The launch of the Sitefinity-based site in August not only benefited customers with powerful navigation and a host of new features, internally the process of changing and posting content took a dramatic turn for the better. Previously, to change or add marketing campaign content, City Bank or its ad agency had to prepare the content then submit it to the CMS vendor—and wait.
“We had no control over the process or timing,” Smothers said. “Not only did we have to wait for the vendor to get to our project, it was expensive, and if any changes needed to be made we had to begin the cycle all over again.”
Today, with a staging site and easy-to-use drag-and-drop menus and templates, City Bank’s marketing staff or advertising agency is able to prepare content, post it to the staging site for review and approval, then post it to the live site—at their own schedule.
“The user-friendly attributes of Sitefinity means that our marketing staff can post content,” Smothers said. “The staging site, which we never had before, gives us the ability to internally prepare content, post it, and once it has passed our internal controls, immediately sync to the live site. We have clearly decreased time to market for new marketing campaigns and are able to update content at an exponentially faster pace.”
The powerful analytics of Sitefinity also mean that City Bank, for the first time, can track the effectiveness of their campaigns. “Finally, we can measure the impact of our efforts on the business,” Smothers said. “And moving forward, make smarter marketing decisions based on real data and change course along the way as we learn what is working and what’s not.”
The consumer has benefited as well. For example, City Bank has implemented a streamlined online loan application process, and customers now enjoy a truly responsive mobile experience.
“With Sitefinity, we are able to take a mobile first approach, looking at the web site and mobile as one,” Smothers said. “Our customers expect a great mobile experience and we can finally provide it.”
City Bank has already taken advantage of the personalization features of Sitefinity for its Community Rewards program. The program allows customers to vote online for which charities City Bank should allocate its Community Rewards funds. In 2015 alone, over 100,000 votes were cast.
“We were able to tailor Community Rewards messaging by location and persona behavior,” Smothers explained. “It made the program more effective and produced a wealth of data that will be useful in future marketing programs. And the heavy traffic over a short period also validated Sitefinity’s robust scalability and new hosting environment.”
Looking ahead, Smothers is anticipating the rollout of a new module to open accounts and further improvements to the loan qualification and approval process.
“There are so many benefits Sitefinity is providing,” Smothers said. “We have peace of mind, control of our content and a vastly improved user experience. But even more importantly, we don’t have any hesitation about our ability to add new features and functionality that ensure we are meeting the needs and expectations of our customers.”