Ally Akins
Capital Performance Group

How to Become Your Sales Team’s Best Friend

Marketing and Sales often operate in silos, but successful bank marketers align them to drive growth. This session will help marketers become strategic partners to Sales by exploring sales enablement strategies tailored for banking, from delivering timely content to empowering frontline staff with actionable insights that convert leads into customers.

Brian Bushlach
Feedback Media

The Power of Podcasting

The spoken word, and storytelling, is at the heart of successful financial services marketing. As more banks and credit unions consider communicating with consumers, businesses and strategic partners, this timely and informative presentation promises to resonate with the NEFMA audience. Media industry and podcasting expert Brian Bushlach promises to enlighten and entertain marketing professionals about the cost-effective and measurable medium of podcasting.

Kelsie Downs
Stevie Social

LinkedIn with Intention: Personal Branding for Financial Leaders That Builds Trust and Drives Influence

In a trust-based industry like banking, your greatest asset isn't just your financial products—it's your people. And in today's digital-first world, if your leadership team isn’t active on LinkedIn, you’re leaving brand equity, credibility, and client connections on the table.

This session is a strategic dive into the why and how of personal branding for executive leaders in finance. We'll walk through the foundational steps to get your team confidently showing up online in a way that honors your institution’s values—while still being authentic, professional, and impactful.

You’ll learn:

Why personal branding matters more than ever in a regulated industry
What strong executive presence on LinkedIn can do for business development, recruiting, and community trust
How to create a content strategy that’s aligned with your bank’s mission, tone, and compliance needs
Clear brand guidelines that give your team freedom to show up—without going rogue
Practical frameworks, post prompts, and profile tips to help even the most skeptical leaders get started

This isn’t about going viral. It’s about showing up with intention, candor, and quality—and turning your leadership into your most powerful brand ambassadors.

Whether you’re a marketing director, executive assistant, or on the C-suite team yourself, you’ll leave this talk with the tools to elevate your leaders online in a way that feels real, aligned, and ready for the future.

Casey Boggs
ReputationUs

Reputation Management for F.I.s: Be Authentic And Humanize Your Financial Institution

Last year’s Merriam-Webster’s “Word of the Year” was “AUTHENTIC.” Now more than ever, people and consumers crave authenticity. It is now time to show your unique qualities and key differentiators from other financial institutions, while “humanizing” your leadership and staff. Casey Boggs of ReputationUs will share the “Top 10 Actions to Take To Be More Authentic” for your financial institution. Your bank's/credit union's reputation is at stake. WARNING: No A.I. will be used for this presentation!

Mark Gibson
Capital Performance Group

The Great Channel Divide: How to Optimize Spend, Align Agencies, and Drive Results

Traditional and digital marketing teams often operate in silos—with separate strategies, inconsistent metrics, and agencies that don’t always play well together. The result? Wasted spend, unclear ROI, and missed opportunities. This session tackles the messy middle of multi-channel marketing and shows bank marketers how to take control of the optimization process.

You’ll learn how to bridge the gap between attribution and action—building a shared approach across branch, banker, and digital channels. We’ll walk through what effective sales attribution really looks like, how to structure agency relationships for accountability, and the kind of sales lift you can expect when optimization becomes a discipline, not an afterthought. If you're ready to make every dollar work harder—and prove it to management—this session is your blueprint.

Sean Tracey
Sean Tracey Associates

Small Budget / Big Impact: Bank Marketing That Works When the Money Doesn’t”

The marketing budget isn’t what it used to be—and at many banks, it's not even what it was last quarter. Yet the pressure to deliver growth, generate leads, and maintain brand relevance has never been higher. So the question becomes: how do you do more with less—without sacrificing creativity or results? In this sharp, honest, and highly practical session, Sean Tracey, founder and creative strategist of Sean Tracey Associates, tackles the marketing budget crisis head-on. Based on real-world agency experience and feedback from top financial marketers across the Northeast, Sean shares insights from dozens of rebrands, multichannel campaigns, and strategy pivots that prove you don’t need more budget—you need better thinking. Using his signature “Street Smart Marketing” approach, Sean will guide attendees through a proven process for cutting waste, reallocating resources, and creating campaigns that punch well above their weight class. Drawing from his recent conversations at the New England Financial Marketing Association (NEFMA) conference, Sean addresses the most common concerns he heard from bank marketers: wasted spend, copycat campaigns, irrelevant channels, and underwhelming creative. You'll learn how to audit your current efforts, avoid “me too” marketing, and break the cycle of overspending on underperforming tactics. From overlooked traditional media tactics that still work to digital best practices that save money and drive results, this session is about smarter, not smaller. Best of all? It’s actionable. This isn’t a theory-based lecture. It’s a hands-on roadmap to create high-impact campaigns, lasting brand recall, and measurable ROI—even with limited funds. If you’ve ever been handed a reduced budget and asked to deliver better results (again), this session is your playbook.

Ron Balmer
Infusion

High ROI Data-Driven Strategies to Boost Small Business Growth

Learn about advanced analytics techniques to assess and prioritize small business growth opportunities based on value and time to market. Using the right analysis approach, you can uncover hidden opportunities to expand current relationships and attract new business relationships. By leveraging practical
analysis and proven data-driven business development strategies, your institution can identify businesses with the best capacity and propensity to respond to existing deposit, payments, and loan offers based on a multi-channel outreach approach—without requiring new product development or hiring new staff.

Allyson Twiggs
The Twiggs Group

Social Media is a Dumpster Fire: tranforming social media stress into strategic success

In the ever-evolving world of social media, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and burnt out. This session offers a refreshing perspective and practical solutions for banking professionals grappling with the chaos of managing multiple social media channels. This interactive “therapy” session will address the common frustrations and challenges faced in today’s social media landscape.

EJ Kritz
EJ Kritz Company

Digital + Human: Delivery Strategies for Next-Gen Experiences

In the rapidly evolving landscape of banking, the experience of the future can and should put human-centric service first with a strategic balance of cutting-edge digital innovation. This presentation explores the vision for a next-generation bank experience that prioritizes the human experience while seamlessly integrating advanced digital technologies. We will examine how to market future experiences along with how to enhance customer interactions by leveraging data-driven insights and personalized services, all while maintaining a strong human touch. Through real-world examples and forward-thinking strategies, we'll highlight how to personalize experiences that foster meaningful connections, streamline customer journeys, and build trust in an increasingly digital world. Attendees will gain actionable insights into creating a harmonious blend of technology and personal engagement that meets the evolving needs of today's and tomorrow's banking customers, including the evolution of the recruiting and hiring experience.

Corey Wrinn

Consumers Are Suffering Marketing Fatigue. How to Earn Back Their Attention

Banking consumers are tuning out. Despite bigger marketing budgets, brand awareness is slipping as generic, product-focused messages blur together.

Rivel Banking Research’s session will show how banks can stand out by shifting focus to local channels and authentic community engagement. Attendees will leave with clear strategies to:

• Rebuild brand awareness
• Differentiate with human-centric messaging
• Strengthen connections through community presence