Article

Digital Business

October 05, 2026

CRM, digital strategies and correspondent banking for capturing and engaging banking clients.

CRM, Digital Strategies and Banking Correspondents for Capturing and Engaging Banking Customers.

Flávia Gonçalves da Silva; Aimar Martins Lopes

DOI: 10.22167/2675-6528-202602929

Article derived from a Final Course Work (TCC), with content based on the student’s original work and adapted to the editorial format of the E&S Magazine with the support of the ResumeAI tool, an artificial intelligence solution developed by Instituto Pecege for textual synthesis and organization.

Abstract

The Brazilian banking sector underwent transformations that demanded greater integration between data and channels. This study analyzed how the integration between Customer Relationship Management (CRM), digital strategies, and banking correspondents contributed to the acquisition and engagement of banking clients. A qualitative approach was adopted, complemented by quantitative methods, based on aggregated secondary data from Business Intelligence panels and campaign performance indicators. The client profile was characterized in terms of relationship origin, channel usage, digital maturity, financial composition, and transactional behavior. Subsequently, the reformulation of the campaign strategy and the progression of the sales funnel through the stages of eligibility, transaction completion, impact, interaction, acceptance, rejection, and conversion were examined. The results indicated that the data-driven strategy enhanced the alignment between offer, context, and client profile, making operations more selective, segmented, and measurable, with incremental gains in the conversion of impacted audiences. It was concluded that the articulation between data analysis, CRM, and multichannel journeys strengthened the role of the banking correspondent (Corban) as a relevant point for activation, journey continuity, and engagement in a digital environment.

Keywords: Customer journey; Data intelligence; Marketing intelligence; Omnichannel; Personalization.

1. Introduction

The Brazilian banking sector has undergone significant transformations in recent years, driven by the increasing digitalization of services, intensified competition, and a notable shift in consumer behavior. In this dynamic scenario, customer relationship has moved beyond offering isolated products. It now demands greater integration between data, channels, and experiences, aiming to support business decisions more aligned with each audience’s profile.

In this context, customer centricity has become a fundamental pillar in contemporary marketing, as highlighted by Kotler and Keller (2012). Customer Relationship Management (CRM) emerges as an integrated organizational approach. It aims to generate value through the strategic articulation of processes, information, and the customer relationship itself, as advocated by Payne and Frow (2013).

In the financial segment, the relevance of this movement is accentuated by the expansion of digital agents and the competitive reconfiguration driven by fintechs and new business models. Financial institutions need not only to understand consumer preferences but also to demonstrate continuous technological adaptation capacity. This includes the analytical reading of customer behavior and effective integration between contact channels. In high-connectivity environments and hybrid journeys, the combination of physical and digital experiences, called figital, enhances the fluidity of customer interaction (Kotler, Kartajaya, and Setiawan, 2021). This approach is particularly relevant to the banking sector, where the demand for digital convenience, assisted support, and operational capillarity coexist.

In this scenario, the banking correspondent (Corban) assumes a strategic role. It is defined as an establishment or company hired by a financial institution to provide services on its behalf, acting as a complementary service point to the branch structure. These points, often located in commercial establishments, handle payments, receipts, inquiries, and the referral of financial proposals. The Corban’s activity has expanded the reach of services in regions with a lower physical presence of branches and for audiences with different levels of digital familiarity. Furthermore, it favors the integration between assisted service, contextualized offers, and digital channels (Brazil, 2021; Central Bank of Brazil, 2025).

The effectiveness of this articulation, however, is conditioned by the ability to transform transactional and relational records into intelligence applied to the relationship. The analytical use of data can strengthen marketing decision-making (Laursen and Thorlund, 2018), and Business Intelligence and analytics resources generate value when converted into effective support for organizational decision-making (Božič and Dimovski, 2019). The strategic utility of Business Intelligence (BI) depends on the connection between information, interpretation, and action (Arnott, Lizama, and Song, 2017). Customer experience, in turn, is built by the set of contacts over time, which highlights the importance of journey mapping to identify moments of greater adherence between context, channel, and offer (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016).

Despite the importance of these elements, the effective articulation between CRM, figital strategies, and the performance of the banking correspondent for customer acquisition and engagement in banking journeys still represents a challenge. The complexity of the financial environment, the diversity of customer profiles, and the multiplicity of channels require approaches that transcend the simple offering of products, seeking an integration that optimizes experience and conversion. Faced with this problem and the need for more adherent and data-driven strategies, this study analyzed how the integration between Customer Relationship Management (CRM), figital strategies, and banking correspondent contributed to the acquisition and engagement of banking customers.

2. Material and Methods

The present study adopted a qualitative methodological approach, complemented by quantitative elements, of an applied nature and with a descriptive-analytical objective. The central focus was the understanding of the integration between Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategies, the figital logic, and the performance of the banking correspondent in the acquisition and engagement of banking clients. This design allowed for the interpretation of the phenomenon from aggregated secondary data, organized into analytical bases of profile, relationship, and campaign performance (Gil, 2019; Creswell and Creswell, 2021).

