Inside Marketing: Let’s get digital

As I prepared to immerse myself in a digital marketing certification program a few months ago, I came across this statement on the university’s website: “Digital marketing is really a misnomer—there is no marketing today that is not digital.” This sentence could not ring any truer. I embraced this sentiment about three years prior when I set out to reposition my skills and experience for job opportunities in a new market and soon realized that what I knew about marketing was considered “traditional marketing.” Marketing, like so many other disciplines, has been flipped on its head in the digital era.

With the real-time distribution of information today and consumers’ ability to get information on the go with the tap of a screen, making digital marketing a key part of your overall business strategy is no longer an option, but a requirement. For credit unions and other financial institutions, this reality has changed the buyer’s journey. Your members are making financial decisions based on information online, and they expect to be able to complete transactions that once required an in-branch visit on their mobile device at their convenience. According to a recent article on Think With Google titled “When People Are Ready to Invest, Digital Is Their First Stop,”

“People are turning to digital very early in the research process. Many people are using it as a tool for learning which products and services are available. In fact, over half of online investors don’t even have a brand in mind when they start looking. That drives a rigorous online search process, with 86% of potential investors spending more than an hour researching online.”   

Is your credit union engaging your members and potential members digitally? Are you visible when and where they’re doing their digital research? If the answer is no, why not? Digital marketing is a win-win; it’s not just important in building brand awareness and engaging with your current and potential members, but it’s also important in guiding your business decisions and achieving future goals. Yes, “traditional marketing” (print placements, TV/radio advertising, billboards, etc.) still has its place, especially for community-based institutions like credit unions, but there are many reasons why digital marketing deserves to play a vital role in your overall marketing strategy.

 

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