4 Ways That Financial Services Can Use Their Size to Their Advantage
Business Advices
While many players in the financial services industry often struggle with building customer loyalty, credit unions have some of the most loyal customers around. From the sense of community they instill, to having the best possible rates and fees, to the personalized nature of each employee-customer interaction, it goes without saying that credit unions have mastered customer engagement in the financial services sector.
However, while having a loyal customer base may help to facilitate their marketing efforts, credit unions still face a common challenge—being strapped for resources. Why? Credit unions are made up of small teams and small budgets—all of which are still expected to make a big impact with customers. Maybe you’ve experienced the same predicament?
On that note, I want to dive further into how this can be made possible—how you—the credit union marketer (or any marketer, for that matter)—can do more with less and still succeed. Here are four big impact—but easy—solutions that will help you to drive your marketing efforts and come out on top:
1. Utilize mobile responsive pages
Mobile responsive design enables an optimal viewing and interaction experience for customers when they’re looking at your webpage on a mobile device. The theory is that viewing the same webpage on a laptop, mobile, or tablet should be the same experience across the board. With this in mind, it’s clear that mobile responsive pages are no longer optional—they are absolutely required. Why? Members interact with you mostly through your website or mobile app, with at least 50% of their visits coming through a mobile device. Credit unions have always done a stellar job at doing right by their members, offering products and banking features that benefit them. However, without mobile responsive pages, the interaction with your brand is choppy and frustrating. Consider this: if you design all of your calls-to-action to be above the fold (before needing to scroll) on a desktop, you might be missing that same experience on a mobile device.
For example, Generations Federal Credit Union found that 40% of their form fill-outs came through mobile devices, but without mobile responsive pages, they were giving their members a frustrating, inconvenient experience with fields that weren’t showing up or weren’t rendering properly on a mobile screen. As a result, mobile responsiveness is their biggest priority this year in order to better service their customers. It’s that simple.
2. Do more with social media
Social media has been widely used for years, but it has just recently taken off in a whole new way. Take Facebook, for example. You may have a Facebook page that you engage your members on, but did you know that Facebook can look at your current customers, analyze their profiles, and advertise to other non-customers that are similar to your current customers? It’s called Lookalike Audiences, and it can be incredibly powerful in finding potential members. Additionally, with Facebook Custom Audiences, you can send Facebook a list to advertise to—not just the ones that have “liked” your Facebook page.
For example, you may have a list of customers that are prime candidates for a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC). You can send this list to Facebook and those customers (that are on Facebook) would be shown an ad featuring, for example, a kitchen remodel with the current HELOC rates.
So, how can you get started? Visit the Facebook Ad Manager page, or find out if your marketing automation system has Facebook integration.
3. Retarget web visitors
Retargeting is an online advertising method where visitors to your website will be advertised to on other websites. Retargeting can be used strategically to only advertise to specific types of people based on geography or the status of the customer. For example, you could find non-customers that have visited your site that also live in your state and target your advertising dollars just to them.
4. Leverage marketing automation
Marketing automation is software designed to automate repetitive tasks and more effectively market on multiple channels, such as web, email, mobile, and social media. With small marketing teams, marketing automation has helped credit unions bring individualized communication to their members at scale. In graduating from an email platform to marketing automation, Generations Federal Credit Union has saved 3.5 hours a day on time-consuming email blasts and has increased conversion rates and member response time.
Marketing automation can also set up flows that trigger automatically as the customer exhibits a behavior or buys a new product. Triggers could include: members who have filled out applications but have not completed them, members who only have a savings account and could benefit from additional products, and members who haven’t had activity at the branch in the last four months.
Tying It All Together
These four marketing tools can help marketers offer a better experience for their customers, while making their marketing processes more efficient in order to make the most of their small team make-up.
Manager’s Office
Marketing Dept