Drivers, start your engines.

By Margie Church, Copywriter/Editor

Is it time to test the water with a new car loan promotion? Possibly. Is it time for spring auto loan campaigns? Absolutely.

In January, Americans showed higher than anticipated confidence than the economy, though it's far from being pronounced "healthy." Plus, the average auto loan for new car purchases carried an interest rate of 4.16% in December. This was the lowest level since the automotive research site, Edmunds.com, began tracking data in 2002. Granted, luxury car sales dominated the market and the most qualified buyers got the lowest interest rates. However, deep incentives likely contributed to strong auto sales at the end of the year. Industry wide, U.S. auto sales rose 11% in December, capping the best quarter since the third quarter of 2008, according to sales tracker, Autodata.

Push this a little further, and consider that automotive manufacturers around the world, are throwing record levels of money against the Super Bowl. As many as nine of them are giving the traditional top ad spenders a real run for their money. GM is reappearing after a two-year absence. Hyundai and Kia are in the lineup. BMW slides in cue for the first time in a decade, while Mercedes-Benz makes its debut. In other words, positive things are happening in the automotive world and a renewed commitment to advertising in general signals optimism about our economy.

Even if your service area still seems a bit too wobbly to put strong effort against new car loans, what's to say an auto loan campaign isn't right for your CU? Why not ride the coattails of post-holiday and Super Bowl awareness, and blast out a great campaign that shows off your fantastic auto loan rates and terms? April is a traditional time for CUs to do this anyway. With the manufacturers already pumping up enthusiasm for a new car purchase, your credit union can benefit. Lots of times "new to you" is just as wonderful as brand new. And there's always that "new car scent" air freshener available if car buyers need a mental boost. Tell members and prospects to refinance to your credit union and save money. All good strategies.

We're creating auto loan campaigns all over the U.S. What's going on in your CU's service area? Can we help you formulate a great auto campaign? Tell me about it.

Pinpoint Direct Marketing: Grabbing Prime Targets

Pinpoint Direct Marketing: Grabbing Prime Targets: "By Margie Church, Copywriter/Editor Cost efficient, profitable marketing begins with understanding who your core customers are. That shou..."

Grabbing Prime Targets

By Margie Church, Copywriter/Editor

Cost efficient, profitable marketing begins with understanding who your core customers are. That shouldn't be surprising news, but sometimes when things aren't working the way we expect, or the market feels more volatile, we need to reflect. Especially at the start of a new year, a fresh reminder provides an opportunity to check your thinking before too much time, money, and effort are spent on marketing that may deliver less than stellar results.

Reading your original charter should provide good information about your core customers. We all know that over time, credit unions, like the members they serve, change.  Unforeseen growth opportunities arise. These issues can distract from your purpose, and cause frustration and wasted marketing expense. Using data modeling is the efficient way to refocus.

Honing in with Data Modeling

Every now and then, we'll ask a client to define their core market and they can't do it. You may be surprised to learn many businesses never take the time or make the investment to succinctly define their most profitable customer. Having this information helps ensure you're protecting your core, and spending appropriately for future growth.

Marketing Customer Information File (MCIF) data is a fantastic tool that many credit unions use. If your CU is one of them, we applaud you. By appending MCIF data, you'll get a very robust description of your optimal member. To get there, choose a combination of markers such as: 

• Credit score
• Number of years of membership
• Products currently used
• Products/services previously used
• Months before loan is satisfied
• Deposits/investments
• Proximity to branch
• Property taxes
• Age
• Gender
• Marital status
• Homeownership status
• Profession
• Income

Your Data Processing (DP) system can also provide some reliable insights to who your best customers are. If you're using only your DP system, we recommend making a firm commitment to mine this information for common traits among your members and organize the information for direct marketing.

