Be Proactive with Checking Opportunities

By Margie Church

The debit card user fee proposed by several of the large banks has pushed Joe Public to take action. Angry consumers are leaving them in large numbers. Last December, The Financial Brand wrote an excellent article about the importance of free checking to the typical consumer. One valuable nugget: 57-percent of the checking account customers in America are highly at risk to switch banks if their institution began to charge fees for what were previously free services for their checking accounts.¹ 


In response to aggressive fees, a social uprising called Bank Transfer Day has emerged. The social movement started on Facebook, and encourages bank customers to take their cash out of big banks by November 5, and put it in smaller banks and credit unions instead.² Whether this movement will be successful won't be known until after November 5, but grassroots movements have been successful many times before.

 

Is your credit union waiting for these people to walk through your doors, or are you going after them? 

Whether your competition is tacking on a specific new debit card user fee or eliminating free checking, the fact is, credit unions are a better value. They always have been.  

A checking account is the perfect product to draw new members to your credit union and deepen your relationship with current members who don't have a checking account with you. You're providing a better solution at a time when people are looking for one.

Even if your marketing budgets may be nearly spent, there are several very inexpensive, effective tools you can use to capture new members and their business right now. Here are a few great strategies and tactics to reach out to members and prospects.

1. First, use MCIF or DP data to identify members who don’t have a checking account.  Send them a postcard or letter that states the benefits of your account. Keep your message positive and explain how your credit union will make their transition pain-free. 
2. An email with a PURL for responses is a great twist for follow-up or for members preferring email communications.
3. Canvas your entire membership with a statement stuffer and possibly offer a referral reward.
4. A web banner is a must to communicate to prospects.
5. Experience the effectiveness of multi-channel marketing. Use in-branch posters, scrolling signs, drive-thru banners, and building signs. 
6. Consider a billboard in high-traffic areas.

This is absolutely the wrong time for credit unions to take a low profile approach. Consumers are shopping for value. Make sure they know your credit union is the best place to get it.

What's going on in your area of the country? Are you experiencing any backlash - positive or negative from the new debit card user fee issue?

1-The Financial Brand, 12/16/10. http://thefinancialbrand.com/16108/datahead-switching-credit-cards-social-media-channels-more/

2-Yahoo Finance, 10/13/11. http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/113658/bank-transfer-day-mainstreet?mod=bb-budgeting

About us: Pinpoint exclusively serves the credit union market. We provide excellent, turnkey or a' la carte creative services at a great value.

Why Would You Skip a Skip?

By Margie Church

Traditionally timed for the holiday season and summer vacations, credit union members find skip-a-pay promotions as irresistible as fresh popcorn. They provide a service that members want and generate income for the credit union. In other words, skip-a-pay promotions are gimmies.

You don't have to do anything extraordinary to have a successful campaign. Our clients who send a simple letter have seen 137% ROI. Those who use more than one channel – either a letter with a PURL or email with a PURL—see significantly higher returns. In fact, one client saw an ROI of over 1,500%. While that number is atypical, many clients see 300% or more ROI.  As you can see, the fee income is usually more than enough to pay for the promotion (at least at our place), and the interest income is an added bonus. Some clients have experienced such success with skip-a-pays that they promote them as part of the initial loan offer. There's a win-win for everyone involved.

Skip promotion also give you a relevant, timely reason to contact your members. They boost your visibility at a time when home and auto loans are scarce, and credit card use has declined. Do you know the formula for creating top of mind awareness? Contact the same person three times in seven nights sleep to remember your message. To have long term recall, you also need to have that contact on a regular basis. Long-term recall is critical to building brand awareness. Remember, when need meets awareness, you get a sale. 

Even if your budget has been spent or nearly so, resist the urge to cut a promotion that's a sure thing. If you've never tried a skip-a-pay, isn't it time to add this effective tool to your marketing plan? 

When you think about it, not having an annual or semi-annual skip-a-pay promotion actually costs your credit union money in terms of lost income.

