In today’s information-rich environment, you can access Netflix and find incredibly specific recommendations for movies and TV shows based on your viewing history. Many retailers use big data to identify who you are and push products and services that are designed to achieve high conversion rates on products you might want.

Business intelligence (BI) and business analytics (BA) are tremendous resources for growing customer acquisition and retention in the retail industry. So why isn’t the financial industry employing the same methods?

Credit unions are battling disruption

The new reality is that having BI and BA is no longer a luxury, but a necessity in a world where some fintech startups are stealing wallet share away from financial institutions. Banking as we know it is undergoing a huge paradigm shift. Nontraditional players are challenging the established order by using data to fuel account holder-centric innovation. Most credit unions have vast amounts of data, collected over years of operations. This data is how you can innovate and compete in a fast-moving world. But to make that happen, you need to acquire or optimize your ability to gain actionable insights from those massive data stores.

Building the member journey through marketing strategies

Credit union marketers know that focusing on member needs is the key to survival. In the same way nontraditional entrants have utilized technology to compete, so must credit union marketers—and it’s important that we stop viewing technology as IT departments’ domain, but as tools for marketing and overall strategic success. Analytics can offer a better member experience at a fraction of the current cost, while utilizing a successful digital strategy and data touchpoints to understand the member and build a proper journey view.

In a 2019 McKinsey survey, BI/analytics was among the top five investment priorities. But dollars alone won’t turn data into revenue-producing insights. Employ new data skills to deploy new services based on what you’ve learned from the data. This is what fintech disrupters are doing, and it’s the model credit unions should emulate.

Why BI and BA matter

For marketers, BI and BA are important for sheer opportunity cost. A robust data culture, process, and infrastructure translates directly into increased conversion and revenues.

Here’s a snapshot:

• 37% of account holders say that personalized service from tellers or other employees at a financial institution is an important factor in their banking decisions.
• Financial services organizations estimate that if they were able to successfully offer customers and employees a highly individualized experience, they would earn an additional 14% in annual revenue. For a $1 billion credit union, that’s $140 million a year in additional revenue.

The bottom line is that BI and BA aren’t just about getting more helpful information. They’re about using data to drive marketing performance and transforming marketing campaigns into high-performing, revenue-generating acquisition strategies.

Initiating and growing

You can’t sit on the sidelines as disruption and digital demands are reshaping how credit unions attract and retain members. Now is the time to build a roadmap to bring BI/BA into your institution. Data can fuel overall success in ways that will be transformative to bottom lines.

The idea of member centricity is crucial—if credit unions focus exclusively on members and their specific needs, they can tap into their unrivaled scale and reach to stave off competition and experience tremendous success.

Michele Yurcich is retail and digital marketing lead at Finastra.