No, not the Connie Francis song - I'm talking about where the BUYS are. We know (and we've mentioned before) that we're partial to email marketing. But you're wondering about the profitability of marketing via email and whether or not there's any impact when you're using email to market products. Which emails are sure to get opened?
If you're a credit union marketer, you have a particular challenge when it comes to email marketing, and a particular advantage to answer it. Your problem:
getting members to buy/invest more at the credit union,
According to this chart, financial emails are getting read between 60 and 70 percent of the time. When you send your eStatement reminders every month, your members are going to open them for a look-see. Why not start branding them and adding in links/ads for other services and support from your institution? Push new products and rates, or encourage members to tell a friend and promote your credit union to potential members in the community. Take advantage of the relationship you've already established and a high open rate. That's where the buys are - smart, well-placed ads that tell members and potential members what they need to know.
As Liz Miller of CMO Council says:
“Irrelevant, impersonal communications, be it email or traditional mail, is a waste as it does not engage a receptive recipient...It is no surprise that consumers are opting out of irrelevant emails. However, what is a grave sign for marketers to heed is that customers will disconnect and stop doing business with brands who continue to send messages that demonstrate a lack of intimacy, customer insight and individual understanding.”
Email marketing works best when you can tailor it to the target. If you're interested in getting members. The DigitalMailer Automatic Relationship Builder helps marketers do just that. How? Visit our ARB page or call us today to find out - 866.994.4900 ext. 115 or info@digitalmailer.com for more information.
by Ron Daly It's June, 2009 - do you know where YOUR capital is?
Odds are you've been coping with your minimized budget and your overall losses for these last eight months and you've had to forgo talks of better things - more hiring, membership drives, company functions, employee appreciation, raises, etc. Maybe one of the things you've minimized is your "Green" initiatives. It's easy to move away from an initiative that's mostly voluntary when you have imperative financial issues to tackle.
I think it's time to kill two birds with one stone..not literally, of course. Part of saving the environment is not throwing rocks at birds. I'm talking about using your green initiatives as a means of saving money.
Green-vangelist Andrew Winston wrote on the Harvard Business blog:
Not only should companies not put their green efforts on hold, they should accelerate them in targeted ways to save money quickly and prepare for the future. Those who navigate these tricky waters the best will emerge from the downturn in better shape than their competitors.
And furthermore:
Getting lean, particularly on energy and resources, will save money and reduce carbon impacts (as well as making you more competitive when energy prices inevitably rise again). Thinking through your value chain and getting creative about how you can help your customers manage their environmental impacts and lower their costs will help you grab market share in tough times. And it will likely do much more to address environmental challenges than focusing only on your own environmental impacts. Getting your people engaged around a dual mission — save the company money and preserve our collective bounty and assets — will help boost morale in tough times and keep your company going strong. ("Why This Is the Right Time to Go Green", blogs.harvardbusiness.org, June 2009)
I had this information tucked away in an e-mail and thought I'd share it here on the site. Apparently, trees can be assigned a dollar value based on the amount of carbon dioxide they absorb, the amount of run-off they filter, the amount of oxygen they make, etc. Your average Red Cedar is worth about $120,000/year, considering the price of oxygen it produces (numbers/values from the Kooragang Wetland Rehabilitation institute). That's plenty of money, and that's just one tree.
Planting trees is a great way to drive up member participation and enrollment. Let members contribute a small amount of money from their share accounts and contribute to a tree planting day that you've organized. Or offer it as an incentive for signing up for eStatements, a la "sign up for eStatements today and we'll plant a tree in your name!"
Bottom Line - the economic downturn has tested our structures. If ever there was a time to start changing the game, it's now. Why not implement measures that will save you money overtime, such as optimizing your lighting and power and reducing water flow in your facilities? Why not encourage employee carpooling and create Green-themed giveaways? Make the changes now and enjoy the benefits long after you do.
Shell FCU recently was named business of the year by the Deer Park Chamber of Commerce. DigitalMailer wants to send its congratulations to a credit union that has set down deep roots in its community of members.
Why are they Business of the Year? Something tells us it's a matter of commitment.
