Get noticed
Reach clients where they already are: banners inside online banking, email, branch signage, articles and LinkedIn, and their own banker.
First Republic Bank, 2016–2022
Moving clients from the branch to their phone
First Republic was known for personal service. Clients had a banker who knew them by name, and many liked walking into a branch. As product marketing manager, my job was to get those same clients to try something new: deposit checks with their phone, pay bills online, lock a lost card from an app.
- 7 digital products launched
- 27 features driven to adoption
- 44% of a target segment moved to a new channel
- 130,000 clients guided through a platform migration
The challenge
A new feature doesn’t change a habit. A client who has deposited checks at the branch for twenty years won’t switch because an app update appeared. They need a reason that matters to them, a nudge at the moment they’d use it, and a first step simple enough to try right away.
And at a relationship bank, a banker’s word carries more weight than any ad.
Map the whole path, then write for each step
For every launch I mapped how a client would go from first hearing about a feature to using it, and what could stop them along the way. Every message got one job and one next step.
Make the case
Landing pages that lead with the payoff, not the feature list. A webinar for people who want to see it work. A one-page flyer a banker can hand across the desk.
Make yes easy
Every path ends with a person: a Digital Specialist who sets it up in twenty minutes, or the client’s own banker. Anyone not ready yet gets a follow-up, not a dead end.
Bankers as the most trusted channel
I treated bankers as a channel, not a hurdle. Each launch gave them an intro email to send, a short presentation, a follow-up email, and a flyer with a QR code that led straight to setup.
When a client complained about the old bill-pay tool, the banker had a ready answer: a short email about the better experience, with a link to get started.
Lead with the payoff
Clients don’t adopt features. They adopt the result. So every page opened with what changes for them, then showed how few steps it took to start.
Test, then scale
I tested creative to see what actually moved people, then put the winners to work. For a platform migration, that meant timing messages across email, in-app, video, and live demos so about 130,000 clients knew what was changing, when, and what to do.
For one product suite, repositioning around the problem it solved moved 44% of the target segment to the new channel.
Before I joined
I first worked with First Republic as their agency. At Interplay, I built a three-part video series for the business banking sales team: a one-minute teaser, two- to three-minute feature demos, and longer product tours that led prospects to a one-hour deep dive.
Sales reps used it at every step of the sales process and saw higher close rates and buyer interest.
Dan is one of those people who can wear many hats and always execute on projects with flawless quality, while meeting aggressive timelines.