BMO Bank introduced Bill Connect in early 2023, a new business software offering to make paying bills easier, invoicing customers faster, and receiving payments more secure. Bill Connect provides the bank with additional revenue through recurring subscription fees, while also boosting customer retention and digital adoption rates. As a Senior Marketing Manager of U.S. Business Banking at BMO, I developed the marketing collateral to launch Bill Connect and led a two-phased customer acquisition campaign.
Our campaign’s goal was to reach 100K business customers and enroll 200 of them as new Bill Connect users. We incentivized sign-ups with a tiered introductory offer: a free trial for all, plus waived service fees for high-value prospects. Over four months we reached over 120K customers and enrolled 232 total users, exceeding our goals.
Sample of emails sent to customers.
The messaging took a funneled approach, narrowing with each over a series of five emails and three direct mails. We began introducing the basic features then discussed specific value propositions. We concluded by directing the customer to enroll online – with mentions of the special offer throughout the copy.
The creative combined eye-catching imagery with short and punchy messaging. We used icons to explain product features, shaded boxes to highlight calls to action, and QR codes and vanity URLs to embed unique tracking. These design elements made the creative stand out in inboxes and mailboxes, while keeping aligned to brand guidelines and compliant to industry regulations.
Sample of direct mails sent to customers.
Executing the first phase of the campaign provided key insights that we used to improve the second phase of the campaign. We adjusted the copy to focus more on the customer’s needs and added an urgent tone to the intro offer. We also sweetened the offer and narrowed our audience to customers with higher checking account balances.
Bill Connect launched as a successful product for the bank with help from this campaign. We exceeded KPI targets, delivered a positive ROMI, and laid a strong groundwork for future customer touch-points. These efforts received praise from bank leadership and positive feedback from customers.
To count attributions, we analyzing the tracked CTA links and compared those results at to a list of customers who enrolled within the campaign window. We also pulled data from the digital team to measure the campaign’s impact on traffic to BMO.com. This was all compiled into a report that presented KPI goals versus actuals and summarized key findings.
The acquisition campaign was followed by a retention campaign. It targeted customers with free trials expiring soon and customers with low activity levels. A follow-on acquisition campaign could be planned to reach even more customers, using learnings from the initial campaign to be more efficient and cost-effective. The collateral developed for Bill Connect is still used today.