To The Environment:
A look at Shell FCU's website shows they're big fans of a natural, eco-friendly look. At the bottom right-hand corner of their page is a logo showing their participation in the Green Business Alliance. On content pages, links to their eStatement enrollment page encourage members to "go green" with DigitalMailer's eStatements (see below).
To The Community:
From Shell FCU's press release:
In addition to time spent at work, employees also volunteer for the credit union’s FCU "Furthering Community Unity" Team. The FCU Team consists of Shell FCU employees, members and local individuals who participate in events such as blood drives, walks, runs, food drives, Habitat for Humanity and other charitable events. In 2008, the FCU team logged over 347 hours and donated more than $8,900 to help others. As of April 2009, approximately 465 hours have already been donated.
Imagine increasing your electronic statement enrollment leaps and bounds with a single e-mail. Sound impossible? Not with DigitalMailer's "One Click" campaign.
After nine years of creating and implementing electronic statements for credit unions across the country, we've seen and heard some great promotional offers to encourage eStatement enrollment. iPod, Camera, Wii and PDA giveaways are pretty standard, as are plant-a-tree promotions and monetary incentives. Folks who sign up are happy with their statements and credit unions are happy with the savings.
Recently, we started a new campaign which lets members sign up for eStatements by clicking on a single button in an e-mail. One click is all it takes to enroll in eStatements and move away from costly paper and printing. We recognized after creating a number of these campaigns that several key steps could be rolled into one. By verifying an email address, sending an email with the legal agreement attached, allowing the member to read through the agreement and sending their "opt-in" agreement to the credit union, we would be cutting out unnecessary steps, thereby saving time and money.
"One of the good things about this campaign is that members don't have to go to an enrollment page, type in personal info such as account number, SSN, email, name, etc. They click the button and we find the info in the CU system. No need to exchange personal info at all." --Traci McNamara, Account Manager, DigitalMailer
Two credit unions that are currently using the "One Click" campaign:
Hudson River FCU decided to use the "One Click" in conjunction with a $100 offer to draw in new eStatement users. Since sending their e-mail in April, they've increased total eStatement use by 15%! Hudson River plans to run the same campaign in May and June, and with similar results month to month they stand to save over $14,000 with eStatements.
Belvoir FCU has offered eStatements for the past seven years. Introducing the "One Click" campaign in the middle of April, they've experienced a total 5% growth, and are running the campaign again in May. Even more interesting, there's no offer attached - people just click to sign up! Belvoir will be running the same "One Click" campaign through june. If they have the same success in June, they will be saving an estimated 50% of their total cost by switching those paper statements to e-mail!
Something to take away from this campaign and its successes :
1) When members know it's easy to get started with eStatements, they'll go for it.
2) Your eStatements can lead to great savings. The more enrollments you have, the more you save on printing and postage.
3) It can work with a special offer or without.
4) You can get the campaign for your CU and get started right away!
A Faster Horse: eStatements can be a "need" more than a "want"
by Ron Daly
Henry Ford was rumored to have said:
"If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they'd have said 'a faster horse'".
I'm sure that Mr. Ford wasn't out to say the people who buy/use your services are short-sighted or small-minded. It's just that they often want the familiar to get better. But bring them something with all they've wanted and more and they'll wonder how they lived without your innovation.
EStatements are a service of DigitalMailer, one that we find ourselves recommending more and more these days as a means of saving money. Most of the credit unions we work with have the same initial reluctance - that the members won't be comfortable with electronic statements and they won't be open to the idea of receiving statements through the Customer Communication Center. What you wouldn't believe is that customers really do love their eStatements - and CUs like the convenience and control of advertising inside the eStatement space.
I could go on for an hour about eStatements and the CCC. In fact, I do - in our newest webinar:
The Customer Communication Center: A Better Mouse Trap
In which we teach you how to bring eStatements into the fold, improve your marketing through online channels and save money, save money, save money.
When we bring in a new client, we try and convince them that using email to on-board members is faster, easier, smarter and more effective than other methods. Email's great for building and strengthening member relationships. And we're not the only ones who think so.