The research was conducted under the logic of a case study, with the relationship between the banking correspondent and a large financial institution as the empirical unit of analysis. The institution, located in the city of São Paulo, SP, was kept anonymous, and its empirical scope included a network with a national presence, distributed across different regions of Brazil. This framework allowed for the examination of the articulation between assisted and digital channels in a real business environment, measuring and interpreting the commercial journey (Yin, 2015).

For data collection, exclusively secondary, aggregated, and anonymized data were used, extracted from management dashboards structured in corporate Business Intelligence (BI) and commercial measurement tools. The choice of these secondary databases was justified by the applied nature of the research, which aimed to analyze real phenomena of segmentation, commercial activation, and funnel progression without resorting to individualized data or the disclosure of confidential information (Marconi and Lakatos, 2022).

The adoption of aggregated data preserved institutional confidentiality and corporate information secrecy, without identification of clients, operators, or the analyzed institution. The information processing remained anonymized and non-individualized, in accordance with the applied nature of the study. The consultation sources covered consolidated corporate databases and academic and technical-institutional literature on CRM, customer journey, marketing analytics, Business Intelligence, and channel structuring in the financial system (Davenport and Harris, 2007; Wedel and Kannan, 2016).

The reformulation of the CRM strategy, which occurred in October 2025, was analyzed from secondary data. Although the author participated in the diagnosis and design of the new strategy in her professional context, for the purposes of this research, only aggregated and anonymized data were used, analyzed according to the procedures defined for the case study. This delimitation ensured the coherence between the object, the means, and the conditions for carrying out the research (Vergara, 2016).

Two main databases were used for the analysis. The first database was used to characterize the customer profile, covering demographic, financial, relational, digital, and transactional variables. The second database was used to measure the campaign funnel, allowing observation of audience behavior in the stages of eligibility, transaction completion, impact, interaction, acceptance, refusal, and no impact.

Complementary clippings by briefing, product, lead profile, channel user profile, and regional distribution were applied to expand analytical capacity. In the customer profile characterization stage, patterns of relationship, channel usage, and product portfolio composition were sought, distinguishing, whenever applicable, differences between banking and banking correspondent origin bases.

A specific analysis of the bank correspondent’s clientele was carried out, detailing attributes such as age group, principalty, relationship duration, income, restrictions, digital profile, relationship stage, product ownership and usage, and transactional behavior. This procedure allowed for an analytical understanding of the served audience within the investigated figital context.

Campaign measurement was performed based on an analytical dashboard for March 2026, the reference month for observing commercial funnel performance. The base of eligible customers was accumulated from October 2025, the start of the reformulated strategy, to March 2026. This analytical approach aimed to reduce short-term punctual effects and allow for the examination of the strategy in a more stable and consistent scenario.

In the measurement panel, the eligibility stage corresponded to the set of customers eligible for campaign exposure, according to criteria defined by the strategy. The transaction realization stage identified customers who activated the journey on the channel. The impact was the visualization of the offer in the assisted environment, and the interaction represented the customer’s active manifestation in response to the offer.

Acceptance was the positive decision observed in the measurement window, while rejection was the absence of immediate conversion in the analyzed weekly interval. The non-impacted category included eligible customers who, despite belonging to the strategy’s potential universe, did not view the automated offer during the period. The analysis was organized into sequential blocks, following the logical progression of the funnel.

In each stage of the funnel (eligible, transaction completion, impacted, interaction, acceptance, rejection, and non-impacted), absolute volumes, relative percentages, and analytical counterpoints between lead profile, channel user profile, briefings, products, and regional cutoffs were examined. Complementarily, conversion indicators were observed between impacted and non-impacted customers, using lift as a comparative metric for the relative conversion difference between the groups (Tueanrat, Papagiannidis, and Alamanos, 2021).

3. Results and Discussion

The initial analysis of customer profiles, conducted with data from February 2026, revealed important distinctions between the customer bases of the traditional bank and the banking correspondent (Corban). The Corban base, for example, demonstrated a significantly larger volume, with approximately 1.6 million customers, in contrast to the approximately 790.9 thousand customers of the bank base. The gender distribution, however, remained balanced in both groups, indicating that the differences were not concentrated in this demographic aspect, but in other more specific characteristics of the customers’ relationship and socioeconomic profile.

The most pronounced distinctions were observed in institutional linkage and age group. In the Corban base, there was a notable prevalence of clients associated with pension benefits, while the bank base presented a higher proportion of clients linked to payroll. Additionally, Corban concentrated a larger share of clients in more mature age groups, especially between 56 and 75 years old. These characteristics suggest that Corban serves a clientele with distinct needs and relationship origins, demanding tailored CRM approaches for each segment.

Despite differences in demographic composition and institutional linkage, a proximity was observed in the customer relationship stage in both bases, with the monetization stage predominating. This finding suggests that the main distinction between the audiences did not lie in the relational maturity with the institution, but rather in the specific composition of the customer profile and the nature of the demands met by each channel. Corban, in this sense, showed itself to be more associated with older audiences and social security linkages, while the bank base exhibited a more diversified composition in terms of customer profile.

