Sherburne State Bank: A Community Banking Success Story

Sherburne State Bank is an independent, locally owned bank with three branches located in Becker, Monticello, and Princeton, Minnesota. They provide personalized banking services tailored to both individuals and businesses in their communities.

Opportunity

Sherburne State Bank needed to drive growth in both residential and commercial lending, with a focus on standing out in a competitive market. They wanted to enhance their digital presence, attract new customers, and improve their overall marketing efforts, particularly in residential lending and deposit generation.

Strategy

To help Sherburne State Bank capitalize on their expanding market, we developed a digital marketing strategy that included display ads, search ads, review management, web design, and SEO. We worked to enhance their online presence by focusing on search optimization and improving their website design. This involved incorporating custom imagery and a user-friendly request form to boost conversions. We also managed customer reviews and consistently published blog content to keep their online presence fresh and engaging. Additionally, we ran targeted search campaigns using both residential and commercial keywords to capture more search traffic while increasing their organic visibility. This combined approach has been incredibly successful.

1600

Increase in Website Traffic

With the successful launch of a new banking app, much of the direct website traffic previously generated by online banking access has now shifted to mobile app usage. Overall traffic increased by 4%, but more notably, traffic to the home loans page surged by 1,600%, while traffic to the business loans page rose by 170%. These significant increases in page traffic can be attributed to targeted search engine marketing and SEO efforts focused on these two service categories.

Increase in Lead Generation

The website was designed and continuously managed to generate form submissions that would enable leads to be quickly directed to the appropriate department based on the information requested. As a result of our SEO efforts, form submissions have increased by 30% year over year.

Improved Search Rankings

Our SEO strategy has successfully positioned Sherburne State Bank among the top three search results for keywords related to banking and ATMs within their market area. Additionally, we’ve made significant progress in organic search results for highly competitive keywords related to mortgages and business loans.

Click Through Rates

SEO efforts have been enhanced with paid search advertising, resulting in considerable success. For residential lending, Google marketing generated approximately 300 monthly clicks, with click-through rates exceeding 16% for keywords related to land loans and new construction. Business loans received about 170 monthly clicks, maintaining consistent click-through rates above 12% across all keyword phrases. Additionally, Microsoft Ads were implemented later, providing an additional 557 monthly clicks. In November 2024, search marketing drove over 1,000 visits to the Sherburne State Bank website.

“From the first meeting, the team at Arvig has thoughtfully and concisely aided us in achieving our goals. Over the years, as our goals and objectives have changed, the Arvig team agilely shifted our marketing strategy to provide the most effective campaigns. Their expertise and professionalism is evident in all they do, and it’s evident their efforts are uniquely designed for our success. The partnership we’ve formed between our marketing team and Arvig Media has made our goals reality.”
Candice HansonSherburne State Bank COO