Credit Union Marketing Corner
Marketing campaigns are fantastic ways to increase lending growth. They can boost member growth, too – you just have to avoid making mistakes. Otherwise, your campaign could fall flat. The following are the top five. Avoid these 5 credit union marketing mistakes, and your marketing efforts will pay off.
Not Knowing Your Target Audience. Millennials are perfect examples of this. Turn on the television and you’ll see financial ads of all types specifically targeted at millennials. However, research shows that they do not watch much TV. Therefore, the money spent on these types of messages is largely ineffective. Instead, advertising on social media yields a much greater return, because that is where millennials hang out. At the same time, focus on targeting potential members that are uninterested in social media. Knowing who your target audience is and where they hang out, allows you to place your message front and center every time.
Neglecting Digital Marketing. Media has changed. People receive messages in so many different ways, now. To neglect digital marketing and focus only on traditional media is a death sentence. Social media and online advertising are billion-dollar industries for a reason. Billions of people use those platforms. If you are under-exploiting these types of media, get help. Your marketing department may need restructuring, or it is time to hire a marketing agency to help you develop a strong online campaign that will get results. You should be taking advantage of these platforms if you are not already. They are effective.
Choosing the wrong agency. It is imperative to choose an agency that understands your marketing needs and will work with you to achieve your goals. Find a full-service marketing department well-versed in traditional and online advertising. Work with your credit union marketing agency to make sure your campaigns are geo-targeted to your area while maintaining the right demographic reach online. A marketing agency that understands the metrics of marketing, and your field of membership, and knows how to make your data work for you is what you are looking for.
Putting too much stock in the competition. There is a tendency to think your competitors know something you don’t know when it comes to marketing. The financial institution across the street starts pushing Twitter ads, and all of a sudden you think they have some mystical insight you are not privy to. You start marketing on Twitter, and it is a complete disaster. Never assume your competition knows better. They may be throwing something against the wall to see if it sticks. Trust your research and market accordingly.
Ignoring metrics. Running an online campaign is vastly different than running a traditional print media campaign. With traditional media, gauging effectiveness is almost non-existent. Ads are sold according to numbers, rather than monitored by them. Newspapers will tell you they can guarantee your ad will be placed in 400,000 homes, but they cannot guarantee action. Online advertising lets you gauge the effectiveness of a campaign by giving you tons of numbers. Metrics can be tracked according to age, gender, location, buying habits, time spent online, where time is spent online, and a host of other categories. All of these numbers work together to give you an honest view of how effective your campaign is. You can’t ignore the metrics. Treating it like traditional print advertising and gauging effectiveness by how many people viewed your ad is a mistake.
So make sure you don’t make one of these mistakes in your next marketing campaign. If you need help, give us a call. Together we can create an effective campaign that will generate results for your credit union lending portfolio.
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