Profile of bank and Corban clients – segment, relationship duration, and principal relationship

Important differences appeared in the relational value and in the composition of the bond between the analyzed bases. In both groups, the Retail segment was predominant, but with a higher concentration in Corban (90.57%), while the Middle Income (3.40%) and High Income (6.03%) segments showed higher relative participation in the bank base (4.67% and 16.58%, respectively). These data indicate that Corban attracts an audience with consumption characteristics and financial capacity that align more with the retail profile, while the traditional bank serves a wider range of income segments.

Regarding the relationship time, the bank base showed a more balanced distribution, with a significant portion of clients with more than 15 years of affiliation (28.1%). In Corban, on the other hand, there was a higher concentration in intermediate affiliations, especially between 6 and 15 years (38.9%). The average profitability also proved higher in the bank base, with 289.0, compared to 91.7 in Corban. As for principalty, although frequent clients (37.8% in the bank, 34.3% in Corban) or occasional clients (33.6% in the bank, 35.4% in Corban) prevailed in both groups, Corban presented a relatively higher proportion of clients classified as indifferent (22.8%).

These findings, taken together, indicated that the base bank gathered clients with higher average value and more diversified relational composition, while Corban remained more focused on functional profile audiences with less relational complexity. This finding reinforced the need to develop CRM strategies that were specifically tailored to the potential value and relationship intensity in each channel, recognizing the particularities of each audience and how they interact with the financial institution.

Profile of bank and Corban clients – regional distribution, income, and restriction level

The regional distribution of clients also presented notable contrasts. Although in both bases there was a concentration of clients in the same region of the country, this intensity was more pronounced in Corban (62.5% in one region, versus 47.3% in the bank). The bank base, in turn, exhibited a relatively more balanced regional distribution, suggesting a more homogeneous capillarity throughout the national territory. This geographical difference may influence the way campaigns are planned and executed, requiring regional adaptation for Corban.

Regarding the income range, the lower ranges predominated in both bases, with an even more pronounced concentration in Corban, especially in the lowest income bracket (57.4% up to R$ 2,000, compared to 36.82% in the bank). In terms of credit restriction level, the initial levels of the scale were predominant in both groups (48.7% in the bank, 46.9% in Corban for level 1), again with a higher concentration in Corban. This data reinforces the profile of the Corban client as an audience with lower purchasing power and, potentially, greater financial vulnerability, which directly impacts marketing offers and communication.

Deepening the analysis, the Corban profile revealed a larger base, concentrated in social security links and the Retail segment, with lower-income clients and greater territorial concentration. This characterization is crucial for understanding the channel’s relevance in activating and engaging audiences with less relational complexity and greater dependence on convenience in accessing financial services. Corban’s performance, therefore, is fundamental for financial inclusion and for meeting the specific needs of these segments, which may not be fully met by the bank’s traditional channels.

Profile of bank and Corban clients – digital channel and behavior

Consistent differences appeared in the preferred channel and digital behavior. The bank base showed a greater preference for the cellular channel (54.5%), while Corban presented a relatively higher participation of the assisted channel itself (32.5%). Regarding the combined use of channels, both groups used cellular, self-service, and Corban, but the digital profile revealed a more pronounced contrast. The bank base concentrated a higher participation of customers in the medium (22.10%) and high (20.25%) levels of digital maturity, while Corban presented a higher proportion of customers without a digital profile (64.46%).

This result expanded the understanding of the Corban client profile, which, besides being more concentrated in social security audiences, with lower income and greater regional concentration, also exhibits lower digital maturity and greater centrality of the assisted channel in their journey. This finding is vital for the figital logic analyzed, as it positions the Corban not only as a transactional point but as an essential mediator between clients with lower digital autonomy and CRM strategies. It facilitates the activation and engagement of these audiences, who depend more on human support for their financial operations.

Profile of bank and Corban clients – possession and use of financial products

The analysis of ownership and use of financial products revealed that credit, savings, and card products predominated in both bases. However, Corban presented a slightly higher share in credit ownership and use (ownership: 79.0%; use: 59.9%, compared to 75.2% and 56.4% in the bank, respectively). In contrast, the bank base demonstrated a higher relative presence in investment products (4.3% in the bank, 1.6% in Corban), protection (33.6% in the bank, 28.5% in Corban), pension plans (6.1% in the bank, 2.3% in Corban), and automatic debit (17.3% in the bank, 5.7% in Corban), indicating a more diversified and complex product portfolio.

This data suggests that Corban is more associated with products of recurrent use, immediate liquidity, and lower financial complexity. This characteristic reinforces the pattern that the customer journey in Corban is more linked to operational convenience and the functional use of products, a crucial aspect for the figital logic and for the analyzed CRM strategy. The lower presence of more complex products in Corban indicates that the channel meets more basic and direct financial needs, which should be considered in the formulation of offers.

