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Maine CU Marketers who gathered at the Marketing Leadership LIVE, hosted by the Maine CU Marketing Council, at the Harrasekeett Inn, located in Freeport last week, returned to their credit unions with new found knowledge on leveraging data and creating innovate campaigns and events. The workshop proved to be a valuable with the opportunity to network, have discussions on leadership, and hear from two industry leaders on the timeliest and most relevant topics to marketers today.
Rich Jones, a former credit union marketer and educator at CUNA Marketing School, presented a comprehensive look at how to drive a credit union's return on investment with big data. "Data is too important to be left to bean counters, data should answer business questions with valuable information," Jones explained. "Credit unions have a wealth of data at their fingertips that other companies would die for," he added.
With so much data to leverage, credit unions are put in a bind of where to start. Jones suggests marketers begin with core data, which is very structured. Sifting through core data makes it possible to find members who make month ACH deposits to other financial intuitions or who currently do not have a checking account. From there, a credit union has all the information needed to launch a marketing campaign to offer new products and services to their members.
Jones also discussed what makes a successful campaign. He breaks it down into three parts with weighing qualities: 40% is the actual offer to the member, 20% is the list you've mined from your data, and 20% is the creativity in the overall image and message. A great offer, sent to the right people, featuring a catchy headline and an eye-catching image is the formula to a successful marketing campaign. Most marketers listed his content as key takeaways on a survey after the program.
Nancy Hutchinson, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Minnesota Power Employees Credit Union, connected leadership and successful marketing campaigns with Maine marketers. Hutchinson put attendees to work with icebreakers, out of the box thinking, and group discussions and exercises.
"Nancy was dynamic, [I love hearing from] speakers who inspire me to be better professionally and personally," reported Lori Saucier from Midcoast FCU on her experience at Marketing Leadership LIVE. "The energy of Nancy was priceless. I think she energized and engaged the entire room, she is direct and to the point and not afraid to encourage us to try new things," said Connected CU's Wendy Brochu of Connected on her experience hearing from an industry leader.
Tina Morrill summed it up by saying, "There is a unity of marketers in Maine. Although we are doing the same thing, we still have a bond and are willing to share our strategies with each other."
The Maine CU Marketing Council is an independent network of marketers, funded by dues, to bring networking opportunities together and pay for national speakers to present relevant topics. The next Marketing Council workshop will be Thursday, August 13, at the Credit Union Service Center in Westbrook. Key note speaker is Shari Storm, former executive at Verity Credit Union in the Seattle. She spent 16 years overseeing marketing, IT, sales, investment services, innovation, and strategy. Storm has had many accomplishments during her career, one of them being named an Innovator of the Decade by Net.Banker.
Resources
http://leading2leadership.com/
http://sharistorm.com/
Maine CU Marketing Council page