Why a West Virginia community banker keeps buying web addresses
By Steve Cocheo, executive editor
Some bankers collect coins. Some bankers collect stamps. Some collect vintage cars, hunting decoys, Southwestern art, or antique firearms.
Brian Thomas collects website addresses.
But for Thomas, this is no mere pastime to take his mind off the hectic world of community banking. Actually, it’s something he’s been doing for about ten years to stake out potential future opportunities, to avoid market confusion, and to head off web players up to mischief ... or worse.
To date, Thomas has accumulated about 50 website addresses for $398.9 million-assets Clear Mountain Bank, Bruceton Mills, West Va. And Thomas, president and CEO, stands ready to buy the rights to more. He considers his bank’s online presence too important to take any chances.
Beginning the “collection”
About a decade ago, Thomas’ holding company owned two banks and as the web became more important to banks of all sizes, he purchased website addresses for both institutions. Then, from time to time, if he had a good idea for a new product or service—or one that he thought the company might offer someday—he came up with a suitable address and reserved it by buying it from one of the companies that handle web registrations.
Some bankers collect coins. Some bankers collect stamps. Some collect vintage cars, hunting decoys, Southwestern art, or antique firearms.
Brian Thomas collects website addresses.
But for Thomas, this is no mere pastime to take his mind off the hectic world of community banking. Actually, it’s something he’s been doing for about ten years to stake out potential future opportunities, to avoid market confusion, and to head off web players up to mischief ... or worse.
To date, Thomas has accumulated about 50 website addresses for $398.9 million-assets Clear Mountain Bank, Bruceton Mills, West Va. And Thomas, president and CEO, stands ready to buy the rights to more. He considers his bank’s online presence too important to take any chances.
Beginning the “collection”
About a decade ago, Thomas’ holding company owned two banks and as the web became more important to banks of all sizes, he purchased website addresses for both institutions. Then, from time to time, if he had a good idea for a new product or service—or one that he thought the company might offer someday—he came up with a suitable address and reserved it by buying it from one of the companies that handle web registrations.
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“We can’t prevent every phishing attempt, but we can make it harder,” says Clear Mountain Bank’s Brian Thomas |
Later, when the company merged the two institutions and changed its name, Thomas says, phishers began attempting to fool the bank’s customers with phony addresses. In some cases, they came up with names that sounded reasonable. In other cases the phonies purchased “.net” or other such variants of the more typical “.com” addresses that banks generally buy. The whole idea was to lure customers to the phony sites to steal account information.
The bank fought back on multiple fronts.
First, Thomas arranged to buy variations on Clear Mountain’s name, including common spelling errors, such as “mountian.”
“We can’t prevent every phishing attempt,” says Thomas, “but we can make it harder.”
The second front hinged on a strategy the bank took around the time of the consolidation of subsidiary banks. Thomas says that on the advice of legal counsel, the bank had decided that its new name would be unique, something that could be trademarked. So the bank hired a local firm to conduct a trademark search and protected both its new name and its logo.
When the phishing attempts began, the wisdom of the advice Thomas had been given came through.
Clear Mountain Bank complained to the internet service provider hosting phishing sites aping its name, and were told that the only way the provider could shut down the phonies were if the bank held a federal trademark and could prove that.
“We faxed them our documentation,” says Thomas, with evident satisfaction, “and they took down the other sites immediately.”
Phishing isn’t the only risk that banks face with their websites and their online presence. There is reputation risk, as well, when the disgruntled decide to start up sites with the name of a bank and “ihate________” in front of the bank name or bankname “sucks.com” and other such hate sites. As Thomas and his team thought of troublesome variations, they bought up the addresses, in a preemptive strike.
“We have to protect our brand,” says Thomas.
Staking claims for proactive marketing
Typically it costs about $10-$20 a year—sometimes less—to buy a web address, so Thomas has been pretty aggressive buying any address that will be protective, or, even more important, proactive.
“There’s no requirement that you actually have to use the address,” explains Thomas. And once the address is bought, the buyer owns it for the term paid for. When the bank has an idea for an address, staff checks it out on one of the registration sites—two are Network Solutions and Go Daddy—and sees if it is taken. If not, the bank generally buys it.
“If we don’t go out and reserve these addresses and protect them, they are potentially lost for years,” says Thomas. “And I’m a believer in thinking ahead on the internet.”
Thomas says trademark registrations are good for five years, and can be renewed. The bank has trademarked not only its name and logo, but also the names of some of its products and services. One example is a transaction product, Clear Checking.
“The thinking is that if we find a reason for developing a unique product name, it makes sense to protect that name from someone who wants to come along and benefit from it,” says Thomas.
The bank does not yet offer mobile banking, but plans to. And you wouldn’t be surprised to find out that Thomas has already reserved appropriate “.mobi” addresses.
Clear Mountain’s web experience
Underscoring the importance of the steps Thomas’ bank has taken is the way its website, www.clearmountainbank.com, has become more and more important to business.
“It’s a rapidly growing part of our bank,” says Thomas, who himself goes on the internet daily. “We actually perform more transactions online than in any one of our branches.”
Recognizing that many customers like the online experience, Clear Mountain has been building more into its site.
One example is videos. The bank has been posting professionally shot videos on the site—one that’s currently featured talks about the bank and its place as a community bank. Others have discussed specific services. Initially the bank relied on an outside firm for these YouTube style videos, but more recently it has been working on them in-house.
“I think consumers like short videos as a way to learn,” says Thomas.
Getting social—and why
Buying all those web addresses and beefing up its website aren’t costing the bank a huge amount, according to Thomas. “And, the web is very much the way business is conducted these days,” he says.
Along those lines, Thomas says a point he has considered is the rapidity with which even community bank customers don’t actually go to their banks anymore.
