Four budget priorities for 2019

September is here. Leaves are falling. Football fans are cheering. Temperatures are dropping.

And credit union and bank marketers everywhere are preparing their 2019 budgets. As we enter bank and credit union strategic planning season, financial marketers turn their attention to the upcoming year. We dust off the handy-dandy Excel spreadsheets, sharpen our pencils and try to remember those math skills we avoided during school.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of just doing the “same ‘ol, same ‘ol” when we work on our budgets. We review what we did last year, being careful not to make too many drastic changes. Maybe we increase some dollars in one area while reducing the investment in another.

One of the best ways to allocate your dollars, however, is through “impact budgeting.” With this approach, you determine what items will have the most impact on your credit union or bank. Then you devote your resources to those areas. In other words, put your marketing dollars where you will garner the highest return on investment.

So what are some issues that will give you “impact budgeting?” Here are four priorities as you prepare your 2019 marketing budget:

 

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