Answering the Indirect Question

One of the more intriguing credit union marketing problems we encounter is “what should we do with all these indirect members”? To be clear, we’re talking about members who have joined the CU by getting a car loan at a car dealer. Many times, they have only the base savings account and the car loan,…

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Credit Union Science Fiction

Forget next year’s media budget or your five-year strategy. Let’s gaze deeper into that CU crystal ball than we ever have before. What’s the distant future of finance? What are credit unions going to be doing 25, 50, or 100 years from now? Virtual CUs Correct me if this has already happened, but is there…

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Eating the Elephant: Economic Upheavals

There’s a silly old joke that goes something like this: “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”  In this series, we’re talking about taking a bite out of some of the “elephants in the room” – big, obvious, uncomfortable problems that everyone’s trying to ignore. We’re hoping to inspire credit union people to…

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Eating the Elephant: Health Care Costs

We all know the expression “the elephant in the room”. It’s a big, obvious, uncomfortable problem that everyone’s trying to ignore. In our “Eating the Elephant” series, we’ll take a good hard look at some of the elephants jostling credit unions and their members. We’ll also discuss some ways credit unions could play a role in taking…

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CUs need to be involved in blockchain from the get-go, or they risk being frozen out.

What I’d like to know about blockchain

Like everyone else in the credit union world, I’m a little tingly these days about Blockchain technology. It’s also, and possibly more properly, known as Distributed Ledger, but I suspect the short punchy term “blockchain” has already won. I’ll skip yet another explanation of what blockchain/distributed ledger is — there are many definitions and imaginative…

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A more accessible website is better for everyone, not just people with disabilities.

Web Accessibility? It’s Not So Scary.

Accessibility is on everyone’s mind lately — we’ve fielded a lot of questions recently from our credit union clients about web site accessibility and ADA compliance. It’s a big and technical topic, but where do you start getting a handle on it? Check your Attitude Accessibility is not a “yes” or “no” question, a switch…

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What if people wanted to see marketing?

Thank you for the marketing!

What if people wanted to see marketing? Seriously. What if the state of the art in creating and targeting online marketing messages was so good that people would turn off their ad blockers, and eagerly await the flood of fresh, funny, interesting, valuable, relevant, educational, and informative content? What if your mailbox contained stuff you actually…

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What's coming next? What are you hoping for?

What’s next in CU web design

Every once in a while, I like to polish up the ol’ crystal ball, put on my shiny prognostication hat, and peer into the mists of the future. When we build a new credit union web site, we always try to look ahead and build the site for what’s coming next. It’s a Mostly Mobile World…

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Because internet years move even faster than dog years.

Year end web site checklist

Before you launch into all the exciting stuff you have planned for 2017, it’s worth taking a few minutes to make sure your web site is ready for the new year. Do you know where your domain names are? Make sure you have a list of all the domain names your CU owns and that…

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The bubbles you build around yourself are the strongest.

When you see a bubble, pop it.

If nothing else, the 2016 election has made one thing very obvious: many of us live in a “information bubble”, where we only pay attention to information that reinforces what we already believe. These bubbles, together with the speed and reach of social media, created an unprecedented opportunity for fake news — just create a…

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