Page 14 - BusinessWest May 11, 2026

for Greenfield Cooperative Bank, who, with that comment, spoke
for everyone we talked with. “I want to make sure that our custom-
ers or potential customers, when they’re thinking about purchasing
a home or opening a checking account or savings account, we’re the
ones they think of first.”
To achieve that, the bank is visible on all the available platforms,
from billboards to digital ads to print publications, she said, but it’s
also visible in the community and involved with area causes and
nonprofits, building a reputation for caring, and gaining trust, while
doing so.
Taglines are part of the effort, as we’ll see, but so are specific
strategies to personalize the banks and their staffs and make con-
nections with consumers. And then, there’s work in the community,
which is not technically marketing, but certainly contributes to insti-
tutions’ efforts to gain visibility and make an impression.
For this issue and its focus on banking and financial services, we
talked with the marketing leaders at several area banks and institu-
tions about how they go about that challenging assignment of stand-
ing out.
By All Accounts
Coffee and Conversation.
That’s the name Greenfield Cooperative Bank has put on a rela-
tively new initiative, one that invites the community to get to know
the people who work for the bank. One was conducted recently for
the new manager of the South Hadley branch.
“We hosted a meet-and-greet event for her in the morning where
the public could come in meet her, have coffee, have snacks, and
chat with her,” said Tripp, adding that a similar gathering was
planned for a new mortgage lender at the main office in Greenfield.
“They’re very low-key, not salesy; there’s nothing we’re trying to get
from you. You come in, meet us, and get to know who we are, so
when you need us, you know whom to contact.”
Coffee and Conversation is just one way the bank looks to stand
out in the market and be top of mind when people need a loan or
want to open new accounts, said Tripp, adding that other strategies
that are business-focused but also fall in the category of market-
ing include specific products and services, such as the bank’s new
Co-op Cares mortgage program, designed specifically for employees
of 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations.
It’s one of many strategies to help gain any kind of edge when
they are needed because of the crowded nature of the local banking
field.
“We’re really overbanked in this region. There are a lot of insti-
tutions, and they’re all doing great things, and similar things,” she
noted, adding that Greenfield Co-op, like other banks, is always
looking for differentiators and ways to connect, such as the recent
Digital Banking Week, when customers could get questions
answered about the digital banking app or perhaps learn how to
deposit a check remotely.
“When it comes to consumers, they
expect convenience. And digital is a very
easy path to take action; we want that
experience through digital seamless for
people. When we draw them in with that
first impression, we want to make it easy
for them to take the next step.”
KARA HERMAN
“We really do want to be out in the community and invite people
to come see us,” she said, adding that much of the focus is on the
bank’s people.
It’s the same at Country Bank, said Shelley Regin, chief Market-
ing and Community Relations officer, especially with its new branch
in Tower Square in downtown Springfield, which opened a month
ago.
The bank has new
signs and billboards not- Banks
Continued on page 16 >>
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