Digital that drives account openings
How to turn consumer clicks into tangible results.
Clicks are highly sought after in today’s technology-heavy, social media-based environment.
But they aren’t everything, according to On Tap Credit Union’s Janelle Herrera and Infusion Marketing Group’s Rick Claypoole, who led a breakout session Monday at the 2023 CUNA Marketing & Business Development Council Conference in Orlando.
“It’s one thing to create advertising, it’s another to get results,” says Claypoole, executive vice president and senior strategist at Infusion Marketing Group. “We care about tangible results. It’s about completing the journey, getting to conversion and account openings."
“Clicks aren’t enough,” agrees Herrera, On Tap’s vice president of marketing and business development who says clicks can be a vanity number. “You have to have conversion. If you have awareness and interest, but you can’t drive conversion or purchase, then you’re really lighting your dollars on fire.”
Herrera and Claypoole showed session attendees how the $380 million asset credit union in Golden, Colo., sought to drive conversion with an omnichannel marketing strategy that used digital marketing to drive member growth.
The digital strategy started because the credit union needed new members and deposits. Therefore, the marketing team approached everything with an intentional lens focused on not only drawing eyeballs, but also inspiring consumers to act and open new accounts—online and in branches.
On Tap “thought consciously through each step of the member journey” throughout the process, says Claypoole, who then broke it down into three case studies: deposit generation, landing page quiz, and member acquisition. In every aspect, On Tap made sure that its brand carried through.
Formed in 1954 by eight Coors employees in the basement of the Golden brewery, the credit union has a well-established brand. Their branding often uses a brewery feel, but Herrera says that it’s not about the beer.
“Banking is intimidating, but we’re more like a friendly neighborhood taproom,” Herrera says. “You can come in, talk to us, and not be intimidated about your banking. That’s really the feeling we’re trying to get across.”
The credit union tries to create that atmosphere in everything it does, whether it’s digital branding, email, direct mail, or the in-branch atmosphere. While members are getting to know their credit union, the credit union should also be getting to know them.
On Tap’s strategy included simple quizzes that asked members basic information about themselves and what they wanted out of their financial institution.
Those responses ignite a relationship with members. “It allows us to reach out to members and have deeper conversations with them,” Herrera says.
“Across the board with these campaigns, we were really targeted,” she continues. “It wasn’t a ‘spray and pray’ approach. Because of that, we’re yielding higher results, and we don’t have to spend a ton.”
It’s not enough to just drive member conversation and action. Credit unions must also track that data. Profitability tracking allows marketing departments to determine if their campaigns are working. If they are, they can go to credit union leaders and board members with tangible results that show the department’s effectiveness and fight for more campaigns.
Herrera gave session attendees with five takeaways from On Tap’s digital marketing strategy:
- Digital is great, but conversion is what pays the bills.
- A multichannel strategy is critical to success—not just multichannel media, but the full journey.
- Flexibility is critical.
- Audience selection matters.
- Measurable results sustain marketing budgets. Stop reporting vanity numbers and share true profit numbers.