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What are Three Things You Must Always Communicate?

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What are Three Things You Must Always Communicate?

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The next time you are in a sales conversation, creating a marketing campaign or chatting with one of your employees, keep those principles in the forefront of your mind.

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Many things come in threes: the three little pigs; the three wise men; the three musketeers. There is something magical about that number.

On a recent chat with Glenn Bryan, president and CEO for Legacy Community Federal Credit Union, I was once again reminded about the "Principle of Three." Glenn has a rich 38-year history working at the same financial institution. With that kind of wisdom, when he speaks, I always listen.

He shared that when working with the credit union's board he always asks himself, "What do I want them to know; what do I want them to feel and what do I want them to do?"

Glenn is spot on when it comes to that philosophy. And that technique has many applications. For example, when you are communicating as a:

Let's break down those three key messages you must always communicate:

Know

What do you want {insert who are targeting} to know? Whatever it is, keep it brief. Boil down your message to six words or less. Remember, brevity is clarity. Whether it is a leadership message, a marketing message or a one-on-one sales message, be crystal clear on what they should know.

Feel

What do you want {insert who you are targeting} to feel? Most people make decisions more on emotional reasons rather than logical. As Maya Angelou famously said, "People will forget what you said, people forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." Work your way backwards with this one: do you want them to feel excited, feel hopeful, feel angry, feel proud, feel helped, etc.? Put yourself in their shoes before you start communicating.

Do

What do you want {insert who you are targeting} to do? This is that famous call to action. Whether it is a board member, a particular marketing niche, an individual member/customer or one of your employees, more than likely there is something you want them to do. Approve a recommendation. Apply for a loan. Open an account. Understand your company vision. You need to answer for them what the next best action is (don't assume they will know).

Know. Feel. Do. The next time you are in a sales conversation, creating a marketing campaign or chatting with one of your employees, keep those principles in the forefront of your mind.

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Three Things You Must Always Communicate - On the Mark Strategies

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Many things come in threes: the three little pigs; the three wise men; the three musketeers. There is something magical about that number. On a recent chat with Glenn Bryan, president and CEO for Legacy Community Federal Credit Union, I was once again reminded about the "Principle of Three."

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Ways a Speaker Energizes Your Organization

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Ways a Speaker Energizes Your Organization

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A good speaker gives your staff the roller coaster experience. They’ll surround facts with fun, which means your employees will remember more actionable takeaways.

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Checkout Five Successful Video Marketing Examples

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Checkout Five Successful Video Marketing Examples

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Developing a video strategy at your credit union or community bank is critical. As we tell clients during marketing assessments, video is the future.

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Developing a video strategy at your credit union or community bank is critical. As we tell clients during marketing assessments, video is the future. Here are five examples of successful video marketing and how these examples should apply to your video strategy.

Relate to your audience

The key to harnessing video prowess is relating to your audience. Especially when your subject matter is generally boring (*ahem* banking). But boring subject matter does not mean boring video content.

Think back to that first time you realized you were starting to become your parents. Don't be shy. We've all been there; we can all relate. In some cases, it's a good thing (thanks, Mom and Dad). But most of us were shocked and horrified at that first epiphany of, "Oh my gosh. I sound like my dad." Or, "Geez. That's so something my mom would say...and I just said it!"

Watch how Progressive Insurance really took hold of that moment in life. And remember, it's insurance (*ahem* boring). But it's downright hilarious. And most importantly, it's relatable.

Solve a pain point

A video that shows a solution to a common everyday problem is sure to grab attention. This requires a general understanding of what your credit union and community bank members face each day.

For instance, if your call center is flooded with calls about how confusing it is to set up bill pay, make a video tutorial your members can follow.

Take a look at this video from Google that identifies a very real pain point...and then offers a solution.

It's ok for your organization to talk about itself

AKA: brag! Yes, that's right. We all know it's distasteful to brag as an individual, but it's a must for any organization. People want to know what you do that sets you apart from the rest...and then how that helps them. So, show them!

And if you just aren't a fan of bragging, look at it this way. MLB Hall of Fame pitcher Jay Hanna "Dizzy" Dean hit the nail on the head when he famously said, "It ain't braggin' if you can do it."

Here's a good example. Everyone has a right to privacy. But the line between what's private and what's public became very skewed in the internet age. Many companies harvest your personal data, activity and online habits...and then they sell it. It's a lucrative business model; albeit an invasive one.

This video from Apple showcases its dedication to user privacy. It informs people what sets Apple apart from everyone else. And that's important to know as a consumer.

Less is more

A great video doesn't need an introduction. It doesn't need a voiceover, nor does it need any form of auditory explanation. It depicts a clear story; one that's understood in every language.

Watch how powerfully this video from Lowe's conveys a clear message and speaks for itself.

Tap into the senses

Money isn't transactional; it's emotional. Emotion drives action. The best way to get people to act is to hit 'em right in the feels, as they say.

Video has the power to do that because it isn't just about what's seen; it's about what's heard. Adding a subtle overlay of music really helps to drive home your message.

This video from Ally is an example of how great videos elicit emotion from what's seen and what's heard.

Record a win with your video strategy

Now, it's your turn. Which of these principles from the successful video marketing examples most applies to your credit union or community bank's video strategy?

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Five Successful Video Marketing Examples and Why They Work - On the Mark Strategies

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Developing a video strategy at your credit union or community bank is critical. As we tell clients during marketing assessments, video is the future. Here are five examples of successful video marketing and how these examples should apply to your video strategy. The key to harnessing video prowess is relating to your audience.

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Know the Three Ways to Get New Consumers

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Know the Three Ways to Get New Consumers

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Our On The Mark Strategies marketing wizards will help you clarify your message and attract new members. Register for a marketing assessment today!

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Your credit union or community bank needs new members or customers. Every new account opened gives you a new opportunity for loan growth. I know it. You know it.

But you're losing consumers instead. And the scary part: you can't see it happening.

"Silent attrition" is when consumers engage less and less with your services as they look elsewhere to have their needs met. They won't close all their accounts, but they won't use them anymore either. Fear this silent consumer. 96% of consumers won't tell you about a bad experience, and 91% just won't come back.

So, how do you get new consumers and reverse silent attrition? Here are three ways to do it.

1. Don't Tell People to "Switch"

Our marketing loves telling people to do a big financial institution switch, but this is a big mistake. Asking consumers to switch is like asking an addict to quit cold turkey - it sounds hard, and the person is still attached to how they've always done things.

Switch your approach and emphasize how easy it is to open an account. Tell consumers there's no serious commitments involved when they open an account. Once they do open an account, make sure they fall in love with your brand. They'll want more from you once they know how great you are.

Soon enough, you'll be the one causing silent attrition in your competitors.

2. Set Up a Loyalty Program

Loyalty programs made 56% of consumers want to buy from a brand, and 50% of consumers said their favorite brands had loyalty programs.

What does this mean? It means setting up your own loyalty program will attract new consumers and make your current consumers love you even more. A loyalty program is also an important differentiator since your competitors may not have one.

But what should your loyalty program look like? Well, it's really up to you! You can give people a cash reward whenever they hit a savings benchmark or a local restaurant gift card if they're an account holder for a certain number of years.

Whatever you do, make it abundantly clear you value consumers and reward loyalty. Which leads us to our next point...

3. Clarify Your Message

Marketing guru Donald Miller likes to say, "If you confuse, you lose." And he's absolutely right! You'll lose opportunities to gain consumers, and you'll lose your current consumers. So, make clarifying your message the number one priority.

First, make your messaging short and repeatable. Try communicating what you do in six words or less. For example: "We make banking easy," or "Our members get cash rewards." Aren't these lines appealing?

Second, register for a marketing assessment. It's often hard to see where the messaging we love has gone wrong. Bring in an outside voice to point out pitfalls and recommend new strategies.

Do you need an outside opinion on your messaging? Our On The Mark Strategies marketing wizards will help you clarify your message and attract new members. Register for a marketing assessment today!

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Three Ways to Get New Consumers (and Retain Them Too) - On the Mark Strategies

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Your credit union or community bank needs new members or customers. Every new account opened gives you a new opportunity for loan growth. I know it. You know it. But you're losing consumers instead. And the scary part: you can't see it happening.

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How to Executing Your Strategic Plan from the Top?

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How to Executing Your Strategic Plan from the Top?

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Our On The Mark Strategies strategic planning facilitators are industry experts who help financial institutions develop plans year after year.

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If you need tips for executing your strategic plan, let's first look at the wrong way to do it. Imagine you're playing chess. Like any good chess player, you're thinking three steps ahead. But, you never move a single piece. You developed a strategy but didn't execute it.

Well, you don't have to imagine it - it's happening. Credit unions and community banks aren't implementing their strategic plans.

So, what's gone wrong? Leaders can't execute these plans. They're stuck in the day-to-day weeds, doing multiple jobs at once or don't have the time. They've thought out the moves but can't move the pieces.

If that's your situation, here are some tips for executing a strategic plan.

Step Away from Day-to-Day Tasks

Credit union and community bank leaders wear many hats, and recent staffing issues haven't helped the situation. As a C-suite executive, you find yourself handling frontline jobs as well as your own duties. That makes it easy to become part of the 49% of organizations where leaders spend only one day a month reviewing their plan execution.

But if you want long-term growth, you must set aside strategic time. You must figure out how to achieve your goals. Otherwise, your goals will disappear as you toil the day away.

