SAN ANTONIO–As seen on TV? Not any more. Instead, an original member of the Shark Tank offered credit unions 10 strategies for building a much more effective digital strategy, including leveraging an advantage competitors do not have.
Kevin Harrington, who was an entrepreneur at an early age and who made his fortune in numerous businesses, including the “As Seen on TV” products and stores, offered credit unions at the CUNA Marketing and Business Development Council here everything from “eureka moments” to “micro moments.”
Harrington got his start with a business he called the Small Business Center in Cincinnati, a one-stop shop for small business needs, including a business brokerage, legal services, insurance, accounting services, graphic design, and advertising services.
Eureka Moment
But his first real “eureka moment” came, he said, with the advent of cable television in the 1980s. He signed up for a package of 30 channels, only to find that the Discovery Channel broadcast just 18 hours per day.
“It seemed to me there were six hours a day that could be used,” he shared with credit union marketers.
That’s when he met Arnold Morris of Ginsu Knives fame—only he wasn’t famous at the time. Instead, he encountered Morris giving his spiel at a Philadelphia home show— “But wait, there’s more!”—which Harrington called “one of the greatest sales pitches I’ve ever seen.”
“I asked him, ‘How long have you been doing this?’, and he said, “Thirty years.’ I said, ‘Arnold, wait. Do you ever watch TV and see a blank screen? I bet if we turn a camera on and capture your presentation and put it on Discovery Channel, we can sell some knives. That was the original show, and we only spent a couple of thousand dollars shooting it. We shot it in a supermarket in New Jersey. We didn’t have a studio and I had never shot anything in my life. This went on to do more than $500 million in sales. I call it one of the world’s first viral videos. We sent it to TV stations all over the world.”
Morris soon introduced Harrington to other pitch men like himself, and soon all were on TV.
Invitation To Become a Shark
It was those staples of late-night TV and the success of the business that led to a call from TV producer Mark Burnett to Harrington. Barnett wanted him to appear on a new show called Shark Tank.
“When we first shot Shark Tank, nobody knew what it was,” recalled Harrington. “I was investing in deals before we had television distribution. I was investing before it aired. But we did get distribution on ABC, and it’s now done 175 segments and it shows in 40 countries around the world.”
But as Harrington made clear, what worked in the 1980s and even on TV today is often no longer relevant. He told the meeting that businesses today fail 80% faster than they did as recently as the 1960s.
“Businesses are having a hard time keeping up with new digital age,” he suggested.
To respond in the digital era, Harrington offered these strategies:
Raise Your Profile and Build your Brand
Harrington said an increasing number of companies are using the “Shark Tank Innovation Challenge” inside their own operations. At the New York Times, for instance, it looked inward for ways to turn old print assets into new digital revenue streams. “Companies are looking for transformative ideas to come from within a company, and nobody is better at this than marketing executives.”
Harrington recommended credit unions consider developing their own digital magazines, using collaborative content (meaning free) and almost no cost of production. In his own case, for instance, he publishes “Sharkpreneur.”
“This can be really powerful,” said Harrington. “In my mind this is one of the breakthrough ideas that smart businesses are doing. The power of publishing lets you keep customers, get new customers, have a longer shelf life than other marketing, build credibility, and enhance your reputation as an expert.”
Develop Yourself as an Authority
Harrington said every credit union should be raising its profile the digital way, including building social media packages and even through their own networking organizations.
He particularly likes using LinkedIn, which can be used to build big audiences by joining targeted groups, he said.
“Get noticed after joining each group. Find the top contributor of each group and engage top contributors with meaningful comments. Become a scheduling ninja: Make two posts in the morning, two in the evening for five days. Schedule other posts from other authors. Comment on group members’ discussions, and be relevant, meaningful and inquisitive.”
Harrington said he became so convinced that digital is the future and that TV is increasingly irrelevant that he sold the AsSeenOnTV.com business. Specifically, he predicted, mobile video is the “wave of the future,” saying its top six benefits are opportunities to:
- Increase sales
- Drive engagement
- Build your Brand
- Stand out from Competition
- Cultivate Customer Loyalty
- Create a Direct Marketing Channel
Know Your Members
Citing the adage that “half of all advertising is wasted—the problem is I don’t know which half”– Harrington said credit union marketers can largely overcome that problem through targeted marketing at generations using digital. “You can’t have a one-size-fits-all strategy,” he said. “You have to have a digital strategy to target.”
The Generational Markets
He defined the generations this way:
Traditionalists: 72-plus. Great net worth, likes simple things. Credit unions need to make marketing simple, and focus on making them feel special.
Boomers. 53-71. Brand loyal and most likely to take the upsell, 48% rely on credit cards and like cash-back; they want to talk to a real person before purchasing.
Gen X. 39-52. They love coupons. Email marketing is best way to communicate. They are most likely to buy a good or service that somehow benefits society.
Gen Y. 16-38. Millennials will be the majority of the workforce by 2020, and cannot be reached effectively using traditional information channels. They take online reviews seriously and are heavily influenced by peers. Millennials connect through social media incentives and like mobile-based loyalty programs.
Gen Z. 0-15. This generation of digital natives presents unique challenges for digital marketers, said Harrington, noting 96% own a smart phone but they also have an attention span of eight seconds.
Powerful Members
“You as credit unions have such powerful members,” Harrington said. “You should use member testimonials. The advent of the Internet has changed the rules of engagement. Testimonials have greater power to influence others.”
But those testimonials must be used in an environment of “micro-moments,” he added, noting the average person checks their phone 150 times per day and uses it 177 minutes a day. “You must take advantage of this.”
To take advantage, Harrington said the top 10 things a credit union can do to build an online presence are:
- Define goal. Generate leads? Sell products?
- Do a web/marketing audit: what are your current digital assets? Blogs, videos, infographics?
- Are you active on social? Have you built a community? Pick two social platforms and master them. Don’t extend yourself. The two biggest Facebook trends are live video and Messenger,
- Create your content relationship and distribution strategy. “Build your community, then build the content that fits that community. Understand the community and the data within. The next step is paid media. Build the community so the paid media makes sense and will work. Initially, you’re not selling anything.”
- Build your funnel. “This gets people coming.”
- Create your lead magnet.
- Create your trip wire. “This is an initial offer that whittles down those who are seriously interested in you. That’s where you want to focus.
- Develop your core offer.
- Set up email automation
- Utilize retargeting.