Ron Daly talks about another great innovation in the Credit Union industry.
HarborOne Credit Union saw a problem. People for whom English is a second language are frequently left out in the cold when it comes to services they might find helpful. Marketers tend to write (and think) in one language for one audience, so some services fall under the radar of a non-English-speaking household. How, then, can you have a frank and helpful conversation about finance when you are meeting with people who speak a different language than your own? Likewise, how can you ask the questions that need asking with a barrier blocking communication?
HarborOne Credit Union provided a solution: the Multicultural Banking Center. The center was opened almost one year ago and has been a ringing success, both for HarborOne and the minority and immigrant populations they were hoping to serve. Non-English speaking people, or people that use English as a second language, are often targets of predatory investment scams. With the help of the Multicultural Banking Center, these people can learn about savings, checking accounts, credit lines and the home ownership process. HarborOne extended its services to include other community outreach programs designed to get people in need on the fast track to financial security.
HarborOne's MBC program has been so successful, it is under review by the National Credit Union Foundation (NCUF) to be used as a model for future facilities of its kind.
What's your take on the Multicultural Business Center? Is your Credit Union reaching customers in new and helpful ways? Talk to us in our Comment Section.
Greg Crandell talks about a way to get the word out.
If you've been in the business world as long as I have, you know all about seminars. The long trips, the continental breakfasts, the flurry of business cards - it becomes second nature after a while. So when DigitalMailer began working on ways to bring clients together online, the Webinar stood out as a terrific option. Webinar is just a fancy word for Internet conference. To put it another way, it's a seminar without the hassles typical of seminar planning. You don't have to book a concert space or boardroom, your attendees don't have to drive or fly to come listen in, and you can deliver all the supporting material right to the observer's screen.
"But can't anyone just pop in and take advantage of our good advice?" you ask. Not if you don't invite them. Webinars, like seminars, can have limited seating if you choose. Even better, if you have certain pieces of information to record, you can save it and distribute it later on to clients or customers that take an interest in your work.
What could your business do with a Webinar? To find out, contact us at info@digitalmailer.com
Ron Daly's new series "Credit Union Tech" goes through the innovations that changed the CU industry - and the world - for the better.
in 1939, plenty of people were dealing in cash. America had been through the financial wringer, with the Great Depression behind and the war in Europe growing larger and more destructive. With the New Deal, people had money again, and a real desire to save what they had in financial institutions that had been newly bolstered by the FDIC.
It was in this year that a man named Luther George Simjian put forth the patents for a machine that would make bank transactions after normal banking hours. At first, the idea was a flop - use of this machine was seen as seedy, with the majority of users being people who didn't want to be seen in a bank lobby. Citicorp thanked Simjian for the idea, but saw little use in further pursuit.
Simjian's idea became the Automatic Teller Machine, or ATM. Today, there is scarcely a bank or credit union without one. In some cases, there are merely terminals where money can change hands and customers can receive statements, make deposits and withdrawals, and manage their money on the go. As time rolls on, ATMs become more sophisticated and cover a wider range of services (i.e., some print maps of nearby locations for customers to use). It's clear now that we should all be thankful to Simjian for his initial effort...without it, we'd all have to get out of our car to handle our cash.
Have a question/idea you'd like us to talk about in "Credit Union Tech"? Write about it in comments.
With upwards of 63 million adult Americans handling their personal finances online, this is the ideal time to make the leap to more targeted eMarketing. Fort Belvoir Federal Credit Union, Woodbridge, Va., made the leap. The credit union made a strategic decision to refit its eMarketing strategy to better reach its members who regularly use online services.
“Our primary reason for moving to a one-to-one marketing approach was to get the right message to the right person at the right time,” said Jacque Connor, Vice President, Marketing and Business Development, at Fort Belvoir FCU. “We were looking at ways to target more specifically. We knew we wanted to have more than just a generic set of banners through the usual channels on our Web site.”
According to Connor, an important step in shifting the credit union’s marketing strategies was getting member feedback, which was gathered through focus groups. “What we heard was, ‘We know you know us. We want you to tell us what we need. Make suggestions for using the services that would be beneficial to our needs."
The feedback reinforced Fort Belvoir FCU’s decision to further develop its online marketing strategies. To further develop its eMarketing efforts, Fort Belvoir FCU turned to DigitalMailer and AdeptMedia, which teamed up in 2006 to offer multi-channel targeting capabilities. Connor said DigitalMailer’s email marketing tools and AdeptMedia’s “DeepTarget” data-mining and tracking tools made for the right combination: a system that would be responsive to members’ needs. As a result, Fort Belvoir can now reach members across all online channels – Web site, online banking service, eStatements and eLerts – with information tailored to individual requests and needs.
So how does it work? Essentially, says Connor, Fort Belvoir FCU creates various stacks of offers to share with members and determines which stack to send to which members, based on their MCIF data. The data is forwarded to DeepTarget, which sets up the ad and pulls the groups to receive a particular offer; the credit union delivers these individualized offers to members using their online systems.
Connor says she likes the fact that the stacked offers are constantly running in the background. “When staff get busy they might not have time to suggest other products or services, but DeepTarget always asks. Once it’s in the computer, based on the pre-set conditions, it will ask.”
“Now we’re able to be fairly precise in getting the right offers to the right markets,” said Connor. “Members sign up for eLerts using their account numbers, so the system can identify the appropriate stack of ads. And once they’re logged on to the web site with their username and password, members who have car loans with us won’t see car-loan offers appear. Similarly, if a member has a checking account, he won’t see checking account promos, but may see bill-payment banners, or other offers. Members receive information about products they don’t have with us instead of those they already use.”
Did you know that display ads account for more than 20 percent of US online advertising? At DigitalMailer, we specialize in finding the best ways to make your messages seen and heard. Some things to keep in mind: Location, Location, Location - Remember to keep your ads where they can be seen, which isn't to say that the top of the page is best - better to keep the ad within the initial screen viewers will see when they first click onto your site. One pitfall to avoid - don't put the banner right at the top of the page.
Make it interactive - Banner ads that lead to other pages and to the offers they promote mean more movement, more immersion, and more traffic to other key areas of your site. "Click-through" opportunities or links make for engrossed viewers.
Be fresh - Banner ads can be made to rotate, making it possible to show several offers in a matter of seconds. They can also be updated fairly frequently to make sure your customers can always see the most current information. Take advantage of this power - let customers know with only a few words what you have to offer and how they can make it work to their advantage.
As DigitalMailer's "blog guy", I always look for insights about blogging and Web Media. Dane has a lot of good insights in this article that answered a lot of my questions.
Dane also does webinars about Gen-Y and the CU Industry, so don't miss out on his future sessions. You can sign up for them at CreditUnions.com.
DigitalMailer's Greg Crandell in Credit Union Magazine
Credit Union Magazine is a publication serving the nation's credit unions with up-to-the-minute information about current affairs, investment trends, and industry insight. DigitalMailer is proud to report that our very own Greg Crandell recently had an article published by the magazine, which is available online (Click Here to Read "Get Your E-Mail Messages Through").
For more of Greg's wisdom on email marketing, visit our blog's archive pages, located to the right of this article, or visit www.clickconnectcommunicate.com.
