If you want to apply technology to your marketing efforts, don'tfigure that's just the job of the marketing department.

That's the word from the $76 million St. Cloud Federal CreditUnion in Sartell, Minn., which has plans to introduce in 2014online services including mobile banking, mobile deposit,membership application, loan payments and account to accounttransfers.

A key driver is an effort to attract young members fromGeneration Y, born in the 1980s and 1990s, who expect theirfinancial institution to offer the technology they embrace soeagerly, according to the credit union.

“If we’re not online, we don't exist,” Duane Otremba, vicepresident of marketing, said. “We’re not thinking in terms of justthe marketing department because the whole organization is amarketing organization. It involves everyone on the front line,working with members. I’m sure it's more important at that levelthan any brochures we can put out or billboards or advertising. Itrequires member education, and that's done on a one-to-onebasis.”

A popular school district calendar from Cy-Fair Credit Union isnow available as an app.

It also demands reaching out to those young memberselectronically, Otremba said. For instance, an e-mail goes outalerting them the credit union now offers mobile banking. Whilesome experts say a 2% to 4% response rate is good, some of SCFCU'se-mails have been scoring a 20% to 35% response, Otremba said. Ane-mail touting ID theft recovery service and credit monitoring onchecking accounts garnered a 35% open rate.

Is there a challenge in deploying technology?

“Security,” Alyce Justin, executive vice president at SCFCU,quickly responded. “We can't control what they (members) do. Itcomes down to the end user; if they don't put a code on their phoneand they lose their phone. The Target data breach was huge. Now,people are listening.”

Mobile deposit offers an example of how eager people are to usetechnology. It's only been available for a month at SCFCU andhasn't really been marketed yet, according to the credit union.However, people are searching online to find financial institutionsthat offer mobile deposit or other services they want and they alsoprefer apps they can download, not browser-based access.

As for the return on investment, Otremba and Justin said they’retaking a very long-term look that includes simply offering thetechnology members want.

Dean Nolan, vice president of product and marketing at analyticservice firm Saylent Technologies in Franklin, Mass., said gettinga credit union to commit to investing in technology can be achallenge.

“A lot of them are conservative, and are reluctant to invest insomething unless there's a guaranteed return,” Nolan explained.“When you’re dealing with marketing, you can't say, ‘it will bethis exact number.’ One way to measure ROI is on a specific programlevel. For example, one of our credit unions focused on a programto increase card portfolio usage. A member could earn a $20 or $40gas card depending on how much they spent.”

Saylent measured the results right at the end of that campaignto see how many people took advantage of it and then at three, six,nine and 12-month increments. The firm found that the program's ROIwas 408% over the year and the average balance per card increased156%.

A St. Cloud FCU e-mail touting ID theft recovery and creditmonitoring drew a 35% open rate.

Nolan said a credit union not only wants to get a lift duringthe program, it also wants to encourage a behavior change thatyields long-term benefit. So there are two questions he hears allthe time: How do I get my data? How do I make it actionable?

“When you invest in a complete solution, it's not only going togenerate insights, but take those insights and make them actionableto marketing campaigns and developing relationship products,” Nolanstressed.

Don't let size stop you, he continued. It makes sense to largecredit unions with a large staff to bring the tools in-house andrun them. Small credit unions may hesitate but vendors like Saylentcan run programs for them.

Nolan also noted that during the Target breach, credit unionswere able to use transactional information to identify members whohad shopped at Target, notify them immediately, and advise themthat their old card was being replaced with a new one.

Dan Chaney at FI-Mobile, a mobile product and service providerin Austin, Texas, suggested a credit union's willingness to applytechnology to marketing depends more on corporate culture thanasset size.

“A lot of it has to do with the influence of marketing at theorganization,” he said. “Members are looking for certain things.They’re hopefully communicating with the financial institutionabout what they want, and the financial institution isresponding.”

Chaney added, “The demographic that is growing – and we’re ableto show this – is a younger demographic that will shop for whatkind of mobile presence the financial institution offers. It's allabout user experience.”

From the credit union's perspective, there's growing emphasis onanalytics and being able to track all aspects of a marketingcampaign including how many people are visiting and from whatgeographic area to what is the click-through and conversionrates.

Chaney said a key concern is the loyalty rate. Eighty-threepercent of all apps in general that are downloaded are used once,he pointed out. The credit union wants to know how many members whodownloaded an app are repeat users.

Getting people to adapt and adjust can be a challenge, agreedBrett Wooden, senior vice president of marketing and innovation atthe $182 million Cy-Fair Credit Union in Houston.

One way the credit union is addressing the challenge involves avery popular academic calendar, Wooden said. The school district,with 22,000 employees, is Cy-Fair's largest single employee group.Each year, the credit union offers a calendar listing significantdates on the school schedule. Those dates often change as the yearprogresses. Instead of reprinting the calendar, Cy-Fair now offersit as an app.

One of Saylent Technologies' credit union clients usedtechnology to measure card portfolio usage.

“What's beautiful about this is it is credit union branded, butit allows us to put in updated information. It allows us to marketthrough the app, and to issue push notification if, for example,the credit union is closed due to weather. The app is fullyintegrated with all mobile devices,” Wooden explained.

The calendar makes bottom-line sense, he said. Over time it'sexpected to pay for itself because, instead of creating recurringprinting costs, the app is basically a one-time expense.

Cy-Fair President/CEO Cameron Dickey noted technology oftenseems expensive and a credit union has to select which technologyto adopt.

“But I would argue mobile technology is not actually thatexpensive,” Dickey said. “We can leverage the cooperative creditunion environment. We have developed this in such a way that we caneasily put in another brand and logo and resell this to othercredit unions.”

Another way of introducing members to technology involves iPadtraining at the branches to acquaint members with options such asremote deposit capture. Credit union representatives can also openan account, initiate a loan application and provide other servicesat a member's place of business or home.

“We’re not only doing it for the benefit of our financialproducts, but to make our members’ lives better,” Wooden said.