Do you feel like your marketing efforts are coming up a bit short? Do you wonder why people aren’t coming to your website, browsing around, and then signing up?
You know your marketing strategy can use a revamp, but where do you start? The first steps might feel daunting, but don’t get discouraged! It’s actually pretty easy to incorporate new marketing techniques into your overall strategy.
Content marketing has been around a while, but it’s still a growing trend in credit union digital marketing. It may be the extra push you need.
A New Credit Union Marketing Strategy
You may have heard about content marketing. In the world of marketing and advertisement, it’s still pretty new. After all, it’s a direct result of the internet (and how people behave on it).
Content marketing is a type of marketing that relies on the creation and sharing of online media, such as blogs or articles, videos, infographics, or even social media posts. Content marketing doesn’t necessarily promote any products or brands, but it does increase interest in the company’s offerings.
Good content should provide immediate value to the reader. For example, most content answers a question that the reader has (and Googles!). Content should address a consumer need and provide guidance on how to satisfy that need. It should follow up with an offer to help, but it shouldn’t be a sales pitch.
Seems counterintuitive, right? But at the very least, well-crafted content establishes trust and authority with the reader. It builds a stable foundation for future interactions.
Here’s how it works:
- Create content that consumers want, need, or frequently ask about
- Provide necessary information
- Establish trust by offering valuable resources
- Suggest any relevant goods or services that might also help
Credit unions can offer many kinds of useful content. An article might teach savings strategies through the holiday help people fill their savings accounts. A blog about home improvement could feature a new loan rate from the credit union. An infographic about managing debt could point readers toward new a promotional balance transfer option on a credit card.
Just remember:
Content marketing is more successful if you remain honest, transparent, trustworthy, and valuable! If you treat it like regular outbound marketing, people will treat it like any other ad and approach it with hesitancy and distrust.
Considerations for Credit Union Content Marketing
One of the tricks of content marketing is finding or creating relevant content. If the content isn’t relevant—if it doesn’t provide value—then people will just ignore it. Why would they waste their time?
Not only does content need to be relevant to someone’s interests, but it also has to be easy to find on the internet. A healthy understanding of search engine optimization (SEO) will help. Providing useful, searchable content on the internet will help to bring in inbound leads.
(Inbound leads are business prospects who come to you of their own accord. They’ve heard of your goods and services, and they’re interested.)
So, if you’d like to give it a shot, then the first question to ask yourself is: can my credit union routinely create excellent, hyper-relevant content that our members care about?
Regularly publishing content useful to your members achieves three key things:
- Increases your credibility within your community—you become an expert
- Keeps people informed about their financial health (and your role in it)
- Drives traffic to your site and possibly even your branches
However, just posting fluff pieces or short promos for your products might not go over so well. That’s a different sort of advertising, and it works better for outbound materials. Think Google ads, email marketing, and so on.
Should Your Credit Union Try Content Marketing?
So, you’re sold on creating content, now how do you decide what to publish? What are your members thinking about and what questions do they have?
Here’s what you do:
- Ask your branch employees what questions they get most often—these employees are on the front lines and they hear a lot from your members
- Try sending out a member survey about which topics your members are most interested in
- See what other credit unions, banks, and fintechs are writing about
- Google terms that fit your market (e.g. home loan, credit union, checking accounts) and see what content works best
- Finally, create valuable content that addresses those topics and concerns!
Can it be that simple?
Yes!
However, don’t forget the 80/20 rule when it comes to creating and publishing this content.
- 20% of your time should be spent on producing the content
- 80% of your time should be spent on promoting that content through your various social channels (getting your content featured and shared)
Creating hyper relevant content that addresses your members’ (and potential members’) needs gives you credibility as an expert. Then, you earn the right to talk about your solution to that problem. You build awareness for your credit union, credibility within your market, and add value.
Adding value to your members is the best way to market your business in today’s world.
Additional Resources for Credit Union Content Marketing
Digital marketing for credit unions can take many forms. But one thing is for certain: content is a key ingredient. When you create a campaign, build a lead magnet, or advertise an offer, you’re offering a quick opportunity to purchase something.
But what if the buyer isn’t quite ready? What if they want more information? What if they want to know who they’re doing business with first?
Ad campaigns, lead magnets, and offers bring people to your site. But content is what keeps them there. It’s what makes them trust you.
So, if your credit union values digital marketing, content should be on your roadmap. Then, to supercharge your content marketing strategy, consider nurturing sequences and retargeting ads. (You can support both functions with a marketing automation platform.)
If you’d like to learn more about credit union content marketing and social media strategy, subscribe to our blog! We keep it current with tips, tricks, and resources to keep your credit union relevant and valuable to your members.
You can also join the CU 2.0 Facebook group to discuss big issues facing other credit union marketers and professionals every day.