“What concerns me is how many customers we have at the bank that we never physically see, that we never talk to,” says Thomas. “It does keep me up at night.”
Thomas is convinced that while customers may like the convenience of remote banking, that “they want to hear from us, they want to communicate.” So the bank has been trying several avenues, each calculated to maintain a relationship other than physically.
The bank has also ventured into social media, maintaining both Twitter and Facebook accounts. Of the two, the Facebook effort is followed by more people—nearly 650 fans—and chiefly features helpful advisories and news about the bank. The bank’s Twitter presence is conservative in volume, and mostly features the same type of updates.
Regarding Twitter and Facebook outreaches, Thomas says, “we try to make them informative, educational, and useful, not promotional.”
Reaching out by eletter
The bank also opts for a more direct communication to customers, a periodic eletter that goes to 7,000 subscribers monthly.
There are a number of email blast providers out there, but Thomas says the bank decided to go with ClickRSVP, a company that specializes in financial institution email campaigns and communications.
Thomas says the bank tracks not only the “open rate”—the percentage of clients who actually open the eletter, but also how often they “click through” to individual news items. The bank also tracks which types of items they read and which they don’t.
The average open rate was 21.7% in March, giving the bank deeper reach than social media platforms thus far. •
The bank fought back on multiple fronts.
First, Thomas arranged to buy variations on Clear Mountain’s name, including common spelling errors, such as “mountian.”
“We can’t prevent every phishing attempt,” says Thomas, “but we can make it harder.”
The second front hinged on a strategy the bank took around the time of the consolidation of subsidiary banks. Thomas says that on the advice of legal counsel, the bank had decided that its new name would be unique, something that could be trademarked. So the bank hired a local firm to conduct a trademark search and protected both its new name and its logo.
When the phishing attempts began, the wisdom of the advice Thomas had been given came through.
Clear Mountain Bank complained to the internet service provider hosting phishing sites aping its name, and were told that the only way the provider could shut down the phonies were if the bank held a federal trademark and could prove that.
“We faxed them our documentation,” says Thomas, with evident satisfaction, “and they took down the other sites immediately.”
Phishing isn’t the only risk that banks face with their websites and their online presence. There is reputation risk, as well, when the disgruntled decide to start up sites with the name of a bank and “ihate________” in front of the bank name or bankname “sucks.com” and other such hate sites. As Thomas and his team thought of troublesome variations, they bought up the addresses, in a preemptive strike.
“We have to protect our brand,” says Thomas.
Staking claims for proactive marketing
Typically it costs about $10-$20 a year—sometimes less—to buy a web address, so Thomas has been pretty aggressive buying any address that will be protective, or, even more important, proactive.
“There’s no requirement that you actually have to use the address,” explains Thomas. And once the address is bought, the buyer owns it for the term paid for. When the bank has an idea for an address, staff checks it out on one of the registration sites—two are Network Solutions and Go Daddy—and sees if it is taken. If not, the bank generally buys it.
“If we don’t go out and reserve these addresses and protect them, they are potentially lost for years,” says Thomas. “And I’m a believer in thinking ahead on the internet.”
Thomas says trademark registrations are good for five years, and can be renewed. The bank has trademarked not only its name and logo, but also the names of some of its products and services. One example is a transaction product, Clear Checking.
“The thinking is that if we find a reason for developing a unique product name, it makes sense to protect that name from someone who wants to come along and benefit from it,” says Thomas.
The bank does not yet offer mobile banking, but plans to. And you wouldn’t be surprised to find out that Thomas has already reserved appropriate “.mobi” addresses.
Clear Mountain’s web experience
Underscoring the importance of the steps Thomas’ bank has taken is the way its website, www.clearmountainbank.com, has become more and more important to business.
“It’s a rapidly growing part of our bank,” says Thomas, who himself goes on the internet daily. “We actually perform more transactions online than in any one of our branches.”
Recognizing that many customers like the online experience, Clear Mountain has been building more into its site.
One example is videos. The bank has been posting professionally shot videos on the site—one that’s currently featured talks about the bank and its place as a community bank. Others have discussed specific services. Initially the bank relied on an outside firm for these YouTube style videos, but more recently it has been working on them in-house.
“I think consumers like short videos as a way to learn,” says Thomas.
Getting social—and why
Buying all those web addresses and beefing up its website aren’t costing the bank a huge amount, according to Thomas. “And, the web is very much the way business is conducted these days,” he says.
Along those lines, Thomas says a point he has considered is the rapidity with which even community bank customers don’t actually go to their banks anymore.
“What concerns me is how many customers we have at the bank that we never physically see, that we never talk to,” says Thomas. “It does keep me up at night.”
Thomas is convinced that while customers may like the convenience of remote banking, that “they want to hear from us, they want to communicate.” So the bank has been trying several avenues, each calculated to maintain a relationship other than physically.
The bank has also ventured into social media, maintaining both Twitter and Facebook accounts. Of the two, the Facebook effort is followed by more people—nearly 650 fans—and chiefly features helpful advisories and news about the bank. The bank’s Twitter presence is conservative in volume, and mostly features the same type of updates.
Regarding Twitter and Facebook outreaches, Thomas says, “we try to make them informative, educational, and useful, not promotional.”
Reaching out by eletter
The bank also opts for a more direct communication to customers, a periodic eletter that goes to 7,000 subscribers monthly.
There are a number of email blast providers out there, but Thomas says the bank decided to go with ClickRSVP, a company that specializes in financial institution email campaigns and communications.
Thomas says the bank tracks not only the “open rate”—the percentage of clients who actually open the eletter, but also how often they “click through” to individual news items. The bank also tracks which types of items they read and which they don’t.
The average open rate was 21.7% in March, giving the bank deeper reach than social media platforms thus far. •
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