When a major bank announced it was pulling out of the small business loan market about a year ago, Lynne Viccaro O'Leary recalled seeing a deluge of ads from financial institutions in the New York metro area that trumpeted their sudden love for small businesses.

“The first thing I said to my staff, [was] to paraphrase comedian Chris Rock, 'you are a financial institution; you are supposed to lend money. So what?'” said Viccaro O'Leary, marketing vice president for the $5 billion Teachers Federal Credit Union in Hauppague, N.Y.

Answering that question led Viccaro O'Leary to shape an idea that helped Teachers FCU stand out above the crowd of banks claiming their newly found affinity for small business loans.

She came up with the idea of the TFCUniversity Business Clinic, a venue to provide business owners with straightforward and practical education, information and advice that can help grow their organizations. It sounds like a good concept. But would time-strapped business owners attend an early morning conference?

“We wanted to gauge the interest first because we weren't sure,” Viccaro O'Leary said. “This is a free event and usually when you do a free event it could go one or two ways. You may get a lot of interest upfront but then no now shows up. You just don't know until you do it.”

Titled, “Secrets to Building Your Business on Long Island,” the first TFCUnversity Business Clinic was held in October 2014 and featured a panel of experts including successful local business owners. The seminar was promoted to offer tips and information on hiring the people with the right expertise, creating multiple streams of revenue, building loyal product and service ambassadors, and leveraging local demographics and Long Island's unique geographic attributes to develop business opportunities.

However, on the day of the pilot conference, there wasn't much optimism that anyone would show up.

“The weather was horrible that day, nothing but torrential downpours; it was a monsoon,” Viccaro O'Leary recalled. “But to my surprise, about 50 people showed up.”

Teachers FCU then knew there was enough interest to go ahead with the quarterly seminars in 2015 starting with a Jan. 22 TCFUniversity conference on marketing.

That topic was selected after the credit union conducted a simple online questionnaire that asked member and non-member business owners five multiple-choice questions about their biggest pain points. Of the 10,000 online questionnaires emailed, the credit union recorded an 50% response rate, according to Viccaro O'Leary.

“We couldn't believe it. We were overwhelmed with the response but we got a lot of good information from it,” she said. “Marketing, by far, was their No. 1 pain point. I think, in part, that is their biggest pain point because marketing is misunderstood. It's a giant subject. If you asked 10 different people what is marketing, you would get 10 different answers.”

The credit union recruited a panel of six experts with extensive and successful experience in their marketing niches including digital marketing, design, direct marketing, branding, public relations, as well as media and advertising. For this conference, “30 Marketing Ideas in 60 Minutes,” the weather cooperated and 88 business owners and executives attended.

To keep the seminar moving, each panelist spoke on five low-cost or free marketing ideas, and they had two minutes to talk about each concept.

“The format kept people engaged and didn't allow any one panelist to drone on or dominate the discussion,” Viccaro O'Leary explained, who served as TFCUniversity's business clinic moderator.

Small business owners also had the opportunity to ask questions of each panelist.

“The impression I got was the reactions from small business owners,” said Ken Braun one of the six panelists who spoke on digital marketing. “They really got a tremendous amount of value from all of the different panelists. People were excited about learning things they had never known before because they are not experts in these areas. Each panelist gave so much insights and value that it was totally clear that everyone was so excited .”

Braun, who is not a member of TFCU, owns Lounge Lizard Worldwide, a marketing and branding company in Patchogue, N.Y. He said it seemed that everyone who attended the seminar stayed for about an hour to ask follow-up questions of the panelists.

“I have never seen anything like this before, as least from the perspective from a bank,” Braun observed. “It was so impressive to see that Teachers is so entrenched in the local community and that they decided to do this seminar to enhance that. The credit union said, 'we're part of the community and we care because we are bringing you people who can help you,' and that is rare.”

On April 23, Teachers FCU plans to holds another seminar on franchises and one on cybersecurity and fraud July 23.

“With all the different marketing endeavors that are out there, there is really no substitution for providing good information face to face and really listening to what your members and what your potential members are saying,” Viccaro O'Leary said. “That to me probably was the strongest lesson.”

The need for credit unions to differentiate their marketing messages is even more critical today than ever before, especially when it comes to business loans, she added.

“Most people don't think of credit unions and business loans. They just don't,” Viccaro O'Leary said. “We are getting there, but a credit union is not the first place entrepreneurs think of when starting a business and their need for a business line of credit, credit cards, and business accounts. They are not thinking about credit unions, so we are trying to underscore that a little bit.”