Case Study: The Postage Helps American State Bank Personalize Service for their Customers & Achieve 300%+ ROI in Months
In 2023, American State Bank celebrated its 50th anniversary providing customers with access to personalized banking services. Along with American Investment & Trust and Perspective Insurance, American State Bank is a key component of parent company AmBank’s strategy to empower customers and communities to enjoy the financial health and support they deserve.
American State Bank identified The Postage’s digital legacy planning platform as a potential opportunity to open new doors in the financial marketplace they currently served, while furthering core business goals. Previously, American State Bank had offered a paper legacy planning packet for customers, but it had languished as a largely peripheral program. It was time consuming, lacked differentiation from their competition, and American State Bank wasn’t positioned to offer the individualized level of support legacy planning required.
By partnering with The Postage, American State Bank has been able to reach the next generation of customers, and empower AmBank and its companies (American State Bank, American Investment & Trust, and Perspective Insurance) to work together across brands for the first time.
The Challenges
While legacy planning had always been on American State Bank’s radar, there were several obstacles that had prevented them from taking a more aggressive approach to developing it.
Marketplace credibility
The communities American State Bank served tended to have a more traditional understanding of legacy planning that was centered on the legal profession. If customers wanted to create a will, it was assumed they needed to go through a law firm, and banking services were mostly concerned with asset and account transferral paperwork.
American State Bank would have to challenge traditional assumptions about legacy planning with a product that offered significant advantages if they wanted to change customer perception.
Differentiation
The marketing problem American State Bank faced is that their offering didn’t significantly differentiate them from the competition—not to speak of convincing the general public that legacy planning should be part of their local banking experience.
In the markets they served, most banks were nearly indistinguishable from each other, and loyalty to a financial institution was largely a question of family history. Unless American State Bank could offer something flashy and new, introducing a new product or service would remain an extremely difficult proposition.
Digital Execution
AmBank had experimented with limited digital marketing previously in an effort to create a cross-company family of brands for their subsidiaries. Unfortunately, a lack of engagement and non-cohesive messaging created obstacles for success.
As a result, there was trepidation among leadership for engaging new digital products, and implementation would need to be straightforward, clear, and easy to align employees around messaging and execution strategies.
The Results
Generating Enthusiasm
The American State Bank team chose to target three segments from their existing customer base for The Postage: the Spirit Club—a group for customers aged 55+—the Women and Business group, and online banking users.
The 55+ group responded particularly well, and the reaction made it clear that the American State Bank development team hadn’t been aggressive enough. A further round of digital marketing to online banking customers tripled the number of subscribers in the program.
Customers consistently named several meaningful ways they engaged with The Postage’s platform, like:
- Naming delegates, beneficiaries, and executors of their wills
- Ease of document sharing
- Storing passwords
- Inviting immediate and extended family to the platform
The convenient feedback from satisfied customers The Postage produced allowed AmBank to identify important messaging and generate new client leads, as well as stimulate internal conversations about optimizing the value of The Postage for their business.
The partnership shattered the illusion that American State Bank customers viewed technology as an obstacle to overcome. In fact, the ease of the online platform’s use and in-home convenience was a huge plus for customers regardless of age and background.
Ease of Implementation
Implementation of the partnership was first and foremost driven by internal enthusiasm for the services that The Postage offered. Ease of use, convenience, and high personal value placed on the platform by employees were all key factors for convincing leadership that the digital partnership would be successful, well-executed, and capable of supporting core business goals.
Customizable Service
Finally, The Postage’s highly customizable design allowed American State Bank to differentiate both in terms of service and on the level of the individual. Every family situation is different, and The Postage offered a versatile and adaptable platform that could meet the needs of a wide variety of customers.
Tamra Van Kalsbeek—a member of American State Bank’s team that developed the successful partnership—believes this is one of the most important aspects of what The Postage can offer their customers.
And she should know.
She uses The Postage to keep track of all her family’s important memories and moments.
“The Postage is a part of my everyday life. When our daughter Piper took her first step we uploaded it to their platform. Now we have both our daughters’ first steps, and who knows? When they graduate perhaps we can put together a video of all the important moments along the way. There are so many milestones when they’re young, and we’re going to preserve them all.”
About the Postage
The Postage is committed to making digital legacy creation easy and secure. Their platform offers will and wishes services, a digital vault for preserving important documents and content, and messages and memories delivery so you can send your words of love and wisdom to the important people in your life.
Planning your life shouldn’t be hard. Get started on the road to security and peace of mind with The Postage.
