BALTIMORE — More than a quarter of a million videos turn up on YouTube when users search for the words "credit union."
But despite the quantity, there is significantly less quality content being posted by credit unions on YouTube, say industry experts and analysts.
"What I see most often is that credit unions use [YouTube] as an outlet to post their latest commercial," said Nichole Kelly, CEO and co-founder at Social Media Explorer, a Baltimore-based social media consulting firm. "The other interesting thing is that too many of them are abandoning their channel. The latest video is from two, four or six years ago. That's not really using it and keeping up with their channel. They've posted tons of commercials, found it doesn't get a ton of engagement and abandoned it."
Jim Pond, a principal at New England-based marketing firm James & Matthew, said one problem many CUs encounter with YouTube is trying to make videos that will go viral — an impossibility to predict, he noted — rather than making videos that are both entertaining and informative.
Pond had a big success with Fitchburg, Mass.-based IC FCU a few years ago with several animated videos — some of which did go viral — including one about the importance of life insurance to protect against a possible zombie invasion.
He said CUs are often too risk-averse with their videos, trying to please everyone instead of making a video that speaks directly to a particular audience.
"If you try to please everyone, you're inevitably going to create a middling thing that is of interest to no one," he said.
Pond added CUs too often make videos that they find interesting, rather than videos that will actually be of interest to current or potential members.
For instance, while a CU might want to push its mobile banking offering during a particular quarter, most consumers aren't going to be swayed by a video because they already expect financial institutions to have those services as table stakes.
One CU's Approach
One CU that SME's Kelly cited as making effective use of YouTube was Waterloo, Iowa's Veridian CU.
Norah Carroll, digital marketing strategist at the $2.4 billion-asset credit union, told Credit Union Journal Veridian's YouTube strategy is "to share content that helps our current members and our future members understand the topics that are important to building a successful financial future." That means videos on a mix of educational topics, rather than just stockpiling the CU's promotional videos. The CU also has member testimonial videos on its channel.
"We've found that through video we can break down financial topics that may feel complicated or intimidating into more manageable steps, and sharing content in this way helps our members to learn at a pace they're more comfortable with and feel more confident in what they've learned," said Carroll.
The content on Veridian's YouTube channel (youtube.com/veridiancu) is centered on three different series of videos: how to buy a car, mobile banking and the importance of inclusion at the credit union. The CU claimed its channel in 2008, but did not begin posting videos until 2011, with the first "How to" series launching in 2012.
"When we first started the YouTube channel we did share content that was video from commercials and other things like that," said Carroll. The strategy now, she said, is to find ways to use the channel to answer questions members ask CU staffers every day.
"It's a way that we as a credit union can reach people that may not go through our website and read several pages about taking out a mortgage through Veridian — but if they watch a video, that might resonate," said Carroll.
Finding A Balance
One CU that has managed to strike a balance between education and advertisement on its YouTube channel is Wheaton, Ill.-based DuPage CU. Carl Krzeczkowski, senior digital development associate, explained that while users be the credit union's educational content, its commercials are still there, they're just hidden.
That way, according to Krzeczkowski, if a consumer visits DuPage's website looking for information about auto loans, the site can "cookie" the browser, "and then later on I can have my 30-second auto loan spot display to them as a YouTube ad based on your prior website activity."
"I think that's the proper way to use ads on YouTube," he said. "Don't make them public, so that your whole channel isn't just filled with a bunch of sales pitches."
Krzeczkowski uses Google AdWords for "video remarketing," and said "it's pretty intuitive" to learn to use. "You don't need any programming skills or know how to write any code," he noted, adding there are several tutorials to help learn to use those features. In addition, remarketing with Google AdWords has had an impact on the bottom line.
"With some of those remarketing ads, we've seen good results and can tie them directly into conversions for loan products and other products and services that we have," said Krzeczkowski. That's done through Google Analytics and some of it is through the actual clicks and website visits we can see directly in Google AdWords."
The $14 million credit union also supplements some of its landing pages with YouTube videos, such as on the mortgage lending portion of its website which features a DuPage mortgage specialist explaining HARP loans.
Lights, Camera, Action
DuPage films its educational videos in-house, sometimes making videos as simple as staff members standing in front of a white board. Krzeczkowski films and edits the videos himself, and said the total cost for all the videos the CU has produced — including camera, lights, editing software and more — is about $3,000 to $5,000.
At Veridian CU, on the other hand, while the videos are developed in-house, the credit union relies on outside vendors for the technical work of shooting and editing the videos.
Carroll said that is done in large part to ensure that the CU's videos maintain the same tone as other communications from the credit union. The CU did not have figures on how much its video series have cost.
The jury is out among analysts on whether vendors or in-house video production are better. SME's Kelly said that while there's nothing wrong with hiring professionals, it can get very costly very fast — particularly for credit unions on a budget — and an informative video doesn't necessarily need to be fancy. "Not having high production quality doesn't mean it doesn't look like a professional video," she said. "The lighting still needs to be good and all of that, but the higher the production quality, the less authentic it seems to the end user."
Jim Pond of James & Matthew, however, said that it's far too easy for CUs to botch a good idea by doing it themselves. "You have a credit union with $500 million or $1 billion in assets and they're doing things like Bob's Chicken Shack on the corner with a $1,000 marketing budget," he said.
Tools like editing software, professional-grade cameras and proper lighting may be available to CU staff, but that doesn't mean they know how to make the most out of them, said Pond. "Just because you own Photoshop doesn't make you a photo editor," he noted. "Just because you own Dreamweaver doesn't' make you a website coder. Just because you own a video camera doesn't make you a videographer."
