Content marketing is a kind of marketing strategy designed to attract and nurture inbound leads. It relies on maintaining a consistent and prominent online presence to show up in peoples’ internet searches. Can credit union content marketing work?
Few credit union marketing strategies are exactly alike. Each credit union fills a unique niche and appeals to particular local community. Each credit union offers something that other financial institutions near them don’t.
With quickly evolving technology and the popularity of online and mobile banking, traditional marketing avenues are changing as well. Content marketing can help credit unions reach prospective members who turn to the internet first to gather information about companies, products, and services that interest them.
Quick Content Marketing Statistics
According to Hubspot, generating traffic and leads is by far the largest marketing challenge for most businesses. That speaks volumes about how most companies feel about their online presence.
Content marketing strategies aim to address exactly that pain point. On its own, content marketing works by providing relevant information and resources to people. Over time, search engines recognize a continual stream of useful content focused around a certain theme as authoritative for that topic.
Here are a few key statistics from the Hubspot post:
- Local SEO—searches for products or services “near me”—make up almost a third of all mobile searches.
- 50% of those searches lead to store traffic within one day.
- More than half of those store visits result in a purchase.
- Paid search advertising is currently eclipsed by content marketing.
- Organic SEO drives more than 5x the traffic.
- Content marketing generates three times as many leads.
- Social media websites reach broad audiences.
- 74% of people use Facebook for professional purposes.
- 70% of the hashtags on Instagram are branded.
One of the most telling features of the Hubspot post is the amount of Millennial and Gen Z engagement on digital channels. Especially in the case of social media, heavy users skew younger.
Credit unions who want to attract younger members must consider the best ways to reach that market. Credit union marketing strategy aligned toward increasing online presence, authority, and traffic is more likely to attract members.
Content marketing, whether in the form of blogs, videos, visual content, or social media presence, is far more likely reach customers than simple paid ads and word of mouth.
But Is Content Good in Credit Union Marketing Strategy?
The idea behind content marketing is that it is, in itself, a useful service. Good content serves as a resource for members, prospective members, and in some cases, for wholly disinterested parties.
Think of content marketing as a free resource that you provide for your members and prospective members. Your members will appreciate the information you offer. Prospective members will too, but they’re following a trail of breadcrumbs back to you. As they follow you, they’ll familiarize themselves with you and your services.
However, content marketing is only one piece of the marketing puzzle. While inbound marketing is certainly the goal, you can drastically increase your traffic and presence with more old-fashioned marketing strategies such as email and banner ads.
If you’d like to see more about credit union content marketing, subscribe to our blog! We’ll be writing more about content and inbound marketing strategy in the coming months, so you can see a lot more on this topic.