Our advice: start small. Try 15 minutes a day devoted to implementing your strategic plan. Slowly increase your daily execution time from there. As the saying goes, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

Align Your Staff

You can't expect a boat to reach land when everyone's rowing a different direction. Strategic goals are similar. Successfully achieving your goals requires an aligned staff.

Harvard Business Review recommends creating subgoals from your main goal and assigning those tasks to suitable people. Then, facilitate communication between them.

For example, your goal is to revamp your mobile app. Assign the IT people to fix bugs, and the marketing people to sell the app. Make sure these two groups communicate so marketing isn't promoting features incompatible with the app.

Most importantly, don't just assign tasks and forget about it! Alignment needs continuous direction.

Train, Train and Train Some More

Executing a strategic plan doesn't always come naturally. That's because it involves a lot of management - redirecting people, clarifying messages and attending to moving parts. And sadly, 58% of managers have no management training. Are you in that boat?

If you are, fear not! There's some great summer reading to beef up your managerial execution skills, such as "Traction" by Gino Wickman. Recruiting an outside facilitator to conduct leadership training is also a great way to develop management muscles.

Embrace Change

Achieving strategic goals involves change, and you must embrace it. If you don't, your plan's going nowhere.

Shift your mindset. Fall in love with the plan you're implementing. You won't execute a loveless plan well, and even if you try, your staff is going to see right through you.

Of course, you need a strategic plan before you can implement one. Don't have one yet? Don't worry! Our On The Mark Strategies strategic planning facilitators are industry experts who help financial institutions develop plans year after year.

Sign up for a strategic planning session today and get customized tips for executing a strategic plan!

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Tips for Executing Your Strategic Plan from the Top - On the Mark Strategies

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If you need tips for executing your strategic plan, let's first look at the wrong way to do it. Imagine you're playing chess. Like any good chess player, you're thinking three steps ahead. But, you never move a single piece. You developed a strategy but didn't execute it.

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Try Sticker Marketing to get Younger Members 

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Try Sticker Marketing to get Younger Members 

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You want to get younger. Understandable. After all, what credit union in America doesn’t want to reach used car shoppers and first-time home buyers? But does it seem like nothing you do actually penetrates the newer generations?

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You want to get younger. Understandable. After all, what credit union in America doesn't want to reach used car shoppers and first-time home buyers? But does it seem like nothing you do actually penetrates the newer generations?

Enter sticker marketing.

You see stickers everywhere. Political stickers on our cars. Book jacket stickers advertising new movies. Not to mention how the younger demographic decorates their Macs and HydroFlasks with stickers like crazy.

Dozens of well-known brands like these are making engaging stickers a fixture of their marketing efforts. Outdoor apparel shop Patagonia mails customers free stickers. Fast food chain In-N-Out distributes stickers to diners. And Coca-Cola sends stickers to soda lovers.

But why does sticker marketing resonate with the younger demographic? And why should your credit union consider it?

Stickers Impart Ownership

Sticker marketing strikes a chord with younger audiences because it makes them your brand participants.

Millennial Marketing shows 80% of millennials want entertaining brands, 40% want to co-create brands and 46% make original content.

This data reveals millennials desire personal brand engagement. They want to laugh with you, dream with you and be your brand ambassadors.

Clever, unique sticker designs entertain younger audiences. Plus, stickers customizing personal items let younger members "co-create" with you.

Stickers As Self-Expression

A November 2021 Nielsen report stated, "88% of global respondents trust recommendations from people they know more than any other channel." The report also shows 55% of North Americans ignore online banner ads.

How does Nielsen's word-of-mouth endorsement affect your sticker marketing?

Sticker marketing offers a younger demographic self-expression avenues. And then, self-expression presents word of mouth advertisement opportunities.

Putting a sticker on your laptop expresses your personality. It also makes you a walking endorsement. Your friends look at your laptop. They ask you about the sticker. You express your passion.

The word of mouth potential your sticker marketing carries transforms young members into brand disciples.

The "I Voted" Effect

The "I Voted" stickers are iconic. Color scheme and logo are simple. Message is short but effective. And your identity is abundantly clear.

You voted. You are a voter.

It's a visible indicator you performed your civic duty. And visible pressure if you haven't yet voted.

Studies show lying about not voting has a high cost. During the 2010 and 2012 elections, researchers offered participants cash to incentivize lying about their voting record. Surprisingly, the experiment's findings displayed lying had a $7 price tag. It's much less costly to vote and tell the truth.

The "I Voted" sticker represents membership in a special club. You feel significant pressure to join the club if you haven't already.

Help Them Join the Club

Younger demographics want to belong. They want to join your club. So, give them a reason to join.

Craft a message expressing the benefits your credit union offers. Like the "I Voted" sticker, make your sticker marketing simple, clear and repeatable.

What are the non-members missing if they don't join?

Imagine a non-member seeing a sticker saying "I Saved" or "Easy Money." If not a member (the message implies), you miss savings and lose money. Sticker viewers become future brand disciples.

Make your stickers badges of honor.

Where does your sticker marketing go from here? Contact On The Mark Strategies, and our creative team will help you craft attractive sticker designs for younger audiences.

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Want Younger Members? Try Sticker Marketing. - On the Mark Strategies

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You want to get younger. Understandable. After all, what credit union in America doesn't want to reach used car shoppers and first-time home buyers? But does it seem like nothing you do actually penetrates the newer generations? Enter sticker marketing. You see stickers everywhere. Political stickers on our cars.

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Strategic initiatives. Action plans. Timelines. Every credit union or community bank in some form or fashion has (or should have) a sense of what their overall focus strategy is when it comes to growth.

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Strategic initiatives. Action plans. Timelines. Every credit union or community bank in some form or fashion has (or should have) a sense of what their overall focus strategy is when it comes to growth.

We often think that having the best strategy means having the best ideas. Or the having the smartest people. Or having the best financial numbers. Or having the most projects.
When it comes to strategy, however, there is simply one secret weapon:
Nothing else is nearly as important to growing your credit union or community bank as focus. Having worked with hundreds of financial institutions across the country, we've quickly come to realize the difference between growth success and growth stagnation is a focus strategy.

Your goal from a strategic planning session shouldn't just be a plan. It should be focus.

Steve Jobs famously said, "People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully."

In other words, there are a lot of things you can do with your strategy. The bigger question is what should you do?
The problem with focus is that it's easy to lose. As Gino Wickman says in his book Traction, "It doesn't take much for an organization to get off track in the hustle and bustle of the business world."

Here are a few quick tips to help your strategy focus:

Limit your strategies

If you walked out of your last planning session with a giant list of 10 to 20 To Do items, then your last planning session was a failure. A credit union or community bank should have no more than three to four big strategies. Less is actually more. Try this test: can you write your plan on a small napkin?

Limit your projects

One trap some financial institutions fall into even when they limit their strategies is cramming a number of projects under those strategies. Any big project will require your staff's bandwidth. Calculate that bandwidth as you calculate your strategy. For example, one financial institution limited their overall strategy to four items, yet each of those strategies entailed multiple large projects. So when it came to year-end, the staff was completely burned out. Going to change your core in the coming years? Then that is your focus strategy. Try this test: can you count your number of projects on one hand?

Overcommunicate your focus strategy

Can your staff tell you what your organization's top strategies for the year are? Alignment goes right along with focus when it comes to how powerful it is. Telling your staff in one group meeting what your strategy is does not count as alignment (or communication). You have to tell your team your strategy multiple times in multiple ways. You might get tired of repeating yourself but it's the only way your strategy connects with their day to day job. Try this test: ask every employee what are your top strategies for the year and see how many get them all correct.

Avoid shiny object syndrome

As executives, it's easy to also fall into the "shiny object syndrome." Your plan is all set and then something else (even a good idea) pops up and we're tempted to add it to the strategy or project list. I'll be honest: I'm certainly guilty of this as well. While you need flexibility in your planning process, you also need to balance that flexibility with your original plan. There was a reason you set the strategies you did. Try this test: ask, if we add this new initiative that looks so cool, which one of our existing projects or strategies are we going to stop doing?

We often tell clients that the best strategic plan is the one that gets implemented. In other words, execution is far more important than the plan itself. Achieving a high execution level starts with focus.

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Focus: Strategy's Secret Weapon - On the Mark Strategies

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Strategic initiatives. Action plans. Timelines. Every credit union or community bank in some form or fashion has (or should have) a sense of what their overall focus strategy is when it comes to growth. We often think that having the best strategy means having the best ideas. Or the having the smartest people.

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Cloudflare shows TikTok was the most visited site in 2021, beating Google and Amazon. And 55% of 18 to 24-year-olds use TikTok according to Pew Research Center.

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If you still religiously watch the Amazing Race (like I do), you probably know the Holderness Family. They're also on TikTok. Or how about Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson? He's there too and has 50.6 million followers. Every video he posts receives millions of views.

Let's face it: TikTok isn't just a fad your middle school kids talk about anymore. It's mainstream.

Cloudflare shows TikTok was the most visited site in 2021, beating Google and Amazon. And 55% of 18 to 24-year-olds use TikTok according to Pew Research Center.

The question is, should your credit union or community bank be on TikTok? The answer: yes!

But you shouldn't throw video ideas at the wall and see what sticks. You must hone a TikTok strategy. Here are four
ways to make effective TikTok content.

