Everybody's Reviewing It! Why Gen-Y Depends on Other People's Opinions Online

by Ron Daly 

Ah, Gen-Y - the "El Dorado" of marketing demographics. People are hazy about where they are, what they do, and the richness of the treasures they possess. And after about five years of hearing how critical it is to win over the Gen-Y crowd, we get a little insight into how they buy and behave with their money.

One of the critical things a business (or credit union?) must do, according to a study done by Bazaarvoice, is point Millennials to user reviews (which they describe as "user generated content", or "UGC"). The opinions of other online users of a product or service weight heavy, particularly with regards to electronics. They're more eager to hear from people with "relevant experience" and they're three times as likely as the Baby Boomers to ask for people's opinions on a social media network. 

Why would the opinion of someone a Gen-Yer has never met mean more than their real-world friends and family? Well, in the real world, maybe not. If someone runs up to you on the street and screams "BUY AN iPHONE!", it might not make you break out your wallet right then and there. But when Bazaarvoice means "stranger", I'm pretty sure they mean a "reviewer". And what does a review have? 

• A star rating - Quick and easy. If there are five possible stars and three of those stars are filled, that's a metric. There are typically a row of those stars followed by a number in parentheses indicating how MANY people have responded/rated that product. If a product has four-of-five stars and a thousand reviewers, well, that product is probably pretty good.
• Short write-ups - A short review says a heck of a lot. If it's thoughtful and fully formed, it tells you the reviewer took their time and is a smart, well-informed consumer. If it says "Dis produkt is h0rrible, teh wackness"? That person's probably not so trustworthy. 
• A link back to more information - Some online channels will give you permission to see other things that reviewers have reviewed on that site. This helps you figure out whether a person is ALWAYS negative or just negative about the thing you want to buy. 

Online reviews are interesting and helpful because not only are you evaluating a product, you're evaluating its users. But you don't see a lot of online reviews on a CU's website, do you? At least, I don't. 

Why is that? 

According to that same study (presented in a friendly little infographic on this site), 29% of millenials won't make a decision about credit cards or insurance without feedback from other users. Maybe more important: 

"Most Millennials say companies that include customer feedback on their websites are "honest" (66%) and "credible" (53%). "

Pretty great first impression, right? Think that could work for CUs? Who's willing to start this out? We know of a few CUs over on Facebook that let Facebook users review their products, but who's going to up the ante and include a place for reviews on their actual website? Is some CU out there already doing it? 

And before you go on about how you want to manage all your content and control every aspect of your "online presence", consider that over six hundred thousand people in the US moved their money in the past three months and attributed that switch to Bank Transfer Day, an online event that largely happened TO credit unions, not BECAUSE of them. 

Food for thought. 

Want to "review" this article? Have some insight? Talk to us in the comment section. 

 

 

The Pony Express Returns! -or- Why Electronic Delivery Makes More Sense Than Ever

by Ron Daly 

Nostalgia is bringing back some interesting things nowadays. The Smurfs are in my DVD player (my daughter's choice, not mine), the Muppets are back in theaters, and I could swear I've seen the New Kids on the Block on TV recently. Everything old is new again. 

Which is why the post office is returning to delivering mail via pony. Yes, the USPS has invested what's left of its money in the purchase and upkeep of a fleet of ponies to deliver the mail that keeps our country moving. Yes, it will take longer to get your mail. Yes, rates are going to increase. But hey, at least you get to pet a pony once in a while? 

...Huh. Wait a second. I think I have my facts wrong. Service on first-class mail is going to slow down, and postage is going up, but...no ponies? No, the USPS is just gumming up the works as a cost-saving measure. According to the video below, they lost $4 billion in the last year, they've got to stem the loss of funds somehow.

[Can't access the video? Click here to watch it on the Today show site.]

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I guess we've played a part in their trouble...in the past ten years, we've delivered more than 27 million eStatements for financial institutions across the country.  

