SEATTLE — Before the financial collapse of 2006, only 35% ofAmerican consumers were interested in financial education. Sevenyears later, that number nearly doubled to 65%.

“So what that really means is that two out of three people areinterested in some sort of financial education,” Steve Rice, afinancial education executive, told a packed room at CUNA'sAmerican Credit Union Conference Monday. “From an entrepreneur'sstandpoint that is a huge opportunity.”

Rice, an executive vice president of product development atEverFi, said he is convinced financial education is also a huge opportunity for creditunions. The Washington-based firm is an education technologyprovider.

Research has shown that consumers are more likely to buy aproduct if education precedes it. For example, Seattle-basedcamping gear cooperative REI found that after it began educatingcustomers about backpacks and helping them decide which one fitstheir specific needs, the company saw its sales increase 29%,according to Rice. What's more, REI's referral rate increased by93%.

Though consumers want financial education, a lot of them say itis boring, according to research.

In his presentation, Rice provided best practices his companydeveloped from the 1 million adults and 2 million children thatuses Everfi's technology platform that may help credit unionsimprove their financial education strategies.

1. Keep It Super Short

“Is financial education really effective? Does it really affectpeoples' outcomes and behaviors?” Rice asked. “My answer to that isif your solution is putting out a lot of texts and PDFs, that isnot going to be effective. But look at the power of technology andthe internet and the opportunity for interactivity. You will seegains and behavior changes through financial education, but it hasto be short.”

Short means each topic needs to be no longer than a minute ortwo for a member to watch a video or for a member to read. This isparticularly important for adults because their attention span isless than children, he said.

2. Just in Time

Rice said he has found a lot of organizations want to post alibrary of topics on their sites, but that is intimating forconsumers. It's the principle of the paradox of choice. When yougive customers too many choice, they freeze and won't engage, hesaid.

Providing members with six to eight financial education topicseems to be the sweet spot, Rice said.

It's also important to make the topics relevant to what membersare doing at the time. For example, when a member wants to learnabout auto loans, focus on auto loan topics, not a mortgage orother financial products.

Rice pointed out that the $625 million University of Kentucky Federal Credit Union offers members aquarter of percentage off their auto loan rate when they completethree financial educations modules that are each about two minuteslong.

After the Lexington-based credit union began offering thisincentive, about 30% of its 64,237 members became engaged in itsfinancial education program, according to Rice.

3. Provide UnbiasedInformation

It's important for credit unions to post unbiased and relatablefinancial education, particularly for young members.

“You don't want to be pushing product when you are doingeducation, especially among the millennial generation where there is a lot of skepticism,” Ricesaid. “And people can pretty quickly see when you're pushingproduct.”

In other words, make the financial education information allabout them, not about the credit union.

Rice pointed out the character and value of credit unions canlead to market opportunities because millennials want arelationship with their brands as they have with Starbucks, Google,Facebook and Apple. In addition, millennials are saving more moneythan Gen X and baby boomer generations. Young people also want tosupport their local businesses.

4. Make It Interactive

Rice suggested each educational module have a quiz, survey orpoll. This information can tell credit unions how engaged theirmembers are. The interactive tools also measure the financialhealth of members, which is can be a value add for cooperativesthat serve SEGs because employers want to know about the financial health of their employees, he said.

Additionally, Rice said a call to action at the end of eachfinancial education module is another important component.

That call to action, for example, may encourage a member tocontact the credit union to apply for an auto loan or simply call arepresentative to get more information. Another call to action maysuggest to a member to start a spending plan to help reducedebt.

5. It's Got to Be Mobile

Unquestionably, the use of mobile phones is ubiquitous and justabout everyone works and lives from their smartphones, especiallythe millennial generation. That means a credit union's financialeducation program needs to be mobile friendly or mobileoptimized.

“Any credit union that doesn't have a robust, interactive andmobile friendly financial education program is doomed to fail,”Rice said.

CUNA's ACUC will continue at Seattle's Washington StateConvention Center through Wednesday.