How credit union marketers can get better leads

What does a marketing qualified lead (MQL) look like for a credit union?

That depends on two things.

First, are they qualified to take the next step of action with your credit union if they’re willing and interested?

Second, are they willing and interested?

That’s it. It doesn’t get any more complicated than that.

Though, nurturing interested and qualified people into customers requires a well-designed sales & marketing funnel.

But what does that look like?

1. You need to Attract the right traffic to your credit unions website.

• This process starts with creating a persona of your perfect customer in mind.
• Then creating & implementing a content and attracting strategy for them.

2. You need to Convert that traffic into a lead when they visit your website.

• You need to have a relevant offer with the relevant call to actions, sprinkled throughout the website.
• Effective conversion funnel including landing and thank you pages.
• Website with easy usability and functions. Meaning; responsive to screen size, relevant and not slow.

3. You need to Close those conversions and turn them into customers.

• Effective hand off from marketing to sales in a way that consumers like.
• CRM system that integrates and provides a customer journey view for the marketing & sales departments.

4. You need to Delight those customers so they become promoters of your brand.

• Enjoyable process and interactions throughout the whole consumer to customer journey.

Above is an effective and simple frame work to what a marketing/sales funnel should look like at a credit union. I covered this topic in detail on my recen podcast series on the “Bank On It” podcast.

Here are the Three episodes.

Episode One “Attract”

Episode Two “Convert”

Episode Three “Close & Delight”

BTW.

If the lending department complains that your (digital marketing) leads stink.

Then your marketing leads are either not qualified or your credit unions sales process is not good. Either way, the root problem (s) needs diagnosing and then get repaired.

It’s impossible to diagnose a marketing/sales problem if there’s no process in the first place.

If there is no clear marketing/sales process at your credit union than step one should be to set it up.

This is easier said than done but is vital to connect marketing and sales together. Taking the time to set up service level agreements with sales and other departments will pay dividends.

While not having it, can cause a consistent scrambling to assess;

“What Happened?”

When results fall short.

Without an effective process and marketing and sales team connection, results always fall short. We cover this in the first half of the latest “Bank On It” podcast episode.

BTW again.

If your customers aren’t promoting your brand then you aren’t delighting them.

When I say promoting I mean;

Consumers leaving positive feedback and thoughts about your credit union throughout their social networks.

Delighting consumers goes beyond providing great service, since, great service is only part of it. Providing great service on its own won’t create brand promoters. We cover this in the second half of the latest “Bank On It” podcast episode.

The topics discussed here today are two of the four phases of the Inbound Methodologywhich are;

“Attract”

“Convert”

“Close”

“Delight”

I cover all four of these phases on my podcast in a three part series. 

The first episode I covered “Attract” with Justin Champion and Meghan Keaney Anderson from HubSpot.

The second episode I covered “Convert” with Angela Hicks and Meghan Keaney Anderson from HubSpot.

In the third and final episode I covered “Close” and “Delight” with Brian Signorelli, Mark Kilens and Meghan Keaney Anderson from HubSpot.

Learning inbound marketing as a financial institution can make a difference in your results! 

You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, iheartradio