Savings Accounts meet Social Networks

SmartyPig.com is using social networking to create a Web 2.0 savings account.

An online savings account, SmartyPig lets the account holder set specific savings goals, suggests contributions to meet the goals and enables the account holder to engage friends and family in the process.

Once the account is established (via West Bank of Iowa www.westbankiowa.com), SmartyPig's social networking platform allows the account holder to invite friends and family to contribute to the savings goal. It also provides a widget that can be added to the account holder's MySpace or Facebook page to encourage contributions.

The account holder receives even further value if they convert their money to a gift card from a participating retailer, adding as much as 5% to their savings amount.

Truly a new way for piggy to get to market...

Blogging all the way to the Bank...

or Credit Union.

It seems that blogging is slowly creeping into the marketing toolkit of some financial institutions. A recent Universal McCann "Media in Mind" tracking study indicated that 10% of US adults publish a blog.

Nowhere near 10% of financial institutions publish a blog - but there are some notable exceptions. Below are two of the most acclaimed financial institution blogs today.

Verity Credit Union in Seattle, WA has a blog called "Our Voices", with contributions from executives, staff, members and friends.

Wells Fargo has been the most aggressive bank blogger with an extensive collection of blogs on its site.

The links above will provide some good examples of how blogs can be used by financial institutions to establish a dialog with their customers or members.

Email Usage Grows with Financial Institutions

The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) recently released 2007 statistics on the direct marketing expenditures of financial, banking and credit institutions.

Not surprisingly, "financial services companies’ advertising expenditures for commercial email is expected to have the largest growth among all media types between 2007 and 2012, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.5%."

In addition, Internet direct marketing advertising spending is projected to grow at the second-highest rate, at a CAGR of 17.8%, from 2007 to 2012.

CLICK HERE to see complete details of the DMA study.