6 Ways to Bring in Black Friday Gold

By Margie Church

Tie your next promotion to a current event to increase your credit union's year-end sales goals, membership, and visibility in the communities you serve.  I'm sure you've tried the following promotions before, but what if you remodeled one especially for Black Friday or Cyber Monday? Depending on your promotion, you could start a few days prior to Thanksgiving and extend the offer until Christmas.

Put a new spin on one of these timely promos.

1. Auto loans are very hot right now. Offer a very competitive rate. Capitalize on any manufacturer incentives available for new car loans. Consider offering discounted GAP insurance, holding a grand prize drawing for a substantial gift card, making their first month's payment (including the interest), 90-days-no pay to get through the holidays, or some combination of these.
2. Skip-a-Pay, personal loan, and credit card promotions. Help shoppers feel better about managing holiday expenses by offering a skip promo. These are incredibly popular. Offer a special, lower interest rate on personal loans. Reward new credit card accounts with a cash incentive to transfer higher interest balances and save. Provide payment/savings examples for instant appeal on any loan products.  
3. Increase the dividend rate on a CD or other investment product. Have a gift tree or prize box members can select from when they take advantage of your offer.
4. Using QR codes, hold a website scavenger hunt to get members to try electronic banking services.  Make sure landing pages are formatted for mobile viewing.
5. Hold a Help Our Neighbors project. Invite community members to drop off an item or cash for the local food shelf or other charitable organization your credit union supports. Provide materials to write holiday cards to deployed soldiers. Hold an adopt-a-family promo to help ease holiday/winter anxiety for a deserving family.
6. Hold a membership drive at the branches and online. Treat new members right by waiving or matching the membership fee and deposit the money into the new member's share account. Provide refreshments and plenty of enthusiasm to whoever comes by. Let children decorate ornaments or cookies while your staff talks to the adults.

Cross-channel marketing: a must-do

A combination of electronic marketing tools with print is the best way to get your brand and your offer in front of busy people. We recommend this strategy all year long, for every campaign. Shoppers especially look for holiday bargains on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and during Christmas week. Online sales sometimes eclipse onsite sales on Black Friday. In a September 15, 2011 article, Google predicts 15% of Black Friday searches will to be made using mobile devices (smartphones and electronic tablets). The bottom line is you can't ignore the preferred method of shopping and information-gathering for Gen X and Y: it's electronic. Whether your campaign runs for a few hours or longer, we can help you can turn Black Friday into gold.

Start your promotion with a personalized postcard, statement stuffer or letter. Include a QR code for mobile device users to respond. Follow up with an email. Use PURLs/GURLS to capture responses fast. (Did you know that when a person clicks on the PURL/GURL, their information is captured and you have a lead, even if they don't submit their information?) Landing pages must be formatted for mobile viewing. Many website and blog hosts provide this service already and with a click of a button, everything is reformatted for you.

At the branch, use banners, posters, counter cards, fliers, and buttons to grab attention from members and prospects. Use website banners to alert online bankers to your promotion.

Do you have a great campaign success story or an epic failure to share? We'd love to hear from you.

That New Car Smell

By Margie Church

The fourth quarter always has that new car smell to it. Auto manufacturers ramp up their holiday advertising schedules for luxury cars and then set their sites on Super Bowl mania. Last January, a record number of auto manufacturers spent record amounts of advertising dollars on the "game of the year." They included social media for a brilliant cross-channel mix that reached buyers of all ages and affluence.

Manufacturers are demonstrating their confidence in bold strokes. American automakers and foreign-based firms in the U.S. are putting billions of dollars into building and refurbishing plants. Ninety-thousand auto manufacturing jobs have been added in the past two years. Dealers are making more money per sale this year than they have in years.*

The holidays and the Super Bowl are going to arrive. Auto manufacturers are cuing up their ad schedules and offering incentives to clear out 2011 models to make room for 2012 beauties. Some are offering 90 days no pay options that'll take buyers through the holidays' financial stresses. TrueCar.com estimates incentives will rise 5% through year-end.

But low interest rates and manufacturer incentives aren't going to be the only hooks to get fence-sitters into your credit union.

