Customer Acquisition in Banking

by Theresa Nguyen 3 min read June 26, 2023

In a changing economy, banks of all sizes are more budget conscious, leading many to pull back on their marketing spend for new customer acquisition. But by making strategic marketing moves now, banks can uncover new opportunities and drive profitable, long-term growth. So, how can you find, engage, and win over high-value customers?

Know who’s in the market for credit

To build an effective bank customer acquisition strategy, you’ll want to be proactive with your campaign planning. Let’s say you’ve already defined your customer profile and have insights into their interests, lifestyles, and demographics. With predictive metrics and advanced tools like trended data and propensity-to-open models, you can further refine your segmentation strategies by identifying individuals who are likely to be in the market for your product. This way, you can reach consumers at the right time and personalize offers to achieve higher open rates.

Embrace the digital era

With today’s consumers increasing their banking activities online, leveraging digital channels in your bank customer acquisition strategy is imperative. In addition to connecting with consumers through direct mail, consider reaching out to them through email, social media, or your mobile banking applications. This will not only help increase the visibility of the offer, but also allow consumers to receive and respond faster.

Another way to enhance your banking strategies for growth while meeting consumer expectations for digital is by making it easier and more convenient for consumers to onboard. With an automated and data-driven credit decisioning solution, you can streamline steps that are traditionally manual and time-consuming, such as data collection and identity verification. By providing seamless customer acquisition in banking, you can accelerate your decision-making and increase the likelihood of conversion.

Make the most of your marketing spend

While customer acquisition in banking should remain a high priority, we understand that driving growth on a tight marketing budget can be challenging. That’s why we created a tip sheet outlining ways for banks and other lenders to enhance their customer acquisition processes while effectively managing costs. Some of the tips include:

  • Going beyond conventional scoring methods. By leveraging an advanced customer acquisition solution, you can gain a holistic view of your prospective customers to enhance predictive performance and identify hidden growth opportunities.
  • Focusing on high-potential customers. Pinpointing consumers who are actively seeking credit enables you to focus your offers and resources on those who are likely to respond, resulting in a greater return on marketing investment.
  • Amplifying your credit offers. Re-presenting preapproved credit offers through the digital channels that consumers most frequent enables you to expand your campaign reach, increase response rates, and reduce direct mailing costs.

View the tip sheet to learn how you can make the most of your marketing budget to acquire new customers and drive long-term growth.

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For decades, credit data has given lenders a trusted foundation for assessing risk. Now, consumer-permissioned cash flow data is adding another layer of insight into consumers’ financial lives, including income, spending, liquidity and changing financial obligations. The opportunity is significant. Nearly one in five consumers lacks access to or has damaged credit. New Experian research also shows that 60% of consumers who have previously been denied credit or received less favorable terms than expected believe the outcome would have been different if lenders had considered their recent income and banking activity alongside their credit history. 1,2 For lenders, cash flow insights can provide additional context about a consumer’s financial capacity and support more informed underwriting decisions. The next challenge is making those insights easier to use consistently and responsibly at scale. What are cash flow insights? Cash flow insights are derived from consumer-permissioned banking data and provide visibility into how money moves into and out of a consumer’s accounts. Depending on the information available, cash flow data can provide insight into financial behaviors such as: Income and income stability: Regular and irregular income streams and changes over time Spending and recurring expenses: Everyday spending patterns and ongoing financial obligations Account balances and liquidity: Available funds and changes in account balances Debt obligations: Loan payments and other recurring debt commitments Cash flow patterns: How money moves into and out of accounts over time Traditional credit information provides a rich history of how consumers have managed credit. Cash flow insights add context about their current financial activity and capacity, providing lenders with a more complete view of financial health. Cash flow insights can also add predictive value to risk assessment. Experian analysis shows Cashflow Score can deliver up to a 25% lift in predictive performance over conventional credit scores when tailored to targeted risk tiers.3 How lenders can put cash flow insights to work at scale As interest in cash flow insights grows, the conversation is moving beyond what the data can reveal to how financial institutions can use it consistently and responsibly. That requires standardized consumer reporting, clear governance and decision-ready insights that can work within established lending processes. The launch of Experian Cashflow Data Bureau at Vision 2026 reflects this shift from access to adoption. The new consumer reporting agency operates under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and is designed to help financial institutions adopt consumer-permissioned cash flow insights at scale. A key part of that foundation is the cash flow consumer report, which organizes consumer-permissioned banking information into a standardized consumer report regulated under the FCRA. This gives lenders a consistent foundation for incorporating cash flow information into lending decisions while providing consumers with access to the information in their report. Turning greater visibility into better decisions The next evolution in credit isn’t about choosing between traditional credit and cash flow data. Each provides a different perspective. Traditional credit information offers deep insight into how consumers have managed credit over time. Cash flow insights can add context about financial activity and capacity. Bringing those perspectives together can give lenders greater visibility into consumers’ financial health and help them better distinguish between risk and resilience, support more informed decisions and identify opportunities to responsibly expand access to credit. As cash flow adoption continues to grow, its value will come from how effectively it complements the information lenders already use. The opportunity isn't simply to see more data. It's to turn that additional visibility into smarter, more informed decisions. Explore how Experian Cashflow Data Bureau is helping financial institutions put consumer-permissioned cash flow insights into practice at scale. Learn more [1] Federal Reserve Bank of New York, The Market for Credit Building: Demand, Product Characteristics and Consumer Uses, 2026. [2] Experian commissioned Atomik Research to conduct an online survey of 2,000 U.S. adults age 18+. Fieldwork took place July 16–21, 2026. Margin of error: +/- 2.2 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. [3] Based on Experian analysis when Cashflow Score is compared with conventional credit scores, tailored to targeted risk tiers. Predictability based on KS.

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