Can Credit Union Marketing Campaigns Keep Pace With Omnichannel Banking?

It’s no secret that the movement of mobile technology to an increasingly shrinking screen size – and now to wearables and screen-less virtual assistant technology like Alexa – have posed considerable challenges to credit unions. Credit unions are known for being community-focused and developing relationships rather than for being cutting edge and tech-savvy. When we think about these challenges, we might be tempted to mostly consider them from a user experience perspective – concerns such as the expense and effort involved in choosing and constructing a digital banking platform, or how to make the platform aesthetically desirable enough for credit union members to download, adopt and integrate into their banking habits. However, I would like to suggest that an aspect of omnichannel banking credit unions aren’t considering enough is how it can improve their ability to market across all digital contexts.

The Incredible Shrinking Interface

To be clear, marketing within omnichannel banking can be a pain point for all traditional financial institutions, not just credit unions. Screen sizes for most users become more compact with each iteration of wearable technology, and optimizing a platform for smartphone use now means accommodating a wide range of screen sizes. This creates a real marketing challenge, with only a few inches of real estate granted for each opportunity to grab a user’s attention. To add to this burden, many of the other applications available on mobile and wearable devices are flashy and highly interactive, and offer the convenience of one-click purchasing options, which make impulse buys more alluring. Although e-commerce and “quantified lifestyle” apps may not be a credit union’s market competitors, they are all stiff competition when it comes to fighting for attention and adoption from digital banking users. So how does a credit union leverage marketing opportunities within the omnichannel sphere’s most daunting form factors: In-application marketing for mobile devices, wearables, and to a certain extent, voice-assisted banking devices?

Coping Strategies for Credit Unions

One important strategy is learning how to craft your message around the form factor of a device and its user’s experience. For instance, those tiny wearables screens I mentioned earlier have little room for messaging and features, so we have to think about the features users access most often, and focus your marketing around those features. We can’t run a detailed banner ad explaining how our home loan rates are better than others, but we can prompt a user accessing their savings account to ask if a home loan is something that they’re interested in hearing more about. Many wearables utilize a detailed mark (such as the dot on my Samsung smartwatch) as a signal for notifications. While these tiny interface features may be easy to dismiss, even things like the color or shape you choose can be a powerful opportunity to emphasize your brand. To that point, a potential advantage of omnichannel banking is that all of your users’ digital applications are interacting with one another, and thus your smartwatch is “aware” that the user was looking at the home loan section of their credit union’s website last weekend. This chain of communication means a smartwatch can remind the user of that in a way that’s not obnoxious and doesn’t interfere with usability. Think about marketing message implementation within mobile banking as a chance to be creative and to go for bold, simple, creative ideas.

Another important consideration for marketing within mobile banking relates to customization and branding. Mobile interfaces are the perfect opportunity to show off your brand in a very aesthetically-pleasing and clever manner, so consider partnering with digital service providers that allow your brand to dominate the appearance of your members’ mobile experience. Everything from button size and color to logos and simple ads can and should be fully customized according to your marketing needs and the desires of your members. Most credit unions have highly loyal, long-term members. Rather than allowing your mobile banking vendor(s) to dictate what they think your marketing should look like, they should be drawing from the wealth of knowledge you’ve accumulated based on years of your members’ repeat behaviors. For example, are a large percentage of your members elderly or in need of assistive technology? Thinking about design affordances for the elderly and disabled may not be typically recognized as an aspect of marketing, but allowing a message to be conveyed to as many people as possible is at the bedrock of making mobile banking work to your advantage.

Place Members at the Center of Marketing Priorities

Empathy and consideration of user experience are vital elements of marketing, not just UX design. More importantly, focusing on your members’ needs is central to the credit union philosophy. The challenges of omnichannel banking can be used as a fulcrum to take marketing to the next level if we consider the matter holistically; the challenge of fitting marketing into the small corners of a mobile app is entirely tertiary if you and your digital vendors haven’t taken the time to build an app that is usable, beautiful and communicates to your members with the goal of encouraging high adoption rates. Also, keep in mind that stylized, personal account settings with fun colors and animations don’t create value if users can’t easily adjust their text sizes. To develop effective marketing campaigns for mobile banking interfaces, we must start thinking about marketing in a way that highlights creativity and individual needs.

Siva G. Narendra is CEO and Co-founder for Tyfone, Inc. He can be reached at 661-412-2233 or siva.narendra@tyfone.com.