Credit unions around the country faced tough times in 2020, as the Coronavirus forced businesses to close doors and CUs had to turn to digital solutions to satisfy their member’s needs. While most CUs were able to stay afloat and provide members with the financial products and services they needed, 2021 will likely bring more challenges and adversity. Luckily, for some credit unions serving low-income communities, grants are available from the National Credit Union Association (NCUA) that can help.

“Would you like fries with that?” If you’ve ever been to a fast-food restaurant in America, you’ve probably heard this question before and think little of it. But this is the art of cross-selling—selling or pitching an additional product to an existing customer based on their needs. And while it’s a commonplace practice, it’s not always as simple as it seems. Cross-selling involves knowing what your members want and need, and during these uncertain economic times, it’s become as important for credit unions as it’s always been for fast-food chains.

Ricky Nelson hosted a Garden Party and informed us "Ya can't please everyone, so ya gotta please yourself." John Lydgate, a 14th-century poet, is credited with "You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.” And 21st century phenom giphy.com has given us "You can’t make everyone happy.... you're not a taco.” Try harder, do more. While we all have a grasp on the concept, it’s very hard to put into practice in real life, let alone your credit union. The idea that we can appeal to everyone is difficult to let go of, as we see the value in the value prop: Serve every member your best, and then the credit union will have excellent growth. This sounds wonderful but, history has shown us, is not possible. In order to matter to the people you’re talking to, you have to show value. And value can be defined very differently depending on the person. So one generic message will never be the right message for all.

Say the letters ABC to a true sales person and inevitably images of Alec Baldwin spelling out "Always Be Closing" will come to mind. But the days of Glengarry Glen Ross sales tactics are (thankfully) in the past, and have never really had a place in the credit union world. Yet, opening new accounts and positioning loans is imperative to a credit union’s success. According to creditunions.com, in the 10 years following the recession, the credit union industry has grown its loan portfolio 82.7%. There is still a lot of growth to be realized, and even in today’s digital world, most new sales will be handled by branch employees. This means that the sales program needs to be focused on making suggestions of products and services, opening new accounts and writing new loans... and making sure MSR's are comfortable with the sales aspect of their role. Accomplishing the task of a soft sale day after day can be a struggle for branch employees. If your results are not where you need them to be, here are 5 areas to look to improve the process:

Baby Boomers were once the ultimate buyer, and the target market of banks and CUs, as well as industries across the board. Now, a new generation is soon to be the biggest player in the market: Millennials. This generation will become the largest group of first time home buyers, and by the year 2020, they will control $7 trillion of U.S. assets. Among all the generations, there is the biggest gap between Boomers and Millennials as their values, habits, and interests are very different. This has spurred a lot of change for businesses, as they need to adjust several facets of their operations to fit the needs of this new generation. It has reached the point where this change is inevitable, and those who ignore the needs of Millennials will lose out to the competition. Here’s how you can redesign your credit union to fit the needs of the ever elusive Millennial member.

In the digital world we live in, having a good website is key. Outdated sites that don’t render on mobile devices or load slowly will not impress members, nor make gains in the critical Google rankings game. However, even credit unions with new eye-catching websites won’t reap the full benefits if they are not measuring website performance through reporting. There are countless metrics that platforms like Google Analytics can track and trying to monitor them all can become overwhelming. Here are some key website metrics that credit union managers should be tracking to help guide marketing strategies and tactics.

Many credit unions have the best of intentions to create and launch amazing marketing campaigns, but when things get busy throughout the year, marketing is oftentimes the first thing to fade into the background. Now that 2019 is almost here, it’s time to start planning for next year’s marketing initiatives. If your credit union finds that marketing gets pushed off to the side each year, it may be more effective to commit to a few key elements rather than creating an exhaustive plan that will be difficult to manage. Here are 3 key items that will give your credit union the most bang for its buck next year.