1. Produce Bite-Sized Content

TikTok currently allows up to three-minute long videos, a change from their original 15 to 60 seconds format. But should you take advantage of all three minutes? Probably not.

Research reveals the average human attention span is close to eight seconds. That length doesn't bode well for a three-minute long information dump.

Play to your audience's attention span.

Produce bite-sized videos your viewers will easily consume. Deploy concise, fun messaging to hold their attention for all 30 or 60 seconds. Longer content risks a swipe to the next video.

2. Entertain Viewers and Drive Engagement

Yes, it's possible to make dull TikTok content. A talking head dryly discussing industry trends will bore viewers whether it's 30 seconds or 30 minutes long.

Viewers want entertainment. They want humor. They want to laugh after a long day at work.

Give them what they want. Entertain viewers first and increased brand engagement will follow.

And don't fret! Entertainment and education can harmoniously inhabit the same video. Popular audio trends and financial information can creatively mesh.

Michigan-based Honor Credit Union's TikTok provides great examples of both entertaining and educating viewers. Click here to see how they used a popular trend to provide mortgage lending education.

3. Make Authentic Videos

TikTok content follows trends and may have scripts. But it shouldn't be insincere.

Don't you hate insincerity? Can't you smell it from a mile away? Your audience can too.

Your TikTok videos need passion and sincerity behind them. In other words, authenticity. Find video savvy employees or staff who love the limelight. Whoever you assign to TikTok production should love what they are doing.

Happy people make authentic content. Authentic content hooks viewers.

4. Focus on Your People

"People helping people" is at the heart of credit union culture. People are also the most interesting part of TikTok content.

How many times have you heard people refer to bad companies as "machines"?

That's because people aren't robots and can't identify with a cold, emotionless machine. People identify with other living, breathing human beings.

Build a human connection with your audience. Showcase your employees, your members and their personalities. For example, Wisconsin-based Kohler Credit Union made a TikTok about employees' favorite type of peanut butter. Over 1,500 people watched it!

Make the audience care about your people and they'll care about your content. And most importantly, they'll care about your credit union.

Is TikTok still giving you trouble? Contact On The Mark Strategies for personalized marketing coaching. We'll show you how to build a social media strategy with TikTok.

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Should You Be on TikTok? - On the Mark Strategies

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If you still religiously watch the Amazing Race (like I do), you probably know the Holderness Family. They're also on TikTok. Or how about Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson? He's there too and has 50.6 million followers. Every video he posts receives millions of views.

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Members must know about the deals you offer and how these deals favorably compare with competitors.

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Being someone's valentine is a special experience. Truffles. Fancy dinners. Those candy message hearts encouraging you to "Hug Me" or "Be Mine." Valentine's Day is all about spreading love.

And you love your members.

According to Credit Union Times, Washington D.C. based Bank-Fund Staff Credit Union issued a January 2022 special dividend payout of $7 million. Nusenda Credit Union of Albuquerque paid $6.6 million to its members. Whether through time or dividends, you've no doubt given back to your members too.

But do your members understand the real benefits of their membership with you? Likely not. And it's not entirely their fault.

If your members don't know how you show the love, you probably aren't marketing it well.

Here are four ways your marketing can make your love known:

1. Give Them Your "Candy Heart"

As Disney's movie "Enchanted" so poignantly said, if you don't tell someone you love them, how will they know?

Candy hearts convey simple messages expressing love. What if your credit union's messaging were as simple as the message on a candy heart?

Members must know about the deals you offer and how these deals favorably compare with competitors. For example, recent Kelly Community Federal Credit Union promotional material advertised their HOPE 100 program. This program provides 100% financing for qualified buyers so moving into a new home is faster and easier. Certainly a thrilling message to new home buyers.

Give away your gold. Tell them your best offer.

If you deposit money into your members' checking accounts, they'll probably notice. But will they know you're the one who put the money there if you don't tell them? Probably not.

"Show don't tell" won't work here.

2. Not We, But You

Love entails self-sacrifice, putting the other person first. Your marketing shows members how much they mean to you.

But communicating your advantages draws attention to your credit union rather than the member. It goes something like this. "We at XYZ Credit Union love giving back to our members." See the problem? All we, we, we. No you.

As Donald Miller advises, "The customer is the hero, not your brand."

Change your mindset and capture the member's interest. "Need extra cash to kick off the year? Because you make us at XYZ Credit Union who we are, we're sending you $50 cash just because. Thanks for being part of [insert branded language here]." See the difference?

Focus on the member. Focus on their desires. And reframe your message.

3. A Repeated Trust Exercise

Relationships require trust. Including the member-credit union relationship.

As the famous quote says, "They may forget what you said - but they will never forget how you made them feel."

This sentiment should be good news for every credit union marketer. Solidify clear, member-focused marketing today, and the results will affect members' feelings. If your marketing makes members feel good, they will return to you time and again. They want that feeling repeated.

Make your members trust you. Make your members feel good. They will recall those emotions later when they need your help.

4. Visit the Love Doctor

Maybe you're still stumped. Maybe you can't find the time to address marketing snags. Every relationship needs help sometimes.

A marketing assessment will diagnose what marketing issues you're really facing and give you actionable solutions to fix them.

Don't stay in a marketing rut. Ask for help if you need it!

When marketing this Valentine's Day, show some love to your members. Make it clear that you're the one.

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Does Your Marketing Spread the Love? - On the Mark Strategies

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Shares linkedin Twitter Facebook Buffer Being someone's valentine is a special experience. Truffles. Fancy dinners. Those candy message hearts encouraging you to "Hug Me" or "Be Mine." Valentine's Day is all about spreading love. And you love your members. According to Credit Union Times, Washington D.C.

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Marketing Lessons From Super Bowl 56 Commercials

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Marketing Lessons From Super Bowl 56 Commercials

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Based on that ROI, your first marketing lesson might be to never do a Super Bowl commercial. However, there are plenty of marketing lessons for credit unions and community banks from Super Bowl 56 commercials.

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What a game, what a halftime show and what about those commercials! I'll be honest: I watch the Super Bowl more for the commercials than for the game (even though I'm a huge football fan).

This year's price for a 30-second commercial averaged a whopping $6.5 million. And that was just for the airtime. That investment doesn't include production costs. Of course, advertisers were hoping to use that venue to reach a potential audience of 117 million viewers.

Based on that ROI, your first marketing lesson might be to never do a Super Bowl commercial. However, there are plenty of marketing lessons for credit unions and community banks from Super Bowl 56 commercials.

Here are few key concepts (please note these are not necessarily the best or favorite commercials):
Create Mystery (Coinbase)
One of the most talked about issues today is bitcoin. And one of the most talked about Super Bowl ads was Coinbase's simple use of a QR code.

As Inc. Magazine noted, "it certainly made people curious. Humans are curious, by nature, and it's hard to resist the temptation to scan the code to figure out what it's about. In that sense, the ad was brilliant."

Think about it: did you try and scan the QR code? I know we did. Why? Just to find out what the heck it was about!

Creating mystery is a fantastic marketing tool to use in your toolkit. Rather than just do a straightforward campaign, look for ways to generate excitement and wonder by "dripping" a campaign to your target consumers.

This technique works extremely well when doing an internal campaign with your staff. For example, we are currently working with a client that is changing their name. Prior to their internal launch to employees, they are sending a series of cryptic messages to their staff. This is generating a positive internal buzz and vibe about what is happening.
Tell A Story (NBC Intro/Theme)
So this wasn't a formal commercial, but is was extremely powerful. Why? Because it blended amazing story telling and video. In this introductory piece, NBC used movie clips with football highlights.

As Halle Berry said, "Football and movies were invented for the exact same reason: to give us things to dream about."

Movies tell stories. And so should your marketing.

You are not a marketer. You are a story teller. You are not a marketer. You are a screenwriter.

One way credit unions and community banks can tell stories is to tell your member's or customer's stories. Use their testimonials. Show how your products and services changed their lives.

As Donald Miller famously says, you are the guide and your customers (members) are the hero. Now that makes for a good story.
Use Generational Marketing (Oikos Yogurt)
This ad features not one, not two but three generations of Sanders. As in Deon Sanders and both his son and mother. The clever use of the family generates laughter and connects on multiple levels.

In many credit unions and community banks, you literally have generations of the same family using you as their primary financial institution. Those are powerful stories (see the point above).

Many local financial institutions also say they are like family or all about family. If that is the case, then show that principle in your marketing.

One simple way to implement this strategy in your marketing is to use multi-generational pictures and videos. With this technique we highly recommend using your own members or customers as well. Family photos and portraits are powerful.

You can also even do a cross promotion where you incent older members with higher deposit rates if they refer a loan for a younger family member.
Reach for Emotions (Kia)
Dogs and animals create emotions. Think of all those classic Budweiser commercials. But who knew even a robot dog could pull on your heart strings? In the spot, you can't help but root for the dog and hope he overcomes his low battery.

It's no different when it comes to marketing your credit union or bank. Of course, the problem is as financial institutions, well, we are institutions! Cold. Sterile. Boring.

So look for ways to overcome that hurdle by connecting with people. From a practical perspective, focus on your products' features and not benefits. What do they do for the member. People don't care about your rates and your products. They care about themselves and their feelings.

As Maya Angelou famously says, "People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you make them feel."