Once you have a clear definition of your most profitable customer, you can design communications that appeal specifically to their needs. We believe that relevant, personal, and timely communications will boost your success every day of the week. The recipient won't feel they're receiving junk mail or that you're out of touch with what's going on in their lives.  You'll have greater confidence and gain credibility that the marketing you do will be more successful than a program based on assumptions that may be outdated or off base.

Three Components of a Target Market

1.       Your core or primary market already has a strong affinity to your credit union's services. Consequently, appealing to them is the least expensive, easiest, and most profitable.  By gleaning key attributes of this group, you'll be able to tell whether a second mortgage, or a second home could be in their sights. Are they trading in the sports car for a family vehicle or downsizing completely? You'll know whether they are approaching their peak of profitability with your CU, or moving out of it. You've got the information needed to provide timely, relevant, and personal communications to retain their membership and business.

2.       The secondary target has many of the traits of the core target. These secondary members may be younger, single, and on the leading edge of financial stability and need. In time, and with focused effort, these people can mature into the profile of a core member. By staying true to your data-driven efforts, you'll know when they move into that sweet spot of profitability. Formulate an acquisition strategy promoting products and services they've never tried.

3.       The tertiary target matches the fewest markers in your primary or secondary membership profile. Pursuing them isn't a complete shot in the dark, but this reactionary segment is easily the most expensive to reach and the hardest to hold on to. They may join through persuasive advertising, including word of mouth (testimonials), and enticing offers. They're likely to take advantage of an offer only if you happen to get their attention at the precise moment they need it. They may be shopping for the best deal on a vehicle purchase, or become fed up with their current financial service provider. Your goal is to create awareness, so your CU's name floats to top-of-mind at the magical moment. 

A prospecting strategy is needed in the open market to attract those who might be well-served by your current offer. By keeping in regular contact with those who snap them up, you can urge these people into the secondary group. It'll take time. How successfully you communicate with them during the first six months of membership is likely to determine whether you've got a member for life, or a dormant account waiting to happen.

Pinpoint Direct Marketing believes highest success is achieved when retention, acquisition, and prospect offers are present in every campaign.  If you've been investing money and effort in marketing, with poor returns, I challenge you to examine who you're marketing to and why.

We'd enjoy hearing whether you use data in your marketing efforts and how it's affected your marketing results. What do you recommend?

Colorful Impact

A product has one-twentieth of a second to halt the customer’s attention on a shelf or display.¹ That’s a blink of an eye. Research conducted by the secretariat of the Seoul International Color Expo in 2004, documented that 96.6 percent of respondents said visual factors were most important when deciding whether to purchase. Color evokes action.

Colorful Consistency

We’re big fans of consistency. In fact, we urge you to resist trendy fonts, colors, and layouts for your advertising materials. Think about the big brand names in the marketplace. You recognize their logos and advertising styles because they’re consistent. The company may change design elements—photos, banners, call-outs, etc., but their overall color scheme, layout, logo placement, font selection, and slogans—their brand identity—remains unchanged. A University of Loyola, Maryland, study determined that color increases brand recognition by up to 80 percent. Color is powerful.

 

As employees, we get bored with what we think is “same old, same old” long before the member does. The threshold to memory is three views of printed material. If you’re communicating with your members on a monthly basis or even less frequently, it takes even longer for them to recognize the communication comes from My Credit Union. Dramatically changing colors and layouts destroys any brand equity you’ve built in terms of audience recognition. Essentially, you’re starting over. In a competitive marketplace, that’s a serious consideration. Color is memorable.

Colorful Conclusions

When you spread out your recent advertising materials on your desk and they don’t look like they all came from the same company, it’s time to talk to us. We can evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your current designs and recommend changes. We’ll create layouts that are flexible enough to accommodate changing messages but build brand identity for you. Doing this also takes the guesswork and cost out of your production process. If color can increase readership by 40 percent, and you bolster that with a consistent layout and branding scheme, you’re on your way to building a powerful, memorable market identity. Color has impact.

