Closing Out 2024: End-of-Year Credit Union Marketing Essentials

As the year winds down, credit unions have the perfect opportunity to reflect on their marketing efforts and set the foundation for a strong year ahead. The financial industry is constantly evolving and staying competitive means balancing the lessons of 2024 with innovative strategies for 2025. From wrapping up campaigns to planning fresh initiatives, a thoughtful approach can ensure your credit union continues to connect with members, deliver value, and stand out in the crowded marketplace. Let’s dive into how you can wrap up the year with intention and craft a marketing plan that drives success in the new year. 1. Conduct a Year-End Marketing Audit Before you dive into planning for 2025, assess your 2024 efforts: 2. Celebrate Achievements with Members Engage your community by showcasing the impact your credit union had this year: 3. Optimize Digital Channels Ensure your online presence is fresh and functional heading into the new year: 4. Run an End-of-Year Campaign Capture last-minute engagement with targeted campaigns: Preparing Your 2025 Marketing Plan 1. Set Clear Goals for 2025 Establish marketing goals that align with your credit union’s strategic priorities, such as: 2. Deepen Your Member Understanding Refresh your ideal member personas to ensure your campaigns resonate. Incorporate: 3. Prioritize Digital Transformation With digital banking becoming essential, make sure your marketing reflects this shift: 4. Embrace Emerging Marketing Trends Stay ahead by integrating new strategies: 5. Plan a Robust Content Calendar Build a 2025 content calendar that aligns with seasonal priorities, industry events, and member needs. Include: 6. Budget Strategically Review your 2024 spend and allocate resources wisely for 2025. Invest in areas with proven ROI and consider testing new channels or formats to diversify your approach. Final Thoughts: Start 2025 on the Right Foot Wrapping up the year is more than a task—it’s a chance to solidify your credit union’s reputation and build momentum for the future. By reflecting on what worked in 2024 and crafting a thoughtful, member-focused marketing plan for 2025, you’ll be ready to achieve greater success in the new year. Need help creating your 2025 marketing strategy? Let’s collaborate to make your credit union’s goals a reality!

Why Credit Union Branding Matters More Than Ever

Credit unions face a common challenge: a messaging gap.  Many focus on bottom-of-the-funnel tactics. They jump on every new trend, whether it’s digital, social, or PPC (pay-per-click), and promote rates, services, and financial benefits. As an industry, too often we try to cut corners while others are allocating 7% or more of their revenue on marketing. Then, we tell ourselves that marketing doesn’t work. Is that fair? Not really. You’re trying to build a house by decorating the living room before laying the foundation. Without establishing a strong base of awareness and trust, everything else risks collapsing because there’s nothing solid supporting it. You are failing to answer the bigger question: Why should someone choose you over the bank next door? Branding bridges this gap. It moves beyond what you offer to why you exist and whom you serve.  Top-funnel branding builds awareness and emotional connections. Every credit union solves a problem. Is it helping young families buy their first homes? Supporting underserved communities? Empowering local businesses? Satisfying the unique needs of a Select Employer Group?   Your brand promise isn’t just what you do – it’s the benefit you provide and the problem you solve for your members. Without a clear promise, your marketing risks blending into the background noise. Visibility equals profitability. Stop focusing solely on attracting ready-to-buy consumers. That’s like fishing in a puddle when the ocean is right there. Expand your efforts to create awareness and draw in a broader audience. Credit unions often compete on affordability, but you can elevate your brand by focusing on exclusivity. This doesn’t mean turning people away. It’s about crafting a narrative that makes members feel they’re part of something special.Take the First StepA strong brand builds loyalty, attracts the right members, and amplifies word-of-mouth referrals. Start by answering these questions: As Vice President of Brand Experience for Your Marketing Co., Frank Allgood works with credit unions to develop strong leaders, create effective training programs, and build powerful brands. Want to connect? Call 864.326.8740 or email [email protected].

Can Credit Unions Win Social Media? Yes. Here’s How.

