Unlocking Growth: Practical Digital Marketing Solutions for Credit Unions
If you own or manage a credit union, imagine:
- Thousands of people visit your website every month.
- You’re able to convert daily leads from your site and sign up new customers.
- Current members are expanding the services they have with you.
- You need to hire more staff to keep up with the workload.
- You’re closing deals at an amazing cost per conversion.
- You work with a digital marketing agency that provides 100% clarity about your online performance.
Don’t be afraid to believe in those dreams, because we’re here to help you make them happen! Keep reading as we lay out our digital marketing analytics for credit unions.
We’re a Marketing Agency Specializing in Credit Unions
We’re experts in digital marketing services for credit unions. Our years of experience have taught us what works and what doesn’t.
Contact us for a free initial consultation — with no strings attached — and learn what we can do for your business.
The Comprehensive Playbook for a Supercharged Credit Union Digital Marketing Campaign
As a leading Houston Marketing Agency, we’ve perfected the art of implementing effective strategies and processes to deliver exceptional results for our clients.
We’ll concentrate on three key elements of your digital marketing journey:
- Implementing data analytics to monitor your campaign’s performance
- Driving inbound traffic to your website
- Converting that traffic into loyal customers
Seems simple, right? But these results don’t mean much if they aren’t trackable.
Can you confidently answer these questions about your credit union’s digital marketing campaign?
- What is your website’s current conversion rate?
- How many organic visitors did your site attract from Google last month?
- What is your cost per qualified lead from Google Ads?
You may not have a clue about any of this right now, but we’re here to help you figure it out. We’re a digital marketing agency, but we also consider ourselves a “data agency” that provides digital marketing reporting for credit unions. This means we can identify what’s working and what’s not, enabling us to create a customized, comprehensive, and high-performing campaign for you.
Phase 1: Build Robust Data Analytics
Trackable KPIs
Credit unions are a data-driven industry, and your digital marketing strategy should be no different. If you lack reliable data analytics tracking or are making decisions based on instinct or guesswork, it’s unlikely to be effective.
Important KPIs that your credit union should be tracking include:
- CLV (Customer Lifetime Value)
- Customer acquisition cost
- Churn rate
- Customer satisfaction
- Return on assets
While these aren’t directly tied to digital marketing, they play a crucial role. Other key digital marketing KPIs include:
- Number of website visitors by channel
- Cost per channel
- Cost per website visitor
- Cost per lead
- Cost per qualified lead
- Cost per conversion
Data Fidelity
Unfortunately, many digital marketing agencies don’t prioritize data accuracy as they should. We’ve taken over campaigns from other agencies and freelancers and uncovered several issues, including:
- Double-counting conversions
- Tracking irrelevant conversions, like a Google Maps “direction request” to your store
- Failing to track every stage of the funnel, making it hard to understand drop-off and conversion rates
At The Houston Marketing Agency, we focus on flawless data tracking that’s entirely relevant to the digital marketing goals of your credit union.
Phase 2: Maximize Affordable Inbound Traffic
In today’s economy, how people handle their money could be more important than ever before. If people are looking for a trustworthy local institution where they can open accounts, secure loans, and feel good about their investments, you should make yourself easy for them to find.
It’s not enough to know that people are searching for credit unions in your area — you also need to know why. Having this data allows you to refine your digital marketing campaign, focusing on the strategies that generate inbound traffic at the lowest cost.
Here are some key areas we’ll prioritize for your credit union digital marketing campaign.
Most people don’t just search for something, they Google it! So this is a natural place to start for credit union digital marketing analytics.
The search data above shows that 1.1 million people are looking for “credit unions near me” or some variation of that term every month.
If we look at a more localized search term like “credit unions in Houston,” the numbers are nearly as large.
There are also smaller — but still important — groups of people looking for specific features that interest them in credit unions such as low-interest-rate loans, free checking accounts, and savings accounts.
Why is it important to know about these types of searches?
Because you want your credit union’s digital marketing plan to be able to capitalize on what people in your area are looking for. And if you’re not performing well in both organic and paid traffic, you’re missing out on potential customers.
Organic
You can rank organically in two places on Google for keywords like “credit unions near me.”
The first is the Google Local Pack.
How can you get your credit union to rank here and show up at the top of page one on Google?