BAI just published this article (click here to read) about E*Trade's on-boarding email practices. What's more, they presented this graphic representing the results of a Javelin research study.
[For details, click the image.] People are asking for email statements/communication. And for just the reasons I stated:
1) SPEED - Why wait on paper mail to get in touch with people? Two weeks to make one statement say "hello and welcome" to a new member? 2) EASE - One campaign can roll out within a matter of hours, not weeks worth of printing and prep. 3) INTELLIGENCE - Know who to send to, when to send and what to say. Don't waste time blanketing every member when you can target specific members and groups. 4) EFFECTIVE - You want $1.4 Million in new loans? Want to boost ROI? We've got the means.
Our ARB can do for you what E*Trade does for their new customers. To learn more, sign up for our webinar "Do you want fries with that?" by clicking the icon at the top of the left column.
Give It Away: How can we make things easy for you?
By Ron Daly
The Wii. A miracle of modern gaming. It's fun for everyone, it's easy to pick up, and it allows my daughter to have something to do on a rainy day.
Anticipating this year's Holiday Party for our office, I purchased a Wii for my employees. Needless to say, they can't wait for the Holidays.
Yes, the Nintendo Wii is awesome. So much so that nearly 30 million units have been sold. It's a hit with parents who want their kid's gaming to be more mobile or with people who aren't "typical gamers" who are suddenly interested in making it happen. Women and seniors, long considered the outliers in gaming, are getting in on the trend.
Which brings me to the topic of this post (took a while to get here). One of our early promotions involved giving away mp3 players to members who signed up for electronic statements. Credit Unions could order inserts which offered a chance at winning an iPod Nano. We charged a fraction of a cent per flyer ($.00162, on average) and saved the CUs over $25,000. The best part? We payed for the iPods with the money gained from the flyers. The CUs simply had to sit back and watch members flock to online statements, a smart, green, money-saving alternative to paper.
So, my question is this: could we do this with a Wii? Would anyone be interested in a "Wii give-away?" Contact me at rdaly@digitalmailer.com or leave a message on our comment section.
From CAN-SPAM to Spam Guards: Can You Still Reach Your Members?
Article by Ron Daly. This article was originally published in the Credit Union Times. Read it here at CUTimes.com.
As if newer, more robust spam filters weren’t enough to pull out the hair of legitimate e-mail marketers, the Federal Trade Commission’s final rule enforcing the CAN-SPAM Act became effective July 7. Is it the end of using e-mail to tell members about special offers?
Not at all. First, we should recognize that both of these consumer-protection measures are really good news. Few people appreciate receiving nuisance or unsavory junk mail, and putting reasonable restrictions on e-mail marketing may actually increase the likelihood of legitimate e-mail marketing getting through. By following the rules and learning what makes e-mail get stuck in spam guards, we can ensure that our promotions reach members’ inboxes.
The new FTC regulation focuses on four areas: unsubscribing, legal mailing addresses, definitions and responsibility for joint promotions. But for credit union marketing departments, the most important provision relates to honoring requests to unsubscribe.
If a member chooses to opt out of a sender’s e-mail, that request must be honored within three days (instead of the 10 days allowed under the FTC’s interim rule). Further, senders may not impose a fee on recipients asking to be removed from an e-mail list, nor can they require recipients to provide any information beyond their e-mail addresses and opt-out preferences. And finally, recipients may not be required to take any steps other than sending a reply or visiting a single page on a Web site.
Other provisions of the regulation involve the following:
Sender. The new rule defines who is a designated sender of e-mails and, therefore, responsible for complying with the CAN-SPAM Act’s opt-out requirement. This provision pertains to situations in which two organizations collaborate on promotions or advertising.
Mailing address. The credit union’s physical mailing address must be easy to find on its Web site. Or, if either a USPS or private mail box is used, it must be registered according to postal regulations.
Definition of person. The FTC rule added a clarification broadening the term “person” beyond natural persons to include groups, associations and corporations.
Please note that only promotional–not relational or transactional–messages are affected by CAN-SPAM. For more information on the new regulation, go to www.ftc.gov.
