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It’s the CU 2.0 podcast! CU 2.0 is excited to bring you the second in a series of podcasts from Robert McGarvey. Welcome to the CU 2.0 Podcast, regular interviews with credit union leaders, thinkers, movers, shakers and more.
This week, Robert sat down with South Bay Credit Union CEO Jennifer Oliver. Jennifer dishes on the hard work of staying alive at a $100 million institution – and in fact, she’s prospering. Want to know how she works this miracle? So did we, which is why sat for a special 30-minute podcast that is worth every minute. Click on the image below to hear the podcast. Let us know what you think in the comments.
Video marketing is here, and it is here to stay. Video has become an integral part of online marketing that your credit union CANNOT afford to ignore. It is the most effective tool for sharing information and entertaining content with your members. According to Cisco, by 2020 video will make up 79% of all internet traffic.
With Facebook Live, Facebook Stories, Instagram Stories, and all the video we see popping up in our social media news feed each time we log in, it is clear that video is being used not only by consumers but also by businesses. However, throughout our content creation services at CU 2.0, we still find that many credit unions are not utilizing videos and that executives are hesitant to start. Many credit union executives share the same concerns about getting set up to successfully start video marketing.
So, the question becomes, do the benefits of developing, executing, and sharing a video marketing campaign outweigh the amount of effort needed to successfully do so.
The answer is YES. 100%, without a doubt.
Here are 3 reasons your credit union marketing team should be using video marketing.
Why does it seem that videos are popping up all over social media and in our email inboxes? It’s because people love watching videos. Our members prefer watching videos over reading long strings of text because videos have the ability to convey a ton of information in a quick and easy to understand way. Video also allows your members to connect with your credit union and receive the personal touch that they would not get with a text article. Youtube has over 4 billion video views per day and is currently the second largest search engine, after Google. In 2015, online videos accounted for 55% of all mobile traffic and are forecasted to rise to 79% by 2020. Video content online is only going to continue to grow.
Video is imperative if you are paying attention to SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Your credit union is 53 times more likely to show up on the first page of a google search if you have a video embedded on your website. Since Google acquired YouTube, marketers have seen a significant increase in how videos affect your company’s search engine rank. Simply put, your credit union cannot afford not to have video on your website. You aren’t considered relevant by search engines if you don’t have video on your page. Click here to learn more about SEO.
Having video on your website, social media channels, and marketing emails helps to put a face and personality behind your credit union’s brand. Video is a terrific way to build trust with your membership and connect with members when they aren’t in a branch. A terrific example of this is when a member first joins your credit union. Instead of sending a lengthy welcome email full of text, send a video welcoming the member along with a couple of helpful tips, links, and information that a new member would need.
Video can also be used in marketing campaigns to quickly and effectively grab a member’s attention and inform them about products and offers available to them. An email with a video embedded is likely to increase email click-through rates and improve email engagement. Video tracking also allows you to see which members opened the videos, who watched it all the way through, and who replayed it. Having this information will allow your marketing team to build out lead nurturing campaigns and thus build a more effective sales pipeline. Your marketing team will also have a better idea of what content your membership finds relevant, and this will help you build more successful campaigns.
Hopefully, you now agree that video marketing is imperative for your credit union. But how do you get started? CU 2.0 provides content creation services, and in our next blog, we will focus on some of our tips if you want to get started on your own. Keep an eye out!
Want to talk to an expert at CU 2.0 about our services and how we can partner with your credit union? Contact us here today!
It’s the CU 2.0 podcast! CU 2.0 is excited to bring you the first in a series of podcasts from Robert McGarvey. Welcome to the CU 2.0 Podcast, regular interviews with credit union leaders, thinkers, movers, shakers and more.
This week, Robert sat down with Chris Otey, CRO of CU 2.0 and Chairman of South Bay Credit Union. This is all about the digital transformation of Credit Unions. Listen to learn the secret to credit union transformation. Click on the image below to hear the podcast. Let us know what you think in the comments.
