you want them to stay in, because that's what they know really, really well. The design, the aesthetic, the user experience experience to a certain extent, and then the development of that design. So doing the back end, the HTML, all that kind of stuff. But what we have found over the years is that they don't know financial products and services. And so that was where we kind of jumped into the mix three or four years ago in a project management and content writing capacity for clients, and started seeing that it was really working well. So the main thing that I have seen over the years in these projects is that our presence helps keep the whole project on time, basically.

We push everybody involved on both sides and our own team to meet our deadlines. And it takes the onus of knocking down people's doors off of the individual marketer at the credit union or the bank, and we kind of take that on that role. But there's a few other benefits. And so we wanted to dig into these a little bit, around what are the main benefits of having somebody extra in the mix when it comes to project management and content? Why is it so important or why are we finding it so important for clients?

Kristin Mock:

Yeah. I think to your point about keeping everything on time, I mean, you don't know what you don't know. So when you're working with a developer and a designer and they send you something that works really great for an e-commerce website, but it doesn't work really great for a financial institution website, that can slow things down. You can hit some roadblocks that you weren't expecting, and there's a lot more back and forth. But having somebody in the mix, having that third party project manager is really helpful to say, "These are the things that we need upfront." The things that as a financial institution, maybe you didn't know to not expect, and as a developer, they didn't realize that you needed that. So having somebody who's familiar with this process is really key to that part.

Meredith Olmstead:

Yeah. You said definitely just knowing the elements that really need to be on different pages on the website. You recently worked with a new developer and designer for a new client, and you were able to kind of head off some mistakes before they went down that road of designing and developing pages that would have been missing so much. What were some of those things that they weren't planning for or the menu structure? What were some of those things that you learned that you were able to help fix very soon in the process?

Kristin Mock:

When it comes to the website content, there's really three main pieces to that. There's the on-page copy of actually writing the content that will be on your new website, and we are going to optimize that for SEO and brand voice. And then there's the menu and the site structure. And so that's where we've seen this developer, and other developers who are used to building e-commerce websites, try to add more layers into your menu and into the structure of your website than are needed for a financial institution. So an e-commerce website, for example, might have something like going into shopping for pants, shopping for a specific type of pants, and you're going to have three or four layers deep before you get to the actual product-

Meredith Olmstead:

Item. Yeah.

Kristin Mock:

That you're going to purchase. Right. So for a financial institution, it doesn't make a lot of sense to have to go from the homepage into personal banking versus business, and then from there, go into deposit products versus loans versus services, and then from there, go into checking versus savings.

Meredith Olmstead:

To like click, click, click, click, click.

Kristin Mock:

Yes.

Meredith Olmstead:

And it's like, that's not the user experience that you're trying to achieve. Right?

Kristin Mock:

Right. And so maybe showing some of those layers, maybe organizing your mega menu into some of these personal banking products makes sense, but making sure that your free checking account or your rewards checking account are right there, because that user probably knows exactly what they're looking for and they don't need to click six times to get to it. They know exactly, that's the one I want.

Meredith Olmstead:

Yeah. I remember you also mentioned when you were in the site structure, the phase of that new project, that there were some basic modules, some basic functionality that we build in automatically to a lot of product pages, for example, that this developer and designer weren't suggesting. And you brought that to the table and said, "Well, what about this? What about this?" And they were like, "Oh, we hadn't thought about that." So it's, again, somebody who doesn't have the expertise around financial products and services might miss some of those elements. What are a couple examples of those types of modules that you want to make sure are in all of those pages?

Kristin Mock:

Right. So a really big one for financial institutions is rate tables. And that's not common in other industries. But then on top of just having a rates table, also having the functionality to toggle that table to show rates for different products. If you were going to compare two or three products across the same page, I want to see the rates for a new car loan versus a used car versus a classic car. Your institution may have slightly different rates, but maybe not different website pages for products that are so similar.

Meredith Olmstead:

Certainly.

Kristin Mock:

And so having that functionality built in to see the rates tables and to toggle between them, and then to have disclosure text right below that. Disclosures is common in a regulated industry like financial institutions, but not so much in other industries. So a developer may not realize that you're going to need disclosures all the way down your page, versus putting all of them, lumping them all at the bottom of a page or one click away. That just doesn't work. And so those are things that our team is able to step in and say, "We know we're going to need spaces for these, so we need to go ahead and build those in," without the back and forth of asking for it later.

Meredith Olmstead:

Yeah. Yeah. I think there's really definitely a benefit we've seen for sure, because you don't also, the other thing is though, a lot of people might say, "Well, why not just go to a website company that only works with financial institutions?" We also don't do that. I mean, so the developers, most of the developers and designers that we work with, with multiple types of industries, and we kind of do that on purpose. Do you have thoughts around why you wouldn't want to go to an industry-only website developer?

Kristin Mock:

Sure. I mean, if you're a developer and you're seeing influences and trends across more than one industry, that can really influence and kind of help your institution benefit from what's going on in the website space and design as a whole versus being so siloed in just financial institutions.

Meredith Olmstead:

Yeah. I think we see that financial institutions tend to be slow adopters when it comes to new technology, new user experience. They tend to be a little bit behind the curve, which is not a bad thing necessarily, but I think it is important to work with some people outside of your industry who can bring new ideas, new look and feel, new possible approaches to things, into the mix with your team. But I think it's also really important to make sure that people there do understand the user experience and the compliance and the complexity of financial products and services. So it's kind of little bit of a dance to make sure that you have the experience for both.

So, awesome. Well, Kristin, this is super useful. Thank you so much. We love working with our website projects with you, and I know that that is one of your favorite things. So it's always fun to launch a new site and see how it does. So we appreciate all these tips. If you want to learn more about website development or digital marketing for banks and credit unions, please visit us at FIGROW.com. We have lots of great case studies, other blogs, and podcasts there for you to learn more and keep diving a little deeper. But otherwise, let's just get out there and make it happen.