Profile of bank and Corban clients – financial role and credit usage

Regarding the financial role of customers, the predominance of the borrower profile was observed similarly in both bases (52.8% in the bank, 52.6% in Corban). However, Corban gathered a relatively larger share of customers classified as transactional (35.4%), while the bank base concentrated a higher presence of investor (8.9%) and hybrid (5.0%) profiles. This distinction is important, as the transactional customer tends to focus on routine operations and immediate financial needs, which aligns with Corban’s convenience profile.

In terms of credit commitment, Corban showed a higher concentration in the total commitment bracket with the institution itself (35.3% in total Bradesco, versus 24.9% in the bank). The bank base, in turn, showed a relatively more balanced distribution among the other brackets. Commitment with the market remained close between the groups. This contrast indicated that Corban attracts clients with financial usage more oriented towards credit and transactions, while the bank base serves a more diversified composition of financial needs.

This analysis deepened the understanding that the assisted channel’s performance in Corban remained more linked to less complex journeys and immediate financial demands. This reinforces Corban’s strategic role as an easily accessible point for audiences seeking direct financial solutions who may have less familiarity with digital channels or more complex products. Understanding these nuances is fundamental for designing effective CRM strategies and personalizing offers.

Profile of bank and Corban clients – comparative synthesis

The comparison between the origin bank and Corban bases revealed structural similarities in the relationship, but also significant differences in demographic composition, socioeconomic profile, channel usage, and product utilization logic. Corban, with its base of approximately 2.4 million customers, stood out for the predominance of social security beneficiaries (55.5%) and lower participation of salaried employees (17.7%), in addition to an age concentration between 56 and 75 years (45.5%) and relationship duration between 6 and 15 years (35.86%). The average profitability of this audience was 156.3.

These indicators defined a mature, recurring audience strongly associated with social security ties, exhibiting more functional behavior in their relationship with the institution. Corban proved particularly suitable for clients who combine the need for assisted support, recurrent channel use, and a lower inclination towards exclusively digital journeys. This contrast justified a deeper analysis of the audience served by Corban, given their significant participation in the observed base and their centrality to the examined figital strategy, which will be detailed below.

Corban’s exclusive customer profile

The Corban specific customer base, totaling approximately 2.4 million, showed a balanced gender distribution, with 48.8% men and 50.8% women. The predominance of social security beneficiaries (55.5%) and a smaller relative participation of salaried employees (17.7%) were notable characteristics. The age group was mostly concentrated between 56 and 75 years old (45.5%), and the relationship duration showed a higher presence of links between 6 and 15 years (35.86%). The average profitability of this audience was 156.3.

In terms of principalality, frequent (35.44%) and occasional (34.82%) profiles prevailed, with a smaller proportion of intense (8.57%) or indifferent (20.91%) customers. These indicators outlined a mature, recurring audience strongly associated with social security ties, exhibiting more functional behavior in their relationship with the institution. Corban, in this context, proved particularly suitable for customers who combine the need for assisted support, recurrent use of the channel, and a lower inclination towards exclusively digital journeys, which is crucial for the figital strategy.

Profile of Corban’s exclusive clients – segment, regional distribution, age groups, and credit restriction

Corban’s exclusive customer base was predominantly concentrated in the Retail segment, representing 86.71% of the total, with a reduced participation of the Middle Income (3.82%) and High Income (6.47%) segments. This concentration in retail reinforces Corban’s role in serving a more mass-market audience. Regionally, a high concentration was observed in the same region of the country (57.5%), indicating a more localized and widespread presence in specific areas, which can influence logistics and the personalization of marketing campaigns.

The lowest income brackets were the most representative in the Corban base, with 50.67% of clients receiving up to R$ 2,000 and 25.73% between R$ 2,000 and R$ 4,000. In terms of credit restriction, the initial levels of the scale were predominant, with 48.1% at level 1 and 27.6% at level 2. This breakdown highlighted a base more concentrated on lower-income audiences and with less relational diversification, confirming that Corban serves clients more sensitive to the conditions of access and use of financial services, which explains its importance in the commercial activation of mass-market audiences dependent on operational convenience.

Profile of Corban’s exclusive clients – digital maturity and financial composition of product ownership/use

In Corban, the profile of customers without digital maturity predominated (57.7%), followed by low (11.9%), medium (16.6%), and high (13.8%). This characteristic reinforces the need for assisted service and phygital strategies that facilitate digital transition and engagement. The customer relationship stage was heavily concentrated on monetization (89.61%), with lower participation in activation (5.39%), reactivation (1.23%), and retention (3.78%), indicating that most customers already have an established relationship and seek to maintain or expand products and services.

The financial composition of products in possession and use also reflected this profile. Credit (possession: 77.7%; use: 58.8%), savings (56.2%), and card usage (77.2%) were the most present. In contrast, investments (2.5%) and pension plans (3.6%) had lower representation. The borrower (52.7%) and transactional (33.6%) profiles were predominant, with a relevant participation of clients with high credit commitment within the institution itself. This set confirmed a base with lower digital maturity, recurrent functional ties, and credit centrality in financial dynamics, where assisted mediation and offers associated with immediate financial needs are decisive for activation and engagement.

