It's a simple premise. The better your credit union is atmarketing, the more successful it will be. Yet many credit unionscontinue to make the same mistakes over and over. Here are threecommon mistakes to avoid.

Don't Abuse Your Brand

When most people hear the word brand, they think of a logo. Eventhe American Marketing Association defines brand as “a name, term,design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller'sgood or service as distinct from those of other sellers.”

Your brand is so much more than your logo, though. Your brand isreally the sum total of what the public – members and non-membersalike – thinks about your credit union, contrasted against what youwant the public to think about your credit union. In one sense, thedelta between those two represents your marketing opportunity.

If you don't understand your brand, you can't grow and nurtureyour brand. You must clearly define your brand identity and thenengage only in marketing activities that support and further yourbrand. In fact, that should be your first consideration whenevaluating a new marketing approach: Does it support my brand? Ifthe answer is no, there's no need for further consideration.

Don't Put the Wrong People in Charge

Marketing is the department that some executives seem to thinkrequires no real qualifications. You wouldn't promote a teller to,for example, CFO. Marketing is every bit as critical to your creditunion's success as sound financial management, so why would you puta teller in charge of marketing?

Once you realize that's there's much more to marketing thatcreating pretty brochures or posting pictures to the credit union'sFacebook page, it becomes obvious. Even the smallest credit unionneeds and deserves a qualified marketing person – someone who gotinto marketing as a planned career choice, not just someone who wastired of working the drive-up window.

Don't Confuse Marketing, Sales andBusiness Development

These are three different disciplines that require threedifferent types of expertise and, perhaps most importantly, threedifferent types of managers. If your credit union is going toactively engage in all three of these activities, you need aseparate, skilled and experienced manager for each one. It'stempting to find someone who can do double or even triple duty, butthe quality in all three areas will suffer.

This is especially true of business development. Your businessdevelopment officers are essentially the ambassadors of your brand.And as mentioned earlier, anything that doesn't properly supportyour brand needs to be eliminated.

It's important, too, not to think of marketing as a subfunctionof sales. Although closely intertwined, the two are very different.The goal of the salesperson is to sell something today. The goal ofthe marketer is to create an environment where someone is morelikely to buy something tomorrow.

Keep in mind that just as good marketing can help you, badmarketing can actually hurt you. Avoid these mistakes and you'll beon your way to a more successful credit union.