3 minutes
Tools and tricks to reach Gen Y and beyond. Part two in a three-part series.
Editor’s Note: This is Web-only bonus coverage from “Marketing to Young Adults is Hard” in the June 2014 issue of CU Management.
The top 100 banks hold 74 percent of the total youth financial services market. That is bad news for credit unions. But if you plan effective youth-focused campaigns, you can make a dent.
After you come up with a plan to meet your market’s youth population, the next step is launching an awesome campaign. Here are some ideas to get you started.
Content and Social
Only take on as many social networks as you can realistically keep up with over the long term. With Young & Free, even though we have a dedicated full-time person, we keep things fairly simple by concentrating on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. Only introduce additional platforms like Pinterest, Google+ or Foursquare if you have the capacity and it makes sense for your campaign concept.
The latest buzzword these days is “content marketing” and the biggest trend is the constant linking to other people’s stuff. This is OK from time to time, but you need to be producing your own content and linking back to your own destination as much as possible. There are options to buy or license content. Brass Media among others have digital solutions for both credit unions and banks. This is a viable alternative for smaller institutions with limited marketing resources.
The Filene Research Institute has teamed up with Que Social to offer a platform for sharing content on Twitter and Facebook. This is another option for credit unions that are unable to create their own content.
At Currency, we’re also getting into the licensed content arena with our launch of It’s a Money Thing content packs for credit unions. Each content pack tackles an important financial topic and includes a custom branded video, infographic, article and presentation. This is a way to share your own content without the hassle or investment of creating high-quality materials.
No matter what way you go with content and social, you need to have a strong personality and a distinctive point of view, and it needs to be interactive and engaging. Especially if you are trying to get the attention of young adults.
Media and Events
The second piece of your launch strategy should be media and events. If you have an interesting campaign concept, you can get media attention. In addition to covering the novelty of the job search, our Spokesters have been great media spokespeople in print and on TV. These opportunities have resulted in more than a $1 million in unpaid media attention.
It’s important to be present in your community and at events where young people go. You need to connect in person and have a dialogue. It should be a combination of online and in person and it has to be fun. Again having a dedicated person makes this possible and way more effective than a couple of middle aged people standing behind a table.
Tim McAlpine is president and creative director of Currency Marketing. He is a credit union advocate best known for developing CUES Next Top Credit Union Exec and the Young & Free program that credit unions from around North America are using to connect with new young adult members. Subscribe to his blog and follow him on Twitter.
Photocredit: Dollarphotoclub.com/Syda Productions
