It’s hard to believe the final days of summer are here.
As we kick off strategic planning season, how much focus does your credit union put on digital marketing and member experience?
For credit unions looking to add digital to their 2017 strategic planning sessions, consider these core themes:
Acquisition
As credit unions plan their 2017 advertising budgets, allocations to digital acquisition must grow.
If credit unions want to be competitive in growing memberships, deposits, and loans they simply have to participate in the media ecosystem consumers are gathering their information.
Today’s consumers moves seamlessly between multiple devices, far in advance of a need driven decision. They collect answers to core questions as they inform their decision and are often not brand committed.
While the average North American consumes nearly half of all their media via digital means, ad spend hasn’t caught up. The average spend only allocates 24% to digital leaving behind missed opportunities.
For credit unions in strategic planning mode, analyze acquisition and advertising plans. Focus on where dollars are being spent, what the return is and how well you can measure reach and return.
Finally, spend some time analyzing creative. The best performing content in this new cross channel, information driven marketing system puts brands up front and lets consumers get the information they need quickly, helping to connect the dots on whatever journey they are on. Also consider variations for each stage of the journey – I want to know vs. near me vs. I need.
Analytics
I’ve touched on data in past columns. Too often I come across credit union websites that either have no analytics installed or analytics installed that no one ever looks at.
Let’s change that in 2017 so we can use the data to inform our acquisition plans and other decisions. During your planning session focus on developing a measurement plan.
At a high level it should answer: What do we want measure and why?
To answer this question, walk through the digital journey and make note of the following: Any high value interactions: sign up for email, contact us forms, member application download, member application submit, rate page visit, etc.
These will be your events and goals.
In addition to your high value, brainstorm the insights and data you’d like to collect.
Would you like to know more about the interests of the prospects visiting your website? What kind of websites generally do they visit, this will help you target your acquisition plan for example. All of this data will be anonymous but very helpful in targeting and refining your marketing activity.
User Experience
Every stop on your prospect and member journeys is critical. So polish them all.
For example consider how your website handles rates. Don’t make a potential new loan opportunity call or worse, drive into a branch because of a standard rate posted, only to find out they don’t qualify for the posted rate.
Services like LoanTek make it easy to integrate real-time home and auto loan rate data based on user feedback around credit data. Empowering users with relevant data will increase your conversion positive brand experiences.
Onboarding
When I joined my first credit union, it was at the urging of my dad. I needed a car loan and he had been a lifelong member of a credit union.
I made my minimum deposit to become a member, applied for the loan, didn’t get that great of an offer, and went with someone else. Fast forward several years, I now have a membership at a different credit union and would describe myself as well engrained in it.
I recently received a letter from the credit union I joined all those years ago. My membership status was at risk. I joined over a decade ago. The only communications I ever received was board voting and this letter along with the occasional terribly un-engaging email.
My point? Even though I didn’t get my car loan through them, they missed a critical opportunity to fully bring me onboard as a credit union member. During that decade I built my financial portfolio with one of the big banks.
Credit unions, we have to think about what we do after someone says yes. We can’t sit on our hands. Even if you simply set up email automation over the next 120 days to teach a new member about all the services, benefits and great things being a member means.
Do something. Start planning for 2017 now.
Engagement
So once we have a new member signed up, they’ve brought on deposit accounts, maybe a car loan too. Now what? We tend the field.
Engagement in 2017 comes in 4 forms. Social, Mobile, Email and Branch. Yep, I said branch. Here’s what you need to starting planning for.
Social – We’ve talked at great length in past columns about credit union social media. The point here is plan. Too often credit unions are executing social for social sake. If you can’t answer the question: Why am I here? with an answer that aligns to both your credit union’s business objectives and what your members want (i.e. research tells you they are using a platform a certain way for X, Y or Z) then STOP.
Mobile –Does your mobile app take advantage of notifications? Does it take advantage of location sensing? Does it only notifiy me of a new deposit? Is it providing context? For example, in conjunction with beacon technology, I walk by a beacon in an airport and my credit union’s mobile app senses that I’m traveling. I get a notification to tell me about the new travel rewards credit card available. Bingo! We have context and relevance. The point isn’t to do this exact example, it’s to think outside the box.
Email – This may seem so 1999, but many credit unions don’t do it, or aren’t doing it very well. Don’t email me because you can. Email because you have something to offer. Bring me value. Educate me. Learn about me. Segment me and personalize my email to my needs and desires.
Branch –How well trained are the people working in your credit union to handle the demands of a digital member? If someone gets a phone call because your number is listed online, are they ready to respond and help that person immediately or does it end in frustration for the caller?
A common scenario is a call or visit by someone who starts their search online, they end up talking with someone who doesn’t have the information, can’t help them, or doesn’t understand what they are asking for. More often than not it’s simply a matter of speed.
The prospect started their search online with an assumption of expediency and just wanted a quick answer, for example a rate or range of rates for a new loan and when they encountered rate cards or someone who wanted to take them down a full application process, they got frustrated and gave up.
Opportunity lost. Make sure your staff are trained to close.
Final Thoughts
Any one of these topics could be a column all on it’s own.
As your credit union begins 2017 strategic planning, the goal here isn’t to be overwhelmed. It’s to challenge your team to ask: How can we take a step towards each of our big audacious goals for 2017.
Some of these topics are heavy and will be difficult to tackle, but just starting with something small gets you on the path to growing membership and delighting the members you have today.
Here’s to an awesome planning season and all the best for the remaining dog days of summer!
