Battle of the Banks

Bank of America flexes its marketing and brand muscle to dominate the search landscape

January 2007 By Hallie Mummert

multipage

One of the complexities the search team faced in designing a comprehensive SEO plan was taking into consideration the communication needs of eight different lines of business that comprise the bank’s products and services. They are: consumer real estate, deposits (checking and savings), cards, small business, global wealth and investment management, insurance, loans, and specialized banking services.

Each business line has its own Web site and, in general, its own online goals, says Matt Kropp, the account director at iCrossing who works with Pasfield-Blevins and her team. For example, he explains, the consumer real estate business is focused on getting leads, whereas deposits wants to generate sign-ups. At the same time, the boundaries between the business lines blur.

“While each line has its own goals,” Pasfield-Blevins notes, “there is crossover for some of the lines.” For example, a small-business customer could have a line of credit and business insurance, or a consumer customer with a mortgage might also have a checking account with the firm.

So, from a paid search perspective, Bank of America could have two different lines of business bidding on the same keyword term, says Kropp, as well as the bank’s competitors doing so. And from an organic search perspective, the firm also had to balance the needs of the different business lines to help them meet their online targets.

An additional factor in the mix was a heavy reliance on brand in both SEO and paid search efforts, which is important to the overall visibility of the bank, but not always complimentary to connecting with prospects and customers via search—especially in a competitive category where people are more likely to use generic terms to research the market offerings.

Getting Into Fighting Shape
After identifying the stumbling blocks, Pasfield-Blevins explains, Bank of America broke its plan of attack into a phased approach to cover the optimization basics, such as title tags on its Web pages, before moving on to deeper modifications to the sites, such as keyword density and the addition of content that will attract searchers in all stages of the buying process.

Besides allowing search engine spiders to more easily index the company’s main site and business line sites, these SEO tactics are designed to drive traffic farther into the sites for more specific banking terms, says Kropp, as opposed to traffic always coming through the homepage.

Pasfield-Blevins points out that this SEO strategy emphasizes the individual lines of business and helps the company take advantage of any additional reach capabilities, such as localizing search. She explains iCrossing helped her team identify 22 cities that scored well for the term “online banking.” This knowledge was used to optimize Bank of America’s online banking content to deliver relevant information on a city-specific basis, as well as to build these Web pages in a way that delivered a more consistent user experience across all targeted city markets. For example, the online banking page for Philadelphia netizens references the new citywide wi-fi network, while the San Francisco version touts the benefits of being able to squeeze in some bill-paying after a night spent dancing in the trendy Mission district. Both landing pages, however, echo the same design elements and certain brand-driven messaging points.

Given that Bank of America boasted 5.1 million active online bill payers in the fourth quarter of 2005—which accounted for more than half of all bank bill pay customers during that same period, according to an April 2006 comScore Networks report—it’s no surprise that the company is devoting resources to boosting its search presence for this banking service. For the past few years, financial sector and e-commerce experts have predicted that online banking will be tied closely to customer acquisition, share of customer and ultimately share of market.

Another method employed by Pasfield-Blevins and her team is building useful content into the site, information that supports both the visitor and Bank of America. To wit, consumers browsing the mortgage area of the bank’s Web site can do a little shopping for their dream house via the Multiple Listing Service system, a comprehensive directory of homes for sale across the nation. Or, parents looking for financial assistance to send a child to college can read various how-to articles, use online loan payment calculators and download brochures to help with their research activities. This focused content makes each page more robust for search engine spiders, allowing Bank of America to rank higher for more specific topics that people use when gathering information.

Recognizing that SEM does not stand alone—and, in fact, works best when integrated with a firm’s overall marketing efforts—the bank has begun coordinating its SEM activities with messaging in its other channels, such as e-mail, ATM and space advertising. Pasfield-Blevins and her team share information on which tactics have worked well in the search realm to achieve conversion or lead-generation goals with the other channel managers so this insight can be leveraged to improve results across all marketing vehicles. In specific, she reports the top 10 search terms by line of business, so the groups can get a sense of what people are searching for and when.