1. Color Matters, Jill Morton, 2005.

Improve Your Newsletter

By Margie Church, Copywriter/Editor

You probably think of your newsletter as a worthy expense, but have you ever thought about generating a return on investment from it? Converting to an electronic newsletter can save money, and perhaps for the first time, generating income. How?

Green:
Be a good steward of our planet's natural resources.

ROI:
Saving printing and mailing costs is an obvious benefit, but there's more. E-newsletters allow you to embed hyperlinks in the copy. Readers can react instantly to your stories by clicking on direct links to pages on your website for more information, loan applications, sign-up for services, etc. Think of the income this could generate and the time it could save members!

Additionally, electronic communications indicate to members that you're efficiently managing your budget—their investments. Use the savings for other projects.

Efficient:
Your newsletter is packaged as a PDF or HTML document, whichever you prefer, and posted on your website. Delivery is instantaneous. Members read at their convenience and don't clutter their homes with paper copies.

Use a statement stuffer to alert members of your newsletter's availability. Create a banner or announcement on your home page with a hyperlink to the current issue. Add “newsletter available” to your customer electronic alerts. Create a library of previous issues for members' reference.

Electronic:
Have you ever wanted to add another page, but didn't because of the additional production, printing, and postage costs? If you're using electronic delivery, e-newsletters let you add pages with usually nominal production and copywriting charges.

Readers also have the ability to forward your newsletter with a click of the button, broadening your message exposure with no extra cost. Think of this as a personal endorsement. Forwards can increase membership and the success of whatever you're promoting.

Newsletter:
We'd like to hear what works in your newsletters and what your challenges are. How do your members react to your newsletter? If you had your druthers, what would your newsletter be like?

We look forward to hearing from you and perhaps even working together.

Concise and Clear Communication

By Margie Church, Copywriter and Editor
Pinpoint Direct Marketing

We’ve all received writing assignments that make us nervous. Perhaps it’s the company newsletter or welcome letters to new members. Whatever the task, your first priority is to make your message concise and clear. Tell readers what you want them to know and provide enough information for them to act on it.

How can you make your communications concise and clear?

1. Write a brief goal statement at the top of the page (announce rate sale). Then list the most important message(s) you want to communicate. For example: X.XX% APR auto loan; $XXX to move your loan to us; new or used; apply online; fast answer; expires XX/XX/XXXX, etc. Prioritize your messages if necessary.
2. Write your letter. Don’t be concerned about the length or the right words at this point, just get the words down. Remember to ask for the business by telling them what they should do next: sign-up, apply on-line, visit, etc.
3. Review your goal statement and message(s).
4. Remove everything in the letter that doesn’t directly support the goal or help the recipient understand what to do next. If your letter is about online banking services, provide solid benefits (the “why they should care” statements) and not just features (Bill Pay, e-statements). It’s not necessary to get into great detail, but you want the reader to think, “I didn’t know that,” or “that’s a good idea, I’ll try it.”
5. Check for punctuation and spelling mistakes (beyond spell check). There are plenty of online tools available to help if you’re not sure.

The process seems straightforward, but we all know it can be difficult. Pinpoint Direct Marketing helps keep the “direct” in your direct marketing program. People are very busy these days and often won’t take the time to read a newsy communication. I always say, if you can say it in five words, don’t use 10. Pinpoint increases responses by delivering a concise, clear message in an easy-to-read way. Let us help you increase responses.

Embracing the Social Mentality

By Margie Church, Copywriter/Editor
Pinpoint Direct Marketing

Social media is an opportunity for others to get to know the authentic you. Wow. You're brick and mortar. No, you're not. You're an organization of feeling, breathing human beings, working collectively for one purpose. Is your purpose to sell stuff? Probably, but if all you plan to do is plaster your advertising messages on my wall, you're going to get un-followed, un-friended, and un-linked faster than you can type the next 140 characters. Harsh but true in the social networking world.

More traditional advertising, including your company website, will blast out ads and explain products and services. Using social media means you're willing to engage your Tweeps, friends, blog subscribers, and LinkedIn associates on a different level.