Is the American postal system dead? No, it still has its place. And it's pretty impressive that you can send a letter from anywhere to anywhere else in the U.S. for 45 cents. But as any project manager, CEO or business pro can tell you, the three choices are "good, fast, cheap", and you can only pick two. You want it good and cheap? You can't get it fast. You want it good and fast? You can't have it cheap. You want it fast and cheap? You can forget about quality. You just can't have it all.

...or can you?

For month-to-month statements and daily notices, encouraging members to switch to e-delivery means you can hold all three corners of the triangle at once. Think about it:

• Good - eStatements and notices can be presented in a way that's identical to printed statements and notices. You don't sacrifice the "look" or readability and the e-docs are compliant with all regs (ours are, anyway). 
• Fast - electronic documents are processed on your schedule and are available whenever members want them. Just send them an email and they can log in to a secure host that shows them an archive of docs that they can print out for themselves (if they want), or just keep online to reduce clutter. 
• Cheap - Printed, mailed documents cost a minumum $.44  .45 cents - you're already saving  that much per user, and that's not even counting what you save in printing and paper costs. With the right company and the right e-documents model (ahem), the MORE e-document users you have, the LESS you pay per statement/notice. What's not to love?

We've been saying it for years and, by George, we keep getting it right; the Post Office's business model can't sustain cheap, speedy, quality delivery. They don't have a war chest to help with the cost - they have to charge more. But e-documents? They've been the same price for a good long while now and they keep providing the same benefits. It's easy to get more members using eStatements - the hard part is not kicking yourself when you see what a HUGE difference it can make on your bottom line!

The truth is, there are very few - if any - documents that used to go in the mail that can't be sent and stored online. Need to get more electronic document users at your business? Click here to get in touch with me. Just ask for Ron! 

The Unengaged Member- Whose fault is it? The Credit Union or the Member?

Reactivation and growth from unengaged members seems to be one of the hottest topics in credit union marketing circles. Why?

Most credit unions just received their annual report on member profitability. Executive Teams and Boards are staring at a section that lists the percentage of their members that are considered "unengaged" by the profitability model. From the clients we've talked to, the percentage is staggering - ranging between 20% and 30% of total members. To put that in perspective, if you are a 50,000 member credit union, you’ve got 10,000 to 15,000 of those members unengaged! 

So now the bigger debate - whose fault is it that most credit unions have a significant number of unengaged members? The member’s or the Credit Union’s? 

I recently found out that a colleague had gotten his last car loan indirectly from a credit union through his car dealer because it offered the lowest rate. He took the credit union up on the offer and put $5 in an account to get the loan. After the loan was paid off he became the typical “unengaged” member. When I asked him why he didn’t do more with the CU he replied "I heard from the CU once or twice over the course of the four years when they sent me a paper newsletter. As far as I’m concerned, it’s their job to let me know what products and services they could offer and they didn’t do a very good job." 

Key take-away, don't assume members know your product set as well as you do and that they all use the same communication channel.

Want to get engaged?

A recent article on the Bank Marketing Strategy Blog "Collecting Behavioral Insights Increases Value of Relationship" states that best-in-class financial organizations supplement traditional new account opening with an onboarding process that includes a short survey of needs and behaviors of the new customer. While this survey can also measure customer satisfaction with the new account opening experience, most banks focus on gathering insights into the reason for opening the new account, communication channel preferred, the financial goals of the customer and what financial services the new  customer holds elsewhere.

In addition, some banks ask questions to determine key life events that may be on the horizon and determine who in the household will be in charge of managing the new account. 

Forget whose fault it is!

 If you believe the saying that "It is cheaper to get an existing member to do more with you than it is to find a new member", then marketing should be focusing heavily on the unengaged number in their reports.

As Jim Marous points out in the Bank Marketing Strategy article:

A deeper knowledge of the customer's financial goals, channel preferences, product usage, preferred channels and reason for coming to your institution is needed to personalize the onboarding communication and move the customer from product engagement to relationship entrenchment.

