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Most credit union marketing leaders agree that improving member engagement is worthwhile. Yet the question of, “Where do I start?” looms large in their minds. Launching a marketing automation program is a simple way to get up and running quickly.
What is Marketing Automation?
Marketing automation involves the use of technology tools to automate otherwise labor-intensive marketing activity. It aims to streamline marketing programs to make them more comprehensive, efficient, and scalable. Marketing automation also enables personalization to better target market segments.
Marketing automation can be deployed to support activities such as:
- Onboarding
- Email Marketing
- Lead Management
- Feedback Mechanisms
- Member Segmentation
- Social Media
- Analytics
- Content Management
- Personalization
Onboarding
A member’s first impression of the credit union can set the tone for the rest of their tenure. A poor initial experience may even contribute to premature attrition. Even if the member stays, it may take a long time and many positive interactions to overcome the negativity at the outset. A well-executed onboarding program ensures all new members receive a uniform welcome experience.
Marketing automation allows the onboarding program to be efficiently scaled no matter how many newcomers walk through the front door. Such a system can send personalized welcome emails on a pre-determined schedule for all new members. The content may include how-to tutorials on using credit union services and finding member support channels.
Email Marketing
Email marketing can make a significant contribution to deepening engagement by scheduling personalized communications with members based on many possible triggers:
- New member welcome
- Birthday, anniversary, or member tenure milestones
- Behavioral triggers like website visits, other email openings, click-throughs, inbound telephone calls, follow-ups to outbound customer service or marketing calls, and transactional activity.
An example would be a re-engagement campaign targeting members with a particular mix of account types and low transaction activity. This could trigger emails with offers that motivate additional activity by the member.
Lead Management
When leads come into the credit union, maximizing their potential with efficient management is essential. Marketing automation processes can be programmed to score leads and respond to each with the right message via the right channel at the right time. For example, some leads may merit an email response, while higher-potential qualified leads are flagged for a call from credit union staff.
The system can also track leads as they progress through the sales funnel so marketers can evaluate the success of each marketing campaign.
Feedback Mechanisms
Gathering and evaluating feedback from members provides critical information to credit union decision-makers. Such programs also boost member engagement by conveying a sense that the credit union cares about what they think.
However, managing a comprehensive feedback survey program can be complicated and time-consuming. Automating the process allows for more feedback touchpoints and an organized means to analyze large amounts of data effectively.
Member Segmentation
Every credit union marketer knows their member base is not monolithic. Yet, creating meaningful segments can be a hit-or-miss proposition. Marketing automation can simplify the process by first gathering data from various sources, including member demographic data, transactional history, or activity across multiple channels like email, social media, website, and phone.
Determining the most compelling segments from the data depends on the marketing objectives. Segments created to increase existing member engagement might be different from those that would be most effective for a campaign to attract new members.
Marketing automation can also help evaluate segment performance by supporting tools like A/B testing to determine the success of various initiatives. Armed with this information, segments or messaging can be adjusted before testing again.
Personalization
Personalization means designing content that aligns with an individual member's preferences and characteristics. It positively impacts customer satisfaction, conversion rate, and engagement because members feel the credit union understands them as unique people.
Personalization is made possible by collecting data from across the user experience spectrum, including demographics, phone/in-person interactions, transaction behavior, and usage of digital channels like websites and social media. Organizing all this disparate data into a coherent picture of an individual member is only possible with a technology tool like marketing automation.
Social Media
Marketing automation can drive social media programs more efficiently than humans alone. Posts can be scheduled across social media platforms, followed by tracking the resulting engagement and interactions.
The posts can be tailored to target audiences via a content management component of the marketing automation system using member segmentation and individual member data.
Analytics
A marketing automation system can measure and integrate results and track member actions across many channels, such as websites, mobile, social media, and phones. Credit union marketers can gain a 360-degree view of members by taking a member-centric perspective. Analyzing this data provides decision-makers with the optimal input for making the best choices about the next steps toward improving member engagement.
Content Management
When marketers attempt to reach multiple segments with targeted content across multiple channels, they face the highly complex challenge of delivering the right content to the right members at the right time. Marketing automation content management systems help keep members engaged with relevant information without requiring manual content curation. For example, such a system can handle the assembly and distribution of newsletters with personalized content to member subsegments.
Marketing Automation Benefits
With the above examples of marketing automation’s capabilities, it’s clear that the credit union reaps many benefits from this technology:
- Improved Efficiency – The complexity of tasks in today’s successful marketing operation would be impossible to achieve manually. Levering this technology permits massively greater capability with a far more efficient allocation of internal resources.
- Deeper Member Engagement—Marketing automation technology's ability to make segmentation and personalization possible constitutes a quantum leap forward in the quest for deeper member engagement. Despite their great numbers, individual members grow to feel a level of intimacy with the credit union that echoes the spirit of member loyalty during the industry’s beginnings.
- Scalability—This technology allows credit union marketers to accomplish on a large scale what previously could only be accomplished on a small, expensive boutique basis. While avoiding unmanageable increases in internal resources, marketers can deploy best-in-class marketing practices.
- Better Lead Management – As leads are managed efficiently through the sales funnel, conversion rates increase, and decision-makers have more visibility to performance data in near real-time.
- Data-Driven Decisions—Throughout all marketing processes, credit union leadership can assess performance across multiple metrics, strengthening the foundation for data-driven decision-making.
