As small niche financial institutions, it is imperative that we don’t lose sight of who we serve. It is essential to your credit union’s survival to be highly focused on your niche and to customize and personalize your credit union’s solutions. One of the most essential ingredients in this process is how to connect with your member. Now, what do I mean by connecting?
Connecting is about being highly relevant and memorable at multiple levels. This starts with the aggregate credit union brand, moves to the products & services, and ends with the individual member. At the end of the day, if you can create continuity between all three levels you will have members that love you. This is the goal. Members who love your credit union then tell your story and bring their friends to you.
There are three things that can help you better connect with your membership.
Utilize video to Connect with Members
Video is becoming highly important in today’s digital world. In the next few years, it is anticipated that more than 80% of all content consumed online will be in video. Your credit union’s website, member interactions, and content should all be heavily reliant on video first. Every website should have biography team videos, a video on the problems you solve for members, video member testimonials, and at least one video on EVERY page. All these videos won’t happen overnight, but list out all the videos you need, prioritize, and start tackling the videos one at a time. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but it is time to get working on the foundation! Videos are an essential way to connect with your member.
Connect with Members with a Blog
Now I know what many of you may be thinking, blogs are stupid and no one reads them. Not true! A blog is simply a more frequent newsletter that allows you to maintain consistent communication with your members. It is also a key way to train Google on the problems your credit union solves and the community you serve. Your blog should not be an in your face marketing channel. Members will not click on and read your blog regularly if it is sales pitch after sales pitch. Regular distribution of educational content is a great way to connect with your member. Your blog should be simple quick articles, community news, and things that are relevant to your members. Don’t forget to optimize your posts for keywords and Google.
Use data and machine learning and other tools to hyper-personalize.
Amazon is an example of a company that is a rock star at this. If you and I both pulled up Amazon on our computers right now, we would see different things based on our historical purchases and what Amazon believes might be interesting to us. However, your credit union website looks the same to everyone who pulls it up. The offers on your website are not personalized to the member. To stand out and be relevant, credit unions should be using analytics, machine learning, marketing automation, and website design to highly personalize every interaction with a member. The most important ingrediant to connect to your member is personalization.
Ultimately, connecting with members is what it is all about. Seeing the difference your credit union makes for each and every member is highly rewarding. Smart use of video, blogging, and data will allow your credit union to enhance those connections and make you highly relevant to your membership.
Originally published on August 1, 2018 on CUInsight
