Community West Bank
Services we provide:
- Discovery
- Strategy
- UX/UI design
- Website development
- Xperience by Kentico implementation
About Community West Bank
CWB is a large community bank in southern California with over 20+ locations and a track record of financial strength, security and stability gained over its 44 years in business. CWB has set itself apart from other banks by its people, dedication to client advocacy, exemplary "relationship banking," strong community support and a mission to exceed expectations. With a passion for providing customized solutions, the merger drove the decision to revamp their digital services to better serve their customers.
The Process
In an era where digital presence is critical to financial institutions and mergers are frequent, the successful merger of Community West Bank (CWB) and Central Valley Bank (CVB) depended on a robust and well-executed digital strategy, critical to providing a seamless user experience for customers and employees. SilverTech, leveraging its expertise in Xperience by Kentico website development, customized a digital solution that unified the brands of these two banks into one cohesive user-friendly digital experience in just 4 months from start to launch.
The Challenges
The merger of CWB and CVB presented unique challenges, particularly in integrating two distinct digital landscapes into a single cohesive website. The biggest challenges included:
- Differing Content Strategies: CWB's site was optimized for SEO with a rich content library, while CVB's site focused more on detailed product pages. Balancing these different content approaches was crucial.
- Short Timeline: The project needed to be completed with a demanding timeline, delivering a high-quality, functional website, from planning to launch in less than four months.
- Outdated Technology: The old CWB site suffered from poor mobile optimization, slow speeds, outdated information, and a lack of interactive features. This hindered customer engagement and usability.
Goals for New Site
SilverTech identified four main goals for CWB's new website with the main goal of unifying the brands. The merger of the two banks presented a unique opportunity to take advantage of the best from both brands.
Solution and Implementation
Based on the insight gained, SilverTech devised a comprehensive strategy roadmap to address the challenges and deliver a seamless digital experience for the bank merger. It was SilverTech's recommendation that Kentico's newest hybrid CMS platform Xperience by Kentico would be the best solution for the new website. Xperience with robust features and functionality allowed SilverTech to create an exceptional digital user experience efficiently for CWB.
The Key components of the solution include:
- Unified Content Strategy: SilverTech developed a content migration plan that combined the SEO-rich content from CWB with the detailed product information from CVB. This approach ensured that the new site would benefit from both banks' strengths while avoiding duplication and inconsistencies.
- Modern Design and Functionality: The new website was built with Xperience by Kentico, featuring a modern, responsive design to enhance user experience across all devices. Key features included:
- Enhanced Interactivity: Interactive elements and engaging content to improve customer interaction and retention
- Improved CTAs: Clear, strategically placed CTAs to guide users through the site effectively
- Technical Upgrades: Faster loading speeds, improved reliability, and mobile optimization to ensure a smooth user experience
- New Functionalities: Inclusion of essential tools like product comparison tools, branch locator and more
- Accelerated Development Timeline: Despite the tight timeline, SilverTech employed agile development practices to ensure timely delivery without compromising quality. The team worked in sprints to continuously test and refine the site, leading up to a successful launch within the four-month timeframe.
HIGHLIGHTS
When to Use ChatGPT in Your Marketing Tactics
By: John Wingate | 5/2/23
Content marketing is a critical part of any online marketing strategy. The process of creating and distributing valuable content that educates, entertains or informs your target audience can be rewarding. However, creating high-quality content that engages your audience can also be time-consuming and challenging. This is where ChatGPT, an AI-powered language model, can help. In this blog, we'll explore how ChatGPT can help with content marketing and why you should be careful when using it.
Generate Content Ideas
Coming up with fresh content ideas can be a struggle. When browsing online, it can feel like everything worth saying has already been said in a million different ways, but ChatGPT can help. With its vast knowledge base, ChatGPT can generate content ideas based on your target audience, industry, and keywords. Simply input a topic or keyword, and ChatGPT will provide a list of potential content ideas that you can use for your next blog post, video, or social media post.
Improve Content Quality
The quality of your content is crucial for engaging your target audience. ChatGPT can help improve your content quality by offering suggestions on how to make your content more compelling. You can use ChatGPT to review your content and receive feedback on grammar, tone, and style. This will help you create content that is clear, concise, and engaging.
Enhance SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is essential for ensuring your content is discoverable by your target audience. Consumers don’t want to spend more than a few seconds searching for the right information. ChatGPT can help you optimize your content for search engines by suggesting keywords, titles, and meta descriptions. With ChatGPT, you can ensure that your content is optimized for search engines and has the best chance of ranking on the first page of search results.
Automate Content Creation
Creating content can be a time-consuming process, but ChatGPT can help automate content creation. ChatGPT can generate high-quality articles, product descriptions, and social media posts based on your input. This can literally take seconds. For example, you can say ‘Help me write a 400-word blog post about lending options available to first-time home buyers.’ You can give ChatGPT as much information as you want and it will craft completely unique copy in seconds. Once you review ChatGPT’s first version, you will likely have to refine it several times by adding additional details, such as in this homebuyer case you might want to add details of which state you want it for, what competency level the readers have with the subject, etc. The more details you provide the closer ChatGPT will get to your desired result. With ChatGPT, you can create content faster and more efficiently, freeing up time to focus on other areas of your business. However, build time in your publishing process to refine and make some edits to get exactly what you need.
Improve Customer Engagement
ChatGPT can help improve customer engagement by generating content that resonates with your target audience. This special AI pulls from billions of databases and is completley up to date on trends and news. By understanding your customers' needs and interests, ChatGPT can generate content that is more likely to be shared, liked, and commented on. This will help you build a stronger connection with your audience and increase brand awareness.
But, Don’t Think That ChatGPT Can Replace Your Human Marketing Team
ChatGPT is a powerful tool that can help with various aspects of content marketing, from generating content ideas to automating content creation, however, don’t rely on AI to replace your marketers, or even your copywriters in the foreseeable future. For as many pros that there are having content generated in seconds, marketing messaging requires strategy, tone, personality and other factors that help writers but don’t replace them.
Here are some reasons why we feel ChatGPT still needs guidance and oversight from humans on your marketing team:
- Inappropriate use of language: Marketers need to be cautious when using ChatGPT for marketing messaging to avoid using any inappropriate language or slang that might offend the audience. This can lead to negative feedback and tarnish the brand's reputation.
- Lack of personalization: Chatbots can sometimes come across as robotic and impersonal, which can negatively impact the customer experience. Marketers need to ensure that they tailor their messaging and provide a personalized experience for their customers.
- Misunderstanding customer intent: AI can misinterpret a customer's intention, leading to irrelevant or inappropriate responses. Marketers need to ensure that the ChatGPT is trained appropriately to avoid any misinterpretations.
- Over-reliance on automation: Marketers need to remember that Chatbots are not a replacement for human interaction but rather a tool to assist with customer service. Over-reliance on automation can result in a lack of empathy for customers and a missed opportunity to build strong relationships.
- Limited scope of interactions: Chatbots can only respond to specific queries, and they may not be able to handle complex customer issues. They certainly aren’t able to make sound judgement or reasoning calls. Marketers should be aware of the limitations of AI like ChatGPT and be prepared to have human support available.
Need Help With Your Content Strategy?
By leveraging the power of AI, you can create high-quality content that engages your target audience and drives business results. If you're looking to improve your content marketing strategy, consider incorporating ChatGPT into your workflow where and when it makes sense. Just be sure you maintain human oversight and support because it cannot replace your marketing experts.
Not sure what tools will help you step up your overall digital experience? Contact us and we’re happy to help.