Profile of Corban’s exclusive clients – channel behavior and transaction volume

The Corban-linked customer base, with approximately 2.4 million individuals, demonstrated a significant transaction volume in the analyzed period. In the three-month cumulative, non-financial transactions largely predominated in quantity, totaling 230.1 million, which corresponded to 92.9% of the total transactions. Financial transactions, although representing a smaller share in volume (17.6 million, or 7.1%), concentrated a high amount of value moved, reaching 18.8 billion reais. The monthly average reproduced this same structure, with 76.7 million non-financial transactions and 5.9 million financial transactions, moving 6.3 billion reais.

The channel transactional dynamics showed a clear difference between the volume of operations and the financial value moved. The cellular channel concentrated the majority of transactions in volume, but accounted for a proportionally smaller share of the total value moved. In contrast, Corban and self-service, despite having less weight in the volume of operations, concentrated higher portions of the value moved. Corban, for example, represented 100% of users, 3.0 million monthly transactions, and 2.6 billion reais in value moved, with an average ticket of 1.4 thousand reais.

Both the branch and internet banking also showed low transactional volume, but with a higher average ticket. This arrangement revealed that the digital journey of Corban clients is not organized solely by channel usage frequency, but by the complementarity between them. While the mobile phone absorbed more recurrent and lower-value operations, Corban, self-service, and physical channels assumed greater relevance in financially more significant transactions. Thus, Corban emerged not only as an access point but as a relevant channel in value generation and in directing CRM actions and campaigns, especially for audiences who value assisted service and operational convenience.

Synthesis of customer profiles and implications for campaign strategy

The analysis of the customer profile revealed that the observed base was not homogeneous in terms of origin, digital maturity, channel usage, financial composition, and relationship dynamics. Corban concentrated audiences more linked to assisted convenience, functional credit use, and less autonomous phygital journeys. In contrast, the bank base showed greater relational and financial diversification. This heterogeneity indicated that the commercial response depended on the articulation between customer profile, usage context, and the role of each channel in the journey, justifying the transition to a campaign logic oriented by segmentation, behavior, and interaction moment.

Evolution of campaign strategy

The analysis of customer profiles and transactional behavior demonstrated that the customer base served by Corban presented significant heterogeneity regarding the origin of the relationship, channel usage, digital maturity, and financial composition. In this scenario, the adoption of broad and undifferentiated approaches resulted in lower adherence between the offer, the context of use, and the potential for commercial response. This finding highlighted the pressing need for greater articulation between CRM data, behavioral criteria, and digital logic to optimize campaign effectiveness.

The strategy reformulation stemmed from the recognition that the banking correspondent does not operate in isolation, but as an integral part of multichannel journeys, which also include the institution’s digital channels and other points of contact. Consequently, commercial communication evolved beyond simply considering the customer’s recent presence in the channel. It began to incorporate recurrence, customer profile, transactional context, and interest signals, aiming to increase the effectiveness of acquisition and engagement actions, according to the literature on relationship management in multichannel environments (Neslin et al., 2006).

Strategy of campaigns prior to data-driven analysis

Before the reformulation, the campaign strategy in Corban operated in a predominantly generalist manner, with restricted segmentation and low integration between behavior, relationship, and channel. Eligible audiences were concentrated on customers with frequent visits to the banking correspondent in previous months, identified by basic transactions, such as withdrawals, deposits, payments, and inquiries. The recent recurrence of channel usage thus functioned as the main indicator of commercial potential.

In this previous model, there was no systematic differentiation based on the origin of the link, relational condition, financial profile, product history, or digital maturity, nor consistent coordination between the journey channels. This limited the adjustment of the offer to the context effectively experienced by the customer, resulting in a loss of effectiveness of CRM initiatives, as pointed out by Ang and Buttle (2006). The absence of structured segmentation reduced the ability to distinguish customers with distinct needs and behaviors within a heterogeneous base, leading to similar approaches for diverse audiences, which limited the exploration of complementarity between physical and digital channels (Verhoef et al., 2010).

Strategy reformulated based on prioritization, context, and phygital integration

After identifying the limitations of the previous model, the campaign strategy was reformulated based on prioritization, behavioral segmentation, and contextualization of offers. The new logic began to simultaneously consider the eligible product, the moment in the journey, the interaction channel, and the audience profile, aligning with relationship management in multichannel environments (Neslin et al., 2006). Campaigns began to follow a priority hierarchy, with contextual actions preceding broader offers, aiming to direct communications more aligned with customers exposed to recent signals of interest, need, or opportunity, according to the logic of context-based personalization (Gorgoglione; Panniello; Tuzhilin, 2019).

