William Mills Agency, the nation’s largest independent financial PR and technology public relations firm, shared the findings of a recent study of bankers’ preferences on information sources and communications tools through a webinar hosted by Bankerstuff.com.  The goal of the study was to uncover which sources of information bankers trusted most. In total, 247 bankers were surveyed.

The information sources in the study were categorized as:

• Analysts, e.g., TowerGroup, IDC Financial Insights
• Associations, e.g., ABA, BAI, CUNA
• Corporations, e.g., Fiserv, IBM, S1
• Financial Information/Educational Content Providers, e.g., Bankerstuff, CreditUnions.com,
• Bankers Online, Americanbanker.com
• General Media, e.g., Business Week, newspapers
• Industry Media, e.g., Bank Systems & Technology, US Banker, Credit Union Times, Mortgage
• Banking
• Industry Peers

 The communications tools or tactics examined include:

• Advertising
• Blogs
• Newspapers, Magazines, other print
• Press Releases
• Social Media
• Web Sites
• Webinars
• White papers
• Word-of-mouth

     “The massive amount of information we have available to us in the financial industry is staggering,” said Scott Mills, APR, president of William Mills Agency. “We embarked on this study because we wanted to understand how best to reach and communicate to bankers.” 

     According to the study, bankers cited “general media” as the least credible source for information with a weighted average score of 5.49 on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the most credible). Additionally, blogs scored the least trusted communications tool by bankers (scoring 4.57).  Not surprisingly, industry peers are the most trusted sources, with a score of 7.80.

     “The results support why social media is relevant to bankers,” said Karen Licker, founder of Bankerstuff.com and co-collaborator of the study. “It lets you manage and leverage your peer group — people you trust most — to share resources, information and expertise without getting lost in a sea of opinions.”

     In the presentation, Mills discussed the importance of using combinations of communications tools and channels:  “It is not as simple as disregarding the lowest scored tools as there is a cost and effort associated with type of communications and different tools can be used at different stages of the buying process. Even blogs, which scored relatively low, enable people to generate and distribute a large amount of information on a particular topic.  Savvy communicators know that intelligent content goes a long way in establishing credibility and shortening the sales process.”

     The entire presentation is available on demand through Bankerstuff.com.

About Bankerstuff
Bankerstuff emerged in the marketplace in early 2007 to address the information needs of the financial services industry. Because financial institutions are more cost-conscious and pressed for time than ever before, Bankerstuff sorts and gathers information to help industry leaders identify unbiased marketplace trends in retail, operational and payments areas. Bankerstuff is the only one-stop online resource for banking information compiled by bankers for bankers in the US and North America.  For more information, visit www.bankerstuff.com.

About William Mills Agency
William Mills Agency was founded in 1977 and promotes companies that sell a variety of products or services in a number of highly specialized vertical markets with a focus in the financial industry. The Atlanta-based agency represents companies throughout North America and Europe. For more information, please visit www.williammills.com or call Mr. Kelly Williams at (678) 781-7202.