http://www.williammills.com/blog/10-things-your-bank-can-do-now-for-free-to-make-more-money/ Presentation by William Mills III, CEO for LCB’s 18th ANNUAL LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE Top 3 topics: What is Public Relations? Why PR is the most important part of your work. The Ten Things Your Bank Can Do Now (For Free) to Make More Money

2. “Ancient Proverbs”
• “Look before you leap”
and
• “He who hesitates is lost”
or
• “You can’t get something for nothing”
but
• “The best things in life are free”
All of these things are true

3. What others in PR won’t tell you
You don’t need a public relations agency
or an in-house PR person.
The most successful people are good at
what they do but they also reap greater
rewards by investing in personal and
professional public relations.

4. Getting Started
I. What is Public Relations?
II. Why PR is the most important part
of your work
III. The Ten Things Your Bank Can Do
Now (For Free) to Make More
Money

5. I. What is Public Relations?
In 1977 my parents started the William
Mills Agency as an advertising agency
• We were not experts in public relations
• We learned what to do and why PR is
so important

6. 13 years later: 1990
• Advertising and marketing for a savings &
loan data processing company
• Asked us to write press releases and articles.
• “We like your advertising but this press
coverage you are doing is making the phone
ring, prospects are calling us, sales are
growing.
• Can you do more of this PR?”

7. So, what really is public relations?
It means a LOT of different things to
different people.

8. Meeting a New Client In
Ireland
• My first international
client
• Planning meeting
with their CEO in
Dublin
• Coordinated meeting
with their Director of
Public Relations

9. TV makes it seem glamorous
• What PR means is
building your bank’s
brand through
Reputation
Management
• The inspiration for the
TV show “Mad Men”
said..

10. What is a Brand?
“The intangible sum
of a product or company’s attributes: its
name, packaging and price, its history, its
reputation,” – David Ogilvy

11. The rise of PR
• “What others say about your
brand is so much more important
than what you can say about it
yourself,” say the co-authors
• “That’s why publicity in general is
more powerful than advertising.
And why over the past two
decades, public relations has
eclipsed advertising as the most
powerful force in branding.”

12. II. Why PR is the most
important part of your work

13. Author Geoffrey Moore says:
"The most important
element of the
success for a
company is its ability
to articulate,
differentiate and
execute on their
corporate and
product vision”

14. Some people that think PR is
important

15. Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft
• Net worth $59 billion
• When CEO of
Microsoft, Mr. Gates
estimated that he
devoted 30% of his
time doing media and
public relations
activities
Do you spend thirty percent of your time each day
doing media and public relations activities?

16. Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle
• Smaller company
• Net worth of only
$33 billion
• Larry does
– press interviews
– media meetings
– press conference calls
each and every week

17. III. The Ten Things Your Bank
Can Do Now (For Free) to
Make More Money

18. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
• Why did some of our clients
make boatloads of money
while others struggle to make
their mortgage payment?”
• The most important element
of success, and the first thing
you should do is…

19. #1. Find and Articulate Your Vision
• Successful people…
• Know their company, or bank, people and products
and how they should be positioned in the minds of
prospective customers
• Provide clear, concise reasons to buy
• Use all facets of marketing communications to
enhance the company value position
The ability to articulate your bank’s vision and value
proposition is the most important element of success

20. #2 Know your customers
(and prospects)
• Not about bank regulations or SAR
reports
• Ask all types of business questions with
a wide range of people
• Speak with your customers and ask
them, “Why are you their banker? “

21. Ask questions from
• Your doctor, dentist, lawyer where he or
she has their commercial and/or
personal financial relationship
• Ask people on the street; friends,
neighbors and business peers;
“Where do you bank and why?”

22. • Most of the really important things I’ve
learned in business have been speaking with
people on the street, like my wife’s Aunt Janie
• Once you really, really know the WHY of the
real value of you and your bank’s reputation
you are ready to tackle the third thing you can
do now for free to make your bank more
money…

23. #3 Take Your Light From
Under That Barrel And
Show It To The World

24. “A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor
do people light a lamp and put it under a
basket, but on a stand, and it gives light
to all in the house.”
You and I both know you and your bank
are doing great things each and every
day.

25. Whether
• it’s opening a high school student’s first
checking account so she can save for
college, or
• helping a college student with online bill pay
so she won’t be late on her cell phone bill
which will be part of the foundation of a good
credit history, which
• will help her qualify for the mortgage she’ll
need when she buys her first home

26. Perhaps some day,
• She will start her own business like a
farm-to-table, organic restaurant that
your community craves, which
• creates badly needed jobs, especially
• helping that returning soldier back from
overseas getting their financial house in
order

27. Besides a person’s family and their faith,
there is nothing more important than
their relationship with the person and
company that takes care of their
financial needs

28. You don’t need to do PR for your own ego;
you need to commit to investing your time
and energy in public relations for your
•Employees
•Customers
•Shareholders
•Those folks in your community that need a
relationship with your bank.

