Managing Your Marketing Strategy and the Digital Experience

As we enter Q3 top of mind is how you will adjust your marketing strategy and tactics to meet revenue goals. It is an understatement to say the first six months of the year have been filled with challenges. Credit unions have shifted to more digital communications during the COVID-19 crisis. 90% of members have exhibited different behaviors as they avoid physical branch locations and shift more of their engagement online.

Members are demanding a better digital experience from their credit union. While some digital transformation plans were put on hold, most financial institutions are ready to take the member experience to the next level. Of companies polled, 48% are expanding or upgrading their investment in connecting products and services and, 11% are planning to invest more in digital experiences in the next 12 months.1

Moving forward, the past few months must be taken into consideration. What excelled, and what held your marketing strategies back during the crisis? As we now enter this new stage and we slowly get to the next normal, we want to share some considerations for your marketing strategy and make the case for an increase in digital investment towards a personal approach moving forward.

Managing Your Marketing Strategy and the Digital Experience

TECHNOLOGY¹

Keeping up to date on technology is always a challenge, but as members’ behaviors have moved online, the motivation to embrace digital transformation has come to the forefront. As members have shifted their behaviors, credit unions must also pivot and rely on new digital strategies to replace the branch experience, boost engagement, and work to drive more revenue growth.

Not all digital engagement platforms are the same. Emails can undoubtedly be personalized as well as text messages with a name here and an offer there, but that is the end of personalization. They are still generally used as bulk eblast marketing strategies. What members are looking for is a more in-depth experience, custom-tailored to their needs based on relevant data. Curated content is what drives engagement and member action. Technology investment with a broader digital experience platform is what credit unions should be looking

to add to their member CRM strategies.

DATA-INSIGHTS

The vast improvement in the member experience will come through data. You have all the member’s data you need to get started. By combining your existing data with individual engagement behaviors, you gain an insight into what is important to that member and further understanding how they want to interact with you — i.e. a personal call, visiting a branch or get via digital capabilities online. Member engagement pays-off with higher revenue, engagement, and member loyalty.

Everyone likes to feel that they are being addressed as an individual and not just as a number. Newly identified spending habits in member monthly data can now be used to predict future shifts in the member’s behavioral patterns. For example, lenders can begin to recognize when a member plans a purchase for a home or car, and automatically offer them an affordable option to fit their budget. Even more helpful to a member would be using data to deliver a message to help make sure they save more for a rainy day or don’t overspend their budget.

Credit unions can structure their data-insights to enable a more connected experience, to keep members engaged, loyal, and proactively using

your financial tools.

Managing Your Marketing Strategy and the Digital Experience

Managing Your Marketing Strategy and the Digital Experience

PERSONALIZING FINANCIAL SERVICES

Exceeding member expectations — adding personalization to the toolkit keeps members actively engaged and receptive to adopting new products and services. The digital investment pay-off is substantial and going digital through a personalization platform does not require expensive software, all-embracing internal resources, or extensive implementation periods. It’s far more accessible, faster, and now more affordable — than credit unions may think.

With the heightened expectations for digital financial engagement, credit unions must evolve. Personalization tools are crucial to credit unions growth and member retention. Credit union leadership must reinvigorate member engagement through hyper-personalization — or risk being relegated to the financial shelves. Having an all-encompassing brand website, separate and distinct social channels, blogs, brochures, event that requires the member to jump from place to place to perform research, educate themselves and complete a financial transaction is a thing of the past.

One thing is indisputable: the member experience can never be an afterthought or budget concern again. According to a recent BCG report, a financial services institution with $100B in assets can generate up to $50M in daily revenues by using personalization. The same report finds that 68% of respondents deepened ties and loyalty due to a data-driven personal approach.2

An individualized page based on behaviors, actions, and life events that curates appropriate content in one place and then deep links to your brand website content to complete that action will revolutionize the member experience in today’s competitive financial services environment. There is no doubt: personalization is the future.

For over 35 years, ChannelNet has been driving digital transformation that integrates marketing, sales and service channels to drive loyalty and retention in the financial, automotive and home improvement industries. ChannelNet holds multiple technology patents and utilizes a Software as a Service (SaaS) model to create seamless ROI-driven member experiences. ChannelNet boasts a blue-chip roster of clients in the financial sector and beyond, that use its digital platforms to drive retention and revenue in an increasingly omni-channel business environment.

ONECLICK FINANCIAL CONNECTS THE DOTS - SO YOU DON’T HAVE TOO.

The OneClick Financial platform delivers a full member relevant digital transformation experience, including: Welcome/Onboarding, Thank You for Adopting a New Product/Service, Cross-Selling, Retargeting, and Ad Hoc campaigns. These unique and individual experiences are designed to engage on a one-to-one, data-driven, and automated basis for both personal and business members; while generating leads and driving members to your website for additional actionable engagement.

Contact us today to schedule a demo or to learn how OneClick Financial can help you build a data-driven, hyper-personalized digital relationship with your members that increases your credit unions share of wallet.

Joe KarleV.P. Account Management

313.253.3670jkarle@channelnet.com

FOOTNOTES1) MediaPost: Businesses See Online Growth During Pandemic: Study2) BCG report: The Power of Personalization