PLYMOUTH, Minn. — Instead of simply counting Facebook likes, followers, fans and friends, TruStone Financial Federal Credit Union here has turned this social media platform into an auto loan profit center.
"We identified a captive social media audience that wasn't being adequately leveraged," said TruStone Financial Federal Credit Union's Vice President of Marketing Katie Grindeland.
In 2013, the $961 million CU abandoned a traditional marketing approach that included reformatting existing in-branch materials to apply to its social media platform.
To attract interest from Facebook users, a product offer was blended into the social media strategy — a cross-sale tool without a sales pitch.
"While we were already running comprehensive social media campaigns, we chose to adjust our approach," said Grindeland. "We identified areas for integration and improvement within our traditional campaigns and created auxiliary social media campaigns to run alongside."
Every fall, TruStone Financial, which supports 86,599 members in 11 branches, offers an auto loan promotion.
Last year it was a "Gas for a Year" campaign. Grindeland explained the socially integrated strategy allowed for the creation of consumer-centric messages to its Facebook followers.
During one four-week interval of the campaign, two auto loans were secured. Grindeland said that based on loan terms these closed leads each represents $1,167 per year in interest.
In total, 6% of the credit union's auto loans came from the "Gas for a Year" campaign.
"Since implementing this best practice, we've seen a 57% increase in Facebook users over the course of one year," said Grindeland. "We've also seen a significant boost in engagement. Because of recurring campaigns, we now have members who ask each year about our upcoming social media campaigns."
Aside from an uptick in auto loans, TruStone Financials' Facebook page, which has over 6,300 likes, realized a 15% increase in page likes as well with over 1,500 unique visitors during the campaign. Grindeland said that nearly 30% of those visitors were new fans to the page.
One of the keys to the success of TruStone Financial's Facebook campaign is ensuring that the right data is collected.
"It needs to be easy to contact a potential sale," said Grindeland. "If you don't collect their phone number and zip code, how will you know who should call them?"
Grindeland also cautioned about overwhelming potential consumers.
"It's easy to get field happy and try to collect as much data as possible," she noted. "The more fields you have on your form, the less likely consumers are to fill it out. Keep it short and sweet for more potential business."