Local SEO is intricate and involves many factors, but the core formula is simple:
- Maintain an optimized and well-reviewed Google Business Profile.
- Include plenty of localized content on your website.
You’ll find the organic results below the Google Local Pack on the search results page.
How can you achieve a top ranking in organic results?
Start by:
- Building a content-rich, comprehensive website
- Optimizing on-page SEO elements like title tags, meta descriptions, and more
Paid
Paid traffic plays a crucial role in a credit union’s digital marketing strategy, but not all channels perform equally. A skilled digital marketing agency can guide you in choosing channels to deliver the best return on investment.
Google Ads
Google Ads is a paid solution that can help you secure top placement on the search results page. When your digital marketing agency manages your sponsored ads effectively, your target audience will click on them, driving traffic to your site and potentially leading to a sale.
Keep in mind that there are various types of Google Ads we can test to evaluate campaign performance, including:
- Search
- Performance Max
- Display
- And more
YouTube Ads
You may not think of credit unions and YouTube going hand-in-hand, but you can’t afford to ignore this component of a good marketing strategy.
Recent statistics reveal that YouTube boasts 2.49 billion active users each month — so if you’re not leveraging this platform, you could be missing out on a significant portion of your potential customer base.
Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok Ads
The days are long gone when social media was “just for fun” and had nothing to do with a serious business like a credit union. People spend a lot of time on these platforms, and you want to get their attention by using them as part of your digital marketing strategy.
Although there may be some overlap between age groups across different platforms, generally speaking, you can expect the following:
- Facebook is most popular with Baby Boomers and Gen X.
- Instagram is favored by both Gen X and Millennials.
- TikTok is primarily preferred by Millennials and Gen Z.
The right marketing agency can help you decide which service to use when targeting topics like planning for retirement, establishing college savings accounts, opening a checking account with direct deposit for a first job, and more.
Phase 3: Increase Conversion Rates
The strategies we’ve covered so far are all about driving users to your website—and that’s just the beginning.
However, it doesn’t stop there. A key part of your role is converting those visitors into customers and maintaining their loyalty for years to come.
Now, let’s explore some practical ways to make this happen.
Use CRO Best Practices
Conversion rate optimization involves a variety of practices, such as:
- Ensuring your website is mobile-friendly and easy to navigate
- Using high-quality, unique images and videos
- Displaying reviews and testimonials on your site
While we can’t cover every strategy, here are a few key tactics credit unions can leverage to boost conversion rates.
Split Test Landing Pages
Running split tests is the quickest way to determine whether changes to your website copy, design, or other on-page elements improve conversion rates.
Here’s how it works:
- Landing Page A serves as the control page.
- Landing Page B is the test page, where you modify one element of Landing Page A.
- For example, you might change the button text from “Take a Tour” to “Learn More.”
By comparing the performance of the control page to the test page, you’ll identify which elements attract more users. Consistently applying this process can help you increase conversions.
Clear CTAs
When someone visits your credit union’s website, it’s essential to have clear Calls to Action (CTAs) displayed throughout.
These might include:
- Learn More
- Get Started
- Fill Out an Online Application
- And more
Whatever action you want users to take on their path to conversion, the process should be straightforward and easy to follow.
Optimizing the Funnel
Users go through several steps on their journey from interested searcher to paying customer — and along the way, you’ll often see many drop-offs as they hesitate to take the next step.
You can leverage your digital marketing campaign to address these trends by:
- Identifying where the drop-off points occur
- Optimizing those points through data-driven tests
- Monitoring performance
- Continuously testing for improvement
Increase LTV on Autopilot
Once someone has opened an account at your bank, your work isn’t done. With the right digital marketing, you can keep that customer for life, have them sign up for additional services, and spread the word about your business to friends and family members.
Just a few of the digital marketing strategies you might employ to increase the LTV of your customers may include:
- Proactively reaching out to customers with personalized support and relevant offers
- Offering discounts for multiple accounts among family members
- Keeping extensive data for use in email campaigns targeting members for new accounts and services related to specific milestones
Digital Marketing for Credit Unions Doesn’t Have to Be Hard
The Houston Digital Marketing Agency is dedicated to helping local and national brands consistently increase their customer base, regardless of industry.
We’re eager to help grow your credit union with our specialized digital marketing services. Plus, we offer a 100% refund if we can’t improve your performance within three months.
Reach out today to find out how to get started.