If you’ve ever watched the Netflix show “Tidying Up With Marie Kondo,” you know that people can have messy rooms, messy garages and messy homes. Kondo says in a preview episode, “I’m so excited because I love mess.”
Credit union marketing can also be quite a mess. But unlike Kondo, you don’t love a marketing mess.
One reason your marketing can be a mess is because it lacks clarity. As Donald Miller says in his book “How To Grow Your Small Business,” “Marketing should not be about manipulation. It should be about clarity.”
Unfortunately, too many credit unions have marketing clutter rather than marketing clarity. It’s a common trap we see when conducting marketing assessments for credit unions all across the country. Below are three areas where there is a lack of clarity in credit union marketing and three ways to get more clarity in your marketing.
Where There Is a Lack of Clarity in Credit Union Marketing
1. Targets
Your credit union cannot be all things to all people. So stop trying. Gaining marketing clarity begins with refining your focus. In fact, your brand will not succeed without focus.
For example, in a recent strategic planning session I was working with the CEO and board chairman ahead of time. I asked them as part of the pre-work who their target audiences were. There was a long pause. And then they said, “Yes!” It turns out they were trying to be all things to all people in their entire state. It was a terrible strategy. So we spent time in their session refining their focus. Today they are much more successful not by targeting the masses but reaching the niches.
2. Return on Investment (ROI)
Sometimes credit unions have a marketing mess because they don’t track results. Marketing is just about the numbers as accounting is. Do you know where your marketing dollars are going? As marketing pioneer John Wanamaker famously said, “Half my advertising spend is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half.”
The more clear you are with your results, the better clarity you will have. If you don’t know what is working, then you can’t possibly have clarity in your marketing. Credit unions should track campaign results, share of wallet, website visits, Net Promoter Score, mystery shop service results, products per household and search engine optimization numbers to name just a few.
3. Brand Messaging
What makes your credit union different? Can you answer that question clearly? One great test to see if you have a lack of clarity in this area is to ask your staff that question (what makes us different?). If you get answers that are all over the place, then clearly you don’t have clarity in your brand messaging.
You must communicate your message clearly, quickly and credibly while striking an emotional chord. If your brand message is not emotional, then more than likely it is not connecting with consumers.
How to Get Clarity in Your Marketing
1. Cut the copy. Marketers are word people. But are consumers reading your words? Probably not. Why? One reason is because we are writing too much. And too much copy creates confusion, not clarity.
One of the best ways to gain clarity with your marketing is simply to cut. Cut your words. As marketing guru Seth Godin says, “Say what you need to say, then leave. Less is actually more.”
Where possible, use bullets, lists, subheads and short paragraphs. If necessary, break a long item into multiple pieces. The key is to make your copy “scannable.”
2. Focus the message. In addition to cut, cut, cut being a solution, your marketing must also refine, refine, refine. As in refine your message. Too many times marketers try to shove multiple messages into one marketing piece. For example, a campaign originally starts as a focus on auto loans. But then additional messages about GAP, credit life & disability and other services get added to that one piece. And then you end up with multiple messages rather than one.
When focusing your message, focus on your members’ pain points. In other words, talk more about solutions and less about products.
3. Refine your niche. As mentioned above, you cannot be all things to all people. One of the best strategic steps your credit union can take is to determine who you are great at serving and then reaching those people.
Narrow your target list to between three and four niches. Some emerging markets include millennial moms, HENRYs (highly educated, not rich yet), remote workers and conscious consumers.
Over time it’s easy for your house to get cluttered. It’s no different with credit union marketing: Over time, it just gets cluttered. However, marketing clutter leads to marketing confusion. One of the best ways to improve your marketing is to improve its clarity.
Mark Arnold is founder and president of On the Mark Strategies, a Dallas, Texas-based consulting firm specializing in branding and strategic planning for credit unions.