While spam filters have become more complex, ensuring that credit unions’ messages are delivered is a straightforward process. But it may require adjusting systems or working with e-mail service providers, such as DigitalMailer, that know their way around ISPs worldwide.
Credit unions can go beyond the FTC regulation and ensure deliverability by following these tips:
Preference-based e-mail. Allow members to choose the types of e-mail they wish to receive. Not only does this place your credit union well beyond CAN-SPAM rules, it also ensures you are invited into members’ inboxes.
Subject line and content. Stay away from punctuation or words (such as “free,” “save” or “buy”) that could raise red flags with the subject line. In the body of the message, avoid large images, logos or mastheads, which can take up valuable space or cause the viewer to see red “Xs.”
Certification. Make sure your system is certified or safe-listed with leading ISPs. And be sure to remove bad e-mail addresses that ISPs report as not being active.
Spam-check tools. Take advantage of tools that evaluate outgoing e-mail so you can correct messages that could trigger spam guards.
Register. Record your own SPF files to protect against forged sender addresses and to meet the growing list of ISPs requiring this form of identification.
With a few adjustments to make sure your procedures are in compliance and by staying attuned to spam-checker reports, you can continue to provide members with wanted information on special offers or new products.
Most corporations care about your reputation as a good corporate citizen, but some don’t. Greg Crandell reports.
Eight years experience delivering email on behalf of credit unions has taught us the value of one’s reputation.
In the mail space, reputation of the sender has come to supersede all other measures of validity, including all technical schemes – both those focused on complying with regulations, and those focused on appropriate content.
Complying with CAN-SPAM rules and writing content that doesn’t offend automated checkers is still important, but email deliverability is now most dependent upon the sender’s reputation, which is built over time via good practices, technical sophistication, and expensive processes.
DMI’s earned reputation gains for our credit union clients deliverability statistics that dwarf the industry. Our safelisted status with commercial ISPs across the country, and internationally, helps us ensure emails get delivered to the credit union members targeted. However, one area in which DMI and its clients’ reputation doesn’t earn the needed respect is within the typical corporate email server. Individual companies don’t have to play by the rules of commercial ISPs. They aren’t in the business of providing email services to customers; so they don’t concern themselves with the rules followed by the commercial and general public. This means they typically set onerous rules to screen heavily any email coming to them, including much email that their own employees wish to see, but which is not specific to their corporate business. So, email from the employees credit union, while desired by the employee (your member), is likely to be screened and tossed out by the employer.
What does this mean for credit union marketers, and their email communication efforts? It means you should not ask for, and should not accept, a member’s employment email address. Your business is with your member, not their company. You need to ask for a personal email address if you want to ensure the consistent delivery of your messages to your members. So, don’t be afraid to ask, because anything less isn’t good enough.
Online, On Paper, On the March: Making the Online Jump to eStatements
Some people love change. Some don't. But there’s a way to make (almost) everyone happy. Each month, credit unions spend thousands of dollars mailing out account statements to their members. Some credit unions spend nearly $31,000 per year sending out paper statements. To save money, time, and resources, many consider the switch to eStatements - but don't do it. Their fear, usually, is that they'll alienate their customer base. After all, some people don't feel comfortable with electronic banking and e-statements. What is the practical, bottom-line oriented CEO to do?
The answer is simple: offer a choice.
At DigitalMailer, we suggest that credit unions offer their members a chance to "opt-out" of receiving e-statements in favor of paper, thereby making e-statements the default. How does this offer an advantage over an "opt-in" - making paper the standard and electronic statements an alternative? Well, considering that one credit union now issues paper statements to only 1 percent of its members, the opt-out strategy clearly works. And the credit union’s cost savings speaks for itself.
What’s been your experience? Feel free to respond in our Comments section.
Arbor Day is April 25, a day that celebrates trees and respect for natural beauty. At DigitalMailer, we help our clients “go green” all year long. DigitalMailer's e-statements allow customers to store and track their statements online for 18+ months, securely, conveniently, and inexpensively. And your customers can access them immediately, from anywhere they please.
