1. Create A High-Level Plan For Your Bank Statement Design

Begin With The End In Mind

When creating a bank statement design, it’s best, to begin with, the end in mind. For example, some statements can be used to summarize info, encourage payment, or even satisfy compliance requirements. Besides this, every customer has different needs, wants, and fears. Therefore, considering creating multiple customer personas to help you plan for these unique differences.

For example, if you’re going to have information on paying off student loans that are aimed towards millennials, then the tone and design will be different compared to a section on municipal bonds. Having a goal and distinct customer personas will give you a roadmap when using details like word choice, images, and calls to actions (CTAs).

Keep It Updated

Another simple way to improve your bank statement template is to ensure that it’s updated with relevant information. Be sure that it includes your firm’s current logo and contact information. Besides this, consider having a designer review your bank statement design to see if it’s up to date with current standards.

If you haven’t updated it since the 1990s, then the layout might appear dated. Ensuring that these areas are correct will also help your brand be consistent, which builds trust among your customer base.

2. Consider The Right Imagery For Your Bank Statement Design

Consistency And Colors

Using the right imagery and colors in your bank statement template are great ways to build consistency with your customers. Make sure that your bank statement design matches your brand’s logo. From there, you can use the psychology behind colors to emphasize certain feelings.

For example, using red can draw attention to important areas. Red also conveys passion, excitement, and urgency. If you include a CTA of “apply now”, consider making this button red. Just be wary of including too much red as it’ll draw too much attention to certain areas of the document, distracting your readers.

The words on the statements are just as important as colors. Both words and colors must create a voice that is in sync with your brand. You don’t want to have bright colors and formal writing styles as these could send mixed messages.

Legibility Tips

It’s also important to ensure that your statements are easy to read by having consistent fonts. While some banks and marketers use fancy fonts; these can be tough to read and confusing. You can potentially include different fonts, just be sure that they’re legible and compliment your brand.

Another simple way to improve readability is by having enough whitespace. Customers will be less intimated by your bank statement design if it has sufficient whitespace, small paragraphs, headlines, and bulleted lists. Using these guidelines will encourage your customers to read these statements and improve engagement.

3. Cross-Sell Other Products With Your Bank Statement Template

Anticipate Needs

Bank statements can do more than just show your customers their balances and transactions. Instead, they serve another purpose, which is to cross-sell relevant products. You can use Onserts, which are graphics and text ads that are included in the statements to advertise specific products. From there, you can personalize ads to target particular customers that might be in the market for certain solutions.

For example, if a group of customers is close to paying off their car loans, it could be wise to show them ads for new car loans. Another example of this is promoting mortgages or home refinance loan offers to customers that have significant spending activity at the Home Depot or Lowes. This spending could be a sign that they would be interested in purchasing or improving a home soon.

Keep It Concise

While a bank statement template can be a good tool for cross-selling, don’t waste space by being repetitive. If you have too many ads, especially ones that repeat similar messages, then this could turn off your customers.

Finance can be very tricky and it contains jargon that the everyday consumer doesn’t know. Be sure to use simple language and terms to explain ads, transactions, and other areas of the bank statement design. This will make your brand more approachable.

After all, customers trust you with their money, so don’t jeopardize it by using confusing language about charges or changes to their accounts.

4. Include Additional Marketing Materials

Like onserts, this strategy also includes having marketing literature with each statement. Since paper statements are mailed, you can include hard copy brochures on various financial products. While some might say print marketing might be dying, it can be a great way to differentiate your brand. Many people receive hundreds of emails per day, which can make it easy for electronic content to be lost in the shuffle.

Since print is becoming rarer, people will better recognize your brand if you use print marketing. Per the USPS, brand recall is 70% higher among customers that are exposed to direct mail. This also helps generate referrals as your customers’ house guests could see print brochures and might want to learn more about your business.

Target Your Offers

You can cross-sell your current customer base with the right print brochures. For example, you can include information about an investment account to a customer that only has a checking account and vice versa.

Another example could be including information on 529 plans or Coverdell ESAs to customers that have significant college expenses. Be sure that every advertisement is applicable, but not redundant since you don’t want to market products that the customer already has.

5. Use Your Bank Statement As PR For Your Business

An effective bank statement design includes more than just transactions, balances, and even promotional material. It can also be used to generate PR for your bank. You can use these tools to help your customers become more familiar with new announcements like current events, awards, and employee news.

This can humanize your brand and make it easier for your customers to relate with you. After all, it’s wise to be known for other positive reasons besides just offering banking services and financial products. This news can also help clarify important data like branch hours, locations, and the experience of important employees.

Personalize It

These stats and other data can also help you personalize offers beyond just including a customer’s first name. One way to do this includes sending content at optimal times per location. For example, you can use analytics to determine when your audience in certain locations opens and/or clicks on an email. Sending out content based on that information can be very effective since personalized emails deliver 6 times higher transaction rates.

Always keep the following design tips in mind, which will help ensure your content is personalized.

Include whitespace so that the content is easy to read.
Ensure that the colors and images grab attention and are relevant to the content. For instance, bright color patterns might be appropriate for younger customers trying to refinance their student loans. The same color pattern might not fit an annuity advertisement for senior customers.

6. Use Promotional Messages On the Front And Back Of The Envelope

With the rise of technology, some customers might just check their balances and not even open their statements. Despite that, you can include promotional messages on the front and back of each envelope.

This will grab their attention before throwing out any mail. Keep in mind that 17% of bank customers NEVER open their paper statements and 35% of customers only open their paper statements four or fewer times per year. Therefore, you must ensure that the envelope, bank statement design, and content are appealing.

You can also improve open rates and customer engagement by having information about in-person and/or virtual events. For instance, you could promote a financial education workshop to educate customers.

Another method to increase customer engagement and your brand’s authority would be to direct your customers to interactive personal finance interactive tools in conjunction with a financial education workshop. Some tools that come to mind are debt repayment and the time value of money calculators.

Bottom Line

Fine details matter towards success and a bank statement design might not seem as important. Some customers / members could prefer paperless delivery and might rely on software like Mint.com to check their transactions/balances. However, these customers would be missing out on important data like interest rate charges, tax information, and even early warning signs of identity theft in extreme cases.

So, paper bank statements are still important and can cut through the noise of online communications. Creating a bank statement that enhances your bank’s image is important to your overall branding strategy. You can use your bank statement templates to build your brand, cross-sell products, promote important events/promotions, and educate your customers.

PrintMail can Help Design Unique and Impactful Bank Statements

Discover the growth potential PrintMail’s customer statement design services can offer your bank or credit union. By leveraging our cutting-edge technology and equipment, you’ll benefit from expedited job processing, an enhanced service experience, and an interactive platform that puts you in control. Contact us now to learn more or request a quote.

Interested in redesigning your bank’s customer statements? Schedule a no-pressure consultation with us today!