Real-time engagement: Too costly for credit unions?

For marketers at financial institutions, the big buzzword over the past five years has been “ENGAGEMENT.” In fact, we’d bet our piggy bank that when your financial institution planned its marketing strategy for 2015, one of your top questions was, “How can we ENGAGE with our clients?” Then after you brainstormed ways to encourage engagement, your CFO’s next question was probably, “How much will all of that cost?!”

Until recently, methods for customer engagement were expensive and time-consuming. The big banks could afford to allot big bucks to ad agencies to create compelling content for social media and other channels, so customers would (hopefully) think of their FI as they shopped, ate, played, and worked. Meanwhile, credit unions spent precious time and money trying to connect with and engage new and current clients, so those people would choose their FI for each and every financial need.

But no matter the size of the institution, the trouble was this – people just did not think of their CU when they were buying a hoagie at the local deli, trying on a new pair of running shoes, or checking out the newest SUV. There was no immediate consumer-bank connection at or near the point of sale… until now.

 

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