Huh?

Think about social media like this. You walk into your favorite coffee shop and the person at the counter takes your order and asks about a piece of jewelry you're wearing or how your day is going. Then they wait for your answer.

In the business setting, does this mean you're going to learn the personal details of my life? Certainly not. But mixed in with the business messages, you find out friendly things about me. Examples could be what kind of pet I have; that I enjoy my coffee straight-up black; music is important to me; or that the office is having a potluck lunch.

My online friends who have similar interests might volunteer to "pour me another cup," tell me about their favorite pet or ask what time to come by with their empty lunch plates.

At that point, I have two options. Ignore or engage. Social media is about engaging.

I'll thank you for the refill as though you were standing next to me. I'll tell you to bring a pan of brownies at 11:30 (and you also learned I like brownies). Do I seriously expect readers to come by? That depends on who's doing the asking, but that's not the point. The online friend is getting a sense of who I am and ultimately what the company I work for is like. I become real to them as a human being, not just a credit union that handles their money or pay a bill to.

Creating your social identity indicates to the world that you're extending a level of transparency and a human quality to your company. The effort deserves serious consideration and a plan. Embracing the activity must start from the top down in your organization. If your President/CEO isn't convinced social media is important to your credit union's success, then I think it's going to be difficult to devote resources to it and be successful, especially when the results may not be immediately evident.

Ask anyone in sales and they'll tell you that unless the product you're hawking is something they can't live without, relationships are the most important element to success…to keeping a member for life.

Have I got your attention?

Fitting product promotion into social media

You wouldn't think of diving into your sales pitch before greeting a member. Social media has similar etiquette. Say hello when you enter the electronic arena for the day. Read through the messages on your wall or filter and respond to some of them. Yes, RESPOND. You are there to engage. There's nothing that makes a follower feel better than to know they were heard/read and responded to. The online exchanges that can occur can be enlightening and fun.

When you want to shout out a product or service, position your message so it answers a need. Instead of: Mortgage rates 4.5% get yours now. Try: Let us try to lower your mortgage payment. 4.5% sound good? Include a hyperlink to your website for more details or an application.

Prospecting

The explosion of electronic gadgetry to communicate has forever changed the way most companies do business. If you're prospecting to younger generations, social media has to be part of your strategy.

Baby Boomers are likely to be quite Internet savvy. Gen Y and Gen Xers grew up with computers. They are as comfortable with a laptop and an iPhone as you might be with reading the morning newspaper in print. If you want people to think about your credit union as a modern, cutting edge place to work, then consider a social media strategy. If you want them to do business with you, you're going to have to meet them on their turf. Create easy, fast, and relevant ways to communicate and work together.

What about negative posts?

Your online "office" is where corporate transparency is evident. Someone walks in with a complaint (posts on your wall). The lobby is full (your followers are present) and the member can easily be overheard (every one of your associates can read the comment). You have two choices. Ask them to leave (delete/hide the post) or engage. I choose engage.

Reply to the comment as soon as you see it. Even if you don't have the answer, acknowledge the writer. Proactively dealing with negativity lets your followers know you're really there, you care about their experiences with you, and you deal with issues in a straightforward way.

Double edged sword? You bet. But having or not having a social media strategy isn't going to change that. Whether you tell your employees they may use social media at work or not, they're going to use it at work or at home if it's something they enjoy. Their friends and followers are going to get tidbits about their life and experiences working for YOU. Will it always be rainbows and sunshine if you let employees use social media? Of course not. But open communication such as that present in social media, tells your employees, "Hey, we're trying to do a good thing here. We're trying to get customers to know us and build relationships with us that are important to our success and future."

Over time, the people and businesses that follow you form opinions about what it's like to work for you and do business with you. When the time is right to invest, buy, find a new job, get advice, or make a recommendation, will your credit union come to mind as a good solution to any of those needs? If you're handling your social media properly, the answer could be yes. Could be? Yes, could be.  It's not a done deal. You need to talk, but you've engaged them enough to form some sort of a positive opinion. That makes the negotiation that comes next go much more smoothly. And your ROI is significantly lower.