Social media strategy for credit unions has been a popular topic for many years. The more interconnected we get as a society, and the more time our members spend online, the more important an effective social media strategy for your credit union becomes. But the question becomes, what is the right content for your credit union to publish on its social media? How can you determine if the social media strategy for your credit union is effective?
Here are 5 tips for getting social media strategy for credit unions right.
Social media provides a terrific platform to share your story and content with members who you may not have the opportunity to connect with one on one. Use this platform as a way to spotlight community members, share employee stories, and share testimonials from you “A” members. Want to see a great example? Check out the community spotlight Wednesday we feature in our CU 2.0 Facebook Strategists Group.
Social Media platforms provide the perfect opportunity to lead with visuals. Visual content is more likely to get liked and shared. It is worth the time for your credit union’s marketing/social media team to adjust text-heavy content and lead with visual.
Video is exploding and is an important tool in your marketing toolbox. Video can lead directly to sales for your credit union. Studies show that 74% of users who watched an explainer-video about a product subsequently bought it. This could be potentially huge for products your credit union is promoting such as auto loans or HELOCs. Furthermore, video is not only important in your credit union’s social media strategy. Moovly gives us whopping statistics: You’re 53 times more likely show up first on Google if you have a video embedded on your website. There has been a significant increase in how much videos affect your search engine rank. When using video remember these four things:
Don’t fall into the trap of caring exclusively about likes and followers. You want to focus on engaging your membership. Quizzes and contests are an effective and fun way to interact with your members and engage them. Not sure what contests to run and/or need quiz ideas? Click here.
Don’t talk so much that you forget to listen. Social media is a platform that will allow you to learn more about your members. Social media is a terrific way to solicit feedback and better learn what your membership cares about. This will allow you to create hyper-relevant content for your members, more effectively market your products and services, and ultimately better serve your members.
When your credit union sits down and decides upon its social media strategic goals, the goal should be to drive social media traffic to your credit union website. Once the user is on your website, your credit union can capture leads. DO NOT focus on simply generating more likes and followers. This is a vanity measure that may make us feel good but isn’t a metric that we should be focused on. Once you drive traffic to the website, then your credit union can build lists of qualified leads that your marketing and sales teams can follow up with.
If you have any questions, or want to learn more about the services that CU 2.0 provides, please reach out to a member of our team here.
Could a little laughter improve your leadership profile? This entrepreneur went out on a limb to hone his stand-up comedy skills.
Joe Fuld is an Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) member in Washington, D.C. and President of The Campaign Workshop, a political and advocacy advertising agency that provides strategy, digital advertising, content and direct mail services to non-profit and political clients. Joe recently participated in The CEO Stand-Up Challenge, honing his humor into a 10-minute set that he performed on stage. We asked Joe about the experience. Here’s what he shared:
There is truth in the adage, “Laughter is the best medicine,” as laughter has proven health benefits. But did you know that laughter can also benefit leadership? According to the Harvard Business Review, laughter can boost employee engagement and well-being, relieve stress, and spur not only collaboration and creativity but also productivity and analytic precision.
While that all sounds good, I’m no comedian. I can give a killer talk about political campaigning or advocacy, but punchlines aren’t my forte. That same HBR article states that while employees feel more motivated by leaders who make them laugh, they lose respect for leaders who try to be funny but fail, or who make fun of themselves. Sounds like a slippery slope. Why risk it?
In June, a friend I know from EO, Kirk Drake, invited me to participate with him in The Entrepreneur CEO Stand-Up Challenge, an intensive six-week crash course in stand-up comedy culminating in a 10-minute performance at the DC Improv. Was I in?
Well, I turned 50 this year and wanted to stretch myself in a new way–but needed a push. A challenge. But I run a company and have no free time. So why do this now?
I’ve always enjoyed stand-up, but beyond one improv class in college, I had never tried it. I felt confident about having great material: I run a political and advocacy advertising agency, have a wonderful but crazy family and travel a lot. While memorizing a 10-minute set would be difficult, having good stories to tell seemed like half the battle.