No longer is social media a “nice-to-have” platform but a vital one for credit unions. But let’s face it: capturing attention amid thousands of social posts and competing brands requires strategy, creativity, and relevance. Credit unions can take cues from bigger brands that have mastered social media to create engaging, effective, and memorable interactions. Here’s how your credit union can bring these best practices to life. 1. Show Your Personality & Be Relatable From Wendy’s iconic Twitter X sass to Old Spice’s offbeat humor, large brands have succeeded by letting their personalities shine. Credit unions need to also create a distinct voice that members look forward to and recognize. Friendly, educational, witty, helpful, it doesn’t matter—the key is consistency. People connect with personalities, not faceless institutions. 2. Humanize Your Brand with Real People Dove and Apple understand the power of having real people tell real stories. Dove’s Real Beauty campaign, for example, has been widely celebrated for showcasing people of all body types, ages, and backgrounds. Similarly, credit unions can feature their members and employees. Share stories of real members who achieved their dreams or reached new milestones—whether it’s buying a home, starting a business, or anything else—with help from their credit union. Freebie: Create a “Member Spotlight” series across your social media channels. Highlight a different member each month, sharing their story, what they value about your credit union, and how they’ve achieved their financial goals. Not only does this highlight your impact, but it also serves as social proof. 3. Create Educational, Shareable Content Social media is an excellent platform for financial literacy. Look no further than Capital One’s Money & Life program, providing free financial education to various communities. Your credit union’s social media is a trusted source of financial knowledge, but it has to demonstrate that to your members. 4. Tap into User-Generated Content (UGC) UGC builds credibility and fosters community. Brands like Starbucks and GoPro often rely on user-generated content to showcase how regular customers enjoy their products. Credit unions can encourage their members to share their experiences by holding contests, using hashtags, or featuring members who tag the credit union in their posts. Freebie: Run a “Why I Love My Credit Union” contest, inviting members to share photos and stories about why they appreciate your credit union. Choose one or more winners to receive small prizes (gift cards, branded merch, etc.) and feature the winning posts on your social media. 5. Leverage Video Content to Engage and Educate These days, video is king on social media, and brands like Apple and Airbnb have shown that a well-crafted video creates an emotional connection. For credit unions, video is a fantastic way to simplify complex financial concepts and convey them in a friendly, relatable manner. 6. Incorporate Seasonal & Community-Focused Content Take a page from Coca-Cola’s holiday campaigns, which evoke a sense of togetherness and joy. As a community-focused credit union, you can similarly tap into holidays, local events, and even trending themes to keep content timely and engaging.  7. Stay Ahead with Social Listening Brands like Netflix and Nike pay close attention to what their customers are saying about them on social media. This “social listening” allows them to respond quickly to concerns, celebrate wins, and refine their strategies based on what the audience cares about. Similarly, you can easily set up alerts for mentions of your credit union’s name and common keywords related to your services, then respond promptly to any member feedback, questions, or concerns on social media. 8. Collaborate with Local Influencers or Community Leaders Big brands often work with influencers to reach broader audiences. Credit unions can follow suit by partnering with local influencers, hometown celebrities, or community leaders who resonate with the membership’s values. Freebie: Work with a local influencer for a “Day in the Life with [Credit Union]” series where they’re invited to visit your branch, learn about products, and share their overall experience to their followers. 9. Embrace Interactive Content Interactive content—like polls, quizzes, or challenges—make your social media channels feel more engaging and less salesy. Big brands like Buzzfeed have mastered this with their famous quizzes and polls, making their social media engagement fun and interactive. 10.  Experiment & Keep Content Fresh! Social media trends change CONSTANTLY. Thanks to their resources, big brands are quick to pivot, trying new formats and approaches to stay fresh. The good news is, even with less resources, credit unions can do the same! Test new formats, rotate themes, analyze what resonates with your audience, and don’t be afraid to get weird with it. At the end of the day, social media is not some fad or short-lived phenomenon. It is a direct line to your membership and an invaluable way to make your presence felt in their daily lives. But “being online” is no longer enough to reach current members or attract new ones. Credit unions, are you struggling to break through the social media noise and reach members? Consider working with professionals capable of boosting your social media presence.

The first rule of successful credit union marketing is…

The first rule of successful credit union marketing that you must remember is: You are inside of your credit union, looking out. Potential members are outside of your credit union, looking in. Your inside-looking-out perspective makes you blind in one eye. Confirmation bias makes you blind in the other eye. You cannot see yourself the way your potential members see you. You imagine they see you based on your mission statement, your policies and procedures, your good intentions, your employee training… You imagine that potential credit union members see you the way you want to be seen. You see those things—you care about those things! Your potential member doesn’t know or see them, not yet. And (GASP!) they don’t care. They have problems. Big problems. They have debt spiraling out of control, causing stress and anxiety. They are living paycheck to paycheck, wondering what to do when that one small emergency inevitably happens, and they don’t have the means to fix it. They worry they will miss their kids’ games, performances, and lives because they have to work overtime to make ends meet. Here’s the hard truth: When you’ve convinced your credit union marketing person to see your credit union the same way you do, that marketing person has nothing left to offer you but flattery—not results. Back in my radio days, this weathered, old ad guy once said something I’ve carried with me to this day: “Our industry is drowning in math and starving for ideas. We need people who can dream shit up. We need impractical, illogical people. We have plenty of data. We need more of the opposite. We have forgotten that the only unique benefits we can provide to clients is imaginative thinking and creativity. Everything else, aside from ideas, they can get somewhere else. Good ideas are good ideas. Things that are entertaining, interesting, and uplifting will always be attractive to everyone.” It comes down to the basic principles of advertising, and business in general. Some thoughts to consider: “Good inventors and designers (and marketers) deeply understand their customer. They spend tremendous energy developing that intuition. They study and understand many anecdotes rather than only the averages you’ll find on surveys.” – Jeff Bezos, Amazon “First principles is kind of a physics way of looking at the world. You boil things down to the most fundamental truths and say, ‘What are we sure is true?’ … and then reason up from there.” – Elon Musk, Tesla and SpaceX “Every moment in business happens only once. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. And the next Mark Zuckerberg won’t create a social network. If you are copying these guys, you aren’t learning from them… Indeed, the single most powerful pattern I have noticed is that successful people find value in unexpected places, and they do this by thinking about business from first principles instead of formulas.” – Peter Thiel, PayPal Credit union marketing strategies are successful when we remember these basic principles. Your members aren’t looking for a product or a service. They are looking for transformation. They are looking for a solution. They want a hole in the wall but need the hammer to make it happen. In short: Don’t try to convince your members and potential members to think and feel like you do. Learn how to think and feel like them.