WASHINGTON - Able to add new members and open new accounts for existing members in a single bound, FedChoice FCU has put together one-day events that have had super results.
The first event of its new one-day incentives campaign was dubbed Leap of Faith and played off extra day of the Leap Year on Feb. 29. Each new member received a $10 gift card to T.G.I. Friday’s for taking the “leap of faith,” by joining the 22,000-member FedChoice FCU. This one-day promotion brought in 50 new members.
Due to the success of Leap of Faith, the $227-million credit union decided to offer a second one-day promotion to the campaign. This time the theme tied into St. Patrick’s Day, and was called “Go For the Green!” During this promotion, both new and current members earned $5 for each new membership, deposit or loan opened that day. They were also entered into a contest to win a $50 Visa gift card. During that day, a combination of 148 new memberships, deposits and loan accounts took place.
“We just felt we needed to do something different,” said Debbie Wright, marketing manager for FedChoice, explaining the reason behind the new campaign. “We thought it was fun to do something out of the ordinary. We wanted to change it up a little bit. We also wanted to stimulate the staff.”
The biggest challenge of this promotion is the crucial planning of timing the advertising, Wright advised. “The difficulty is you don’t want to advertise it too far in advance,” she said, as people may wait for that day to add new accounts or join the credit union if they had plans of doing so sooner. That can shift the activity within the branch,” Wright said.
FedChoice advertised to members through in-branch signage and to non-members simply by placing exterior signage outside the branches, Wright said. And the signage was placed just one day before the one-day incentives days.
“The word spread quickly,” Wright said. “We found the response to be tremendous. We are thrilled about our recent success with these one-day promotions.”
FedChoice has not yet determined the ROI of the one-day incentives, but is judging the success by the amount of new members attracted and new accounts opened.
FedChoice FCU does plan on hosting these types of events throughout the year, but probably not around holidays.
“We don’t want to end up with that being a predictable factor,” she said.