Applying that quote to marketing means, "People will forget your products, people will forget your technology, but people will not forget how you made them feel."

There was a lot to learn from the Super Bowl game itself: teamwork, never give up (even if you are trailing in the fourth quarter) and always throw the ball to Cooper Kupp. But there were also marketing lessons in the commercials themselves. You can improve the way your credit union or community bank markets by creating mystery, telling stories, using generational marketing and reaching for emotions.

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Marketing Lessons From Super Bowl 56 Commercials - On the Mark Strategies

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Shares linkedin Twitter Facebook Buffer What a game, what a halftime show and what about those commercials! I'll be honest: I watch the Super Bowl more for the commercials than for the game (even though I'm a huge football fan). This year's price for a 30-second commercial averaged a whopping $6.5 million.

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Marketing slumps do not have to be permanent ruts. If your credit union or community bank is not achieving the marketing success you’re seeking, taking the above steps will help reverse the slump.

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-Yogi Berra
We all have them from time to time: slumps. Personal slumps. Professional slumps. Emotional slumps. And if you've worked at a financial institution for any length of time, then you've certainly had a marketing slump.

It's not good when one campaign or promotion performs less than you expected. But when you have several misses in a row you can get discouraged. And maybe even downright paranoid about your job. In fact, one problem with a slump is that it can quickly turn into a rut.

In order to turn a slump into a success streak, you must take proactive steps. Never sit back. Always move forward.

Here are eight quick ways to get out of a marketing slump:

Tighten your message

If your marketing is missing the mark (pun intended) then more than likely it's a messaging problem. You could be falling into the trap of focusing more on you and your products than on your targets and their problems. You might also be falling into the trap of trying to communicate too much. Remember this tip: cut the copy. Less is best.

Consistently learn

It's hard to have effective marketing if your bucket is empty. You need to consistently fill your mind with new ideas. Read business books. Listen to podcasts. Watch Ted talks. The key word in this point is consistently. Carve out at least 30 minutes a day to learn. In baseball when a hitter is in a slump they often spend extra time in the batting cages. You do that by spending more time learning your marketing craft.

Conduct a marketing assessment

It's easy to get tunnel vision in marketing. To do the same things over and over again. We often need an outsider's opinion to see things we don't often see. The best way to gain a fresh perspective (and get out of that slump) is with a marketing assessment. A marketing assessment will give you both strategic and tactical ways to immediately improve your marketing.

Talk to peers

As a financial marketer, you should never work in a silo. Talk to fellow professionals. Network. Pick up the phone and have a conversation (even admit you are stuck). One question to ask your peers is, "what is the best thing you've done or had the most success with in the past 12 months?" You can even form a MasterMind group of four to five individuals and meet virtually or in-person on a regular basis. If your brain is out of ideas, pick someone else's brain.

Don't panic

In the words of baseball legend Hank Aaron, "My motto was to always keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing I would do was to keep swinging." That applies to marketing slumps as well. Rather than freaking out, just put your head down and do the work. If you're not a baseball fan, then remember the words of Dory from Finding Nemo: "just keep swimming, just keep swimming." Or "just keep marketing, just keep marketing."

Balance long-term and short-term goals

Never lose sight of your credit union or bank's overall strategy. Sometimes we hit slumps because we are too singularly focused on one particular promotion or campaign. Take a step back. Examine what the overall growth goals are. Seeing the big picture will help you overcome some potential short-term losses.

Make marketing a process

As James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, says, "You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems." If you are not reaching your goals (if you're in a slump) the reason could be your systems. For more information on this tip, check out the post Systemize Your Marketing For Success.

Adjust your mindset

Getting down or criticizing yourself never makes things better. Stop having a pity party. Positivity brings better results. If you think a particular project or promotion is going to fail, then it's probably going to fail. As Henry Ford once said, "If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." Pulling out of a marketing slump often starts with the six inches between your ears.

Marketing slumps do not have to be permanent ruts. If your credit union or community bank is not achieving the marketing success you're seeking, taking the above steps will help reverse the slump.

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How to Get Out of a Marketing Slump - On the Mark Strategies

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Shares linkedin Twitter Facebook Buffer "Slump? I ain't in no slump....I just ain't hitting." -Yogi Berra We all have them from time to time: slumps. Personal slumps. Professional slumps. Emotional slumps. And if you've worked at a financial institution for any length of time, then you've certainly had a marketing slump.

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Know the Tips for Writing Email Newsletters People Want to Read

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Know the Tips for Writing Email Newsletters People Want to Read

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Today's successful email newsletters are very targeted, and speak directly and exclusively to that target market.

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Want to start a fight in a group of marketers? Ask them about the effectiveness of emails, and specifically, email newsletters. Most of us have signed up for them for any number of reasons, just like most of us now click "mark as read" if not "delete" upon their arrival. But that doesn't have to be the case, because as we'll see shortly, there are secrets to writing email newsletters people want to read. And people reading your newsletters is a big deal, because when they read your email newsletters, you can begin and/or continue to establish your organization as a thought leader within your community and/or industry whose commentary, thoughts, and insights people will look forward to reading.

Some fan favorites here at On The Mark Strategies (in addition to The Marked for Success Minute, to which we're partial) include:

While blindly blasting emails to the entire world might make marketers cover their mouths and cast side-eyed looks in your general direction, we've seen an uptick in the effectiveness of well-done email newsletters that people actually want to read.

Let's take a look at what you can do to make your email newsletters fall into that category.

PEOPLE WANT TO READ EMAIL NEWSLETTERS THAT ARE SUPER TARGETED

Like we discussed just above, not all email newsletters are the dreadful things that many of us have encountered. In fact, there are many (like those mentioned above, for example) that are quite the opposite.

One thing that sets those and others apart is that many of them are incredibly targeted. They speak to a specific target market, and to that group alone. It's not a spray and pray approach by any stretch of the imagination.

Today's successful email newsletters are very targeted, and speak directly and exclusively to that target market. #emailnewsletters #emailmarketing #contentmarketing #contentcreation Click To Tweet

Why does that matter?

Well, one pretty important thing is that targeted content lands very differently. It reads and feels like it's very specifically for the people reading it rather than simply some large, random audience.

There are specific references to target-audience-specific things. There's jargon. Lingo. Inside jokes, even. There's a common language and way of being that develops within a community like that that you simply don't get with a more general communication piece. It builds trust and rapport, which are necessary if you hope to see any sort of growth.

PEOPLE WANT TO READ EMAIL NEWSLETTERS THAT HAVE A UNIQUE BRAND PERSONALITY

You really can't overstate the importance of a unique brand personality, and this is certainly true in regards to email communications.

Sometimes, we see brands out in the broader business world make the mistake of coming up with a fun, interesting visual identity, and perhaps even a fun video campaign; only to have their consumer-facing emails still be cold, lifeless, and...well...boring. That's not a fully aligned brand personality. It's essentially a brand with at least two different personalities.

( As an aside, we know it's likely that one of two things has happened in the above situation. Either they've not gone through a comprehensive process, including working out their brand personality and attributes, or they've not done the work of fully aligning all the parts and pieces of their marketing and communications apparatus to the current/updated brand. It's a lot to think and work through, to be sure! If you find yourself stuck on something like that, give us a shout.)

PEOPLE WANT TO READ EMAIL NEWSLETTERS THAT HAVE A DISTINCT VOICE AND PERSPECTIVE

People are drawn to unique perspectives. They are inspired and entertained by voices that stand out in a crowd.

That's why it stands to reason that people want to read things that offer them insights they're not receiving elsewhere, in ways they're not receiving them.

We talked a bit more about the importance of this in another post: Make Your Content More Shareable With These 6 Steps.

In that post, we discussed and provided examples of how brands have found success by doing one of two things. Either (1) the content they provide is distinct, interesting, and different from everything else out there; or (2) how they present the content is unique. It's different, interesting, makes you do a double take, etc.

Your email newsletter is an opportunity for your readers to hear from you, and your brand's story is a unique competitive advantage no other brand can duplicate.

PEOPLE WANT TO READ EMAIL NEWSLETTERS THAT ARE HUMAN

Almost nothing will have folks searching for the Unsubscribe link faster than an email that reads and feels like yet another overly-corporate email.

Why? Because unless they've been living under a rock, they've had their fill of all things overly corporate over the past, say, two or three decades. Thus the ongoing success and cultural ingraining of movies like the above-referenced Office Space. (Has anyone seen my stapler, btw?)

Inauthentic, template-driven communication tends to turn people off, whereas communication that is real, authentic, and human has a higher likelihood of resonating with folks.

Remember Gary V from earlier on in the post?

We think about him now within the context of entrepreneurialism, social media, and so on. But Gary V got his "break" by essentially being human within the world of wine tasting, a context within which he felt like there wasn't a lot of that going on. For the sake of time and space, we won't chase this particular rabbit, but check out the story of Wine Library TV and how it was a turning point in Gary V's story.

PEOPLE WANT TO READ EMAIL NEWSLETTERS THAT ARE WELL DESIGNED

There's no one-size-fits-all approach to email newsletter design, but there is certainly good design and bad design.

Some design makes things more difficult for the human mind to digest, and some design makes things easier.

Take this, from Austin Kleon's newsletter, for example.

He stays on-brand with his brand personality, you can hear his voice coming through (" Hey y'all..."), and the design is a vehicle allowing those things to take the forefront.

