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A Plan of Action
It’s that time of year when marketers everywhere are sitting down to build next year’s marketing plan. They’re pulling out their strategic plans and identifying the goals they’re going to tackle for 2012. And they’re asking these questions: What is it that our members want and need from us? What can we do to get them to use our products and services more? We understand that you know your members intimately, but if you’re anecdotally defining their needs, it may be time to verify your beliefs through marketing research.
You can use marketing research to assist you in accomplishing your most challenging goals, including:
- New membership growth
- Increasing wallet share and retention
- Improving member service
- Assessing member loyalty
- Measuring member overall satisfaction
- Identifying new products or services
You have the ability to reach your goals by finding out what your members are thinking and doing through the use of member surveys, focus groups, member analytics and website analytics.
- Member surveys are a great tool to provide insight into member loyalty and to help improve member satisfaction. Member surveys can be done via mail, telephone or online. Although online surveys are growing, mail surveys still tend to have the highest return rate.
- Focus groups allow you to dig deeper into your members’ thoughts and desires about their banking needs and your credit union. Credit unions typically utilize focus groups when they are exploring a big change like introducing a new name or brand. This type of research can be expensive, but the insights you gain are well worth the effort.
- Member analytics are a wonderful tool that provides an in-depth analysis of your current membership. The reports provide a thorough understanding of your membership, which in turn gives you insight into wallet share growth, retention strategies and member loyalty. When developing marketing strategies, a comprehensive understanding and knowledge of your membership is a valuable tool. This is also a great place to start when you build a member loyalty program or a rewards program.
- SEO and website analytics are tools used to effectively drive traffic to your website and to help you evaluate the behavior of website visitors. By tracking visitor behavior with website analytics, you can put more emphasis on the keywords and sources that bring the visitors you want to your website.
According to CUNA, one in three credit unions conduct member surveys in-house, especially those with assets of $50 million or below. For the credit unions that have the staff time, expertise and software available, this can be a very cost-effective way to manage your research.
For those that don't, most marketing research providers can customize their services to match most budgets and they have the tools and resources to accurately and informatively analyze the data. They also can provide your credit union benchmark data from other credit unions to compare to your results. If you decide to outsource, Marketing Solutions has marketing research experts that can work with your credit union on all or just a portion of your research endeavors.
Before you venture down this road of marketing research, keep in mind that you shouldn’t ask what your members want if you don’t intend to act. Their answers might make you realize that some of your products and services aren’t as popular as you think or that your member service isn’t reaching its potential. Your credit union needs to be prepared to really assess and explore survey results and be willing to shift its strategy where needed to not only help you reach your goals, but to give your members what they want and need.
Related Services: Marketing Research Services, Online Services
Working with a Strategy Partner
As you may know, Membership Enhancement Solutions provides a value driven membership enhancement program called Invest in America (IIA). Participating credit unions are able to develop their membership enhancement strategies and align them to IIA’s strategy, which can present a real opportunity for auto loan, non-interest income and debit/credit card transaction growth. To assist in these efforts, Invest in America posts its marketing calendar online so you can plan your marketing activities accordingly.
IIA is in the early stages of a four-month long Web banner ad and online search media campaign that integrates seven key themes that focus on the program’s key partners. Monthly IIA marketing calendars, available in the LoveMyCreditUnion.org Partner Center, provide significant dates and recommended actions so your credit union can take full advantage of IIA’s major year-end campaign. For example, this month's calendar has the dates and suggested locations to post DIRECTV, GM and home improvement banners on your website which tie into the campaign. These banners can also be found in the Partner Center and can easily be placed in the appropriate areas of your website.
Ongoing Invest in America marketing efforts include weekly emails, blogs and social media posts whose subject matter is listed in the calendar. As part of this initiative, IIA sends weekly emails to those members who have opted in for additional program information. IIA also sends credit unions weekly emails that they can send to their members. Participating credit unions have come to rely on the marketing calendar to plan their marketing strategy, ensuring it aligns with the weekly IIA emails.
