As a child, I recall opening my first checking account. Backthen, the path to account opening was linear. Hear a radio ad.Maybe see a billboard or a flier. Walk into abranch. That journey has imploded. 2016 will only getmessier.

Today, people ask friends. They scroll through a social mediafeed. They see an ad tailored just for them. They getnotified based on where they are or what they're doing toapply, upgrade or some other relevant action. They call aphone number. They walk into a branch. In accommodating modernday member needs, credit unions have made monumental strides.

Investment and resource allocation continue to grow. As aresult, credit unions of all sizes are building strong virtualservices infrastructures. But if you build it, willthey come? A modern financial infrastructure does notresult in new members. Infrastructure updates are never aone-time expense. Just like the evolving member journey, you can'tset it and forget it. The investment in virtual services anddigital banking is responding to market demands. But, itrequires acquisition and engagement strategies.

So, how can your credit union be competitive across theentire member experience? How can you manage to be in theright place at the right time, all the time? How can you turn aconsumer who's shopping for a new car online, into not only amember, but into a credit union advocate?

Start by building your credit union's marketing stack. Astack is a collection of tools and technology that work together toaccomplish a goal. Once you have a strong marketing stack,credit unions can get more done. Once you can do more, you canmeasure more. Once you can measure more, you can become morerelevant across a dizzying array of channels. Here's how yourcredit union travels this path.

Get More Done

In recent years, an explosion of marketing tools and technologyhas created massive efficiencies. Credit unions only gain whenimplementing these technologies.

Today, your credit union can create a series of triggers basedon online and offline prospect and member activity. Armed withdata, credit unions send marketing messages through automationtools. This creates communication scale that would take armiesof marketing teams.

A marketing stack can maximize existing investment. For example,turn print and multimedia creative assets into a multichannelacquisition campaign. Turn to ad tech (advertising technology)platforms to make this happen. You can use native systems likeGoogle or Facebook, or sophisticated exchanges that enableReal Time Bidding. Ad Tech allows credit unions to drive down costsand increase performance – often up to three times the industryaverage for display and other media types.

Maximizing investment doesn't stop with advertising. Look atyour website. It should drive significant value for your leadefforts. Your members should squeal with delight from ease of use.To get to that optimized version requires constant testing. Testingat scale and with statistical relevance doesn't require a team ofdata scientists. Just a snippet of code.

When developing your credit union's marketing stack, start witha sound strategy. Without one, technology will be a major waste ofmoney. These tools and technologies can mesmerize one with theirfunctions. Without the strategy and process in place, thefunctionality is worthless.

Measure More With Attribution

Now your credit union is getting more done thanks to yourmarketing stack. The next question on everyone's mind is ROI. Themore you do, the more you can measure. The name of the game here isattribution.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to attribution –last click, and multi-step or multichannel attribution.

Last click attribution refers to your credit union attributingthe entire value of a lead, conversion or action to the lastmeasured marketing activity the consumer or member performed beforetaking the action – for example, clicking on an email or pay perclick ad.

Multi-step attribution looks to measure how the various stepsinteract with each other leading up to a conversion. In this model,we divide value evenly across all steps or on a weighted basisas we approach conversion. For example, your analyticspicks up that on the way to a member application a prospect may seea social media post, listen to a rich media ad stream on Pandoraand then conduct an organic search for your credit union. Youdivide value for the conversion evenly acrossall channels, or in steps, building in value the closer youget to the conversion point.

Attribution has a low barrier to entry. It can be complex,of course, but at the least your credit union should measure lastclick. Google Analytics, for example, has channel attributioncapabilities out of the box when set up correctly.

When we measure this way, we learn which channels convert. Welearn which assist. We then are more careful in allocating ourmarketing dollars.

What Do You stand For?

Blasting the exact same message in every channel is not going todrive success in the new member journey. If your core story isonly Lower Rates, let's rethink this. Now that we can do moreand we're measuring more, we need to be more relevant. This startswith our message. Tailoring our story to the touch pointand market segment. Here's an example:

Your credit union's story is Empowering Freedom, BuildingCommunities. You want to target two core market segments: Olderaffluents and younger millennials.

You recently ran a television ad and decide to re-edit it into afew online ads. Your research shows that older affluents arestarting businesses rather than retiring. You take the edit thatfocuses on the “Building Communities” in your media buy for them.“Empowering Freedom” will be the focus for millennials.

Meanwhile, one of your business accounts in town is a regionalchain of grocery stores that also owns a few gyms. You team up withthem to install beacons in their stores and at the gyms. Membersget discounts at their establishments. When members walk in, theirmobile device will get a notification telling them about thediscount. As a result, you reinforce your whole brand: EmpoweringFreedom, Building Communities.

Data. Four letters that confuse the crap out of people. This canbe as complex or as straightforward as you want it. But keep itmanageable. The goal here is to go deeper with ourinsights. When we marry discoveries about our prospects andmembers with our marketing, magic happens. It can be as complex ascreating robust targeting segments through programmatic mediabuying platforms, or as simple as creating targeted profiles in ouremail marketing and Facebook ads.

Messy But Loaded With Opportunity

The member journey may have gotten even more complicated by thetime you read this op-ed. Luckily, there are a dozen more tools andtechnologies that were incubated in the same period to help yourcredit union rise to the occasion.

Start with a strategy that emanates from your goals. Put toolsin place to make the dream a reality. Your credit union will soonbe a modern day member acquisition and engagementmachine.

Ryan Ruud is the founder and CEO of Credit Union ConsultingGroup and Lake One Digital. He can be reached at 612-799-0803or [email protected].