How to act in a Dodd-Frank world
During the the 2014 CUNA Marketing and Development Council Conference last month, we heard from numerous credit unions about their marketing concerns and challenges. They asked questions about how to deal with the new compliance issues, and expressed concerns about how the Dodd-Frank Act will affect credit unions and their marketing strategies. When asked about our ideas for possible solutions, our answers always included:
Reach them directly
Before the Dodd-Frank Act was established, credit unions could confidently rely on partnerships to secure new business to drive new memberships. Now, credit unions can only rely on partnerships to make the introduction. Communication efforts need to accomplish the rest.
By making engagement a priority, your credit union will benefit in two ways: increased brand awareness and a larger audience to engage with. Social media and email newsletters are both great solutions to organically increase engagement. Both channels enable your credit union to reach the consumer directly, as well as provide the consumers the value and reliability they need to remain engaged.
Create great content
“He did such a great job at creating needed, valuable, and entertaining content for his audience that the content marketing itself became recognized, respected, and successful on its own”, writer Scott Aughtmon wrote in the article ‘4 Illuminating Lessons From One of History’s Most Inventive Content Marketers’. He was referring to Ben Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack, which Franklin created to promote his print house.
If you create and share quality content (make it informative, interesting and sometimes entertaining) your content will be making the introduction to the consumer for you. Interesting content will grab the consumer’s attention. It will pull them in, and if your content provides the consumer value that is relevant, it will be easy to like and they will be quick to share it.
By focusing on creating great content, your blog, email newsletters and social media sites will be just as effective for your credit union as Ben Franklin’s Almanac was for his print house, it will become “recognized, respected and successful on its own”.
Personalize the Engagement
Having great content is important, but having the RIGHT content is key. In order to reach and engage consumers, you have to share content that is relevant to life of your consumer. It is about making a good first impression every time the consumer interacts with your credit union whether it be on the website, as they read a message on social or open an email newsletter.
To learn more, attend our free webinar for credit unions on April 30th at 2PM EST. We will discuss all these changes and challenges, as well as how to use Google as a marketing and sales tool, the role of social, email, and how to integrate your content efforts. All attendees are eligible to receive one 500-word custom written SEO optimized article free for you to use on your website, blog, social media and email newsletters.
