After a credit union has a good understanding of the characteristics that make up the most profitable members, Butterfield recommends working with a credit provider to leverage that data to identify new prospective members and borrowers within the field of membership. However, Butterfield added this is not a one-and-done strategy. Instead, success can be accomplished from adjusting, testing and monitoring criteria to find the best approaches.

He pointed out that Experian has recently developed “relationship clusters” that can assist credit unions with identifying potential members/borrowers who have a greater propensity to select a credit union over a bank.

“The cluster filter can be applied over most credit union products and it increases the likelihood of targeting consumers open to credit union product offerings,” he said. “Initial results are remarkable with a triple-digit increase in consumer response rates on these clusters.”

Nidhi Verma, vice president of consulting for Innovative Solutions Group at TransUnion in Chicago, said there are market growth opportunities for credit unions in auto loans, credit cards, first-time homebuyers and HELOCs.

Though credit unions have been aggressively growing their share of the auto finance market, they tend to be more risk conservative than their peers. Verma pointed out that regional banks originated 30% of auto loan balances to below prime consumers compared to just 25% of originations for credit unions.

“Credit unions can diversify their portfolio risk by attracting savvy consumers via prescreen offers or optimize pricing to lower-risk consumers to capture untapped segments,” she said.

What's more, while there has been much industry angst that millennials are less interested in owning a car, it appears that anxiety has been misplaced. It turns out, millennials (21- to 34-year-olds) took out new auto loans at a 21% higher rate than Gen X borrowers did when they were in their 20s and 30s, according to a 2017 TransUnion study. Additionally, research by Auto Trader and Kelly Blue Book found that more than 90% of Generation Z (12- to 18-year-olds) plan to own a vehicle. Another option for credit unions in 2018 is to consider expanding their vehicle loan portfolio by offering members a leasing program.

“While mixed reports have the new car sales market with little to flat growth, the desire to lease continues in popularity as aggressive incentives can be readily found,” Frank Rinaudo, SVP of GrooveCar Inc. and CU Xpress Lease in Hauppauge, N.Y., said.

Leasing represents more than 30% of new car sales nationwide, but in more urban centers, that number increases to more than 70%, according to Rinaudo.

“Credit unions should include leasing to provide all the financial options to satisfy the member,” he said. “The point is, strive to be competitive 100% of the time.”

Marketing credit cards is another opportunity for credit unions to grow revenue.

According to TransUnion, 43% of members do not carry a credit card with their credit union, and the risk distribution among these 19 million members is mostly concentrated in the prime and above risk tiers.

“The credit union member who carries a credit union card uses it more than the average bank card,” Verma explained. “Using this insight, credit unions can focus on enhanced product value proposition, specifically for [members] in the higher credit tiers.”

TransUnion's data also revealed that credit unions lagged in mortgage originations with first-time homebuyers. In 2016, for example, 24% of credit union originations were to first-time homebuyers compared to 35% of non-credit union lenders.

Additionally, during the first week of 2018, mortgage applications rose 8.3%, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association report.

In marketing to first-time homebuyers, credit unions can leverage propensity scores to target this important consumer segment nearly eight months before they enter the mortgage market, according to Verma.

HELOCs also hold a potential marketing opportunity for credit unions because more than two-thirds of homeowners, whose credit scores skew strongly to the top tier, could be eligible for a HELOC.

“With access to property data and propensity scores, credit unions can identify a segment of consumers who are likely to open a HELOC,” Verma said.

The rising interest in marketing automation is expected to continue in 2018, which can help credit unions attract consumers when they are ready or close-to-ready to buy a financial product or service.

“This technology is a crucial part of the digital growth engine, which we define as digital advertising that drives traffic to a website that sells,” James Robert Lay, CEO of the Digital Growth Institute in Houston, said. “In turn, the website that sells generates leads that are nurtured by the marketing automation platform through the consumer journey. And finally, sales enablement technology empowers credit unions to close more leads for loans and new accounts.”

While a thorough due diligence process will help credit unions decide which marketing automation technology may fit their needs, it is also crucially important to first develop a strategic plan so that credit unions understand how they will execute and evaluate ROIs from their marketing automation program. Without that plan, credit unions will never realize the full benefits of marketing automation, Lay said.On the social media front, credit unions are expected to expand their use of Instagram and Snapchat because that is where many young prospects are hanging out.

“I expect Instagram to continue to grow in popularity on the paid and organic side. It gives credit unions a chance to use images and videos to capture the attention of a user,” Marne Franklin, digital director for Your Marketing Co. in Greenville, S.C., said. “A compelling visual is able to make an emotional connection that amplifies the power of the message. By utilizing paid Instagram messaging, credit unions can include a link directly to their website within the post, an option not available on organic posts.”

Although Snapchat is enjoyed by millions of young people, it may be somewhat trickier for credit unions to capture the attention of this audience, which is primarily under the age of 25.

“The campaigns that have been successful, which admittedly aren't many at this point, have found a way to integrate the credit union message into users' everyday lives via custom geofilters,” she said.

Leveraging topical-based marketing may be an effective way to capture the attention of young prospective members through online and mobile banking channels, Brian Bellhorn, a Detroit,-Mich.-based director of marketing and business development at Fiserv, said.

“What I mean by content-based marketing is also topical-based marketing,” Bellhorn explained. “I think what we are seeing is quite a proliferation of wrapping the marketing content around something that is happening in the industry that appeals to consumers. One of the biggest trends we've seen in the past year that's really boomed in 2017, and I expect to continue into 2018, is the news around credit scores.”

Fiserv research showed that about 64% of U.S. consumers understand that it's very important to know what their credit score is in order to qualify for a loan product. While consumers used to check their credit score once a year through free credit report sites, it's much different today with younger consumers who tend to check their credit scores more often.

Research showed Gen Xers and millennials are most likely to be more proactive and view their credit score for functional reasons such as improving their score.

“We actually built out a tool that will help credit unions serve up the credit scores through their online banking channels and through their mobile channels,” Bellhorn explained. “What it really has built for marketers is not just a chance to serve members. That's obviously why credit unions are in business, but more than that, it's an excellent marketing opportunity to offer a loan, by example, or a credit card to that member, who's already somewhat pre-qualified.”