When is a community bank an expert? Community bank branding is about personalities and relationships. If you look into your own history-what has made you successful over the years-you'll probably be able to identify relationships among certain individuals within your bank culture, and between members of your team and best-case prospects and customers. More than other types of brands, community institutions are built on connections-very much like friendships and families. For you, bank marketing is a lot more than advertising, signage, collateral, and promotions. These are elements that support the brand. They are not the brand. One way you can…

It's called "Inbound" (among other things). A couple of months ago we entered into a partnership with Hubspot to implement an automated inbound marketing program for Gibbons | Peck (and eventually for our clients). It's pretty exciting. Here's how it works ... We like to express cool ideas with words and visuals. We have a website. And we like to make friends. The kinds of friends we like to make are interested in stuff like brand personalities, systematic branding, building long-term relationships with the right advertising agency. In particular, we like making friends who share our passion for community banks…

Something just doesn't smell right about your community bank's brand. We've talked in previous posts about the importance of seeing your brand as a person. The reason this is so important is that your customers, clients, prospects, competitors, and employees all think (feel) about your brand the way they think or feel about people. They use the same data receptors-eyes, ears, fingers, tongue, and nose-to gather information about your bank as they use to form attachments to their spouse, children, parents, and others. As you develop your brand, it's important to begin by establishing strategic elements springing from the business…