Successful member onboarding is among the most practical ways to boost credit union growth and must include timely and well-informed decisions. Effective onboarding can significantly benefit credit unions that seek to increase member engagement, cross-sell their services, build brand awareness and trust, and improve retention. Cross-selling and marketing also play crucial roles for CUs, each providing prime opportunities for both members and credit unions. Today, it's possible to onboard, cross-sell, and market simultaneously in a one-stop-shop marketing automation platform designed to fulfill member needs.
Say Hello to Marketing Automation
Chances are, you've heard the phrase "marketing automation" before, but you may not understand its meaning. Marketing automation is the process of using software and strategies that automate parts of a buyer's (in your case, member's) journey and delivers information across multiple channels. It helps streamline tedious tasks and activities, which can improve overall efficiency and leverages data to provide a personalized path for consumers.
Marketing automation relies on certain "triggers," which activate automatically according to pre-defined settings and data. These triggers can be dates, times, amounts, yes/no choices, etc. Each trigger is used to complete a previously determined step. For credit unions, these steps could be a number of things, from specific service offerings to a pre-written welcome letter to a member who was just approved for an auto loan. In this case, the member's credit information is already available to you, meaning that they can instantly qualify for another one of your services, like a credit card.
With marketing automation, your credit union can also obtain valuable, empowering data and analytics from email campaigns, including forwards, opens, clicks, and more, which will only escalate your cross-selling and onboarding endeavors.
Here are several marketing services an automation platform can offer you:
- Personalized mailings
- eBlasts
- Mobile app push notifications
- eDocuments
- eNotices
- eProducts
- Relationship pricing
You can also benefit from the following cross-selling capabilities as provided by a marketing automation platform:
- Policy-based & additional service and product promotion
- Advanced targeting abilities based on existing accounts, balances, delinquency, demographics, NSF activity, & credit bureau information
- Account promotion according to pre-defined criteria
- Automatic qualified offering prompts for MSRs
- Selling activity tracking by MSR and referral source
- Ability to suspend or disable selling prompts for members wanting to opt-out
- Guaranteed accessibility of all features from any PC
How Do Credit Unions Benefit From a Smart and Well-Timed Marketing Strategy?
According to a 2019 survey from Social Media Today, 75% of companies are using marketing automation in some capacity. Like these companies, credit unions have much to gain from incorporating marketing automation into their everyday operations.
One of the main benefits of automation is that it allows your CU to send more targeted and personalized recommendations to new and existing members, which can prevent you from sending irrelevant or generic communications. Many credit unions recognize the importance of cross-selling, but they've either failed to focus on creating a solid process for it or if they have a process, they haven't targeted their offers well. These common failures have left many members irritated and less-than-impressed while preventing CUs from selling additional services. However, marketing automation can eliminate these problems between CUs and their members, providing more consistent, strategic, and relevant communication that ultimately results in a better member experience.
As a credit union, you should also consider using marketing automation when it comes to consumer loans and mortgage opportunities. Doing so will allow you to periodically send valuable information and special, personalized offers to your members at the appropriate times, such as when their interest rate is low enough to refinance or when a member is searching for colleges. Using specific triggers based on member actions will ensure that you're one step ahead. And of course, the more personalized your message, the greater the chance of acceptance.
Adopting a marketing automation platform can even help educate the members you obtained indirectly through auto loans. Although at the time, they may have only been searching for a new vehicle and not financial assistance, that doesn't mean they won't benefit from your other services. Starting a strategic conversation at the right time will also increase the possibility of cross-selling, nurturing a new member relationship, and accumulating more revenue.
Other automation benefits include:
- Fewer member inquiries about product/service information (which can free up your customer service team)
- Decrease in onboarding and marketing costs due to an increase in funded loans
- An improvement in Net Promoter Scores that enhance brand reputation
- A rise in funded loans pull-through
Invest in Automation and Watch Your Credit Union Grow
The financial realm is a cutthroat industry. To stay competitive, credit unions both big and small should be investing in marketing automation. This modern tool has helped countless CUs develop new and improved products and services while offering astute offers at opportune times. Onboarding, cross-selling, and marketing have never been easier!
As previously discussed, member onboarding is a critical component of member relationship management. This valuable process is your chance to convince a new member to move past a surface-level, single-account-only relationship and take advantage of your other services. Download the FLEX Member Onboarding eBook today to discover how you can improve efficiency and member satisfaction at your credit union!
