SEATTLE–If your CU is still doing “product of the month” marketing, it’s time to “kill it,” according to one person here who offered a blueprint for making the marketing spend far more effective.
In a session titled “Blueprint for Smarter Marketing: How to Use Data to Build and Implement Effective Marketing and Communication Strategies,” Andrea Heger, SVP-Affinion Insurance Solutions, told attendees at NAFCU’s annual meeting they are wasting marketing dollars, time, and opportunities for more effective marketing efforts by not refining their strategies.
What is smarter marketing? According to Heger, it’s data.
“For credit unions, it’s the opportunity to take a step back and learn and know your members,” said Heger. “It’s my opinion that credit unions have one of the biggest advantages in marketing–trust. And, credit unions are rich in data. The members have given it to you. They want you to know about them, what their needs are.”
More specifically, said Heger, smarter marketing is about using data to make offers that are more timely and personal.
‘Product of the Month Marketing is Dead’
“The good news is marketing automation technology has come down in price substantially. Smarter marketing is effective and it yields results,” she said.
In a show of hands by audience members (which included many board members), only a few indicated their credit union has a marketing automation platform in place.
Heger said every credit union needs to realize the days of product marketing are over.
“’Product of the month’ marketing is dead,” said Heger. “If it still lives in the corners of your organization, kill it. Customized and personalized marketing can drive five to eight times the response of traditional marketing. And personalization is not putting your name on the piece.”
She recalled a lesson from early in her career that has proven true, and that is the consumer must be in the center of any marketing promotion. And data can make it easier than ever to accomplish that.
Before any blueprint is drawn up, a credit union needs to begin with the data and the research to learn how members want to interact and what is top of mind. The plan needs to be grounded in the credit union strategic goals and the CU’s mission and values, she said.
“It’s more than just your commitment to your community and members,” said Heger. “It’s what promises have you made to your members about how you capture their data and how you use their data. This is your privacy policy. It’s surprising sometimes how many organizations are out of touch with their privacy policy. Make sure you start there.”
With data and member needs accomplished, the marketing blueprint then moves on to a personalized message, which is what delivers the marketing ROI, said Heger.
Three Primary Data Sources
Heger noted credit unions have three primary sources of data: Their own data (CRM, web and mobile sites and employees, etc.), third-party data (such as from the credit bureaus), and public data sources (such as census data, government data from data.gov, Google analytics and NCUA data).
When it comes to using employees as data sources, Heger acknowledged, “This one is tough, but the more time you can spend with your tellers and front line people, the better. They spend time with the members. They know what’s happening in the community.”
Heger said credit unions often overlook their third party product providers as a source of very rich data.
Harnessing the Data
When it comes to leveraging all that information, Heger recommended:
- Bring the multiple data sources together with a data warehouse or self-serve tools.
- Select two primary data categories and sort the data to this criteria. “Don’t pick product categories, the thinking must shift to people.”
- Spend time with the data categories. “Who is at the top of each of the category lists? Know them as members and community members.”
As an example, credit unions can use data to identify the likelihood of adopting technology when targeting marketing. Not surprisingly, younger members are most likely to adopt tech. One CU with which Affinion worked found 67% of its membership fell into the “very likely” bucket of using the mobile phone to interact with the CU.
That same CU then sought to identify those who are likely to be heavy transactors. Again, the CU was surprised to find it had a far higher number of members who fell into that category when compared to national average. It found most of those members used bank cards, which wasn’t a surprise, but more than 50% were also using gas and department store cards, which was a surprise. Using that latter data, it indicated the members were traveling a lot and they were high-spenders at department stores.
When the credit union created Personicx Clusters, it found a significant portion of its membership fell into the Affluent Household category, which is incomes of $120,000 or more annually and net worth of $250,000. These household typically own 7-10 electronic devices, typically spend on children, clothing, sporting and fitness, are frequent travelers, and have a goal of funding 539 plans and maintain $500,000-plus of life insurance.
Using that information profile, the credit union was able to better personalize and target its messaging.
Create Your Member Profile
To create a member profile, Heger recommended:
- Take all the data and bring it to life with 2-3 member profiles.
- Member profiles can be the foundation for marketing, servicing and loyalty initiatives.
- Make them fun and simple. “Everyone in your credit union should quickly understand.”
- Permeate the personas across your credit union.
A great question to ask in creating a member profile, said Heger, is “How did the member find us?” If that can’t be discovered in the data, the member can be asked directly, she said.
The profile can also answer what the member wants to know about the CU, why he or she buys from the credit union, what his or her pain points are, and what he doesn’t want.
It’s important, added Heger, to be honest and address the pain points such as why the member doesn’t call or what it is he or she doesn’t like.
“He doesn’t want to call us, he doesn’t want fees, he doesn’t want services. He wants you to know him and deliver solutions,” said Heger, referring to a sample member profile.
Deploying Marketing With Personas
Heger said credit unions should:
- Look at the top members who drove your personas and your most profitable members. “What offers are they in need of? (and not what you want to sell.”
- Rule of Thumb. “Your most engaged and profitable members seek the highest level of customized marketing, so this can be the tricky part,” said Heger.
- Digital marketing allows for data-driven marketing that is easily adaptable.
- Resist the temptation to conduct mass email campaigns.
“In this day and age, it can be daunting. You have all these segments and data. But you have the marketing automation tools, and you can segment down to 50 people now and deliver a customized message to those 50,” said Heger. “I really encourage the marketing automation if you can afford it. Start small and test it.”
Heger encouraged credit unions to think about member profiles after the marketing event. “If they come to you as a result of the front-end work and they come to your marketing channel, make sure it carries through the member journey,” she said.
The Next Steps
In conclusion, Heger urged CUs to follow these steps when creating a marketing blueprint:
- Layout your blueprint.
- Immerse yourself in the data, big and small. “Spend five times the amount of time in your data than anything else.”
- Build your base member profile and expend rom there.
- Stay focused on your mission to build customized and data-driven marketing campaigns.
- Start small and build upon your successes
- Have fun with your team along the way.