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USE THESE SEVEN STRATEGIES, TOOLS AND TIPS TO JUMPSTART YOUR CREDIT UNION'S MARKETING EFFORTS.
The new year is well underway, the pandemic is, well, nothing new, and credit union marketers are tackling their own brand of seasonal maintenance by optimizing websites, content, ads and emails. Today's best practices all strive to keep the member at the forefront. Here are some key digital marketing strategies and tactics to deploy in 2022, according to industry experts.
1.FOCUS ON MEMBER EXPERIENCE
The member experience should guide everything from website development to content and feature enhancements to digital media and messaging when you overhaul your CU's digital presence.
"This start-to-finish approach will help credit unions focus on the member journey and drive engagement and effectiveness," explains Sally Dickter, SVP/marketing for CUES Supplier member Franklin Madison (franklin-madison.com), Franklin, Tennessee. "It will also require integrating the reallife member experience-what people actually see and do online, such as filling out an application- with the virtual user experience, the tools that engage and enhance online conversion."
It's also vital to align digital strategies with member expectations, which includes communicating in the ways they prefer and to which they have become accustomed, says Megan Pannier, VP/marketing digital payment solutions for CUES Supplier member Fiserv (fiserv.com), Brookfield, Wisconsin. "Make your website the digital hub-dynamic and engaging with minimal copy, not a repository for product brochures. Employ search engine optimization, so prospects can find you and existing members can find what they're looking for."
For greater effectiveness, integrate tools that enable an automated, seamless approach to digital marketing. Consider a content management platform for your website, advises Pannier, and a marketing automation tool to deploy targeted, dynamic content for member prospecting and to deepen existing relationships.
Keep members in mind when determining the look of your emails and website by keeping the digital design clean.
With a large variance of content, designers need to think through layouts and provide designs for numerous new scenarios to enrich the member experience, says Mark Ryan, co-founder and chief analyst officer at Finalytics.ai (finalytics.ai), an artificial intelligence platform provider for credit unions based in San Mateo, California. "The days of designing one to five marquee banners are go- ing away; designers now need to think through dozens, even hundreds...