Think about it, an unengaged member could be viewed as a new member that may not even know about all the products and services available to them. The same on-boarding email engines and surveys used to educate new members could be turned towards unengaged members to learn more about their original reason for joining the credit union, gather current financial needs and to introduce them to the benefits provided by the CU. Click here to see some actual onboarding examples from one of our clients.

Bring us your Tired, Poor and Unengaged.

 Technology offers a fast, inexpensive way to reach your unengaged members. We’ve built an online survey to see what we can learn from unengaged members to help credit unions just like yours. If you’ve got the list of unengaged members and can supply ones that you have email addresses for, we’ll supply the online survey and email engine to try and reach out to them. We’ll survey you members and provide you with the feedback. It’s FREE for the first ten credit unions that take advantage of the offer. Simply go to our Onboarding page and click "Ask for more info". We'll contact the first ten credit unions that apply and get them started.

Want to share your re-engagement strategy? Let us know about it in the comment section.

What's Taking You So Long? A Sneak Preview "Build a Better Email"

Today, I read an article titled "20 Things Financial Institutions Should Do (But Don’t)". It's the kind of article that seems like it was written just for you. Specifically, because of this part: 

5. Email marketing

It's simply stunning how many financial institutions still don’t utilize email marketing tools. Even today, you still hear bankers say things like, “No, we don’t really collect people’s email addresses.”

It IS stunning. Especially given these statistics from Pew Research*:

• 94% of online adults use email
• 62% of online adults use email as part of a typical day
• Biggest online trend: “Certain key internet activities are becoming more uniformly popular across all ages.” This includes email.
• 38.5% of internet-supported mobile activity was on email among American mobile users
• 74% of online adults say email is preferred method of commercial communication.
• 63% of mobile email users check the account a minimum of once per day. 
• In 2010 30% of total email time was devoted to commercial emails, compared to 17% in 2005.

When are you going to get into email? More importantly, how are you going to be heard above the din? 

We're here to help with both of those questions. 

Recently,  DigitalMailer issued a whitepaper with helpful tips for email marketers. "Build a Better Email: Tips for Email Marketing Success" is free and available now over at DigitalMailer.com/Build. 

To give you a taste of the helpful hints in this free whitepaper, we've included a few of them here. Give them a read: 

#2 Divide your messages into numerous discreet programs

Rather than having a single all-or-nothing email list, create four or five sub-topics from which customers can select. Most users will select at least one, so you’ll have a way to reach most online consumers with service-related topics. As shown below, DigitalMailer clients offer up to ten different email topics to choose from.

#9  Don’t botch the FROM line

Although we see it less often now, the biggest email mistake is not including the financial institution’s name in the FROM line. It’s an absolute kiss of death for effectiveness, the equivalent of sending letters without postage. They just won’t get read.

#17 Think of mobile and tablets

How good does your email look on a Blackberry? How about on an iPhone? An iPad? Start looking into the display aspects of smaller, mobile screens. The Internet’s next evolution is, quite literally, in the palm of your hand.

#25 Explain why it was sent

Include a short statement as to why consumers are receiving the message, and how to opt-out or opt-in (for those receiving it from a forward). This typically works best in the footer of the email.

#30 Monitor message delivery

As the battle rages against spam, collateral damage to legitimate opt-in marketers is increasing. To make sure your messages get through, you should have two test accounts at each major ISP. One account set with filtering on, the other with filtering off. Even if your email vendor monitors delivery, we recommend test accounts as an added safeguard

Get the full list by downloading our FREE whitepaper! Click here!

 

*Editor's Note: The Pew Research Articles mentioned are:

 Pew Research Center, 9/2/10 – Cell Phones and American Adults 

“View From the Digital Inbox” 2011; data = primary research by Merkle and Pew 9/2/10

From Pew Research Center, 12/16/10 – Generations 2010