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Over the last several years, we’ve shared countless tips for generating leads online. But did you know it's typical to only close a fraction of those leads? So what’s going on here? Turns out, it can be several things. I recently interviewed Neal Lappe, CEO of Forensics of Selling and WebStrategies Founder, on how to turn more of your digital marketing leads into paying customers. We explored some of the top factors that contribute to a lead not closing and what you can do about it.

Display advertising has gotten much more sophisticated in the past decade, allowing you to deliver highly relevant image ads to the audience you specifically want to reach. But does it get results?

These days, banking conferences aren't the stuffy, boring conferences of old. They can be full of enthusiasm, innovation and great ideas for evolving your bank to keep up with an increasingly digital world. Here we're highlighting just a few of the conferences that stand out for Community Banks to attend. Go to learn, network, and be inspired, and have some fun while you're at it! This is certainly not a full list of all of the conferences Community Banks should consider, but we think these are worth considering in 2019. If you've attended any of these in the past, let us know in the comments below! Have a can't miss conference to add to the list? Let us know that too!

The ability to measure the results of marketing efforts continues to be a challenge for many credit unions. In fact, it was one of the biggest pain points in our 2018 credit union marketing survey. Credit unions without a system for accurately measuring marketing results struggle to prove ROI and to justify their marketing budgets, only putting them further behind other credit unions and banks who are more digitally savvy.

Google Analytics offers a huge amount of data, and an almost endless array of options for analyzing that data. That's a great thing for data-driven marketers such as ourselves, but for many businesses, that can be overwhelming and is frankly more information than they will ever need. There are a handful of critically important metrics that every business should be reviewing to identify the overall health of their website, and our recent broadcast focused on those.

Community Banks are beginning to shift their marketing focus to digital, albeit at a slower pace than many industries. These banks face tough competition from larger banks and from credit unions, and trying to break through to potential customers is proving to be increasingly difficult. Without reaching them online, it's even harder. Here we'll spotlight the digital marketing approach that helped a locally owned and operated Community Bank generate new loan applications and new accounts.

Credit Unions are often flooded with sales calls and emails, offering promises that sound almost too good to be true. While partnering with an external agency with expertise in the Credit Union industry can yield fantastic results, it can be very difficult to sort through it all and figure out where to turn.

In late 2018, we surveyed manufacturing companies around the world to learn more about their marketing strategy and results.

2018 Credit Union Marketing Survey Results We recently conducted our second annual survey of credit unions to learn more about their marketing approach, and where they're seeing both success and challenges. Sixty-nine credit union professionals submitted their responses, including Marketing Directors, CMO's, COO's and CEO's, from credit unions across the country and ranging widely in asset size.

On a recent broadcast of our WebStrategies Live show, we gave an introduction to Facebook advertising, and it was a hit. It turns out many of you are hungry for advice on how to approach Facebook ads and make them successful for SMBs. We had a lot more to say on the topic, so we decided to continue the conversation with Intro to Facebook Advertising Part 2. This segment offers guidance on custom audiences, different types of ads and placement of those ads, and tailoring your message to where your prospects are in the buying journey.