Membership Enhancement Solutions strives to provide you with valuable turnkey tools that enable you to align your marketing strategy with Invest in America’s. This alignment in turn optimizes your member enhancement efforts and ties them to your core services.
Related Services: Invest in America, Credit Union Member Discount from GM, DIRECTV
Calling All Members! How to Get People to Your Website
(Hint: It’s about more than looks!)
Beauty, while definitely in the eye of the beholder, only touches the surface of the qualities your website should possess. By “beauty” we mean a creative design, a well thought out site architecture and a flow that makes navigating your site a breeze.
But—just as there’s more to your credit union than shares, drafts, and loans—there’s more to your site than beautiful functionality. There are the functions at work below the surface of the site—the search engine optimization (SEO) tools that help draw members to your site and help increase your site’s effectiveness in attracting and retaining members. Think of all the potential members who are searching Google to find a financial institution. You want them to find you first among the hundreds of available options. Here’s how to help make that happen.
Begin with Keywords and Metadata
Start with the basics. When writing your content, be sure to include keywords on every page. Keywords are best placed in the first 50-100 words of the page’s content, but adding them sooner is even better. Next, be sure to add metadata (data about content) and search terms to each page of your site, and then add alt/title tags to all photos. It’s a really good start, but you need to take it even further.
Incorporate Google AdWords
By incorporating the most searched words from Google AdWords into your website (not to mention your social media and online marketing content) you can improve your searchability and help increase your chances of being at the top of Google’s search list. For example, “online banking” is a popular phrase for searchers. In your website content, use the phrase multiple times without sounding redundant, usually three to four times per page.
Top Google AdWords and phrases can be purchased from Google, enhancing your site’s searchability. AdWords allows you to set your daily budget and will even estimate your daily clicks, based on what you’re able to spend.
Review the Stats
Along with keywords and AdWords, you have to take a look at the stats. Google Analytics presents a variety of statistics (which we can always help you analyze). At first glance, the information might appear overwhelming, but take some time to delve in and really learn what the numbers are telling you.
A recent Ragan.com blog suggested four steps to help users get more out of Google Analytics: “make goals; it’s more than just page views and clicks; set up weekly or monthly custom reports; and use the advanced segments feature.” Let’s look at each of these:
- Set goals – Without goals, you won’t know exactly what you are measuring—or if there’s been any improvement. After you write your goals, use the goals feature on Google Analytics to track your progress.
- Look beyond page views and clicks – Instead of reviewing only page views (which simply reflect how many times viewers opened a Web page), review other statistics, such as the number of unique visitors, the amount of time spent on the page and where visitors are coming from.
- Set up weekly or monthly custom reports – Standard reports are helpful, but custom reports give you the data you choose. In Google Analytics, you have the ability to create and automate custom reports with your key measurables and objectives.
- Use the advanced segments feature – If you want to track the traffic to your site that comes from a certain source (such as your Facebook page), use the advanced segments tool. In his tutorial, How to Use Advanced Segments in Google Analytics to Isolate SEO Problems, Glenn Gabe states, “Advanced Segments are relatively easy to set up, they are retroactive (letting you run reporting on past traffic), and can help you isolate any type of visitor you are trying to analyze.”
Remember your goal is getting members and potential members to visit your site and use your products and services. And that’s the most beautiful result of all!
Related Services: Website Design and Development, Online Services
How Performance Goals Contribute to a Credit Union’s Overall Strategy
For the past couple of decades, mergers have been occurring in many industries, and have possibly been more prevalent in credit unions. While CEOs diligently review the financial part of the merger, another critical part of the merger involves the people side of the equation. Human resources’ role can be one of the most important, aside from the financial review. There are two major pieces that HR handles during the merger: the strategy side – policies, practices and benefits, and the people side – emotions and culture.
The Strategy Side
The acquirer’s HR strategy can vary greatly from that of the company being merged. Some questions that should be addressed:
- Do you lead or lag the market in terms of compensation and benefits?
- What are your workplace policies?
