3 Ways to Think Outside the Box

Creativity is hard. It feels like there are only so many ways to market an auto loan. Only so many ways to ask people to become a member or customer. You might often feel like your promotions are as generic as the type of financial commercial Australia’s Bankwest makes fun of…

And that’s alright! Give yourself some grace!

As James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, says: “Most of what you create will be mediocre or bad. But that's okay. You only have to show people the good stuff. Make 100 things, discard 90, and share the 10 best.”

So, let’s not dwell on the idea well run dry. Let’s refill your bucket with some creative marketing ideas you can implement going forward. Here are three bank and credit union marketing ideas to help you stand out from the crowd.

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1. Rethink Your Promotional Offerings

What does your promotion revolve around? For many financial institutions, it’s cash back. Consumers often get $200 or $300 cash back when they take out a new loan or refinance a loan from elsewhere.

Honestly, people are used to seeing these kinds of promotions. They’re everywhere. The only difference between them is (sometimes) the number of dollars. And when a promotion is commonplace, you risk consumers ignoring it.

Level up your promotional offerings.

United Heritage Credit Union offers not only $300- but a puppy too - when someone gets a mortgage at the institution. How cool is that? Or take a look at California Coast Credit Union. They’re offering members a 9.50% APY share certificate for a limited time to celebrate 95 years in business.

So, what are you going to offer? You could give away a Stanley plus $200 for each new auto loan. This tactic targets younger consumers (especially females) and brings them into the credit union early.

Whatever you do, think outside the box. Offer something eye-catching.

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2. Take Service to the Next Level

Your community focus is both a key element of who you are and a marketing tool. You should show how much you help people to bring more consumers through the door (or onto the phone or website). Then, you can help them too!

Maybe this point doesn’t sound very creative…but it’s all about how you showcase your love for others. Check out this video from Frontier Credit Union to see what I mean…

?It’s worth noting that Frontier Credit Union has 1.5 million views on that video and a total of 29.7 thousand TikTok followers. In financial marketing land, those are mind blowing numbers.

Remember: people ignore what they see all the time. Your photos of staff members holding huge checks are great…but maybe commonplace in financial marketing these days. Frontier’s tactics add a guerrilla marketing flair to community service that attracts public attention.

What can you do? Set up spontaneous service events. Or make your yearly efforts more live and dynamic. For example, many institutions donate school supplies. Few get usable footage showing the difference it’s going to make in people’s lives.

As the woman in Frontier’s video said, “There are so few people who are kind anymore.” Make sure everyone knows your team members are some of them.

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3. Reanimate Traditional Marketing

Traditional marketing isn’t dead…if it’s done well. Sadly, messaging mistakes put many flyers, direct mail pieces, billboard ideas and other similar collateral into the ground.

Reanimate your traditional marketing efforts with resonant messaging. That means not slapping “competitive rates” everywhere or making a slogan that says, “serving our community because we love people.” Everyone says those things. And (say it with me) people ignore what they see all the time.

Don’t be afraid to attack consumers’ problems head on and propose a solution. Focus on benefits rather than features. Donald Miller talks more about this in the following video…

Here are some basic ideas to attack consumers’ problems while catching their eyes:

• “Out of spending money? Let’s get you a wallet refill”
• “Need a ride? Our auto loans help you affordably get to work”
• “Stop wasting gas. Deposit from your couch using only your phone.”

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Glare at Yourself

A credit union CEO once told me that they needed to “glance at our competitors and glare at ourselves.” You should do the same. Where are you lacking creativity? Where is your marketing falling short??

A marketing assessment can show you. See why an On The Mark Strategies marketing assessment is important to do now in this video…?

Book a free consultation today to keep up with your banking competitors. And don’t worry…we do all the heavy lifting. You just get recommendations to start improving right away.

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“The Marked For Success Minute” is a free weekly newsletter delivered right to your email inbox every Thursday. It’ll give you bite-sized #strategy, #marketing and #branding tips to grow your #creditunion or #communitybank. Just make sure your IT department knows to let it through your spam filters, and you should be good to go.?

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