Merchants Bank of Indiana Case Study
Social Media Performance Growth You Can Take to the Bank
With the absence of an in-house dedicated social media manager, the MBI marketing team looked to Dittoe PR to assist with content development, take over daily management of its channels, and grow its presence on social media.
Merchants Bank wanted to bring heightened awareness to its other divisions including Small Business Administration (SBA), Agricultural Lending, Business Banking and Merchants Mortgage.
Challenge
A referral is a great way to land a new client. Expanding an existing client’s scope of work to include their sister company is even better. That’s exactly what happened to officially kick off Dittoe Public Relations’ partnership with Merchants Bank of Indiana (MBI).
Dittoe PR has worked with Merchants Capital (MCC), a company under the Merchants Bancorp umbrella, for more than four years. Throughout the ongoing partnership, Dittoe PR has secured impactful media coverage and created custom social media campaigns while working alongside Merchants Bancorp’s small internal marketing team. With the absence of an in-house dedicated social media manager, the MBI marketing team looked to Dittoe PR to assist with content development, take over daily management of its channels, and grow its presence on social media.
In addition to its banking services and financing for affordable multifamily housing, MBI wanted to bring heightened awareness to its other divisions including Small Business Administration (SBA), Agricultural Lending, Business Banking and Merchants Mortgage.
Solution
After a brief onboarding period, Dittoe PR created a custom social media strategy that included a profile analysis and breakdown of proposed management tasks, campaigns highlighting each division and sample creative assets. This initial strategy acted as a guide for the first six months of the partnership and has grown to be consistently updated on a quarterly basis with accompanying monthly and quarterly analysis reports and annual performance recaps.
Dittoe PR rolled out social media content by implementing an employee engagement campaign with a heavy focus on professional platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter. By tapping into the existing professional networks of Merchants employees, Dittoe PR furthered the company’s impact and expanded its reach. This campaign began by highlighting employee work anniversaries and now includes other milestones such as retirements, promotions, industry awards, board appointments and other professional accolades.
To educate employees on the basics of creating and maintaining a presence on social media, Dittoe PR led an internal LinkedIn training with MBI executives and other employees under the Merchants Bancorp umbrella. Through the seminar, the team built stronger engagement rates with employees and turned active users into brand ambassadors, resulting in additional follower growth on the platform in the weeks and months that followed.
Additional custom campaigns were introduced in the first six months to highlight MBI’s work in its other divisions, which included leveraging employees as experts, promoting the success of each division, and tapping into ongoing American Bankers Association (ABA) campaigns and industry-related micro-holidays. Dittoe PR also developed custom design templates for each campaign to keep the Merchants branding top of mind with each creative asset. The signature “Merchants green” style has since become recognizable by banking industry peers.
Merchants Bank of Indiana Results
In the first year of the partnership, Dittoe PR developed a consistent posting strategy and engaging campaigns with branded content to achieve MBI’s goals of growing its presence and educating its target audiences. This content, when combined with the earned media coverage and thought leadership placements secured by Dittoe PR, increased Merchants’ credibility among the Hoosier community and its industry peers. MBI went on to receive both the FHLBank Indianapolis’ Community Spirit Award and the Indianapolis Business Journal’s HR Impact Award in 2022.
From March 2021 to February 2022, the Dittoe PR social media team achieved the following results across the four MBI channels:
- Grew followership by 47.3%.
- Earned a 39.5% increase in impressions.
- Increased engagements by 99.2% to earn a 9% average annual engagement rate.
- Directed 93.6% more link clicks to Merchants landing pages, with the majority of that growth coming from LinkedIn.
Through the remainder of 2022, Dittoe PR continued to see improved performance across MBI’s social media channels as a result of our evolving strategy. With new platform features, such as Instagram Reels, our team began leveraging more video content to expand our reach and tap into new audiences. For the year, Dittoe PR increased:
- Followers by 40.4%.
- Impressions by 228.3%.
- Engagements by 168.4%.
- Link clicks by 345.5%.
At the start of the partnership’s second year, Farmers Merchants Bank of Illinois (FMBIL), another subsidiary of Merchants Bancorp, also employed Dittoe PR for social media management support while they grew and trained their internal marketing team. Dittoe PR supported FMBIL with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram management from June to December 2022, earning:
- 24.9% increase in followers.
- 229% increase in impressions.
- 326.3% increase in engagements.
- 811.8% increase in link clicks.
As we look ahead to our third year in partnership with MBI, we’re excited to tackle new challenges and continue to ideate and deliver content that amplifies the work MBI is doing across each of its divisions.