I took the leap, hoping a net would appear.
I had no idea what to expect, but it certainly helped to have a coach. Ours was Matt Kazam, a veteran Las Vegas comedian who owns They Laugh You Win, which helps leaders and trainers take advantage of the power of humor by combining the science of stand-up with public speaking. Matt and I spoke twice a week, both one-on-one and with the group of seven entrepreneurs doing the show with me.
Having a likeminded team of entrepreneurs also preparing for their comic debuts made it feel like I was on a comedy team with good-natured competition! They also provided motivation. The last thing I wanted to do was bomb in front of friends and family or let the group down.
The writing was my favorite part, but I needed structure and inspiration, which my fellow entrepreneurs provided. I learned that you have to make time for inspiration. The more I wrote, the better my material got. It was an excellent outlet for channeling creativity. I wrote 18 pages of material that Matt and I cut down into a set.
I train folks across the country to run for office and advocate for causes, but I, myself, was never formally trained in public speaking. For 20 years I’ve just done it and perfected my technique over time. I still had “ands and ums”―verbal garbage that needed to go―and I wanted to be more intentional with my speaking. I saw the comedy show as a way to cure my hiccups by jumping out of a plane.
Setting up punchlines is a precise business, so I was grateful for Matt’s expert guidance. To practice my delivery and memorize the set, I listened to recordings of myself reading it. I would then re-record it―and listen again. Almost daily. Practice makes perfect.
On the night of the performance, I felt ready but vulnerable. I stacked the audience with supportive friends, family members and coworkers. When my name was called, I was nervous, but my coaching and preparation paid off. After I finished and left the stage, it felt rewarding to have tried something new and succeeded.
See for yourself:
I would do it again in a heartbeat. I had fun and learned a ton about myself, and for that I am grateful.
To be clear, I don’t plan to headline at McChuckles anytime soon, but the experience slayed a few inner demons. Here’s what I gained:
While stand-up comedy is not a one-size fits all cure, it helped me reach my goals. My employees seem to appreciate the increased level of laughter around the office, which has helped us become a more tightly knit group, and I’ve become more intentional about my public speaking. I’ll be reaping the benefits of this six-week challenge for years to come!
Originally published on August 28th, 2018 on INC. com
It is imperative that your Credit Union has a social media strategy in today’s digital climate. However, what is even worse than having no social media strategy for your credit union is having a bad social media strategy. It is important that you avoid these three social media mistakes at your credit union.
In case you are wondering, your members are not logging into their social media and following your page so that they can see your latest auto loan rate offer. Majority of Americans have a social network profile, so it’s obviously essential for your credit union to be present on these platforms. However, no member wants to be jolted out of their online experience. When your credit union is posting on Facebook, don’t just share about your products and services and talk on and on about yourself! Embrace the platform and share content that is hyper-relevant to your membership.
So the direction has come down from above, and social media is now a push for your credit union. Your marketing team starts firing off Monday motivational quotes, polls, and promoting your blog content. Months go by. Were you successful? Who knows? If your team did not spend the time to set clear strategies and SMART goals that can be measured, how can you possibly know if you have been successful? This is as important if not more important than the content that you are actually publishing.
Now, what do we mean by SMART goals? SMART goals are goals that are: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. Setting these goals ahead of time for your credit union will ensure that your marketing team is able to ultimately measure the success of your social media efforts as well as the impact social media has on your return on investment (ROI).
In fact, take it a step further. Make sure your team knows the key performance indicators (KPI’s) that you will be measuring. Examples of these are:
Think about the amount of money your credit union spent on opening its last branch. Now think about how much your credit union spent on Facebook Ads last quarter. Branch traffic is on the decline but mobile and website traffic have never been higher. It is critical that your credit union invest in this digital transformation. Facebook advertising has become incredibly nimble and we are able to more closely target then we ever have been able to before. It is imperative that your advertising budget is adjusted accordingly.
How To Use Social Media Effectively For Credit Unions
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