LONGVIEW, Wash.-When it comes to boosting the effectiveness of CU marketing, credit unions better get tracking.
CU marketers told Credit Union Journal that while the industry is beginning to measure marketing campaigns more closely, there still needs to be a greater emphasis on ROI-not only to increase marketing's impact, but to also change leadership's mindset, pointed out Lesley Carrell, SVP-marketing for the $680-million Fibre FCU.
"In today's economy, many credit unions obviously view marketing as a cost center and not a profit center. Credit union marketers in general need to do a better job of showing the return on marketing's investments."
That thinking is reflected in the Hollister, Calif.-based Redbeard Communication's recommendations to its credit union customers. "We are emphasizing hard-core measurability to make sure promotions are actually working," said President Gregg Hoffman.
Redbeard is integrating PURLs (personalized URLs) into many more CU marketing efforts. PURLs are either a direct link via an electronic communication, or a URL included in print. They generally link to a web page that contains an offer that appears to be customized to the person receiving the PURL.PURLs can also connect to a campaign specific ad.
Redbeard enticed members of one credit union to click on a PURL and complete a survey by giving away music downloads. "One of the survey questions asked if the member would be in the market for an auto loan in the next six months," Hoffman said. "Depending on the answer, the person got a follow-up e-mail. And we can track all this immediately on a dashboard."
Hoffman said PURLS allow CUs to understand quickly how a campaign is performing, allowing midstream adjustments. In terms of cost, for a recent direct mail campaign, Redbeard added a PURL for $5,000, or about 25% extra to the campaign's costs.
Anymore, it's all about knowing how an offer is performing, almost real-time, stressed Anne Legg, VP-marketing for the $162-million Cabrillo CU in San Diego. "For example, we do an e-mail push, have a link that goes to an online loan app, that loan app then goes to the loan department, and within 48 hours we can track our effort. If we Tweet to drive people to our website, our site's measurement tools give us a list of who came in via Twitter. Marry that with an online loan app and you've just proven how much money you've earned from your marketing."
Every marketing effort should be measured, even events like golf outings, according to Carla Bailey, VP-marketing strategist for the Plano, Texas-based Marquis. "A golf outing should be evaluated and held to the same standards as other marketing programs. You know what you put into it. Then what did you get out of it?"