And then there was that little issue of the paid/organic search conflict. In the past, the firm had a bigger challenge in managing this natural contradiction because paid search was part of the media buying process, Kropp explains. But now that SEM has been made part of the channel marketing process, as opposed to being organized under each individual business line, Bank of America can more easily control such divergent situations and make strategic decisions to enhance the company’s overall position online, he explains.

Dealing With the Challenges
Any large-scale project has its challenges, and two major obstacles for Pasfield-Blevins and her team to address have been getting internal buy-in and dealing with the regulatory landscape. “One of the biggest challenges was getting internal approval” to implement site modifications that would improve SEM results, she says. In 2007, a key area of focus for the ongoing SEM plan will be to conduct some education on SEO across the company with executives, product managers and others who are integral to success of the business lines. This way, when the search channel team requests page changes to be implemented, the Web teams for each line will know SEM best practices and understand what impact these changes will have on their line’s and the company’s online objectives.

On the regulatory front, the heavy state-by-state restrictions in the financial services sector means the bank operates a group of Web sites to promote its different products and services. Kropp explains that since only certain products can be offered nationally, Pasfield-Blevins and her team might have to optimize search for five checking account types for one market, but the bank really offers 10 different checking account options. This adds another layer of complexity to what messaging can be promoted in search listings to attract search users.

The Judges’ Decision
More than a year into the SEM overhaul, Pasfield-Blevins is pleased with the results to date. “Where natural search wasn’t a huge concentration in the past for us, we’ve been able to make small but key modifications to the site and get a real lift in results.”

While company policy prohibits her from sharing specific metrics, Pasfield-Blevins explains that she measures SEM program performance by volume of site traffic, rank and position on keyword terms, and conversion rates on different products.

Based on the numbers the Web site currently is generating in the search space, Bank of America is projecting for 2007 a lift of 50 percent in site traffic and a 50 percent lift in conversions—goals that Pasfield-Blevins states are very realistic.

Upcoming Title Fights
With such solid expectations for the coming year, Bank of America will not only be following through on some of the SEM plan’s initial optimization targets, but also expanding its efforts to bring a more strategic focus to the program. For example, Pasfield-Blevins is excited about being able to build up natural search results from a granular perspective, incorporating more detail into Web pages that will help visitors drill down to information that is very specific to their financial services needs and personal preferences. Linking efforts also will play a bigger role next year, as will building out separate sites and pages to support different services.

And she’s eager to review industry research iCrossing has undertaken on consumer behavior with regard to what people search for and how they search, so Bank of America can be less reactive and more proactive in developing the most effective SEM strategies—proving even a brand giant like Bank of America has to be wise about how it allocates its SEM dollars.

As mentioned earlier, integration will be key to the success of the SEM program. Pasfield-Blevins and her team will be coordinating the work of both iCrossing and Resolution Media, the Chicago-based search marketing strategy and integration firm that handles Bank of America’s paid search endeavors. She is looking to better synchronize natural search with paid search, but notes that natural search will pave the way for both disciplines.

Kropp explains that the idea is to take what’s working in natural search and combine it with the knowledge of what’s working in paid search to identify opportunities where Bank of America can reduce its dependency on paid search investments. Those dollars then could be reallocated to better-performing activities to achieve maximum ROI.

And, he adds, the program will continue to break out goals by line of business, while still devoting attention to some key overall site goals that are tied into supporting the brand. For instance, Bank of America has determined it needs to maintain a position in the top three organic search results for head keywords, such as “online banking” and “checking account.” Before, Kropp says, the company was shooting to be in the first three listing pages. Although being within the top five positions will help Bank of America achieve its business goals, the firm believes it’s important to the long-term equity of the brand to have the search results ranking reflect its market leader position.

So, Kropp continues, while Pasfield-Blevins and her team know that 25 derivatives of a keyword will drive the long tail of search, being in one of the top three listing positions for a head term will be good for the overall health of the company.

While this strategy bears some risk for Bank of America in that it emphasizes one aspect of its approach at the expense of other seemingly less costly tactics, you have to wonder how many other competitors are in a position to go 12 rounds with this brand heavyweight.

As boxing legend Muhammad Ali said, “There are no pleasures in a fight, but some of my fights have been a pleasure to win.”

• MORE ON
• SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA