Credit unions often struggle to find new members and retain existing ones. In a competitive industry, marketing can make a huge difference. This includes both traditional strategies, like sponsoring local events, and digital strategies, like targeted ads.
Strategy-driven marketing is a great way to reach customers where they are. Whether you offer free classes on financial literacy or discounts to local businesses, these proven ideas can help you promote your credit union and attract new members. Our team can assist in your digital marketing efforts by providing detailed analytics, enhanced site personalization, and exceptional website experiences.
Inclind works with credit unions nationwide to help them create great websites and a comprehensive digital strategy designed to fuel growth. We offer everything from custom integrations to connect your website to various software programs to ongoing support and maintenance for your website. Reach out to our award-winning website design and development team today to learn how we can help your credit union develop and implement an innovative digital marketing strategy.
Great Credit Union Marketing Ideas That Get Results
Years ago, most people just went to the bank or credit union closest to them. Today, there are many more options - big corporate banks with hundreds of branches, online-only financial institutions, and local credit unions. Having a great marketing plan in place can help your credit union attract new members and retain existing customers.
Offer Free Financial Literacy Content
According to a recent survey, half of all American adults lack basic financial literacy skills. Many Americans don't know how to make smart financial decisions about saving, investing, and interest rates. This presents an opportunity for credit unions to fill that void.
Offering free financial literacy content, whether through blog posts, videos, webinars, or in-person classes, can be a great way to market your credit union. You will be providing a valuable service to the community while simultaneously attracting potential members. Canvas is a Colorado credit union that does this well. The organization offers online classes and in-person seminars to foster learning in environments where individuals prefer to learn.
Partner with Local Businesses
When people buy big-ticket items like houses and vehicles, they often need financing. By partnering with local car dealerships and real estate agents, you can get referrals for new members who need a mortgage or personal loan. For example, Freedom Federal Credit Union has partnered with over 50 auto dealers across Maryland to provide auto loans. You can even refer your members to these businesses in a cross-promotional opportunity.
Use Straightforward Language
When you’re a subject matter expert, it can be easy to rely on jargon and industry-specific language. For marketing purposes, this isn’t a great idea. Your better option is to use simple, straightforward language in any blog posts, customer emails, or promotions. Making your content accessible and easy to understand is a great way to ensure that it reaches the broadest range of potential customers. Straightforward language can also help improve your search visibility, where users are more likely to search in fundamental ways as opposed to using technical jargon.
Tailor Solutions for Customers
Many technological solutions, such as AI-based software tools, can offer insight into customers’ habits and behavior. This can allow you to provide far more customized solutions for members. For example, software can analyze customers’ purchases and notice that they have potentially just welcomed a new baby to their family. This insight can then be used to create more individualized marketing, such as email promotions for college savings accounts.
Use Smart Email Practices
When you are paying for customer relationship management (CRM) and other software, it can be tempting to make sure that you get your money’s worth by sending out a lot of emails. In reality, this can have the opposite effect: people get annoyed by the email frequency or the content that doesn’t apply to them. Using CRM software that has been integrated into your website can help you make smarter decisions about what to email your customers.
Setting up automated email flows can help you reach customers at different stages in their journey at just the right time. Some example automated email flows include:
- Abandoned application flow
- Rate tracking flow
- Calculator lead submission flow
- New member onboarding flow
- Loan approval flow
In addition to personalizing and automating emails, your CRM can also help you track the marketing emails that you have sent to each member so that you aren’t essentially spamming them with unwanted emails.
Offer Referral Bonuses
Who doesn’t like getting something for free? Rewarding your existing members for referring their friends and family to your credit union is a clever marketing tactic. It can help you grow your membership while increasing customer satisfaction. You can also offer rewards for things like opening a new account. For example, 1st Advantage Federal Credit Union offers members $50 for every friend they refer who opens a checking account (up to $500).
Ask Your Members to Submit Reviews or Testimonials
One of the best ways to market your credit union is by offering real-world insight from existing members. You can ask your customers to submit reviews online through platforms like Google or to submit testimonials directly to you, and you can even offer incentives. If you have testimonials directly emailed to you, you can reach out to members with the best reviews to see if they’d be willing to shoot a video testimonial. These reviews and testimonials can often drive additional business.
Sponsor Local Charities and Events
When someone attends a local event, such as a charity walk, they often take note of the businesses that sponsor it. Sponsorship is often a low-cost investment that can yield big returns. When the community sees that you care and are willing to sponsor things that matter to them, they are more likely to patronize your credit union over a big chain bank. The nonprofit or event may also promote your credit union in their own marketing, which offers an excellent value.
Create Calculators And Online Tools
There are thousands of monthly searches for loan and investment tools. To provide some examples, there are an estimated 171,000 searches a month for “mortgage payment calculator” and an estimated 510,000 searches a month for “auto loan calculator.”
Developing useful online tools will not only give you resources to reference for existing members. Still, it will also help you drive more organic traffic from users searching for these tools to your website. The developers at Inclind can help you build interactive tools for your website. We’ve built over a dozen online tools for Dover Federal Credit Union.
Offer Member Discounts
Credit unions are known for offering discounts to their members. Whether you partner with a local amusement park to sell cheaper tickets or offer another discount, these types of benefits are a smart way to increase membership and boost the local economy. When you do offer discounts, make sure that both you and the business you are partnering with market the promotion effectively through ads, emails, and more.
Targeted Ads
If you use CRM and other software, you should have a good idea of your customers’ demographics and needs. This can then be used to target ads and content for particular customers on social media and through other channels. For example, suppose you notice that many of your members are getting close to retirement age. In that case, you might run targeted Facebook ads for retirement accounts and/or free retirement planning seminars.
Create Downloadable Resources
Free downloadable resources can help you collect contact information from site visitors and give you advertising assets. You could create digital assets like free downloadable budget templates, a home buyer’s checklist, or a guide to construction loans. You can view all Community Financial Credit Union's offers to find inspiration.
AI-Powered Search Advertising
Google has started delivering ads in its AI overviews and the AI Mode platform. This ad expansion allows advertisers to capitalize on long-tail searches that historically would have lower intent. For example, ads could show in the overview for a search on “credit unions vs banks”. Credit unions can take advantage of this placement offering by creating Performance Max or Search Max campaigns in Google Ads.
Develop Branch-Specific Landing Pages
If you have more than one branch, it’s a forward-thinking idea to have landing pages for each location. This is a relatively low-cost investment that can drive marketing results. You can include content specific to that community in a way that feels natural. This practice can boost local search visibility because your pages will be optimized for specific geolocations.
Consider Product-Specific Content
Credit unions typically offer various products, from checking and savings accounts to business and personal loans and mortgages. In a digital world, it makes sense to create specific content for each of your product offerings. Don’t lump checking and savings accounts or auto and motorcycle loans onto one page. Give each product a dedicated page with individual posts related to each product. This can help boost search visibility and give customers the information that they need about your products and services.
Offer Better Customer Service to Increase Retention Rates
One of the many advantages of technology is that it allows businesses to serve customers better. Whether you use an AI chatbot, CRM software, or another tool, offering higher customer service through technology is a smart move. You can play around with the AI chatbot we implemented for Dover Federal Credit Union to explore the support experience that AI can provide. Instead of waiting for hours to get an answer or getting emails that don’t match their needs, customers will be happier when they get more customized communications and immediate responses.
Offer a Giveaway
Getting members to return to your website regularly can help with retention and upsell existing members on additional services. Offering a giveaway can help drive traffic to your site. If the giveaway is strong enough to be newsworthy, you may also receive free press coverage or go viral on social media.
One credit union that does giveaways well is Lake Michigan Credit Union. Each year, they offer a $50,000 home makeover. Anyone can enter the giveaway, and each person can submit an entry once a day from April to June. This giveaway coincides with the peak season for personal loans, so LMCU stays top-of-mind for members visiting the site daily who may need loans.
Improve Your Digital Presence with Inclind
Technology empowers credit unions to reach customers in ways that were previously never possible. Digital marketing strategies (when executed correctly) can be highly effective at engaging both current and potential members. Of course, any form of digital marketing requires putting a solid foundation in place first. You need a fast and secure website designed to convert. That’s where we come in.
Inclind offers a range of website design and development services for credit unions. We also work with marketing teams to help our clients amplify their digital presence. Our goal is to utilize smart solutions to solve complex problems and help credit unions earn the best possible results.
We're happy to chat if you’d like to learn more about our digital marketing services for credit unions. Fill out our online contact form or call 800-604-8139 to talk to one of our experts about your website.