CU Marketing Corner

How to Keep Up with Credit Union Marketing Trends

Awareness is a powerful tool in growing your credit union. It takes a lot of effort to consistently stay up to date with current trends in the credit union industry, let alone print and digital marketing. Creating campaigns and strategies to market your credit union takes a lot of time and money, and you don’t want to waste any of that on outdated and inefficient products and channels. It is crucial to assess your standing in the industry and in your #CUcommunity for effective and beneficial marketing. The following are some great ways how to keep up with marketing trends, especially for credit unions.

Social Media

Social media is a powerhouse of information and trending subjects. Current events and pop culture will all flow through social media channels. It’s essential to check in on trending subjects and hashtags for relevant content creation and your own digital marketing streams. Using trending hashtags on channels like Twitter with relevant product promotions will get your posts seen in a sea of channel content. Also, by keeping up on your following and feed, you can engage with what is happening around your community and beyond such as #FinancialLiteracy and #CUCommunity. You can also draw inspiration from accounts like the 10 Twitter Accounts #winning at Marketing by Digital Ink.

Conferences

networking- trade shows   Industry trade shows and credit union conferences are a great way to get to know your industry deeper with one-on-one networking opportunities, knowledgeable speakers, and an opening to meet leaders in innovative technology and strategy in the financial sector, and learn how to apply that education to your institution.

Google Ads

Google Ads are beneficial for specific niches or areas that might not hit on social media or in your daily news. You can set up an advertisement for key aspects of your FOM that will help you keep in tune with your target audience. This is a sort of “set it and forget” mentality so that you have a bit of a safety net for not missing essential hits to your site.

Industry blogs and newsletters

Industry blogs are something that should be put in your bookmarks tab, and you should also subscribe to newsletters and commit to reading into your FOM industry news as well as financial industry news. This will keep you aware and informed about upcoming events in your credit union community, significant changes in regulation, and much more. Being informed allows you to hop into content creation with confidence.

Team

One cannot know everything all the time! Everyone has their own customized social media account and perception of how to improve awareness. Your team members afford a huge opportunity for collaboration and insight. Start the conversation and learn where information stems from, giving you the ability to gain another entry into trending realms. Engaging with your team is also one of the top tips of leadership and will help with growth and innovation! Ask your team what they notice from engaging with members and their community to understand the brand voice needed to reach current and potential members.

Member insight

Members are your past, current, and future! It’s important to know what they are engaging with and where! You can mass accumulate information by questionnaire or polling as well as engaging with your members on and offline. It is helpful to learn what your members are interested in and start speaking in a tone they will listen to.

Competitor insight

It’s beneficial for your credit union to gain information on what your FI competitors are doing with their marketing and engagement, and an excellent opportunity for a SWOT analysis. This will give you access to working strategies and platforms that reach target markets. By assessing your competitors, you can learn what content and brand language to use, therefore experiencing less trial and error.

Effective marketing depends on being in the know of current events and upcoming changes in order to get a powerful and engaging message across to existing and potential members. Being informed is key to creating a content strategy, using your personas, and building your brand voice. Oak Tree’s marketing experts can help you develop assessments and tools for upcoming campaigns and strategies which is why we are always writing new Marketing Corner articles in our Credit Union Blog.