Credit Union Marketing
Have a confession to make?
Confession of your sins is good for the soul, and an important part of Catholic tradition. And confession of your financial “sins” is a great way to start a conversation, learn from mistakes, and become more financially savvy. Catholic Federal Credit Union, based in Saginaw, Michigan, decided to have a little fun with this tradition. We created a…
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Innnntroducing…Rent-a-Brain!
Are you responsible for too many initiatives, an overabundance of priorities, an excess of tasks at hand with way too few fingers to get it done? Are you a slam-packed, schedule-smacked, shell-shocked, docket-pocked shell of your former self, trying your best to appease particularly pesky purveyors of arbitrarily outrageous deadlines? In short, has the fun…
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How to spot a silo
Departmental silos are still one of the biggest problems at credit unions, and I am always surprised when a CEO is unaware of them. Maybe it is because I grew up around small rural midwestern towns. Every day you would see silos outlined against the sky, dwarfing the other farm buildings. It was common knowledge that these tall, windowless tubes…
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Not your Grandma’s Credit Union
PROBLEM: Harvester Financial is a small credit union that needs to grow. The manufacturing plant where they started had been closed years ago by their original SEG, which itself had been sold and merged into another company. Even with mergers membership was aging, and the credit union wanted to update their image in order to bring in younger members. While their…
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Content Marketing is all about the conversation
Everyone loves a good story. Numerous studies have even shown that our brains respond more to stories than cold, hard facts. That’s probably why stories have been a primary Branding & Marketing tool since, well, forever, and why they became a priority once content marketing and social media took off. After all, someone has to fill all that space. It’s not…
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Consuming life, one chunk at a time.
Our life is fragmented. Our attention span is short. Our phones have become permanently attached, which means we are always accessible to the world, with tech (Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and email) just a tap away. Life keeps us moving, pulling us this direction one minute, another direction the next, only leaving time to consume…
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Video is eating the internet (and how to get on the menu)
There are 300 hours of video being uploaded to YouTube every minute. Cisco tells us that by 2019, video will be 80% of all consumer internet traffic, up from 64% in 2014. Video on demand will double by 2019, with over 70% of that HD. Thankfully broadband speeds are supposed to double in that same time…
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Does your marketing calendar pass the Google test?
It’s human nature to keep doing the same thing year after year, and Credit Union marketers are no different. CUs tend to push home equity loans in the Spring, car loans in the Fall*, and Visa cards right before the holidays – because they always have. Now if that sounds like your entire Marketing Plan, then you should probably bring in some outside help. In…
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Everyone wants my opinion, but no one respects my time.
I understand why a “please review our services” approach has become the norm for customer service departments. Generally, any chance of opening up a conversation with a customer is a good thing. But not when it feels preprogrammed, a meaningless step in a never-ending sales cycle. Just look at my yesterday: I bought some clothes at the store and the…
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Four facts that may rock your world
Plenty of CEOs and Boards act as if nothing has changed in the 70+ years since their credit union was founded, and that it will probably continue along as it has for another 70+ years. (Insert mental pic here of CEO with feet up on desk, eyes half closed.) I’d tell them they might not want to get too comfortable,…
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