What is thought leadership and how can it help your credit union?

Looking for new ways to distribute your credit union’s information to members? Your credit union has a tremendous knowledge base to share with members, from mortgage information and auto loans, to great financial services. Members should be taking advantage of all these offerings. What’s the best way to push that information out to them?

You credit union has embarked on social media campaigns, branch advertising, new banners for the website; what more can you do? Plenty!

Thought leadership is a broad term that can help demonstrate your credit union’s authority with members. To understand the power of thought leadership, marketers need to understand what their goals are when deploying an influence campaign. Essentially, the term describes the best practices around delivering information that will help form an action, or a favorable opinion from your audience. Thought leadership should be considered an important cornerstone of any marketing strategy. Plus, it’s a great way to other strategies together into one cohesive campaign.

Thought leadership is important for credit unions looking to help along the decision-making process for both the consumer member base and business membership. It is an effective way to reach many people at once to address a common concern or issue. Marketers have found this to be a useful tool in providing solutions or answering the big questions members are seeking or facing in a certain life’s stage. It’s a way to help the journey along and bring the member to the next step. The challenge is; what is the best next step to take?

If your credit union is looking to drive more engagement, look no further than thought leadership. As part of your content strategy, provide the information for consumption on social media, blog postings, trade article writing, webinars, video messaging and email campaigns.

Here are 5 tips to get your Thought Leadership campaign up and running:

1. Sharing credit union knowledge. Choose just one topic and run with it. What is your research saying about member needs? Be the leader driving interest to this topic and solutions your credit union can provide.

2. Who are your influencers? Seek out those in the organization who will be the face or voice of influence when promoting this message.

3. Are your thought leadership influencers available? When it comes to engagement follow-up, members may be looking for more one-on-one time with the influencer. There may be an opportunity, for example, to schedule webinars hosted by your influencers.

4. Know your audience. Make sure the message you are sending out matches the needs of those receiving it. Keep specific lists so the message is well received by members most likely to react.

5. Be human and don’t come off corporate. As an influencer, you want the message to be one that is easily understood and can be acted upon.

It’s important to realize a campaign may not have the same impact on one member, as it has on another. Don’t assume everyone will be influenced by what your credit union is saying. A consistent message that is focused will help to solidify your credit union’s position and a greater chance of achieving influence. For example, demonstrate the flexibility of auto leasing by describing the benefits in a series of communications that include blog posts, social media posts, branch advertising, email marketing and video marketing. This approach is an effective way to penetrate the market. This is an opportunity to build content around a specific piece of information for a set period. Thought leadership also provides information without the dreaded sales pitch, most members are immune to and ignore.

It’s a noisy marketplace out there. According to Forbes Magazine, 89% of buyers view content, especially thought leadership as critical part of the early stages of buying. In a crowded industry, specific content that will help to build your credit union into a leader on topics that help to generate business. The potential of this tool should never be overlooked.