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The Path To Tomorrow Starts With The Right Marketing Partner

Being able to make hay with big data is just the beginning for credit unions that turn to experts.

Credit unions finding success in the market today are often those that plan, establish, and implement an integrated, consistent marketing strategy. It’s especially important for those credit unions that may not have the necessary marketing resources in-house to look elsewhere to identify a partner to support their future growth and development. Here’s why:

Establish focus:Credit unions should be actively engaged in pursuing a growth strategy.Establishing this strategy, and choosing the right things on which to focus, is easier said than done. The right marketing partner can help you through the strategic planning process and provide guidance on the initiatives, tools, and programs that will have the biggest impact on your bottom line.

Interpret Big Data: It’s crucial to look for partners that offer platforms that provide easy access to relevant, real-time data. It’s equally important to identify a partner that can help you interpret this data and make it actionable. All the data in the world won’t do you any good if you don’t know what to do with it.

Depth of resources: The right marketing partner should fill the gaps in your internal resources by bringing skillsets and expertise to the table you may be lacking. In other words, stack the bench by making sure you have the best, most experienced team possible working on your behalf.

PSCU created Advisors Plus as a way to work with members to identify individual marketing solutions that best grow business objectives. Advisors Plus Marketing Services provides leading-edge marketing services using marketing intelligence to develop and manage successful marketing campaigns. Using proprietary data mining, predictive modeling, and segmentation software, Advisors Plus helps credit unions maximize their marketing results by offering the right service at the right time to the right member.

It is often said that the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior: Advisors Plus helps more than 400 credit unions each year with various marketing efforts, data analysis, understanding where their portfolios are today, where they want them to be tomorrow, and determining how to get there. Here are a few examples of how Advisors Plus efforts have translated into tangible success for member credit unions:

Langley FCU

The Challenge:

Langley’s new CEO saw an enormous opportunity in 2012 for Langley to increase lending, particularly through growth in loans with short terms or variable rate features.

The Solution:

Advisors Plus worked with Langley to conduct a comprehensive review of Langley’s existing credit card portfolio and operations. Based on this information and resulting recommendations, Langley spent a year optimizing its portfolio before working to grow balances and/or accounts. Langley then turned to Advisors Plus in late 2013 to begin implementing its growth plans.

The Results

Langley exceeded its $100 million balance goal for 2014, achieving 30% balance growth and 20% growth in its number of credit card accounts.

Pen Air Federal Credit Union

The Challenge:

As part of its strategic emphasis on membership growth, Pen Air sought to focus on new checking account acquisitions in the spring of 2014.

The Solution:

Pen Air partnered with Advisors Plus to conduct a three-month, direct mail checking account acquisition campaign. Pen Air was only required to pay for new checking accounts opened as a verifiable result of its campaign mailing.

The Results:

Pen Air added 676 new checking accounts for a total of nearly $750,000 in incremental balances as a result of the campaign. Those 676 new member accounts also purchased 588 additional Pen Air products, accounting for an additional $1.5 million in incremental balances. Even 417 prospects that did not directly open new checking accounts responded to the mailing by opening membership accounts to purchase other Pen Air products, resulting in another $4.7 million during the three months of the campaign alone.

Harvard University Employees Credit Union

The Challenge:

In 2014, Harvard University Employees Credit Union was looking to take its credit card programs to the next level via account activation growth, transfer growth, and balances growth.

The Solution:

In February 2014, Advisors Plus developed a marketing calendar that included two balance transfer campaigns, a credit line increase and usage campaign to address Harvard’s objectives. As the year progressed, modifications were made to the planned campaigns resulting in three custom campaigns and two structured campaigns.

The Results:

Harvard’s year-over-year outstandings growth was 19%, exceeding campaign objectives. Gross account activation also increased 10% across both programs.

Michelle Hillenbrand heads up the Advisors Plus Marketing Services group. Advisors Plus was established in 2004 as the consulting arm of PSCU to help credit unions meet their financial and business challenges and grow. For more information, visit AdvisorsPlus.com.

This article is sponsored by a recognized solutions provider in the credit union industry. Callahan & Associates does not endorse vendors or the solutions they offer, and the views and opinions offered here might not reflect those of Callahan. If you are interested in contributing an article on CreditUnions.com, please contact the Callahan team at ads@creditunions.com or 1-800-446-7453.
September 14, 2015

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