Why Credit Unions Must Invest in Digital Marketing and Sales Systems

According to Bank 3.0, in 2012, the average member visited a branch only 0.26 times per month or just 3.2 times per year. This is down from 26.5 visits per year or 2.21 visits per month in 1995.

Do you see the same pattern and trends at your credit union? Stop for a minute and ask yourself, what’s going on here? Is a shift in consumer behavior, like this, sustainable for the current credit union branch model?

Before, people had to physically come into the branch every two weeks to deposit their paycheck unless they were using direct deposit. These bi-monthly transactional visits provided an opportunity for credit unions to build a personal relationship with those visiting the branch and offer them relevant products and services along the way.

In general, the physical branch model and system has been continuously revamped throughout the years. Credit unions have invested millions of dollars into building physical branch systems and networks.  Within the past decade, the branch has been used in part to deliver a “member experience” with an end goal of generating and closing leads for loans and new accounts. Experience aside, at the end of the day, this (loans and accounts) is how the credit union makes money (via NII or net interest income).

Now, thanks in part to many different digital delivery channels, people no longer need to visit the branch for transactional banking. This does, however, limit the ability for credit unions to engage with members the way they used to.

No matter what kind of experience a credit union’s physical branch delivers, the only way this experience can be truly successful is to show that it is generating and closing leads for loans and new accounts by getting foot traffic into the branches. Yet, as noted above, foot traffic and visits to the branch are declining.

In the current digital drive and human economy, all roads will lead to digital somewhere along the consumer path. Developing digital marketing and sales systems may be hard for many credit union leaders to embrace as the thought of investing into something that is not tangible, such as brick and mortar, is counter-intuitive. If a branch fails, a credit union can sell off the assets including the physical building and property to minimize the loss. Couple this thinking with the incorrect logic that digital should be cheap or free, such as social media, and the challenges to invest and build true digital marketing and sales systems compounds upon itself.

I challenge credit unions to invest in developing digital marketing and sales systems the very same way they have developed traditional physical branch systems and processes. This requires to look beyond digital channels as just another checklist item. It is more than just about having a website, PFM, mobile banking, social media, video, email, etc. Success lies in figuring out how these individual digital tools can work together to form a much larger and more efficient digital marketing and sales system to generate leads for loans and new accounts.

Be committed to the digital journey and build your credit union’s future success by aligning people, product and process around your purpose to simplify the solution for consumers.

James Robert Lay

James Robert Lay

JAMES ROBERT LAY is one of the world’s leading digital marketing authors, speakers, and advisors for financial brands. As the founder and CEO of the Digital Growth Institute, he ... Web: https://www.digitalgrowth.com Details