to stand out, you have to take a stand.

Sex, Brands, and Rock & Roll

Don’t you just love to see marketing that’s, you know, good? There were a couple of examples of fun, interesting, and ultimately effective marketing that we picked up on this past week. The first was a bottled-water alternative called Liquid Death. The second was a racy, definitely cheeky (excuse my dad pun), and likely NSFW…

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You need to nurture your social media audiences if you want them to blossom and bear fruit.

You need to be social to grow Social Media

You’ve done it. You created accounts for your Credit Union on every social media platform, picked your social media management tool, and started planting some custom content. You post at the recommended times, and answer your followers’ and fans’ messages. In short, you’ve planted your social media garden. Congrats! Good job! But your engagement, the…

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Build the culture and walk the talk.

Your best social media marketing tool

Social media is based on people sharing ideas and information, creating online communities and conversations. We’ve already told you about a few of the social media management systems we’ve tested, and the importance of maintaining your presence on social media. But, to let you in on a little trade secret, you already have access to…

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Neo was right. If you die in the Matrix, you die in real life.

Right now, your digital presence is who you are.

With everything happening these days, your digital presence is either your most prominent asset or your most obviously-neglected marketing liability for the foreseeable future. People have now been stuck at home or afraid to come see you for months. Many are planning on staying home for a long time. That makes your digital presence more…

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what if that place was... all over the place?

What if we turned branches inside-out?

In an earlier SharediDiz article, I just had to admit that I’ve always been a branch hater. When I need to get something done, visiting a branch has always been the absolute last resort. But maybe I was being a little harsh. A lot of people still like branches. They can make people feel more…

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For a lot of your members, a branch is a last resort

I hate branches

I’m a branch hater. There, I said it. When I need to get something done with money, visiting a credit union branch has been the absolute last resort for, well, for pretty much my whole life. Branches are time-consuming, inconvenient, and never open when I need them. How many of your members feel the same way? How many…

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A smooth CU merger depends on member buy-in

Don’t merge without your members

If you have been part of the credit union world for any length of time, you know there have been a lot of mergers, even while greatly increasing membership and offering expanded benefits. And it looks like those merger trends will continue. Over the years, we’ve had the honor of helping several credit unions navigate these mergers. And we’ve…

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MX is the new brand marketing

Why are you paying attention to everything but MX?

For an industry based on the idea of People Helping People, why aren’t more credit unions laser-focused on Member Experience (MX)? Don’t they know that all those little annoyances add up? Aren’t fewer hassles supposed to be a CU advantage over banks? For example, my CU apparently decided to switch service providers that track whether…

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If you are even considering rebranding, there's likely a good reason

Remember your past. Build on your present. Brand for your future.

Rebranding a credit union is tough. Everyone has an opinion, and most aren’t afraid to state it. For every member that identifies with their shared history, there are others that see a need to update their brand for the future. And both have a point. But time keeps moving, and credit unions have had to…

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I'm not calling a credit union for fun; I'm calling to get something done.

How many seconds to get a human?

Two extraordinary things just happened to me: An actual human picked up the phone when I called a large corporation with a technical problem. The human quickly resolved my problem. A few days ago, I found myself locked out of my Square account. (Among other things, Square allows regular folks to accept credit cards.) I…

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