BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. -
The idea: dramatically increase membership in order to have a larger and stronger base to draw upon in the future. The board asked staff what would bring in new members, and the staff came up with a program they felt was both easy to understand and easy to embrace.
They began by setting an unprecedented goal for net new member growth of 10% for 2007. (The $481-million credit union had already run successful new membership marketing campaigns achieving 4.02% and 3.73% net membership growth in 2005 and 2006, respectively.)
In order to achieve this ambitious goal, the staff felt that they needed a tool to encourage existing members to help them attract new members. They created a coupon for existing members to give to those of their friends and relatives not currently CCF members. Existing members would receive $50 for each new member they referred. The new member would receive $25 for a new Share Account and $10 for each additional account opened. If the new member redeemed their coupon within 90 days of receipt, they received double the pay-out.
The program, dubbed "Shoot for the Stars," kicked off Feb. 3, and by June 30, year-to-date net membership growth was 8.8%. New members who've joined as a result of the program have taken out more than $6.9 million in loans and have brought in more than $10 million in deposits. ROA has suffered because of the funds paid to new and existing members under the program and to staff for sales incentives, but capital has remained strong at 8.81%. The year-to-date total payout is $520,000, which is about the same amount spent on CCF's entire 2006 marketing budget, but with better than double the results.
The quality of these new members is high, the credit union reported. A sampling shows that the majority have Beacon scores above 600. The sampling also shows that CCF's new members are signing up for multiple accounts. So far, new members have opened a total of 2,470 new checking, CDs and money market accounts.
The "Shoot for the Stars" program has been especially popular with young people. More than 40% of new members for 2007 are individuals are younger than 23 years old-a vital demographic for credit unions to reach.
"We found it to very successful, and it got to be a little expensive," laughed Dean Nelson, president of the credit union. "The students at the high school heard about our [referral] program. We had busloads coming through our door."
But jokes aside, Nelson said by the end of October, new membership in the CU was by 17%.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
www.ccfcuu.org