29. #4 Know your media:
“Actively” read, watch and
listen” to the various media
outlets in your market

30. Active interest
is really knowing what media that your
bank’s customers read, watch or listen to.
Some of Friend Bank’s media include

31. Active interest in your local
media means knowing…
• Who owns your local newspaper?
• Is it part of a national chain?
• How long has the editor worked at the local
paper?
• Where did he or she go to college?
• What’s the circulation of the newspaper?
• What other financial institutions are
advertising in your bank’s market?
• Bank of America? Wells Fargo?
ING? USAA?

32. Learn about people in the
media on their web sites
• The Dothan Eagle
newspaper serving
Dothan, Ozark &
Enterprise
www.dothaneagle.com
• WTVY in Dothan
www.wtvy.com

33. #5 Build relationships
With editors, writer and
producers of the media
outlets in the markets your
bank serves

34. Why do you have
more contact with the
media’s sales
representatives than
with the people that
write and produce the
news?

35. Journalists are overwhelmed with
information
• They write the news
that will be of most
interest to their
readers.
• Their counterparts in
the advertising
departments are
very persistent.

36. Like teachers and those in public
service
• Journalists often don’t
make a whole of
money, and they do
what they do because
of their passion
• As a result, they often
don’t get the praise
and recognition they
deserve

37. Often when they hear from a business
executive it’s some kind of a complaint
• “I was misquoted”
“You got the story wrong”
“My name was misspelled”
• Like any relationship, you
have to have mutual trust
and respect for each other
if you want it to work
• Journalists like relevant,
sincere compliments of their
work

38. Be a source for journalists
• Whether you work
in Red Bay or
other community,
take an editor out
to lunch or get
together for
coffee

39. • Keep in mind, journalists are naturally
suspicious of government and businesses;
especially financial institutions. You’ll have to
work, to build a trust by helping them any way
you can
• Journalists also need someone they trust for
their financial needs, and there is no one
better than their local community bank

40. #6 Distribute news releases regularly
At least twice a month as a
part of a balanced PR
program

41. You don’t have to have a degree in PR
• … to write a good press release
• Less than half of the folks at WMA majored in
public relations
• If you don’t have an in-house marketing person
at your bank I’m sure there are plenty of people
at your bank that can
– Write
– Edit
– Proof and distribute a good news release in an
Associated Press style

43. #7 Spend 1 ¢ (almost free)
… on a used copy
of “The Associated
Press Stylebook”
from Amazon
One cent + $3.99 in
shipping &
handling

44. “The Associated Press Stylebook”
• Everyone at our company has this book
• You will learn how news copy is written.
• You want to distribute news and information
that is interesting, relevant and local to your
markets in the style that newspapers, radio
stations, TV producers expect.
• Journalists recognize when you write in an
AP style and they appreciate when you are
speaking in their language. Number eight…

45. #8 Embrace Social Media

46. I hate Facebook.
And most types of social media
But my company uses them
effectively to make more money

47. • Our company actively engages in a
wide variety of social networking
platforms where I don’t have to
participate but I benefit.
• Any size community bank can have a
social media presence

49. Here are some of the things
we did….

50. First,
• We formed a voluntary social media
committee at our company. The younger folks
at our firm jumped at this endeavor, as they
were already active on Face book, Twitter
and more.
• Keep in mind, that for many of your bank’s
future customers your bank’s web site is both
the sign and the front door to your bank. If
prospective bank customers can’t find you in
Google we search, they might not find you at
all.

51. Second,
• Identified the types of social media where we
felt would drive traffic to our web site.
• Our company has a LinkedIn profile, a
Facebook profile, a YouTube channel, a
corporate blog and we disseminate “Tweets”
each day.
• All of these help to drive prospective
customers to our web site.

52. Social media is so important
• HALF of all new clients we signed last
year we didn't even know but they were
looking for a company like ours.

53. #9 Find & use the best key words
for SEO using free online tools

54. Search Engine Optimization
• The difference between Search Engine
Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine
Optimization (SEO), is that with SEM you
have to pay for clicks through your paid
Internet ads
• Search Engine Optimization is where your
future customers find your bank’s web site
quickly and easily for free

55. Go to Google and type in
“Bank PR”

56. Public relations is
the foundation of
all your other
3. Sales
sales and Internet
marketing efforts
Website
2. Marketing Advertising
Direct Marketing
Communications
Events
Social Media
1. PR

57. • No matter much time and energy you
spend on social networking, public
relations is the foundation of all relevant
search engine results
• Third-party press coverage is more
important and relevant than content
from social networks so...

58. The most important part of your bank’s
Internet presence is public relations
because Google, Yahoo, Bing and other
search engines will rank your bank higher in
their free listings
IF
your bank receives positive press coverage
in unbiased, third party news and other
media outlets

59. #10 Take advantage of free
marketing measurement tools

60. Dr. Edwards Deming said
“What is not measured is not
managed”
You have to quantify all the results your
hard work in public relations is doing
for you and your bank’s reputation.

63. If you remember only thing …
• Now, more than ever, PR is the most
important part of your work at your bank
because
• You will enhance shareholder value
• Grow your business
• Have the reputation you, and
your bank deserve