In parallel, the portfolio was reorganized based on customer segments defined by eligibility and behavioral criteria. Each grouping became associated with eligible products and messages adjusted to the channel, increasing the coherence between customer profile, offer, and approach, as proposed by the literature on journeys distributed across different channels (Verhoef; Neslin; Vroomen, 2007). A central component of the reformulation was the separation between audience eligibility and offer presentation. Eligibility was now defined by objective criteria related to the financial profile, product history, transactional behavior, and the customer’s situation with the institution. The offer, in turn, was adjusted to the channel, increasing strategy consistency and reducing exposure to poorly aligned offers (Verhoef; Kannan; Inman, 2015).

The reformulation also incorporated the continuity of the journey between Corban and digital channels. The offer presented in assisted service ceased to be treated as the final stage of communication, becoming an initial point of engagement. In cases without immediate acceptance, the offer could be resumed in digital channels compatible with the customer’s contact profile, respecting their decision time and expanding conversion possibilities along the journey (Verhoef; Kannan; Inman, 2015). This reorganization transformed the strategy from a dispersed set of campaigns into an integrated system of digital prioritization and orchestration, bringing commercial communication closer to the complexity observed in customer behavior.

Evidence of expanding audiences, products, and eligibility

The comparison between the last quarter of 2024 and the last quarter of 2025 revealed that the strategy reformulation produced concrete effects on the reach, eligibility, and portfolio composition. Impacts grew from 7.37 million to 7.91 million, representing a 7.3% increase. Hiring, in turn, went from 70.0 thousand to 100.3 thousand, a jump of 43%, indicating greater adherence among audience, offer, and communication timing. This expansion of the strategy occurred not only in scale but also in the diversity of the offers activated, reconfiguring the portfolio and increasing the capacity to activate offers adjusted to different relationship contexts.

Products associated with pre-approved credit limit in account, life insurance, micro-protection, payroll loans, and credit card stood out in impacts and hiring. Monthly peaks and best conversion rates showed that the expansion of audiences and products did not generate homogeneous effects, but expanded commercial response opportunities. Together, these results indicated that the evolution of eligibility and prioritization strengthened the strategy’s effectiveness in the Corban environment, with measurable gains in reach and hiring. The lift, as a comparative metric, showed a significant advantage of impacted conversion over non-impacted conversion, especially in the pre-approved credit limit in account.

Campaign Measurement – measurement dashboard concepts

For campaign measurement, an analytical panel was used that synthesized the main operational concepts and tracked the customer journey from eligibility to conversion. The measurement took the closing of March 2026 as a reference, considering the accumulated base of eligible customers formed between October 2025 and March 2026. The journey was tracked through stages such as eligibility, transaction completion, impact, interaction, acceptance, rejection, and non-impact, as well as metrics such as conversion rate, lift, amount moved, and average ticket. The calculation adopted a 30-day conversion window, with attribution to the closest event within the exposure period, standardizing the evaluation of the strategy’s effectiveness.

Campaign funnel measurement – eligible stage

The eligible base gathered 109.9 million customers in March 2026, considering the accumulated period between October 2025 and March 2026. This distribution was concentrated in a few briefs of greater relative weight, with a predominance of account holders linked to products (56.20%) and non-account holders linked to products (28.44%). In the channel user profile, the majority were non-passers (84.64%). This composition demonstrated that eligibility was no longer restricted to the most recurring audiences in the channel, incorporating customers with different links and levels of passage. Thus, the eligible base reflected the segmentation and prioritization logic of the digital reformulation of campaigns, preparing for the advancement to the next stages of the funnel.

Campaign funnel measurement – stage completed transaction

The transaction execution stage gathered 7.5 million customers in March 2026. This distribution was concentrated in a few briefings of greater relative weight, with emphasis on the group associated with life insurance. In the lead profile, the withdrawal segment predominated (75.48%), while, in the channel user profile, recurring passersby largely stood out (91.18%). This breakdown indicated that the progression of eligibility for transactional activation remained more concentrated in audiences with higher channel usage recurrence and in journeys linked to immediate operational needs. The expansion of the eligible base, therefore, did not eliminate the importance of recurring transactional behavior as a relevant condition for effective entry into the campaign funnel.

Campaign Funnel Measurement – Impacted Stage

The impacted stage reached 3.2 million customers in March 2026. This distribution remained concentrated in a few briefings of greater relative weight, notably life insurance, credit card, and installment credit. In the lead profile, the withdrawal segment predominated (86.07%), while in the channel user profile, recurring passersby stood out (93.52%). Regarding previous stages, the reduction in the universe did not alter the predominant core of customers, but made exposure to the offer more selective. The effective impact remained concentrated on audiences with greater recurrence in the channel and greater proximity to already activated transactional journeys, even with the expansion of the eligible base.

Campaign funnel measurement – non-impacted stage

The non-impacted stage gathered 106.7 million customers in March 2026. This contingent was concentrated in eligible segments that did not view the offer in the period, with a predominance of customers with low recent activation in the channel. This result indicated that the absence of exposure remained more associated with audiences with low operational presence in Corban, which highlighted the transaction as a relevant condition for customer progression in the funnel. The non-visualization of the offer, even for eligible customers, suggests that mere eligibility does not guarantee impact, and that channel activation is a fundamental prerequisite for progression in the campaign journey.