Kleon has developed - and I trust he'll forgive the clunky phrasing - a very Austin-Kleon-esque aesthetic to the point where now when I'm out and about, I'll see others' work and think to myself, " Hmmm, I wonder if So-and-So was influenced by Austin Kleon's work. " That's not a bad thing, mind you.

This isn't a digression. When folks encounter your email newsletter, the design should serve a particular function, as it does in Kleon's. The design should do such a good job highlighting the fantastic content you're putting out that the reader almost forgets it's there (the design, that is).

Within the context of email, one of the purposes of design is to do such a good job highlighting the content that the reader almost forgets it's there. #contentmarketing #emailmarketing #design #contentcreation Click To Tweet

HERE'S WHAT TO DO NEXT:

1. DID YOU GRAB ANY QUICK TAKEAWAYS FROM ANY OF THE EMAIL NEWSLETTER TIPS ABOVE? IF SO, DROP A "YES" BELOW...

...And let us know what it was in the comments!

2. WHAT WOULD YOU ADD TO THE LIST?

Do you read any email newsletters that you'd recommend? We'd love to hear about them!

3. SHARE THIS POST!

Appreciate one or more of the tips in today's post? Click the share button!

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5 Tips for Writing Email Newsletters People Want to Read - On the Mark Strategies

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Want to start a fight in a group of marketers? Ask them about the effectiveness of emails, and specifically, email newsletters. Most of us have signed up for them for any number of reasons, just like most of us now click "mark as read" if not "delete" upon their arrival.

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Find How TV Fathers Teach Us About Content Marketing

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Find How TV Fathers Teach Us About Content Marketing

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As with any marketing or branding effort, it can be tempting to look for immediate gratification. But like most good things, content marketing takes a sustained approach. It requires patience and an eye toward the long-term goals you have for your brand and organization.

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Father's Day is this weekend; and as much fun as it is to give the father figures in our lives an appropriately good natured ribbing, what usually underlies that ribbing is a respect and gratefulness for the lessons they've taught us all along the way. TV shows have portrayed fathers in myriad ways over the years, and there are countless, really fun examples we could use in a post like this. So read on to see if your favorite sitcom dad made the list! So without further ado, let's see what our most beloved TV fathers teach us about content marketing.

Phil Dunphy is Phil Dunphy, right?

He is unequivocally Phil Dunphy. And if you've ever seen the show, you know I don't mean that in any sort of rude, in-your-face sort of way. In fact, it's anything but that.

What we're talking about here is the character, played by actor Ty Burrell, being so incredibly comfortable in his own skin that he is able to lean-and live-fully into it, to full comedic effect, of course.

His personality? It's definitely unique.

He's equal parts successful and insecure, awkward and optimistic. Goofy and upbeat, he's the emotional counterbalance to his wife, Claire's more hard-driving tendencies. He's a real estate agent who also loves doing magic.

He put up a "high" wire in his front yard.

You'll have to watch the episode to catch the whole story, but there are a couple layers behind this story. But it was Phil being Phil, and it wasn't all it seemed at first. Did he make it across? You'll have to watch for yourself to find out...

But how many of us would do something like that? How many of us would put up a rope in the front yard, grab a helmet, don it with our business attire, and try to walk across a tightrope in full view of the neighbors? Not many, I suspect.

And that's OK. Because we're not Phil Dunphy.

What's important for us as we think about our brands and content marketing is this: Create and/or clarify your brand's unique personality, and then lean fully into it. There's no one else exactly like you, and there's no on else who should be able to create content exactly like yours.

Your content should be unmistakably you. It should have your personality, your tone, your voice, your quirks, your perspectives, your humanness. It should be your story.

So be authentic and unique. Be you. It's an advantage and accelerator that no one else can duplicate.

Make your content authentic and unique. It's an advantage that no one else can duplicate. #contentmarketing #socialmedia #contentstrategy #marketing Click To Tweet

Thanks to Netflix, and not unlike Karate Kid Cobra Kai before it, a new generation is getting introduced to an old show in Full(er) House.

They're meeting Uncle Jesse, Uncle Joey, the girls, and of course, longsuffering father, Danny Tanner.

As a single parent, he does his best to raise his daughters before eventually enlisting the help of the aforementioned Uncle Jesse and Uncle Joey, both of which at times are more like kids themselves.

At various points, we see Danny's juggling act on display, as he works full-time, parents full-time, and does his darndest to be a good parent. What's amazing to see, though, is the patience he has with his girls as they navigate the twists and turns of growing up. You can tell he's taking a long view of parenting, as he strives to maintain an even keel through whatever gets thrown his way.

As with any marketing or branding effort, it can be tempting to look for immediate gratification. But like most good things, content marketing takes a sustained approach. It requires patience and an eye toward the long-term goals you have for your brand and organization.

Resist the urge to look for immediate results with content marketing. Like most good things, it requires a sustained effort. #contentmarketing #socialmedia #marketing #contentstrategy Click To Tweet

So just like TV dad Danny Tanner wasn't thrown into hysterics every time he got a complaint from a kid about his parenting or decisions, so too must you maintain your course with content marketing, knowing it's an absolutely critical component of your future success.

OK, this one wasn't originally a TV father, per se; but this movie is on TV all the time now, so we're going to go with it.

If ever there were a TV father who went big on a consistent basis-and I mean really, really went for it-it's Clark Griswold.

From vacations in Europe to Christmas lights displays that nearly killed him to pull off, Clark Griswold has all of us pulling for him at various points. And laughing at with at (I had it right the first time) him.

While there's often something that tugs at us to play it safe all the time, it's very difficult to make an impact that way. Clark Griswold wanted to make a difference in his family's life, so he went the extra mile. He stood out. Made a splash. Sometimes a scene.

In the content marketing game, sometimes it's necessary to figure out what it looks like in your context to "go big," and then to go for it.

Yes, you'd want to stay on brand, and yes, you'd want to be sure it was in line with your brand personality. But it can pay to channel your inner Clark Griswold every once in a while.

Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor was a study in contradictions. He was an expert whose Tool Time "show" demonstrated how often he messed up and had to be bailed out by his buddy Al. He was externally a "strong" father figure; a good dad with a good heart; but when it came time to execute on fatherhood, he had to lean on his friend (or the fence, rather), Wilson, whose insight would be the key that helped Tim take the appropriate next steps.

Did that discourage him? Nope. He laughed it up, didn't take himself too seriously, and certainly didn't hesitate to approach Wilson from across the fence.

With everything going on in the world, it's important to remember that even though we can take our profession and our craft seriously, we don't have to take ourselves seriously. That will help you lighten up, relax, and post more human and relatable content.

Additionally, remember why the majority of people get online in the first place according to multiple studies - to be entertained. So find ways to do that. Inject some fun, some humor into your posts.

Need some help figuring out if your posts hit the mark? Let us know!

HERE'S WHAT TO DO NEXT:

Let us know what it was in the comments!

Drop them in the comments!

Know someone else who could use some of these? Sharing is caring!

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What TV Fathers Teach Us About Content Marketing - On the Mark Strategies

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Father's Day is this weekend; and as much fun as it is to give the father figures in our lives an appropriately good natured ribbing, what usually underlies that ribbing is a respect and gratefulness for the lessons they've taught us all along the way.

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How to Immediately Improve Your Strategic Planning Process?

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How to Immediately Improve Your Strategic Planning Process?

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Improving your planning process doesn’t happen automatically. It takes intentionality. Following these tips will immediately make your strategic planning process better.

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Strategic planning-now there are two words that can strike cynicism and frustration into the hearts of any bank or credit union executive. And with good reason.

Financial institutions spend a great deal of time, money and energy on strategic planning, all too often with sketchy results. The refrain goes a little something like this: "Year after year, it is the same old thing. We talk and talk and nothing gets done."

Unfortunately, these are all too often the results of traditional or old-school bank and credit union strategic planning sessions. A group of well-intended and committed executives get together in a boardroom or somewhere off-site, share a good meal and brainstorm ideas for the future. Somebody takes notes, compiles the report, and shares it later with the participants. There are about 97 action items to complete, all front-and loaded into the first half of the next year.

This is about as inspiring as watching paint dry. And you can do a whole lot cheaper by actually watching real paint dry, for all the worth that too many strategic plans have.

But what if strategic planning wasn't that way? What if you could shake the dust off of the typical strategic planning session, turning it into something from which real and substantive results could come?

Here are seven quick solutions to immediately improve your strategic planning process.

1. Use GEPO cards

GEPO is an acronym that stands for "Good Enough, Push On." Everyone in the session has a "GEPO" card next to their name plate. At ay point in the session (for example, if the group is getting too bogged down in the details), someone can point to their GEPO card. Then talk on that topic is suspended and the group moves on to something else.

2. Don't focus on the numbers

As Ray Davis, former CEO of Umpqua Bank says, "You cannot grow your business if all you are doing is worrying about the numbers." Numbers are just measurements-they are not strategic. Some sessions devolve into spending too much time talking about ratios, numbers and balance sheets. Limit the amount of time on spreadsheet analysis and review will improve your overall strategy.

3. Interject fun and energy

One way to set the tone for the entire session is to start the meeting with a fun activity. Get participants up and moving around. For example, we've played games like Jenga and Toss Up with our planning clients. You don't play a game just to play a game, however. You always tie the game back to strategic planning lessons (for example, how is strategic lessons like Jenga?).