Think it's not true? Do you shop on the Internet? Are you a fan of any Facebook pages? Network on LinkedIn? Why do you do those things? Because they have appealing information, products, and services.

Quality not quantity

Some folks determine their online success by the number of friends/followers/associates subscribing to their online persona. Does that truly make them successful? Not necessarily. If you are able to "see" who is following them, you might learn that a large portion of their online friends are not relevant to the kinds of business the company engages in. Like sharing personal bits and pieces of yourself, some of the folks and companies you might subscribe to help define your credit union's personality and make it more interesting for followers to visit you online. Some folks might follow celebrities, for example. Well, few celebrities have or make the time to actually engage online. There are exceptions, but likely these celebrities just beef up numbers. Is that authentic? Not so much.

Organizations related to credit unions are worth investigating and possibly following. Are there philanthropic activities your credit union participates in? Friend them and what's more…ask them to friend you back. If you're consistently ignored, you have to start to wonder if the company or person really understands the purpose of social media – and that is to be SOCIAL. Their strategy is flawed – they have a presence but don't engage. It's like creating a website but never updating it. Does that mean we're going to exchange holiday cards? Maybe, but you'd do it because you want to and that's what friends do. Some Tweeps have meet-ups…they actually have come to like each other so much online they meet as a group for a social one-on-one.

Instant success?

The only thing that's "instant" about social media is the posting part of your message. A friend of mine who is considered a social media expert, describes social media like farming and traditional advertising like hunting.

Traditional media pulses out there, waiting for the recipient to take action (apply for a loan, sign up for new services, call you, etc).

Social media cultivates the relationship the same way you would a friendship. The activity is embraced from the top down—your management team "gets" the importance of communicating in a new way. They find the work valuable and important to your credit union's success. Cultivating relationships via social media requires patience. Is it time consuming? It doesn't have to be, but it's an investment. Unless you're able to give away products and services left and right, cultivating a successful, loyal following is going to evolve over time.

Who should do the postings?

Good question. In a large organization, you may have a communications department. Someone in this group isn't necessarily a bad choice. They are, after all, the most connected to the credit union's brand and promotional activities. These employees tend to be aware of legal and corporate issues that should remain secret. Will they portray the organization's personality as stuffy and sanitized? You bet, unless you have developed some guidelines about what's acceptable social content.

How do you get around this? The same way you came up with a corporate slogan or positioning statement. You brainstorm to formulate written guidelines. Figure out what might be interesting to talk about that fits professional boundaries. Decide what isn't. Corporate secrets, strategies, legal issues, politics, religion, etc., obviously are never appropriate to talk about online in the business setting. Feeling crabby about something personal? Did your supervisor make you mad? Does a coworker have a really annoying habit? Zip it. Internet communications are highly traceable. The minute you think you can get away with a Tweet about the jerk you work for is the minute you could be fired.

And while you're on the subject of acceptable social content, decide about photos and video. Truthfully, people love to see these things on the Internet and it's really nice to put a face with the name. Use a critical eye to examine any photo or video you put on the Internet to make sure it meets a reasonable standard for respecting the person in the picture. If you wouldn't want your picture out there, don't send somebody else to the slaughter. First names only is probably a good idea, too.

Ready to go!

So, you have a strategy, some content guidelines, and you've figured out who might do the work—or is it to have the fun? I like to think it's both. Don't bite off more than you can chew. If you don't have time to participate in three or four different networks, don't sign up for them. Pick what you can reasonably manage and focus on regularly. Similar to your website, social media requires attention or people abandon ship.

What do you think?

Is your social media strategy working or not? Tell me the highs and lows; the battles and victories you've achieved as you brought your credit union to the social media arena. I bet your stories are fascinating.