Financial Marketing’s Fuzzy Math

by Acton

by. Joe Swatek

Be careful what you say. Some people are paying attention.

As you know from reading my blog posts, I encourage financial services marketers to focus on the benefits a customer or prospect gains by doing business with your bank or credit union.

For instance, point out your free services. When you don’t say something is free it gives many prospects the impression it’s not. Besides, “free” is a key word for marketing.

Also, always spotlight your offers, whether it’s a premium, cash bonus, special interest rate, or some other advantage.

But be careful about going too far. What we might call fuzzy math. Some people will take time to calculate what you’re describing — cash award, time saved, an so on — and realize your offer is more fluff than substance. It can hurt your credibility.

Here’s one example. A bank made a cash-back offer for its debit card — earn up to $300 a year, as the bold headlines stated. Sounded great, until you read the fine print. The cardholder earned 10 cents per transaction. That still seemed good. But when a prospect did the math, she found it would take 3,000 purchases to earn the advertised $300. To put it in perspective, that’s 250 per month, or over eight purchase transactions per day.

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