Deploying Marketing Automation for Credit Unions

All businesses feel the need for speed. But what good is that increased activity if your aim is off? Technology has long been sold on the promise of providing better, more cost-effective and faster production, but much is lost when all the company is doing is speeding up old, poorly-designed human processes.

We see this happen when companies attempt to implement marketing automation platforms that were not designed specifically with the modern credit union in mind. Fortunately, with the right marketing automation platform, credit unions can ensure best practices on the way to elevating performance.

Early marketing automation platforms made it easier to upload a spreadsheet of customer data into a list, allowing a marketer to use the technology to schedule a flight of marketing emails over time. However, this early automation also exposed the financial institution to risk. When a new customer receives an automatically generated offer for a product or service that they have already purchased at a higher cost, the relationship will be damaged.

Modern marketing automation platforms have the ability to sync in real time with the company’s other platforms, sharing data and information about the customer that can be effectively used to trigger marketing events. It also allows the credit union marketing department to segment its client and prospect lists in a very granular manner, which allows it to send out very specific offers to small sets of members. These platforms can send email, direct mail and text messaging, and offer some level of social media management. They can produce automated drip sequences as well as blast marketing. The return on these kinds of activities, when applied to the right member at the right time, is extremely high.

Marketing Automation Best Practices for CUs

Credit unions need to attract the attention of members and consumers to succeed, just like any other business. But there are things credit unions can accomplish with a good marketing automation system that other businesses cannot. Credit unions can fully capitalize on modern marketing platform power by following a number of industry best practices.

1. Provide loan status updates automatically. In study after study, consumers complain about the lack of information flowing back from their loan officers and real estate agents. Many leading originators train frontline customer service staff and loan officers to be proactive in updating consumers, but this is time-intensive and costly. It is far better for the credit union to task its automated marketing platform with providing frequent status updates to borrowers automatically. This takes a significant load off the staff and signals the member that the credit union values them and respects their time.
2. Maintain a strong connection while the borrower shops. Whether the credit union member is shopping for a new home or their next automobile, staying in touch with consumers as they shop for their purchase puts the loan originator in the perfect position to receive the financing business as soon as the member makes a decision. Today’s marketing automation platforms are very capable of helping credit unions stay well-connected with members as they shop for their next purchase. Setting up these systems to keep leads warm is a best practice must for credit unions. In fact, we have customers that have improved auto loan purchase closings by 44% just by implementing this practice.
3. Automate new member onboarding. Successfully bringing a new member into the credit union is a critical undertaking that far too many institutions take too lightly. A smooth onboarding experience will set the tone for the engagement and has been correlated to the lifetime value of the member relationship and the ultimate share-of-wallet the institution will achieve. Some credit unions spend a lot of time and money recruiting, hiring, training and managing frontline member service staff to bring new members on board, but this can present many cost and management challenges. With the right marketing automation platform, the credit union can provide all of the required information to the new member, ascertain their preferences and then create an experience for them that will help nurture a new relationship.
4. Offer mortgage shopping advice. The federal government is working hard to convince borrowers that they should shop for their new loan, providing rate information through government websites. This is causing competition for new loans to heat up, but it can also be an advantage for the credit union that knows how to use its marketing automation platform.

By staying in touch with its members and offering them the kind of information they need while shopping for a new home, car or loan, the credit union can short-circuit the shopping process by becoming a participant in the member’s buying process. Then, when the borrower is ready to move forward with the mortgage application, the credit union will be well-positioned to be the lender of choice.

This is so important for the credit union’s home finance business because the cost to originate is so very high. In 2018, it costs nearly $8,000 to originate a loan, $3,000 of which will be spent before the loan ever gets to application. Staying in touch with members and educating them about their options can double closing ratios and slash these costs.

Investing in the Right Kind of Marketing Automation Platform

Setting up a system to employ trigger marketing, one of the most prized automation capabilities, requires a near real-time integration with the other data platforms in use by the credit union. It also requires the creation of a customized data schema for use by the marketing automation platform so that triggers can be created, and then marketing campaigns can be designed for use when those triggers are activated.

The initial expense to set up these systems to employ intelligent automation properly can vary. However, once implemented they can deliver the results and benefits professional marketers expect, and do so with a significant reduction in staff time. Perhaps one of the greatest advantages is the analytical power built into these platforms, which tells management exactly what is working and what needs to be adjusted.

Generic Enterprise Platforms: A Step in the Right Direction

Any business can benefit from automation of routine tasks, and therefore generic marketing automation platforms have proliferated to give marketing managers some relief from the work of responding to each new prospect with personal attention. The marketing contact can be personalized and delivered through a variety of channels.

Typically, these platforms have a wide range of functionality available out-of-the-box and can then be customized with the addition of trigger marketing functionality.

One disadvantage to these generic systems is that they generally require more staff to set up and operate, and they have very long implementation timelines as each interface to the company’s other information systems must be crafted individually. This lack of pre-built synchronization is common among generic systems, and because they are so customizable, they require the company to begin with a blank canvas. This often means hiring a consultant to get the most out of the system.

A more serious disadvantage of generic platforms is that they do not come with the capability to interface easily with typical credit union data schemas. For instance, a large generic platform may allow up to 1,000 custom data fields, which sounds sufficient until you realize that a typical credit union member has multiple products – perhaps several credit cards, a couple auto loans, a personal loan and an old mortgage. The generic platform will let too much data fall through and render trigger marketing efforts far less effective.

Finance Industry-Specific Platforms Cater to Lender-Specific Needs

The second class of marketing automation platforms have been created specifically for financial services. They offer all of the core capabilities available in the generic platforms and more, including the addition of the financial services data model. This gives them the ability to replicate all of the mortgage, consumer lending and banking products the typical credit union offers its members.

Having a better grasp of the real marketing requirements of the financial institution allows these platforms to offer true trigger marketing capabilities without the need for a large staff or long implementation timelines. This offers a much better cost-to-value ratio for credit unions.

Lenders that effectively balance big business volumes with the smallest details that matter to the individual member or customer have the opportunity to realize great success. We’ve all heard that the devil is in the details, and that is certainly true here.

Professional marketers need to know when to make an offer, and that’s where today’s marketing automation combined with credit union member data becomes a very potent combination. With the right platform and a strong commitment to best practices, advanced marketing automation technology allows credit unions to root the devil from the details and make the right offer to the right member at the right time.

Jeffrey Shood is Founder and CEO for Intuvo, a CU Direct company. He can be reached at jeff@intuvo.com.