Campaign Funnel Measurement – Engagement Stage

The interaction stage, which represents the customer’s active manifestation in response to the offer, gathered 26.6 thousand customers in March 2026. The distribution of customers who advanced to this stage was concentrated in active briefings and in lead and user profiles who, after exposure to the offer, made a decision in response to the commercial communication. In the lead profile, the withdrawal segment predominated (87.93%), and in the channel user profile, recurring passersby were the majority (92.20%).

Even with the narrowing of the audience, the predominant core of customers remained similar to previous stages. This behavior indicated that the interaction occurred more frequently among users who were more recurrent in the channel and in transactional journeys more aligned with the reformulated strategy. This reinforces the idea that the campaign’s effectiveness is linked to the ability to identify and engage customers who already have a history of interaction and transaction with the channel, optimizing the targeting of offers and communication.

Campaign Funnel Measurement – Acceptance Stage

The acceptance stage gathered 4.3 thousand clients in March 2026. The progression to this stage remained concentrated in a few briefings, with a predominance of the profile associated with withdrawals (80.73%) and users classified as recurring passersby (87.58%). Despite the narrowing in terms of interaction, the client base maintained its central profile, indicating that the success of acceptance is directly linked to channel recurrence and proximity to consolidated transactional journeys. This preserves the operational coherence of the funnel, ensuring that conversions occur in customer segments already engaged and familiar with Corban.

Campaign funnel measurement – refusal stage

The refusal stage gathered 22.3 thousand customers in March 2026. The distribution remained concentrated in a few briefings, with a predominance of the profile associated with withdrawals (89.23%) and users classified as recurring passersby (93.05%). This behavior showed that the refusal followed the same core of customers most present in the previous stages of the funnel. However, refusal did not represent the definitive closure of the commercial opportunity, as, if the customer remained eligible, the offer could be resumed in a new passage through the channel. Thus, refusal signaled resistance at the time of the approach, without necessarily interrupting the potential continuity of the journey, which is an important aspect for long-term customer relationship management.

Funnel measurement of campaigns – conversion in the briefing view

In the briefing view, the March 2026 conversion focused primarily on pre-approved credit limit on account and credit card, followed by INSS (social security) loans and installment credit. The distribution also showed a predominance of the pre-approved credit limit on account in the conversion by interaction. Compared to the eligible by briefing stage, the products with the greatest potential reach did not fully coincide with those with the best commercial response. The lift, which measures the advantage of impacted over non-impacted conversion, made this contrast more evident, especially for the pre-approved credit limit on account, where a lift of +119.5x was observed.

The briefing reading showed that the strategy expanded reach, but also increased commercial effectiveness in products with greater adherence to the channel’s transactional context. This means that, although the eligible base was broad, the conversion was more effective when offers were directed at products that aligned with customers’ needs and transactional behavior in Corban. The ability to identify these points of adherence was crucial for the success of the reformulated strategy, optimizing the return on investment in campaigns.

Campaign funnel measurement – conversion in the lead profile view

In the lead profile view, the March 2026 conversion focused on the withdrawal segment, which also accounted for the largest share in conversion by interaction. In contrast to the eligible stage, where account holders linked to a product and non-account holders linked to a product stood out, the effective conversion shifted to the withdrawal profile. The lift reinforced this shift by showing a significant advantage of impacted over non-impacted conversion, especially in this profile, indicating an incremental gain more associated with leads adhering to the channel’s transactional journey. This suggests that customers seeking withdrawal services are more likely to convert when impacted by relevant offers.

Funnel measurement of campaigns – conversion in the user channel view

In the channel’s user profile view, the March 2026 conversion focused on recurring passersby, who also gathered the largest share in conversion by interaction. In contrast to the eligible stage, where non-passersby predominated, the effective conversion focused on recurring passersby. The lift reading reinforced this shift by showing a higher advantage of impacted over non-impacted conversion in this group, indicating a more consistent incremental gain among customers with higher usage recurrence and greater proximity to the channel’s transactional journey. The lift for recurring passersby was +12.2x, while for non-passersby it was +7.3x, and for non-recurring passersby, +2.4x.

Conversion funnel evolution and incremental gain

Between October 2025 and April 2026, the strategy’s expansion was reflected in the growth of eligibility, activation, and impact bases. Between January and March 2026, there was a relevant expansion of the eligible base and the volume of impacted customers, following the diversification of audiences and products. In the same period, impacted conversion reached its peak, maintaining a positive and growing lift. This confirms that impacted customers converted consistently better than non-impacted ones, demonstrating the effectiveness of the reformulated strategy in generating tangible results. The lift of impacted over non-impacted conversion, for example, ranged from +1.1x in October 2025 to +20.1x in April 2026, with peaks of +119.5x in some briefings.

This performance aligns with the channel’s audience profile: customers with high transactional recurrence and lower digital maturity. The strategy’s success depended on integrating the offer into the Corban journey, demonstrating that the phygital approach expanded both reach and efficiency in transforming exposure into real results. The ability to direct offers compatible with the customer’s profile, the journey stage, and the role played by each channel was fundamental to the actions’ effectiveness, according to literature emphasizing the importance of personalization and contextualization in multichannel environments (Verhoef; Kannan; Inman, 2015).

