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CUs must be prepared to engage through digital media at any time.
Credit union marketers are lucky to be working for financial institutions that exist solely to serve members, and their job is to tell the credit union story in a compelling way, suggests CUES member Amber Hughes, VP/marketing and HR at $644 million Lakeland Credit Union, Ltd., Bonnyville, Alberta.
“Credit unions are so genuinely great. We share profits back with our members. We’re not lining shareholders’ pockets. At the end of the day, we want to be a viable organization that can continue to serve our members,” Hughes notes. “As marketers, we have the obligation and opportunity to make sure that people understand that we are a viable and preferable option for banking.”
That task is both aided and complicated by new marketing media. “In this digital world, things move a lot faster; you really need to be prepared when you share a message,” she says. “If someone wants to challenge that point of view with their own experiences, you need to be there immediately to engage and potentially go offline to discuss it. You need to be very aware of what’s going on all the time. Marketing is on 24/7 in a way that it hasn’t been prior to the last 10 years. It makes everything feel much faster and more immediate.”
Lakeland CU has four staff members dedicated to implementing and managing its digital media strategy. “We have access to metrics and a focus on data analytics that we haven’t had in the past. Knowing how to harness that information requires an awareness of the functionality of each digital channel,” Hughes notes. “I think it is really critical for someone to get involved with how digital media works and how it can be integrated into your creative strategy. That’s a really unique skillset in marketing.”
Hughes seems happy to trade in traditional newspaper and billboard ads for the opportunity to parlay Facebook and other social media outreach into targeted marketing with niche groups—with the caution that “if your experiment blows up, it could go viral. I think that’s every marketer’s nightmare. Conversely, if your idea catches on, it spreads further and deeper than traditional media ever could.”
Karen Bankston is a long-time contributor to Credit Union Management and writes about credit unions, membership growth, marketing, operations and technology. She is the proprietor of Precision Prose, Eugene, Ore.
