This year, marketing trends in the credit union industry are expected to center on improving the member experience through traditional and digital channels, combining digital technology with the human touch, telling the credit union's story through video, and making social media investments to attract and engage young members.

But credit unions will also face challenges throughout 2016, such as ad blocking and changes in SEO.

Mark Arnold, a Carrollton, Texas-based marketing consultant, predicts credit unions will invest more resources in branding rather than marketing to create a positive and consistent member experience in the branch, in the call center, online and on mobile devices.

“What we're seeing is that great branding is trumping great marketing,” Arnold said.

Branding relates to how members are greeted, treated and served, and when that is successfully delivered by employees in every channel, it can help credit unions stand out from competitors, Arnold noted.

“By talking to members and asking them questions, they are engaging with your brand,” he explained. “That's a much better experience than trying to push the product or service of the month.”

Indeed, Gallup Research finds that consumer engagement is more effective than aggressive marketing campaigns because consumers form strong emotions with businesses based on their experiences with employees. And positive experiences can drive member loyalty. According to Gallup, retail banking consumers who are fully engaged generate 37% more annual revenue than consumers who are not engaged.

Engagement also means consumers know their companies always deliver what they promise. In addition, engaged consumers feel a sense of pride doing business with a company and that the company is perfect for them, according to Gallup.

Corrin Maier, director of TruStage, a CUNA Mutual Group consumer brand in Madison, Wis., said she expects credit unions to focus on every member experience as an opportunity in 2016.

She also anticipates credit unions will focus on how to optimize interactions through every member experience. For example, they might consider what the next steps should be when a member begins to apply for a loan online but doesn't complete the application process.

“How do you optimize the conversion? Maybe adding the personal touch by following up with that member with a phone call,” Maier explained. “On the flip side of that, when a member completes the loan process, how do credit unions cross-sell some products during that process?”

Benchmarking research of more than 40 financial institutions and 30,000 retail banking customers from the Boston Consulting Group found banks meet customer expectations when they combine digital technologies with the human touch.

“Offering just one or the other is no longer enough,” Boston Consulting Group's research report stated. “(Retail banks) must provide digital functionality for speed and convenience, as well as thoughtful, caring human interaction when the customer needs and demands it.”

Samantha Strickland, CEO of The Pod Advertising in Tallahassee, Fla., predicted 2016 will be a big year for credit union marketing videos because they are accessible tools for credit unions of all sizes to reach current and potential members through social media.

“This year we'll see credit unions releasing more videos than ever through Facebook because the social media giant allows videos to auto-play in the news feed,” Strickland said. “Therefore, it's a cost effective way to push video out to specific audiences and know exactly how many times it was viewed.”

This is otherwise known as Facebook native video, which refers to videos created within or uploaded directly to the social media site.

Although native video is a powerful and cost-effective marketing tool, it's also important to understand the limitations of this type of post, she added.

“Most notably, marketers must recognize that Facebook's reports are inflated since the videos do auto-play,” Strickland explained. “Your video will be shown in the news feed of the audience you select, but it may not actually get opened unless the content is engaging.”

To ensure more eyeballs see the message, she recommended adding big, animated text on-screen so even if users don't open the video, they will see some of the message.

Bo McDonald, president of Your Marketing Co. in Greenville, S.C., also said he expects credit unions to invest more in video marketing in 2016 because it's a better way to tell the credit union's story, and some people, particularly young consumers, are more inclined to watch a 30-second video.

What's more, native video is given preference in Facebook's algorithm that determines what content to show on people's news feeds, which can increase member engagement.

And despite what some reports indicate, young people are not abandoning Facebook. More than 60% of 2015 U.S. high school graduates visit Facebook at least once a day, according to eMarketer.com. What's more, about 60% of recent high school grads also visit Instagram at least once a day, which is owned by Facebook.

What credit unions should be aware of, however, is that nearly half of Facebook users are accessing the social media site exclusively via mobile devices. Younger users are most likely to access Facebook only through mobile devices.

“That is something that I think advertisers are going to have to keep in mind because it is going to impact how they think about which ad formats and what types of messaging to use on Facebook,” Debra Aho Williamson, a principal analyst for social media at eMarketer in New York City, said.

McDonald pointed out, however, that it is imperative credit unions operate a mobile site that is easy to use and creates a positive member experience.

One of the top challenges for credit union marketers will be the growing trend of ad blocking. According to Hubspot, a Cambridge, Mass.-based marketing firm, 40% of consumers have installed ad blockers and an additional 12% plan to install an ad blocker in 2016.

“Ad blocking has created serious reverberations for the marketing industry,” Meghan Keaney Anderson, Hubspot's vice president of marketing, said. “For a very long time now, consumers have not enjoyed the experience of viewing ads.”

So what can credit union marketers do? They can diversify, and one way to accomplish that is to develop content that provides useful information.

“With created content, you own it, and it will continue to attract visitors through web searches,” she said. “Eighty percent of our traffic and the lion's share of our leads at Hubspot are generated from old content.”

Another way credit union marketers may circumvent ad blockers is through native advertising – paid content that matches the editorial standards of a site or publication while meeting the audience's expectations.

Estimated spending on native ads reached nearly $8 billion in 2015, and that number is expected to increase to an estimated $14 billion in 2016, according to Business Insider Intelligence data.

Moreover, native ads perform better than traditional display ads on the web and do even better on mobile devices. For example, desktop click-through rates averaged a respectable 0.15%, while native mobile ads generated a click-through rate of more than 1%, Business Insider Intelligence reported.

Although a good portion of native ads are making it past the ad blocker goalies now, there is no guarantee ad blockers won't take a harder stance on native ads as they become more common or annoying to consumers.

“The assumption that native ads are safe is not correct,” Lauren Fisher, a senior analyst of ad technology for eMarketer, said. “We see a lot of native ads moving to programmatic for 2016 [the automatic buying and selling of ads] and a lot of blockers are likely to filter for those programmatic ads, so I don't think it is fair to say that native is either safe or destined to soar because of it.”

Another challenge for credit union marketers will be keeping up with changes in search engine optimization. In the past, the major web search sites such as Google, Yahoo and Bing calculated search rankings based on relevant content and whether a site featured specific keywords that people were using to search for information on the web.

While those two factors remain important for SEO rankings, other important factors include whether a website easily adapts to mobile devices, the performance of the site on mobile or how long it takes to download, and whether the site is secured through SSL, a cryptographic protocol that provides communications security over the web, according to HubSpot.

Instant Insights /

Digital Media Dominates 2016 Marketing Plans

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