One Spot, One Thought

Most think that the opportunity for credit unions to grow market share and deepen member relationships has never been better. After all, banks and other financial entities (i.e., CIT) have been falling down for over a year now. 

Shari Storm - Chief Marketing Officer for Verity Credit Union, blogger and author of the book Motherhood is the New MBA - is a fan of making the message simple, clear, and focused. We were very excited to have her as this week's guest author, and we think her advice is very sound. 

You fill your direct mail pieces with every offer available. You mail them twice a month. Your numbers barely shift. What gives? Maybe there is such a thing as "too much to choose from".  

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Throughout my 15 year marketing career, I have had some sort of variation on this conversation at least one million times.

Me (or my team): "Our plan is to tell our checking account holders about our VISA card."

Someone else: "Why don’t we tell them about our car loans and mortgages too?" 

Someone else: "We should send them a menu of products we offer so they can choose from all 64. Who knows what they need right now?"

You can swap out the target and swap out the product, but the suggestion is always same – send as much information as possible. The more words, the better. 

Most marketers know that the opposite is true. There is an old adage, "If you tell them three things, you’ve told them nothing". Or, like Currency Marketing said when we were producing a radio commercial with them, "One spot, one thought". 

I came across a great blog post by Derek Sivers that gives marketers some ammo for the KISS (Keep it Simple, Sunshine) philosophy.

Online stores often offer too many choices on their front page. Lists of dozens of new arrivals, top sellers, sale items, and categories. Artists showcasing their art (music, essays, photos) often present a giant list of everything they’ve done. But all of us could come to these conclusions: 

-Only present 3 to 6 choices at a time. (No less than 3. No more than 6.) 

-Only show your deep selection when people are searching for something specific.

Columbia University Professor, Sheena Iyengar, has determined that more choices can actually make a consumer less likely to choose. 

The present findings challenge this fundamental premise and suggest that, even though the provision of a choice may often enhance feelings of personal control, the availability of an overly abundant array of options may undermine the beneficial effects of choice. If so, there may even be circumstances in which people may prefer to have others make choices for them.

It makes our jobs as marketers more difficult. We need to make assumptions about what our members are in the market to purchase. But I think it is far better to take a guess and be wrong sometimes, than give them the full menu and have them tune out all the time.

So how do you make the best guess? Here are three suggestions:

1.    Start with the product you need to market.  The best way to determine what product your credit union needs to promote is to be talking with your ALM (assets and liability management) team. If you are in charge of marketing, you should be a regular member of that team. 

2.    Do research about the target market. There are many different companies that will tell you who is most likely to want to buy the product your credit union needs to promote. You can purchase all sorts of analysis, data appends and such. My favorite tool is common sense. 

3.    Test your hypothesis: Before you send out any marketing materials, figure out a way to test the return on your investment. It will help you with steps one and two in the future. 

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Thoughts or comments for Shari Storm? Leave them in our comment section below. 

For more information on targeted marketing, visit DigitalMailer.com