INDIANAPOLIS - FORUM Credit Union members like the credit union so much they're telling their friends about it.
The word-of-mouth publicity FORUM is enjoying here isn't happening by accident. It's driven by a viral marketing strategy featuring members in the $1.1-billion CU's ads-and a unique referral program-that helped FORUM grow by 11% in 2007.
"You can't pay enough for that kind of publicity," offered Andy Mattingly, FORUM SVP-strategy and marketing, who pointed to how one member took a photo of herself standing in front of a FORUM billboard on which she was featured and e-mailed it to all her friends.
"She copied one of our marketing assistants and we saw there were more than 150 names on the e-mail," Mattingly said. "The message said 'go to www.forumcu.com to see more.'"
FORUM's strategy for the last year-and-a-half has been to place members in its ads, which include billboards, newspapers, and TV. Members included in ads also appear in short video segments on the credit union's website that say why they like FORUM. (Mattingly outlined part of the strategy during Credit Union Journal's Grow Show.)
"We hoped they would send links to all of their friends," Mattingly said. "It's another way to get people to come to our website and hopefully the credit union. It's been interesting how people have told others about appearing on the site."
Member propensity to spread the FORUM word led the CU to develop another campaign element: the "Unofficial Spokesperson" program that rewards members for referrals. So far FORUM has 83 Unofficial Spokespersons who have generated 174 new members over the last eight months.
"Members had been talking to people about the credit union and we realized they were already referring people to us-like unofficial spokespersons," Mattingly said. "So why not reward them and get even more referrals?"
Spokespersons can sign up through a humorous application on forumcu.com, but Mattingly said most enroll through interaction with credit union staff. They're given 250 Unofficial Spokesperson business cards to hand out that carry a unique tracking number.
"If new members join through the website, there's a field to put in the number," Mattingly said. "If they join through a branch, staff collect the business card and we send spokespersons their money once the account becomes active."
Spokespersons get $5 for each new account members open when they join.
"We'd like to be at 100 spokespersons," Mattingly said. "I think we'll get past that. In eight months we've added 174 members from the program and 337 new services. And that's just from the ones we can track. We know there are many new members who join and forget to tell us about the program or give us the card."
FORUM's target is two services per new member added, which it is very close to reaching.
"The savings account can't be the $5 share account," Mattingly said. "We do expect it to be direct deposit. For 174 new members we're paying $10 to our spokespersons each time. That's a lot cheaper than many of the incentives we offer to attract new members. And we're only spending $25 for each spokesperson to get them up and running with their business cards and T-shirt."
It's costing the 104,000-member credit union more for placing members in its advertising and on the website. FORUM spent $25,000 for the production of its advertising campaign, which included web videos that are repurposed for TV. The annual media placement comes with a $750,000 price tag.
"Last year was very good," explained Mattingly, who added FORUM exceeded its growth and Rewards Checking goals, the primary advertising metrics. "We hoped to end the year at 4,000 total Rewards accounts. We were up to 5,300."
Mattingly believes its advertising approach has helped FORUM stand out, allowing members to explain FORUM's benefits in unique ways.
"We realize that our members say best what we are about," he said. "But we didn't want it to seem like typical financial advertising. So we use some of the quirky things people say instead of having them read from a script. They're saying the same things we might say about the credit union, in their own way."
Instead of asking a member to explain that FORUM's checking account comes with a rewards program, one member said having the checking account "is like finding $10 on the ground every day."
Mattingly said the CU plans to continue the advertising approach and Unofficial Spokespersons.
"But we are trying to figure out ways to stay connected with spokespersons and keep them engaged to generate a steady stream of referrals," Mattingly added, suggesting a contest or additional rewards.(c) 2008 The Credit Union Journal and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved.http://www.cujournal.com/ http://www.sourcemedia.com/