4. Ask strategic questions

Great planning sessions start with great questions. Either as part of the pre-session work or during the meeting itself, here are five questions that need answering:

What two things (products, attributes, etc.) are we going to "own?"

If we want to accomplish just two strategic initiatives in the next 12-18 months, what are they?

How are we going to get younger?

If we could change one thing about our institution, what is it?

What current project, product or initiative should we cut?

5. Address hard topics

Some people tend to avoid conflict or difficult decisions. They want everyone happy and don't want to rock the boat. You should banish those people (or at least their avoidance issues) during planning. One question you can ask ahead of time is "what is the elephant in the room issue that we must discuss during this year's session?" Strategic planning is the perfect time to examine underperformance issues, brand gaps, lack of growth and other conflicts within the organization. No credit union or bank is perfect. So talk about what's not. At your next planning session discuss the issue on everyone's mind but no one's lips.

Addressing hard topics forces you to make hard decisions. This year, there are certainly key decisions you must make. For a free resource on improving your planning, be sure to download the free "Four Decisions That Will Make or Break Your 2021 Planning Session."

6. Prune your strategy

In most planning sessions credit unions and banks add tasks, strategic initiatives, timelines, and tons of data. How often do we actually cut things in our strategic planning sessions? Probably not enough. The reality is, true strategy means pruning.

Try answering this question at your next management team or board meeting, "What do we want to be the best at?" As noted in the Myth of Excellence, you can't be great at everything. So stop trying. You have to choose your priorities. And that requires a great deal of strategic pruning.

Here are some tips when it comes to those strategic trim downs:

Prune, prune and prune some more until you get down to three or four strategic initiatives (with three being ideal).

When you cut don't cheat: don't combine two priorities into one or don't put a bunch of sub priorities under one larger heading.

Cut to the core essence and priorities you are currently facing.

Communicate your priorities to your staff (don't let them become overburdened with an overwhelming plan).

7. Use an empty chair

Many people attend their credit union or bank strategic planning sessions. Top-level executives, board of directors and sometimes supervisory committee members all come to the meeting.

Every person attending your strategic planning session is important. Everyone wants a "seat at the table." The CEO, CFO, COO, board chairman, volunteer, marketing and lending vice presidents, etc. are all critical They all bring unique perspectives to the mix.

But is the most important person represented?

By that I mean the member or customer. Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, famously kept one chair open during Amazon meetings "for the customer."

One of the best things you can do at your next strategic planning session is leave one chair open for the consumer. It's a great physical reminder about why we are even in business: for them. At a recent strategic planning session I conducted for one of my clients we left that empty chair there. I was amazed at the number of times during lively discussions about various strategic issues that board members and executives would point to that chair. That empty seat serves as a powerful visual tool.

Improving your planning process doesn't happen automatically. It takes intentionality. Following these tips will immediately make your strategic planning process better.

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Seven Ways To Immediately Improve Your Strategic Planning Process - On the Mark Strategies

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Shares linkedin Twitter Facebook Buffer Strategic planning-now there are two words that can strike cynicism and frustration into the hearts of any bank or credit union executive. And with good reason. Financial institutions spend a great deal of time, money and energy on strategic planning, all too often with sketchy results.

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If done correctly, strategic planning for credit unions is a blast. It’s always great to carve out time to discuss the future and how your organization is going to accomplish its strategic initiatives.

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It's always great to carve out time to discuss the future and how your organization is going to accomplish its strategic initiatives. However, if you're not careful, strategic planning can become routine or formulaic. Talk about your numbers. Complete the SWOT (which we don't recommend doing). Set some goals.

But as Proverbs says, "Where there is no vision, the people perish."

Strategic planning for credit unions is a process-not a date on a calendar. With that in mind, there is a new exercise we are recommending some of our clients complete the actual planning session:

Vision Casting and Strategic Planning for Credit Unions

While vision is certainly something discussed during the planning session, those talks can sometimes get tactical. You don't even have to do vision casting every single year and not every person should complete it. In fact, I recommend C-suite executives do vision casting on "monumental" dates. These could include key moments like your five or ten year work anniversary. Or maybe three years before your retirement.

Why is casting a vision so important? Because when your vision expands, your credit union or community bank expands. Think what your organization will look like in the next five or ten years.

And then act as if that vision were a reality. We push our clients to start acting now like they already are the size they are striving to become. For example, a $500 million institution should already be acting like a $750 million organization because that is their vision. Don't wait until you are your desired size. Have the vision and then take the actions as if the vision already were a reality.

When you do vision casting, carve out some time to think and reflect. Maybe even get away from the office if possible. Take a journal or a laptop. Answer some key questions.

Here are key steps you can take to cast your milestone vision:

1. Celebrate the wins

While casting a vision is all about the future, don't forget about the past. Think of all the great things you, your leadership team and your organization have accomplished in the past several years. This is a critical first step because it's easy in the day to day just to go, go and go. Pause. Reflect. Celebrate.

2. Lessons learned

What insights have you gained in the past few years? If you're not learning, you're not growing. More than likely, you've taken some risks that didn't go the way you expected. That's okay. A wise friend once told me that you learn more from your failures than your successes. Keep in mind that not all "lessons" are failures either. But more than likely, you can make a pretty sound list of what you've learned lately.

3. Paint a picture of what the next 10 years looks like

Now we get to the "meat" of the exercise. This is where you really cast your vision. During this step you describe what you want your credit union or community bank to be during that given time period. These items could include numbers, financials, size, type of employees, branches, brand, philosophy, work place environment, key issues, etc. For example, during their recent vision casting exercise one CEO tackled five key areas: mortgage strategy, merger strategy, auto loan strategy, technology strategy, out of state strategy and commercial strategy. Your key items and issues will be different. Think like an artist: start with a blank canvas and start painting.

4. Make a list of your next inspired actions

If you stop with just casting the vision, your work is not done. Once that vision is set, you must answer the question, "what is the next immediate step we must accomplish?" In fact, it doesn't matter what you today, it matters what you tomorrow. For example, if part of your vision casting is to become a more digital organization, then maybe some of your next inspired actions could include closing some of your non-performing branches, updating your core system and hiring a true digital expert to lead your strategy.

Growth will not happen automatically or by osmosis. It requires intentionality. The first step to that growth is casting the vision.

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Cast A Vision During Strategic Planning - On the Mark Strategies

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It's always great to carve out time to discuss the future and how your organization is going to accomplish its strategic initiatives. However, if you're not careful, strategic planning can become routine or formulaic. Talk about your numbers. Complete the SWOT (which we don't recommend doing). Set some goals.

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If you want to win at content marketing, you need to create a compelling brand personality and deploy it across your various content platforms.

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If you want to win at content marketing, you need to create a compelling brand personality and deploy it across your various content platforms. While a compelling brand personality is an outgrowth of a similarly compelling brand identity, and while doing a deep dive into the brand identity process would be an equally fun post; today we're going to focus on how you can create a compelling brand personality.

A Quick Note On Terms

When we say , we're referring to the visual system and elements that make up the visual representation of the brand.

Brand Personality is a set of human characteristics-often expressed as Brand Attributes -associated with a brand and used consistently throughout the entire brand and/or consumer experience in order to better connect with its target audience.

We usually write brand attributes as adjectives, much in the same way that we might describe a friend or family member of ours.

For example

Aunt Audra

...sure is cheerful. And those bright-colored blouses and ostentatious hats? Man, oh man, oh man. I tell you what, I'm not sure I've ever heard her not whistling or singing some old, happy show tune. Have you?

Grandpa Jude

...is one slow-moving, unruffled gentleman these days. It's almost like he's immune to the omnipresent sound of Aunt Audra's singing, his barely bent over frame cutting a calm silhouette amidst the chaos and cacophony of any family gathering.

Keith and Kayla

...are always together, and are always engrossed by something on their phones as they stroll through Whole Foods. Separate engrossing things, mind you. On their respective phones. Oh, they are very connected people all right, but not in the traditional sense.

That One Family

...down the street. You know the one. They're a little loud, but they're having a lot of fun. Laughing, smiling, funny as heck when you overhear them. The youngest is usually wearing something...colorful. The sidewalk art? Always colorful, never inside the lines.

Now...

Did you start to get an image of those people above? Think about brands like that.

Know any cheerful, bright brands that you could imagine pumping out a show tune along with their commercial? I do.

Now tell me, can't you hear Auntie Audra explaining (and not quietly, either) why she uses Tide? And how it gets out just the toughest stains!

If anyone out of the above group would need stain remover, who would it be?

Yep. The family down the street. Thing is, they'd be more likely to just give you the shirt off their back, happy-go-lucky as they are.

Hopefully, you're starting to see how with a little effort you can be well on your way to putting some adjectives and attributes around your brand's personality. Now let's get to some basic steps you can take to create a compelling brand personality!

As the great philosopher Socrates is credited with saying, "Know thyself." Organizational and/or brand self-awareness isn't always easy, but it's an important first step here.

There's a process we go through with our clients, but that's a little involved for a blog post, so let's try something a little more like this.

If your brand were a person, how would you and/or others describe it, based on the interactions you and/or others have had with it? What adjectives and synonyms do you suspect would begin to emerge?

Jot them down.

Yep. That's it. Three to five words. We call those brand attributes.

