Meatspace Feature

“Meatspace” is a CU superpower

Over the last few months, I’ve been to several in-person events, both professionally and personally. There really is nothing like being in real live “meatspace” with other real live humans when you want to connect, learn, innovate, and just plain have fun. Of course, you can also form real connections and have real, human-to-human experiences…

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Tell 'em iDiz Inc sent ya!

CU Conference Shout-Outs

The “sixth principle” of credit unions is cooperation among cooperatives. And we feel a similar spirit should apply to those of us who serve the credit union movement. Here are just a few quick shout-outs to just a few of the innovative companies and CUSOs we’ve seen at NACUSO in Las Vegas in April, and…

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Some ideas for CUs inspired by things that aren’t CUs.

Strategic inspiration to help credit unions mix things up

Have you heard the saying about doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? There’s a lot of power in good branding, authentic messaging and a creative loan campaign, but sometimes you should be looking elsewhere for inspiration. You might be surprised at how many fresh new ideas you can find when…

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Show them how a credit union really is different.

3 ways to earn your members’ trust

There’s an old saying, “May you live in interesting times,” which supposedly refers back to an old curse. If you’ve not heard of it before, the gist is that it’s better to live in a “boring” time of peace and prosperity instead of an “interesting” time of conflict and change. And when it comes to…

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Let's talk about LOVE, Baby!

Why love needs CU marketing love, too.

When you think about it, credit unions and the whole credit union movement are pure love in action. I’m serious. Sure, the eight cooperative principles use fancier language, but when you get down to it, these core principles of the credit union movement are all just practical ways humans make the world a better place…

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Come closer, closer, and hear our tales of dread…

Five ways you’re scaring members away

Gather ‘round the campfire folks, pour your favorite pumpkin-flavored beverage, and get ready for five spine-tingling cautionary tales of ways credit unions might be making members go “EEK!” and run away. Do you have what it takes to face the horrors ahead? Come closer, closer, and hear our tales of dread… The Website of Fright…

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What good is a marketing budget that never changes?

It’s budget season once again. Time to dust off last year’s marketing budget, tweak the product promotions to match what lending wants to focus on this year, push the numbers as much as you think you can get away with, turn it in and hope that it doesn’t get trimmed too far back. Sound about…

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Show them, transparently, how it all works.

Let’s get unapologetically, radically transparent

No, I don’t mean transparent as in “invisible” or “see-through,” and I certainly don’t mean “difficult-to-find.” The word transparency could refer to a lot of things inside a credit union, but for our purposes we just have to ask one question:  Do people know how a credit union works? We know that people see “credit…

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Be seen as a resource about money, not simply as a source of it

How credit unions can be much more than loan retailers

Lots of people make bad decisions about their money simply because they were never taught how to make good ones. Which often gets blamed on their parents, since 83% of US adults say that parents are the most responsible for teaching their kids about finances. Yet 40% of parents claim they talk to their kids…

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Mistakes happen, but this industry is built on customer service

Don’t be like an airline

You might not think that an airline has a lot in common with a credit union. But when you think about it, people come to both airlines and CUs because they want to do something else. No one I know rides commercial airlines or takes out loans because they enjoy doing those things. Both airlines…

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