Using e-statements saves trees - thousands of them. Take this statistic provided by USAToday.com -
According to a 2007 study, if all the nation's households just received and paid bills electronically, they'd save 16.5 million trees each year, or the amount of lumber needed to build 216,054 typical single-family homes.
Each year, nearly 4 billion trees are cut down for paper.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency's Toxic Release Inventory program, paper and pulp factories are some of the world's worst environmental pollution sources.
The truth is, trees serve far better purposes in the ground. They filter pollution, produce oxygen, help control wind currents and moderate temperatures, and keep soil rich and healthy.
It's our planet, too, and we hope that, in some small way, we can make everyone's green go a lot farther.
Tell us about your plans for "going green" - on Arbor Day and Every Day - in the COMMENTS section.
What? Step up marketing efforts when the economy is tanking? It may be the best time. With a well-designed message, your credit union can stand out in a once-cluttered field laid barren by those with less moxie. And when you've got something members want, they’ll pay attention – perhaps more so when money is tight.
But gearing up marketing during a downturn needn't break the budget. A smart strategy is to market via the Internet, especially by email – a bargain compared with most other channels. Email resolves the age-old tension between trying to reach a broader audience, yet target messages with greater precision. Using the email addresses you have collected, you can consistently target large and small segments of your members at well-timed intervals. Affordably.
Some of the greatest innovations have occurred during economic slumps. (Interest-bearing checking – a creative response to the high interest rates of the ’70s – comes to mind.) Consider the approach of Northwest Federal Credit Union in Herndon, Va.
Case Study: Timing is everything
When the Federal Reserve dropped interest rates for the fifth time in March, Northwest Federal Credit Union (Herndon, Va.) took action, passing the rate reduction on to its members. The Credit Union cut its new auto rates and offered car loans for as low as 3.50 percent. The message: “NWFCU has slashed our new auto and lease rates.”
Within days of the Fed’s move, the credit union rolled out the promotion in its branches and website while the media was still buzzing. NWFCU decided to concentrate on the Internet channel it had been growing since 2000 and queued up a “special offers” email alert. The credit union carefully crafted the email, ran the template through its email spam checker, to give it the best shot at reaching the member, and then sent it to the 32,000 email addresses it had gathered to announce the change. View the email here
Over the first four days, almost 8,000 members opened the email and read their credit union’s offer. Just under 2,000 clicked-through to one of the four links in the message to learn more about it on the NWFCU website. “Then something good happened,” said Gerrianne Burks, president/CEO of the Credit Union. “The email promotion did exactly what it was supposed to do: raise awareness and bring members to our website. It also resulted in $1.4 million dollars in new loans in less than a week and was definitely worth the effort.”
But what if using collected email addresses upsets members, who might feel they’re being spammed? When surveyed, most say they want to hear more about what’s new at their credit unions, as well as offers that pertain to them.
“We never want our communications to be perceived as spam; therefore, we only send to those members who have opted to receive special offers from us,” said Burks. “And we knew using our collected email addresses was the fastest, most cost-effective way to reach a third of our membership.”
What happened with the 32,000 emails sent from NWFCU? Burks said, “believe it or not, only 35 members out of 32,000 emails (.1%) clicked on the unsubscribe link to avoid future emails from us.”
Making 1-to-1 marketing a reality
Finely tailored emails with important credit union information and unsubscribe capabilities are the key to successful growth. With DigitalMailer’s email technology, NWFCU gleaned even more information for the next round of offers. The software was able to tell the Credit Union which members opened the email, which members clicked on the four links and which members eventually applied for loans. Each report makes it easier for NWFCU to continue to target only those members who were “in market” and expressed an interest in this special offer.
One-to-one marketing is grabbing attention today, but the premise behind it is as old as the credit union movement: It’s simply personalized attention to members’ unique needs. Now, with new eMarketing channels, enhanced digital technology and a little creative copywriting, you can ensure the personal touch that gets the right offer to the right member at the right time. So, go ahead and pull out the marketing stops!
You can learn more about marketing during a recession, by checking out an interesting post on the BNET blog.
Ron Daly is President/CEO of DigitalMailer, Inc., an e-Marketing firm that provides clients the power to reach their customers across multiple digital channels.