Integrative synthesis of the results

The developed analysis indicated that the reformulation of the campaign strategy, guided by data and structured under figital logic, significantly altered the relationship between eligibility, channel activation, campaign exposure, and conversion. Although the eligible base maintained broad scope, the progression through the funnel occurred selectively, concentrating on audiences, products, and contexts with greater behavioral adherence. Readings by briefing, profile, product, and channel user demonstrated that the strategy did not operate homogeneously, but combined scale, prioritization, and analytical differentiation, which is crucial for optimizing marketing actions in complex environments (Wedel; Kannan, 2016).

The results showed that Corban concentrated audiences with lower digital maturity, more functional use of credit, and greater dependence on assisted convenience, while the bank base presented greater relational and financial diversification. In the measurement funnel, greater progression and conversion were observed among recurring channel users, especially in credit-related journeys. In complementary breakdowns by passage profile, conversion showed greater volume and consistency among recurring passers, particularly in day-to-day credit. Among non-recurring passers, incremental gain appeared more selectively, with emphasis on protection and credit.

Together, these findings supported that the integration between CRM, segmentation, and articulation between assisted and digital channels expanded the adherence of commercial communication to the behavior observed in the analyzed base and strengthened the effectiveness of the strategy in the Corban environment. The ability to transform transactional and relational records into intelligence applied to the relationship, as highlighted by Laursen and Thorlund (2018), was fundamental to the success of this reformulation, allowing for more precise and effective marketing decision-making.

The strategy reformulation, based on prioritization, behavioral segmentation, offer contextualization, and channel articulation, increased consistency between eligibility, transactional activation, campaign exposure, and conversion. The results showed that the effectiveness of actions depended not only on the breadth of the eligible base but on the ability to direct offers compatible with the customer’s profile, the journey stage, and the role played by each channel. It was found that Corban occupied a strategic function in the analyzed figital logic, not only as an access point and operational support but as a relevant channel for commercial activation, journey continuity, and value generation, especially for audiences with less digital autonomy and a greater need for assisted support.

4. Conclusion

This study analyzed how the integration between Customer Relationship Management (CRM), figital strategies, and the banking correspondent contributed to the acquisition and engagement of banking clients. It was found that the client base of the banking correspondent (Corban) was characterized by a profile with lower digital maturity, greater concentration in social security ties, and functional use of credit, demanding assisted convenience. In contrast, the traditional bank’s base presented greater relational and financial diversification. The reformulation of the campaign strategy, data-driven and structured under a figital logic, increased the adherence between the offer, the context, and the client’s profile, making the performance more selective, segmented, and measurable. A significant incremental gain was observed in the conversion of impacted audiences, with the lift of impacted over non-impacted conversion showing consistent growth and expressive peaks in products such as pre-approved credit limits in accounts. The strategy’s effectiveness was more pronounced among recurring channel users and in journeys associated with credit products, evidencing the strategic role of Corban.

The main contribution of this work lies in demonstrating that the articulation between data analysis, CRM, and multichannel journeys strengthened the role of the banking correspondent as a relevant point for activation, journey continuity, and engagement in a digital environment, especially for customers with lower digital autonomy and a greater need for assisted support. This approach broadened the adherence of commercial communication to the behavior observed in the analyzed base and increased the effectiveness of the strategy in the Corban environment. However, as a limitation, the study relied on aggregated secondary data and a scope applied to a specific organizational context, which restricts broad generalizations. It is suggested that future studies explore the application and refinement of these CRM strategies in other banking contexts, deepening the understanding of digital dynamics and personalization in multichannel environments.

Bibliographic References

Banco Central do Brasil [BCB]. 2025. Relatório de Cidadania Financeira 2025. Disponível em: <https://www.bcb.gov.br/content/cidadaniafinanceira/documentos_cidadania/RIF/relatorio_de_c

Brasil. 2021. Resolução CMN nº 4.935, de 29 de julho de 2021. Dispõe sobre a contratação de correspondentes no País pelas instituições financeiras e pelas demais instituições autorizadas a funcionar pelo Banco Central do Brasil. Banco Central do Brasil, Brasília. Disponível em: <https://www.bcb.gov.br/estabilidadefinanceira/exibenormativo?numero=4935&tipo=Resolu%C3%A7%C3%A3o+CMN>. Acesso em: 23 abr. 2026.

Kotler, P.; Kartajaya, H.; Setiawan, I. 2021. Marketing 5.0: Tecnologia para a humanidade. Sextante, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.

Kotler, P.; Keller, K.L. 2012. Administração de Marketing. 14ed. Pearson Education do Brasil, São Paulo, SP, Brasil.

Payne, A.; Frow, P. 2013. Strategic Customer Management: Integrating relationship marketing and CRM. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

Article originating from the Final Course Work of Specialization in Digital Business from the MBA USP/Esalq

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