Say we go with cheerful, rugged, and aspiring.

Bridge The Gap

After delineating both the current state and the aspirational state, we have an important step to take.

We need to decide if there are any brand gaps between current state brand attributes (those we discovered in the previous Understanding-The-Brand step above) and the aspirational brand attributes we just created.

If this were another post-and certainly if we were working together-we'd work through what bridging that gap looks like, but for the sake of time and space, let's scoot on to the next step here.

The aforementioned cheerful, rugged, and aspiring would break down like this:

Cheerful: full of good spirits, merry
Synonyms for Cheerful: bright, cheery, chipper, gladsome, sunny, upbeat, winsome

Rugged: strongly built or constituted, robust; rough and strong in character; rough, uneven surface; showing facial signs of strength
Synonyms for Rugged: hardened, hardy, stout, strong, sturdy, tough, vigorous

Aspiring: desiring and working to achieve a particular goal; having aspirations to attain a specified profession, position, etc.
Synonyms for Aspiring: ambitious, go-getting, hard-driving, pushing

It's important to do this because it helps us understand what those brand attributes will start feeling like when they're being used every day.

You'll want to build out a style guide with your brand personality, attributes, and then how-tos with examples.

For example, your more typical financial institutions might have something that sounded more like these two examples:
Financial Institution 1

Open a Bank of Wherever account and enjoy tools, benefits, and rewards to help you manage your money - no matter what the future holds.

Or... Financial Institution 2, which is a little more casual, with a touch of humor.

A checking account that gives you more. We reward you for banking with us, not the other way around.

Fees, a short story. You shouldn't be nickel and dimed for using your own money.

You could notice a slight difference in the second one, right? OK, great.

Now, what if we tried something with even a more distinct brand personality? In the next example, we're going to be pretty intentional, and you're going to be able to see how just adding a unique brand personality to the copy can make even a couple sentences about a checking account reflect something about a brand's overall flavor. Check it out below.

Imagine the following as part of a Brand Style Guide. It would be something of a "Here's What Our Brand Personality Sounds Like" section, complete with examples like this...

This is how we don't sound:

Leave your checking account worries behind with great benefits and flexibility.

It's all about the freebies.

This no-hassle, no-cost checking account offers great benefits and flexibility, perfect for Members of all ages.

This is how we do sound:

Paying for a checking account stinks. We get it. That's why we offer a free checking account with no minimum balance required and no monthly service charges. Don't bother coming into the branch, just open one up while you're on the couch, on the beach or in the bathroom. (We don't need to know the details.)

You might be thinking...

" Yeah, but I don't think we can do that." That's ok. That's why we're here! We can help you - just like we have so many other clients - develop your own, unique brand personality. We use a unique process, often beginning with an assessment of your current brand.

Do this regularly, and do this in different ways.

Start with brand training, and be sure that training contains an element of what it means to be a brand advocate on social media. Provide examples of what the brand personality is and isn't, and if you want to keep the team engaged, try to have a little fun along the way.

In order for a brand personality to do what you want it to do, and in order for it to help your content marketing be successful; it needs to be used consistently. Think of it like you would with getting to know and growing increasingly familiar with a person.

You wouldn't expect to get to know someone you interacted with once a month for a few seconds. The same is true with a brand.

Using a brand personality consistently is a key tactic if you expect that brand personality to be an effective component of your content marketing success. #brandstrategy #contentmarketing Click To Tweet

Back at the beginning of this post, we defined a brand personality as "a set of -associated with a brand and used consistently throughout the entire brand and/or consumer experience in order to human characteristics-often expressed as brand attributes better connect with its target audience."

Viewed in its entirety, that definition lends critical context to the role of brand personality in content marketing. Take another look.

What a great brand personality-which is a set of human characteristics associated with a brand-is going to do is this: it's going to help create a connection between a brand and a target audience, which of course is a group of-yep-humans.

This is precisely why brands that are human and relatable have such a distinct advantage over those which are detached and not discernible from the myriad other corporate content clones out there.

Those corporate content clone accounts? They simply can't connect with actual humans in any real and relevant way. Period.

1. Does your brand have a clearly defined brand personality?

If so, drop a YES in the comments and list your brand attributes.

2. Not sure your brand's personality is clearly defined or not?

That's OK. We can help with that. Drop me a line.

3. Like this post and/or thought it was helpful?

Please share it!

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How to Create a Compelling Brand Personality - On the Mark Strategies

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If you want to win at content marketing, you need to create a compelling brand personality and deploy it across your various content platforms. While a compelling brand personality is an outgrowth of a similarly compelling brand identity, and while doing a deep dive into the brand identity process would be an equally fun post; today we're going to focus on how you can create a compelling brand personality.

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How to Make Your Content More Shareable?

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How to Make Your Content More Shareable?

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Plugging in a few strategies and tactics can make your content more shareable, even though people are constantly inundated by content, images, and ads.

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Elevate Your Business by Telling Your Brand Story 

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Elevate Your Business by Telling Your Brand Story 

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The reason telling your brand story can help you stand out is because there’s no other brand story that’s like yours. Your brand story is yours, and it’s yours alone.

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How Telling Your Brand Story Elevates Your Business - On the Mark Strategies

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Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a terrible- no, wait. Hold on. (clears throat). It was a dark and stormy night, when suddenly a- er, no, that's not it either. Let's try one more time.

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On The Mark Strategies - Hiring a Marketing Coordinator

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On The Mark Strategies - Hiring a Marketing Coordinator

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On The Mark Strategies is hiring a Marketing Coordinator! We’re looking for someone who loves marketing, writing and solving problems.

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Know the 10 Content Marketing Tactics You Can Plug in Today

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Know the 10 Content Marketing Tactics You Can Plug in Today

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Pumping out great content is part of the game if you hope to remain top-of-mind — and wallet — with today’s consumers.

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Pumping out great content is part of the game if you hope to remain top-of-mind - and wallet - with today's consumers. What we've seen, though, is that content marketing and its associated strategies and tactics change just as rapidly as the business environments they support. As such, it's pivotal that marketers, leaders, and creatives alike are constantly learning, growing, and pushing themselves to not only plug in what they're learning in regards to new strategies and tactics, but also to scope out the horizon. This will enable them to push their own boundaries even further and anticipate where there will be opportunities for growth, from the individual and market perspectives. To that end, here are ten content marketing tactics to plug in today to help level up your content.

1. CONTENT MARKETING TACTIC: CREATE HIGHER QUALITY CONTENT

This isn't a shocker, but too many sites and studies to count have pointed out over the past few years that creating higher-quality content is among the top priorities for marketers and/or business leaders alike. That's no surprise, given both the ever-growing amount of time people (it's estimated that almost 4.5 billion people will be on social media daily within the next three years or so) spend online absorbing said content, and the impact that content can have on what those people think, how those people feel, and what those people do.

We've been fortunate in that we've had a front row seat as clients of ours have begun the journey of transforming their marketing after working through our proprietary marketing assessment and plugging in the recommendations.

2. CONTENT MARKETING TACTIC: ENGAGE IN HUMAN WAYS

A Deloitte study showed the importance of how brands interact with people online. It found that more than 80% of people ended up doing business with a brand because of online exposure to and interactions with that brand's content.

There's a reason that Domino's pizza has experienced the resurgence it has over the past decade. It started back here:

That, there, is a decidedly human approach to something that other organizations likely would have addressed with some gobbledygook-filled press release - if they even addressed it at all - wherein they said something like:

" Going forward we will strive to ensure that our culinary products reflect the same high external standards that we hold ourselves to internally, understanding that if those self-same, aforementioned products rise to and maintain those standards, the outgrowth of that standards maintenance will most likely be a more pleasant experience for those with whom our culinary products come into contact; and that, of course, is an outcome with which we would be more inclined to be favorably disposed. "

That may be closer to the norm, but that's not human and relatable.

A non-negotiable for brands wanting to be more engaging with their content marketing? Be more human. #contentmarketing #socialmedia #brandstrategy #marketing #branding Click To Tweet

3. CONTENT MARKETING TACTIC: CREATE MORE VISUAL CONTENT

The days of being able to get by with most of your social media content being a text-filled graphic announcing your next something-or-other are long over (if they were ever...under?).

People are on social media for a multitude of reasons, but more and more it's an absolute necessity that the high quality content we mentioned above be highly visual and highly engaging. Because if it's not, we run the risk of people thinking we're regularly...

And while you might not feel like that's a big deal, the reality is that if they start to feel that way, all they have to do is click in the top, right hand corner of your post, and...

It's that simple for folks! So let's keep them engaged, and give them reasons to keep wanting to see our stuff!

4. CONTENT MARKETING TACTIC: REINVIGORATE YOUR BRAND PERSONALITY

Assuming you've already done the work and created a compelling brand personality, every once in a while it's a good idea to take a step back and look at it again, especially if it's been a good bit since you've last reinvigorated it.

Now, to be clear, I'm not talking about a full-on rebrand here; I'm simply talking about breathing fresh life into your brand. Helping it regain the pep in its step, so to speak.

5. CONTENT MARKETING TACTIC: TELL MORE STORIES

Stories are engaging because human beings are wired for stories.

There's a way to do it, and a way not to do it. Check out our post How Telling Your Brand Story Elevates Your Business for a closer look at how your brand can approach telling its story.

