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A myth that’s costing you millions: Most of your website visitors are members

Cover image – A myth that’s costing you millions_ Most of your website visitors are members-v3

"Most of our website visitors are members coming to log in to online banking." I've talked with hundreds of credit unions over the last ten years and I've heard that claim more times than I can count.

The problem is, it's not true. And if you believe this myth, it's costing you millions of dollars per year.

Don't believe me? I'll prove it to you right now.

First, let's bust the myth that most of your website visitors are members.

In Google Analytics, there is a Retention Report that shows New Users vs Returning Users.

New User: Someone who is visiting your website for the first time.

Returning User: Someone who has visited your website more than once.

When credit unions look at the Retention Report, most see that 60-90% of their website visitors are actually New Users. This is true even when looking at the default date range of 28 days, but becomes even more pronounced when you extend the date range to 12 months or more.

This is a Retention Report from a credit union showing that 70% of their users are New Users.

While it's possible that New Users could be existing members, people visiting your website for the first time are most likely nonmembers. On the other hand, Returning Users are more likely to be existing members.

Take a look at your own data (it's easy):

  1. Open your Google Analytics account.
  2. Go to "Reports".
  3. Open the "Retention" report (under "Life cycle").

In this 82-second video, I show you how to access the Retention Report:

If you don't see the Retention Report in your Google Analytics account, this 32-second video will show you how to enable it:

There you go. Most of your website visitors are New Users who are most likely nonmembers. Now, let's talk about how this myth is costing you millions of dollars.

How the myth is costing you millions

I recently had a conversation with a credit union about this very topic. They were living in the myth, believing that their website was primarily a tool for members to log in to online banking. So, they asked me, "[Are we] at a point in time where a website isn’t relevant anymore?"

To answer their question, I showed them in Google Analytics that over 80% of their website visitors are actually New Users, not Returning Users.

I also set up conversion funnels for the website and compared them with other financial institutions. The data showed that their website is currently making millions of dollars, but losing out on millions more.

The credit union told me that they've never used their website as a tool to measurably grow loans and deposits. But, to their great credit, they embraced the insights. Now, they're acting on plans to optimize their website and measure conversions.

Like that credit union, if you believe the myth that most of your website visitors are members coming to log in to online banking, then you're undervaluing and underinvesting in your website. You're missing one of your biggest opportunities for growth by overlooking that lots of people are coming to your website to consider your products and services. In fact, according to data from MetriFi, the average credit union is losing out on $4M per year, but some are losing out on tens of millions.

Figures for a credit union website that is losing out on about $7M per month ($84M per year).

What I mean by "losing out" on millions

When I say that you're "losing out" on millions of dollars per year, that happens in two ways:

  1. Your website is converting below average. People are coming to your website to consider your products, but your website isn't getting them to sign up. As a result, you're squandering your traffic and losing out on would-be members and borrowers.
  2. You aren't driving more traffic to high-converting webpages. You may have some webpages that are converting really well. If you drive more traffic to them, you'll get more sign-ups and increase your bottom line. But you don't have analytics in place to see that, so you don't know it. As a result, you're missing big opportunities to profitably increase traffic and open more loans and accounts.

Nearly all credit union websites are "losing out" in both of these ways.

True-or-false test

Let's do a quick true-or-false test:

  • True or False: You don't know how much money your website is generating.
  • True or False: You don't know your website's conversion rates.
  • True or False: You're not measurably increasing traffic AND conversion rates to generate more dollars.

If you answered True, True, True, then I'm 91% sure that you're losing out on literally millions of dollars per year (based on data)—even if you're a smaller credit union.

I was once in your shoes

Before I became data-driven, I spent years helping credit unions design websites based on opinions and beliefs rather than facts. My company won lots of awards and had a fast-growing list of clients, but we didn't know if we were really moving the needle to help credit unions grow.

Eventually, we found our way to analytics and A/B testing, which opened our eyes and changed everything. We began running A/B tests for credit unions and good things started to happen: We were measurably helping our clients grow. Now, years later, we've run over 80 A/B tests and helped our clients earn ~$130 million in additional loans and deposits.

We want every credit union to experience that kind of growth, so we built MetriFi (metrifi.com).

MetriFi is a free analytics tool that shows you the truth about your website and how to make it better:

  • Track how much money your website is making.
  • See how much money you are losing out on.
  • Compare your website with other credit unions and banks.
  • Get improved page designs generated by AI in minutes.
  • Receive tailored insights from analytics, AI, and humans.

Check it out. It's an easy way to overcome the myth and take a big step in the right direction.

Derik Krauss

Derik Krauss

MetriFi & BloomCU