- What are your pay policies, i.e., overtime, incentive plans and bonuses?
- What benefit plans do you offer?
- Is there a match on the 401(k) plan?
It’s important to create a spreadsheet to compare the two companies with reference to the above questions so any gaps can be identified. Typically, the acquiring company’s strategy will overrule but there can be some integration of the two, especially where there may be significant differences between the two companies.
When acquisitions occur, there are usually layoffs due to a duplication of manpower. This reality means coordinating separation and severance pay issues. Laws and regulations to be considered through this process include, but are not limited to, Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) of 1988. Additionally, with increased combined headcount sometimes comes increased legal compliance. Many federal and state laws are based on headcount, such as the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Federal and state law requirements need to be identified and brought forward to senior management to anticipate any additional costs and/or policy changes that may be implemented as a result.
The People Side
Mergers also bring about an array of emotions. Employees on both sides of the merger are most likely experiencing some of the following:
- Anxiety – Will I still have a job? What will the new compensation structure be like?
- Resistance – I’m happy where I am and with what I’m doing.
- Fear – What if I don’t like the new culture?
- Trust – How do I know I can believe what they tell us?
Effective Methods to Address Emotional Concerns
First and foremost, HR needs to ensure communication occurs frequently throughout the merger process. It’s a good idea to use multiple avenues of communication to ensure you reach everyone such as a company intranet, FAQs and all-hands meetings. Also, arming managers with information they can share with their staff is very helpful, along with question and answer sessions. Keeping the transaction as transparent as possible, with an appropriate level of disclosure, will ease the anxiety employees are experiencing. Failure to do so could allow the rumor mill to drive the communication process.
It’s important to know where each organization is emotionally before entering the merger. Conducting an employee opinion survey may be an effective method to give insight to the workplace climate and uncover any hurdles. In addition to the survey, developing a presence through on-site visits and interactions with employees may help create trust and reduce resistance.
Fortunately, mergers usually don’t occur overnight. HR should be involved in the process from the very beginning so they can complete their due diligence as thoroughly as the financial side of the transaction.
Related Services: HR Consulting Services, Strategic Planning Resources
What Staff Performance Goals Mean to a Credit Union’s Overall Strategy
Distinct, measurable goals and regular communication is one of the best ways to improve employee performance. Goal setting can be a key component in managing both employee and team performance. Specific and challenging goals, combined with ongoing feedback, can significantly impact staff productivity, work quality and motivation and can contribute to your credit union’s overall strategy.
Why Use Goals?
- Strategic – Goals help employees focus on what is important to his or her particular job, department or the organization as a whole and make clear what needs to be done.
- Customizable – Goals can specifically address the unique performance and development needs of each individual, taking into account a specific employee’s experience, weaknesses and strengths.
- Adjustable and Flexible – As job functions or the direction of your business strategy changes, goals should be adjusted accordingly.
- Inclusive – The goal setting process provides a great communication opportunity for managers and their employees. It’s a nice time to gather input and “buy-in” from employees.
- Free – There are few tools as powerful as goal setting to improve performance. The nice part is goals are free and relatively easy to implement.
Making Goals Work
Goals work best when the employee is involved. Avoid the “I’ll set the goals, you meet them” approach. It may be helpful to begin at the end. Envision how the story should end and then figure out how to get there. And remember that effective goals are:
- Results oriented
- Understandable
- Specific
- Broken into steps
- Challenging
- Meaningful and desirable
- Achievable
- Measurable
- Time Specific
Set time aside to regularly discuss the goals, as ongoing feedback is critical. Goals need monitoring and many employees need help staying on track. And don’t forget to celebrate successes when goals are reached. Victories and achievements are important to us all.
Related services: Performance Management, HR Consulting Services
Coming in November:
In the wake of Bank of America announcing their monthly debit card fees, now is the perfect time to focus on what makes credit unions different and how you can use that difference to your advantage in the marketplace. Come back in November for some valuable insight into the CU difference.
For information about our products and services,
contact your CU Solutions Group business consultant.
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