Brands that tell stories will be well-positioned for success in the future. #brandstrategy #contentmarketing #socialmedia #branding #contentcreation Click To Tweet

6. CONTENT MARKETING TACTIC: BE CONVERSATIONAL

There's enough uber-corporate stuff out there. You don't have to add to it.

The more you're able to communicate with, rather than talk to, folks, the better off you're going to be.

7. WHILE YOU'RE AT IT, BE MORE TRANSPARENT THAN YOU FEEL LIKE BEING

You know that thing businesses do where they just can't get around to admitting a mistake? Or where they can't just say they're not good at something, but they're trying to get better? Why not try something like this instead?

Aside from the notion that businesses trying to convince consumers that they have it all together being all wrong, there's so much to be gained by just being...human. Real. Transparent.

8. CONTENT MARKETING TACTIC: MORE VIDEO

People in the know have gone as far as to say that video will drive more than 80% of the traffic on the internet by 2022. And it's not just a blanket thing, either. That huge percentage is a result of video being just how we do life now.

For example, another study showed that:

84% of people say a brand's video has convinced them to buy a product or service

86% of people would like to see more videos from brands (just make sure they have some personality, will ya?)

96% of people say they've watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service

So whether it's a story highlighting something cool someone did with one of your products or services, or an explainer video helping people better understand the benefits of working with you, creating more video is going to be a winning content marketing tactic going forward.

9. CONTENT MARKETING TACTIC: MAKE THAT VIDEO LIVE

Over 2 billion-with-a-B people have watched Facebook Live videos. That's just Facebook Live video. That doesn't include Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok, which are all growing faster than Facebook.

Live video tends to outperform pre-recorded stuff. By some counts, it outperforms it by quite a lot. Some say six times as much. It also gets ten times as many comments according to some research.

The reason all that happens is because of how much more engaging and human live video is than its pre-recorded counterpart. Now, people are part of something with you. They're often, as is the case with Facebook Live, able to interact with you during the live video.

It's a conversation now. It's human.

10. CONTENT MARKETING TACTIC: USER-GENERATED CONTENT

There's a reason lots of people tend to consider movies' Rotten Tomatoes scores. It's sort of Yelp meets Amazon rating for movies, right? And the general public rating sits side-by-side, of course, with the aggregate of the film critics score.

Bottom line? People like to feel like they're getting the scoop from other, "regular," people rather than a paid spokesperson who has a monetary incentive to say positive things about a product or brand.

HERE'S WHAT TO DO NEXT:

1. WHAT CONTENT MARKETING TACTICS WILL YOU BE PLUGGING IN?

Let us know below!

2. WHAT CONTENT MARKETING TACTICS WOULD YOU ADD TO THE LIST?

Drop them in a comment!

3. SHARE THIS POST!

Know someone else who could use some of these? Sharing is caring!

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10 Content Marketing Tactics You Can Plug in Today - On the Mark Strategies

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Pumping out great content is part of the game if you hope to remain top-of-mind - and wallet - with today's consumers. What we've seen, though, is that content marketing and its associated strategies and tactics change just as rapidly as the business environments they support.

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The CU Growth Accelerator™ has already helped credit unions and community banks achieve that kind of growth.

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Five “Must Haves” in Your Marketing Budget 2021

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Five “Must Haves” in Your Marketing Budget 2021

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Developing a marketing budget involves more than just crunching numbers. Budgeting is also about setting priorities. Focusing on the above tasks should be at the top of every credit union or community bank’s 2021 priority list.

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Find out the Three Keys to Better Branding in 2021

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Find out the Three Keys to Better Branding in 2021

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Branding in 2021 is not going to look massively different than branding in previous years…it will just be about a thousand times more critical that you get it right.

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When the economy slows, the temptation is to slow with it. But inaction is the riskiest response to uncertainties of an economic downturn. Now is actually the perfect time to seize strategic advantages.

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If you look at current economic downturn data and projections for too long, you'll get depressed quickly.

McKinsey & Company is projecting it will take most business sectors more than five years to get back to their 2019 GDP levels. Bancography recently said "Banks and credit unions should understand and accept the disruption will not be temporary. There is no 'light switch' that will instantly restart the economy at the point where we entered the crisis." And on a recent call with large credit unions Steve Rick, chief economist for CUNA Mutual, noted that a double-dip recession is a distinct possibility.

So what approach should your credit union or community bank take as we close out 2020 and prepare for an uncertain 2021? Rather than panicking or pausing, you must be proactive.

Rather than panicking or pausing, you must be proactive. Click To Tweet

There are actually hidden opportunities for your credit union or community bank during the current economic situation.

Here are five ways to seize advantages during an economic downturn:

Launch new products

During the last major economic downturn, Apple's revenue fell 33%. So what did they do? They increased spending on research and development by 13%. That resulted in multiple new products such as iTunes music, the iPod mini and iPod photo. While your credit union or community bank may not launch a new tech toy, it can invest in creating new financial products and services consumers need. For example, Bank of America just launched a new digital financial planning tool. Now is the perfect time to completely review all your products and services through a creative lens.

Implement the CU Growth Accelerator

If you want guaranteed growth, then check out our trademarked CU Growth Accelerator. This is a program that provides immediate growth results and gets you ahead of the game. Our proven five step process guides you through the key actions that will deliver an increase in ROA, assets and member growth. Traditional growth numbers from previous years will cease to exist in the midst of economic downturn. You must take a proactive approach with your growth strategy and CU Growth Accelerator does just that.

Close underperforming branches

Nothing can drag your financials down more than facilities that are not producing. But sometimes boards and others in your credit union or bank get tied to those buildings. Sometimes the mindset is, "more branches means more growth." Sometimes there is a positive psychology to seeing your logo and name on a building. But the pandemic has changed consumers' banking habits: less branch visits and more digital activity. If you've been hesitant to close a branch or two, the pandemic presents the perfect opportunity to do so.

Seek merger partners

As sad as it is, some credit unions and small banks are going to throw in the towel. Maybe not this year or in 2021. But by 2022 we will more than likely see more consolidation in our industry. You must ask yourself, what can we do now to facilitate that activity? Whether it is proactively meeting with potential partners, hiring a consulting firm to assist you with the process or putting out feelers within your own network you must lay the foundation for mergers now. Mergers won't just happen by osmosis and won't just happen because you want them to happen.

Remove hurdles

Recessions are high pressure exercises in change management. You must be flexible and ready to adjust. During a recent strategic planning session with one of our clients we asked, "What hassles can you remove from doing business with you?" It was an eye-opening experience because they realized that through the years they had put multiple hurdles in place when it came to opening accounts and getting loans. Now is a great time to review every single process you have in place and ask why is it there and how can we better improve our consumer experience?

When the economy slows, the temptation is to slow with it. But inaction is the riskiest response to uncertainties of an economic downturn. Now is actually the perfect time to seize strategic advantages.

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How to Seize Advantages During An Economic Downturn | On the Mark Strategies

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If you look at current economic downturn data and projections for too long, you'll get depressed quickly. McKinsey & Company is projecting it will take most business sectors more than five years to get back to their 2019 GDP levels. Bancography recently said "Banks and credit unions should understand and accept the disruption will not be temporary.

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Know the Three Keys to Strategic Planning for 2021

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Know the Three Keys to Strategic Planning for 2021

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To help ensure your strategic plan launches you toward success in the new year, consider focusing on collaboration and inclusiveness, a truly strategic look at your plan and regarding your planning session as an annual process and not a singular event.

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2020 will certainly go down as a year to remember (or forget, depending on your perspective). This T-shirt I saw on Amazon says it well:

As we enter the last weeks of the year and look to 2021, successful strategic planning is a must. Starting your new year without a workable strategic plan is like starting a road trip with your "check engine" light on. Strategic planning for 2021 has to happen...even if you do it a few months into the year.

We all know the rebound from 2020 won't be easy, so here's how to specifically do strategic planning for 2021:

Make your strategic planning session collaborative and inclusive

Financial institutions are often guilty of making their strategic planning session a closed-door affair. However, having the right mix of people from across your credit union or community bank makes the overall product better.

Consider including staff from your frontline and back office. They bring a unique view on the overall culture of your financial institution and can definitely add to the planning process. When more people feel they are part of the process, you also get more buy-in.

Don't let your strategic plan gets stuck in the weeds

A strategic plan, by definition, should focus on the strategic, not the tactical. Strategic planning groups often fall into tactical discussions instead of strategic. They quickly find their planning session stuck in the weeds. With successful moderation, however, your strategic plan can take a big picture approach that generates success even at the most granular levels.

Look at your strategic planning session as a process, not an event

Strategic planning is an annual process, not a multiple day "one and done" soiree. This year even proved that strategic planning can be successful remotely too.

What your team crafts in a strategic planning session must direct the flowing blood of your financial institution for the next several years. A long-term view of your strategic planning session attitude will generate a better plan with better results than the traditional, "it's just our annual weekend get-together" thinking.

To help ensure your strategic plan launches you toward success in the new year, consider focusing on collaboration and inclusiveness, a truly strategic look at your plan and regarding your planning session as an annual process and not a singular event.

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Three Keys to Strategic Planning for 2021 | On the Mark Strategies

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2020 will certainly go down as a year to remember (or forget, depending on your perspective). This T-shirt I saw on Amazon says it well: As we enter the last weeks of the year and look to 2021, successful strategic planning is a must.