“From stories in key trade publications to technical content creation, Dittoe PR excels at finding creative and effective ways to share Merchants Capital’s story. We love that Dittoe PR understands the value of translating PR outputs into real business value for Merchants Capital, providing us with opportunities to generate new leads and build rapport through earned placements and social media presence. We value Dittoe PR as a true extension of our marketing team and take pride in working with them every day.”
Rebecca Marsh
VP, Marketing & Communications Officer, and Chief Information Security Officer
Merchants Capital
Explore Similar Case Studies
National Verizon Retailer Calls on Dittoe Public Relations to Build Brand Awareness, Engage Customers During 14-Year Partnership
As one of the nation’s largest Verizon Authorized Retailers and a subsidiary of Round Room LLC, TCC operates over 500 locations from coast to coast, skillfully maintaining a local brand identity and strong community connections amidst its extensive reach. Positioned in the fiercely competitive wireless retail market, TCC is dedicated to enhancing its brand awareness and fostering positive, engaging customer relationships throughout its service areas and corporate base in central Indiana. This case study highlights Dittoe PR’s strategic public relations efforts to establish TCC as an employer of choice with a vibrant corporate culture that not only attracts top talent but also achieves customer satisfaction rates that rival the most esteemed retailers in the business.
Dittoe PR Drives Dank Results for a New Kind of Dry January
Dry January is so 2022. With consumers leaning away from Dry January to follow more mindful drinking habits, WhistlePig Whiskey sought to create the best of both worlds with a limited-time non-alcoholic cocktail made with non-psychoactive cannabis terpenes. But to disrupt a social movement as established as Dry January, WhistlePig would need a partner to culture-jack the post-holiday tradition and appeal to new audiences with ever-changing preferences. (And did we mention it was also a fundraiser to benefit bartenders?) Dittoe PR was happy to light up the media.
Social Media Slam Dunk: Dittoe PR's Full Court Press For Men’s Final Four and Indiana Sports Corp
In January 2021, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) announced that for the first time in program history, the entire Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, known as NCAA March Madness, would take place in one region. Their choice: Indiana, with the majority of games taking place in downtown Indianapolis. ISC needed an agency partner to help Indianapolis shine as the sports capital of the nation.
Dittoe PR Leads NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Social Media Channels to 296 Million Impressions, 23 Million Engagements
With an audience active 24 hours a day, a membership base of more than 350 schools and upwards of 50 Top 25 games each week to monitor and amplify, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) realized their need for a community management partner who could assist
with influencing, engaging and growing a community of loyal women’s basketball fans, while competing at the same level as the men’s accounts.
PR to Inform: Thought Leadership Drives Earned Media for WGU Indiana
With growing competition among established online universities as well as traditional colleges that began offering more online courses during the pandemic, WGU Indiana needed a way to stand out to its target student demographic.
Influenced by Art: Newfields’ Immersive Van Gogh and Monet Experiences Garnered Digital Success
After huge success in its first year, Newfields announced the second year’s content in May 2022: THE LUME Indianapolis featuring Monet & Friends Alive. While Indianapolis was being introduced to immersive art experiences at this size and scale for the first time these past few years, it faced competition from other immersive art experiences occurring across the globe.
Dittoe PR’s Launch of Hotel Tango ‘Shmallow Leaves Media Wanting S’More
With consumer affection for nostalgic campfire treats and the continued growth of the flavored whiskey category, Hotel Tango Distillery recognized an opportunity to create a spirit that is both approachable and adaptable. Enter the mouth-watering ‘Shmallow Toasted Marshmallow Bourbon—a bonfire in a bottle.
Dittoe PR Content Development Helps Recruiting Software Company Generate Leads, Establish Thought Leadership
Jobvite turned to Dittoe Public Relations to generate fresh, valuable and targeted content, with the primary goals of attracting customers and demonstrating its expertise in the recruiting industry.
Dittoe PR Leads Liberal Arts College in Preparing for, Overcoming Crisis Situations
Beloit College called upon Dittoe Public Relations to help plan and execute proactive and reactive media strategies in the event of a crisis.
In one event, a polarizing businessman was set to speak at the college, and controversy erupted as students vocalized their concerns, demanding he be prevented from giving his talk.
Dittoe Public Relations Boosts Media Placements for Leading CPG Brand By 216%
Vita Coco needed a PR partner to re-energize the brand to not only encourage consumers to desire a taste of the tropics, but also to show that the category was relevant and growing.
Like What You See?
Get in touch with us! We would love the opportunity to discuss how Dittoe PR can get you similar results.
