Marketing for Credit Unions: Taking a Personalized Approach

As a credit union, you need to work harder than large national banks at gaining and keeping customers! Most people choose to bank with credit unions over traditional banks due to the more personalized experience, so doesn’t it make sense to personalize your marketing tactics, as well? Here are just a couple of tips and strategies for creating more personalized outreach opportunities.

Make Use of Member Testimonials

One of the best ways to find what is and isn’t working for members of your credit union is by asking for and reading through member testimonials. Ask your members to submit their thoughts about their banking experience. You can use any negative feedback to make changes, and you can use positive feedback as a marketing tactic! If you get permission from the member to use their testimonial in your marketing approach, you may be able to entice new members to join based on what existing members have to say.

Use Recommendations Based on Preferences

Many credit unions and banks use an SMS or email-based outreach system to advertise new services they have to offer. However, members may become annoyed by this if the system is constantly reaching out to them about services that they would get no use from! Instead of this generalized approach, try using a system that only reaches out with deals that apply to the specific member.

For example, your loan members may be interested in automated messages about refinancing or opportunities to lower their APR. Members with checking accounts might want to hear about the incentives you’re offering to those who open savings accounts. By tailoring your automated messages to each individual member, you’re more likely to get sign-ups and less likely to irritate your current members!

For smaller and local credit unions, it’s all about keeping your current members on board and enticing as many new members to join as possible. These days, personalized marketing is all but essential to beat the huge amount of competition from large national banking institutions. To learn more about personalizing your credit union’s marketing approach, contact the experts at On The Mark Strategies today.

About Author

On The Mark Strategies is a team of trailblazers guiding financial institutions in the areas of speaking, branding, strategic planning and marketing services. Technically, they are a consulting firm, but their clients prefer to think of them as trail guides. Their experience as former credit union employees, combined with the customized programs they create in-house, enable them to lead financial institutions through the great unknown. On The Mark Strategies stands ready to guide financial institutions looking to chart a new course or navigating their current path.