Try a packaged offer using:

1. Appended MCIF or DP information with other sources, such as NADA data, to target the offer.
   
   We always recommend using data to make offers personal, relevant and timely. Consider reaching out to a slightly younger buyer, aged 25 through 45. These people are in their prime earning years, and new vehicles are necessary for their growing family. They want good value. A pre-approved offer will have better impact when combined with a payment example, but pre-approved or pre-qualified offers don't hold the same appeal they did when the economy was stronger.
   
   People older than this group are more inclined to resist adding new debt. Their earning years are waning, and the economy makes them consider whether the new vehicle is a necessity or a luxury. Since they are more interested in reducing their debt, target them with refinancing offers first.
2. A very competitive rate with flexible terms.
   
   The reality is that at any given time, a person could buy a car. They've been putting it off for any number of reasons, and today is that day. According to BankRate.com, average loan rates nationally are under 5% for new or used vehicles. Many credit unions are offering rates under 3%. A great rate for new, used, or refinanced from another lender, combined with excellent service will get their attention.
3. Offer additional discounts for automatic payments or another time/money-saving service your credit union offers.
4. Use branch-coding. The younger portion of this group may be buying a vehicle on their own for the first time. Reduce their anxiety by providing a name and contact information at the credit union. 

 What else can you do to bring loans in? 

   1.  Provide information they can use. Put it online. Remember this  generation is Web-savvy and uses mobile devices - smartphones and electronic tablets - with ease.

• Online application
• Electronic and mobile banking services
• Highlight the benefits of pre-approval before shopping
• Provide payment calculators
• Describe the benefits of GAP insurance
• If the credit union has a free car-buying service, promote that. These people are busy and if they can get a good deal in a stress-free way, that's appealing.
• Explain and promote CUDL financing if you have it.
• Provide information on refinancing benefits and savings.

2.       Offer a free car-buying seminar.

3.       Offer bi-weekly payments and show how much finance charges they could save.

4.       Offer 90-days no payment.

5.       Offer a prize or contest. Gas prices are still very high. If you decide to offer a gas gift card, it needs to be substantial and perhaps have only one winner. Consider a drawing for a payment holiday – the credit union makes the entire first payment.

We hope some of these ideas help you achieve your auto loan goals for Q4 and Q1.  

*Star Tribune, August 30, 2011.

Project Blueprints Work

By Margie Church, copywriter/editor

One of our best practices is to gain understanding and agreement from the client before the project begins. A project blueprint is a simple tool we consistently use to achieve that. 

After a project launch call, everything we've heard in that conversation gets sorted out and written into the blueprint template. Then it's sent to the client. I've sometimes been accused of being too thorough. I've had managers squint at my project blueprints and ask for the Reader's Digest version. And I've had some tell me I was making the reports they wrote look bad. The latter group always makes me laugh.

Gotta-have-it Information

Your blueprint doesn't have to be complicated, but it must have the salient points to get your project on track and keep it there. Here's a short list of basics:

•  Objective
• Audience
• Budget
• Offer and/or primary message
• Customer benefit
• Call to action. I can't stress enough the importance of telling people what to do. It's often forgotten, along with adequate contact information. 
•  Due date

Pinpoint is a creative resource, so we also ask our credit union clients questions such as these:

• What is the overall tone of the piece? A phrase such as cutting-edge will have an explanation of what the client describes as cutting-edge.

•  What are the supporting copy points?

• There will be several questions about design, including color and graphical preferences.

We add and subtract questions depending on the situation. The first time we speak with a new client, we'll spend all the time necessary learning about their credit union. We want to understand its membership demographics, and branding strategies. 

We seek the client's opinions on all kinds of subjects, including what's going to work and what  will get panned by management. We're interested in helping them be successful every time and in-depth questions help us achieve that goal. By the end of the conversation, our client knows their business is important to us.

If you're an internal marketing or communications manager, you can use a project blueprint to get agreement from your staff before you start working with your creative resources, aka spend money. You're much likelier to deliver on time and on budget by using a document such as this. It's also an excellent place to look for answers if things go awry. 

Creative blueprints work smoothly for Pinpoint Direct Marketing's clients. Do you use creative blueprints at your CU? How have they been received? Are they a crucial element in your planning or an after-thought? Share your experiences so we can learn from each other.

