A Time of Concern and Opportunity
At the turn of the century, the Morrison Institute at Arizona State University presented the 8 Distinguishing Characteristics of the "New" Economy. Of these, several called attention to this continuing economic pressure we find today: There’s no such thing as a smooth ride; Competition is relentless; and Alliances are the way to get things done.
No Smooth Ride
It is clear that marketing dollars have to be stretched further. Retention of profitable members must be the focus because in tough times with less activity by consumers, every competitor wants to steal business that will be profitable. Protecting your core of profitable members is a top priority and marketing dollars must be focused on consistent communication with them.
Competition is Relentless
Especially in this crazy time, the ability to survive and thrive is dependent on the consistency of marketing to protect your position in the mind of your members. The sure way to fail in this economy is to cut back on marketing to the point of losing visibility and thereby relationships with members.
Alliances are Key
Streamlining budgets includes possibly losing staff members. Having good partners that know the strategies to employ in a difficult economy also stretch budget dollars. In good times and bad, the alliances with outsource partners are the ones who truly understand your vision, your resources, and your market.
How Is Your Marketing Budget Faring?
From an online survey, we've found that 41% of the marketing respondents had budgets staying intact but not increasing. Alumni of our educational partner, Credit Union Marketing University, were among the respondents who told us how the economy had affected their marketing budgets.
As marketing budgets are often first to get the axe when the economy goes sour, we’re curious about how your marketing budgets are now being affected.
To view the results click here. And to participate, click here.
How Are You Layering Social Media into Your Marketing Mix?
In a tight economy where marketing dollars are being cut, the new discovery for marketing attention seems to be social media and the use of social networks to expand a marketing presence. However, there are some drawbacks to using blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the scads of other social tools on the Net. Here are a few:
- ROI - The President, CEO, COO, CFO and the Senior Management Team have a hard enough time justifying marketing overall, so now add something that is called “inbound marketing” where members comment and customize their relationship with the institution – how do you justify the dollars and time spent on this new media to them?
- Time - Speaking of time spent, with so many of the new social marketing and networking tools, the cost does not seem as high as traditional direct mail, advertising and retail or Point of Sale materials. However, the highest cost is in personnel time – the time to keep meaningful and consistent messages posted as well as the monitoring of comments to weed out trash that inevitably comes with losing control of messaging.
- Losing Control – Carefully crafted marketing messages are the backbone of traditional “outbound marketing.” Yet, a major factor of social marketing is the inability to control the messages in the hands of members or prospects that have more access to your brand identity.
Let’s Talk Strategy – Layering Social Media with Traditional Marketing
A FREE Webinar Presented by the Faculty of Credit Union Marketing University
April 22, 2009, 8:30am PDT/9:30am MDT/10:30am CDT/11:30am EDT
Feeling concerned about budget cuts and how other marketing tools may help to spread your marketing messages? Hear from the faculty of the Credit Union Marketing University key tips on how to weave online solutions including social media into your marketing efforts to stretch your 2009 budget. As part of our commitment to marketing education through CU Marketing University, we provide webinars free of charge.
To register, click here. |
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As Budgets Tighten, How Do You Make a Case for Protecting Marketing Dollars?
One important way to show the value of marketing is using data-mining. Many credit unions have MCIF software or use an outsource like LemmonTree's
CU PowerTracking. However, making the most out of MCIF data requires tracking every possible promotion and providing the number back to senior management in terms of Marketing Cost Recovery and Return on Investment.
According to an article featured in the January issue of Credit Union Management, too many credit unions are not fully utilizing the data that MCIF provides them. Read more about how you can benefit from the valuable information it holds.
Even with Money Being Tightened for Training, Invest Wisely with Strategic Marketing Education
In a time when you need to make the most of your critical expense dollars, consider the benefit of understanding and employing better marketing strategy. One area that marketers often struggle to understand or address with senior management is the financial impact of marketing expenditures on the bottom line of the credit union.
From our educational division, Credit Union Marketing University, several of the sessions deal strictly with helping marketers understand the credit union balance sheet, income statement and overall 5300. Bringing the understanding of how the next marketing promotion and recommended interest rate is going to affect the bottom line, the credibility for marketing is enhanced across the senior management team. Add the strategic elements of how to get the marketing flywheel in motion to be successful next year and beyond, and the credit union achieves more revenue, better retention of members business and an expanded brand.
To learn more about the Credit Union Marketing University experience, click here.
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A group of eight credit union marketing professionals recently graduated from the Credit Union Marketing University in February, turning to education to get their credit unions through the downturned economy. |
Connect with Us
 Check out our new blog – MyMarketingInsights.com! – Several of our consultants have become bloggers as My Marketing Insights provides financial marketing professionals with the strategic marketing insights and resources needed to help grow their organization's bottom line. The blog will also allow dialog among financial marketers!
Connect your marketing mind to ours…subscribe to our blog, visit our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter. We can't wait to communicate and share marketing tips with you through these new forms of media!
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