Leads Left for Dead?

by Margie Church, copywriter/editor

Does your member services department have what it needs to handle responses from your marketing activities? Best practices will have these issues identified during the campaign's project planning stages, and puts the response team in a proactive mode.

Start on a Positive Note

Make someone from member services part of your marketing team. Once the campaign is fleshed out, take them through the components so they're aware of everything involved. Provide copies of printed communications and links to electronic items for them to see before the campaign launches.

Don't rely on member services to read everything and determine what the action items are. Provide the salient points, including the campaign's goals and offers, launch and end dates, and any potential sticky points that may disqualify someone from taking advantage of the offer.  If you need to, write a script. 

Provide a specific guideline on how quickly respondents will be contacted so the lead doesn't go cold. Plus doing so cultivates the relationship you have or hope to build with any member. Armed with the right information, your member services department is prepared to handle questions correctly and close the deal.

Whether your credit union's tellers are the member services department or you have a dedicated team established for handling responses and inquiries, set them up for success. Your staff will be happier and it will be easier to determine your campaign's success.

At Pinpoint, we use a tool called Staff Notes to identify and address member services responses. At the project launch call, we'll talk about them and put your responses in writing. You'll also receive a creative blueprint of the project to use as a guide. This helps ensure we'll all be on the same page from concept through fulfillment. Does your agency do these things? 

Maybe it's time for a better process. Give Pinpoint a call.

Targeting Gen Y?

By Margie Church, copywriter/editor

I read recently that Gen Y is set to inherit $30 trillion dollars in the next two decades. Baby Boomers have done very well, indeed.  I also continue reading about credit unions looking for ways to reach out to Gen Y members. 

The tricky question is, how?

A credit union must understand the behaviors of its Gen Y population and cater to them. Also known as the Millennial Generation or Millennials, they have birthdates from roughly the mid-1970s to 2000. Read about their social and professional behaviors on the Internet and research them in your service area. 

As a whole, they are a tech-dependent group that scours websites like bloodhounds on a scent trail. Creating web pages that appeal to their special interests and tastes is a good place to start. Mobile banking, Internet banking, email, QR Codes, Tag, podcasts, specially created videos, etc., are tools this group isn't afraid of. They talk to each other about finances. Could holding Gen Y chats on your website be a good idea? Having a blog, Facebook, and Twitter pages? Possibly, if you give them relevant reasons to interact with you. An app could be a very good thing since mobile banking use is skyrocketing. Use age-appealing graphics, copy, and offers. (If you're not doing this across the board, you need to start. Doing so makes you more personal and relevant with any member or prospect.)

While you're looking for ways to appeal to the Gen Y lifestyle, remember some of this is an investment in their future, but possibly not yours.

What, you say?

When you think of Gen Y, are you really imagining the older end of the spectrum (around 35 years-old) or are you thinking early 20s? Breaking things down in this manner might help you realize you're already marketing to portions of Gen Y.

The younger portion of this age group is likely years away from being a profitable member. They're in school or moving around, not settled in their careers or their lives. Do these people need financial services and education? Yes. Can your CU be a great source for those things? Again, yes. However, it's no surprise the majority of these people aren't in a financial position to qualify for credit cards and other loan products. Their lack of roots in your service area has obvious implications. You can retain some of these members over time. Others will move out of your service area. Ultimately, the greatest service you might provide is the knowledge that wherever they land, a credit union is the best place to bank.

The mid to upper end of this age group is likely to be settling down. Their income is stable enough to be better loan risks and they're buying cars and homes. In other words, they are moving into the most profitable years of membership. Your credit union needs to make them aware of the benefits of membership. That's not new news. 

The market is ripe for a change in banking attitudes. Credit unions' lower interest rates and fees, coupled with outstanding services, make them an excellent choice over banks in many cases. Creating awareness among the younger portion of this group puts you in contention for their business when the opportunity arises. 

Roll with the marketing challenges and opportunities to help you bring the next group of members to your credit union. Pinpoint Direct Marketing can help you do it successfully. Put us on your creative team and get started.

We're interested to learn whether you're marketing differently to Gen Y and how. What have you learned?