"With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility"

The Avengers

Think of your favorite superhero.  Why do you like him/her?  Is it the fancy uniform, super cool abilities, or their willingness to always help people no matter what – even in danger and mortal peril?

The thing that makes these superheroes stand out to so many is that they have this immense amount of power, yet they apply it for good deeds and not evil.  Moreover, they use their great responsibility of powers and talent to thwart evil at every turn.

You, my marketing friends, also can apply superhero mentality to your marketing efforts by applying your powers to good instead of evil.  Plainly stated, focus on the positives about your financial institution and how awesome you are at taking care of your customers’ or members’ financial needs.  Use those positive stories from when you helped someone start a business, buy a home, or help send their kids to college.

Focusing on the evil, like throwing the nearby competitor under the bus for example, isn’t how true superheroes roll.  They don’t have to say “I’m better than <insert superhero name> because of X, Y, and Z” because it would make them no better than the villains.

Stop competing with those other nearby community-oriented financial institutions!   We are all playing for the same team – just like our favorites who came together to fight a bigger evil in The Avengers.  Warring with one another over market share isn’t the stuff of superheroes because there is so much more opportunity in the big scheme of things.

In your marketing efforts and in the process of delivering that awesome experience to your members and customers, define what you are best at and what makes you different.  Then, in true superhero fashion, keep using your powers as an organization to keep helping people reach their financial dreams. 

Superheroes always take the high road, and that’s what makes them great.  You and your organization have great power and great talent to use for good.  So remember to be like that favorite superhero and focus on what you have to offer your customers and members.  

Amanda  

We bring these philosophies to credit unions and community banks all over the country to help them with their strategic planning, marketing, and branding initiatives.  Contact me to learn more about how MarketMatch can help your financial institution define its "why" and achieve sustainable growth in the future.  Don't forget to ask about our ROI Guarantee - the only guarantee of its kind in the entire financial industry!

Follow me on Twitter!

Like us on Facebook!

Creating a YOUnique Marketing Plan

“It’s not a question about what you could do; it’s a question about what you should do to create the biggest impact.”  

-Bruce Clapp, MarketMatch’s President

You have a pile of money, directives to grow membership and loans, and need to implement a marketing plan over the next 12 months.  Writing a strategic marketing plan takes time and it is never too early to start planning for next year.  In fact, many financial marketers are already starting their plan for 2014. 

But there are so many things to consider when writing a good marketing plan that it can often be daunting even to marketing experts.  Here are some tried and true processes for writing a solid strategic marketing plan.

• Before you begin writing the plan, keep a folder and, throughout the year as you see ideas and articles that inspire you, put these into the folder for safekeeping as you gather your thoughts.
• Perform an audit of previous marketing plans.  What worked well?  What didn’t, and why?  Make note of what didn’t work and remember not to include it in next year’s plan…your budget is precious!
• What are your credit union or bank’s overall organizational goals?  Make sure that your marketing plan is aligned with and supports the overall goals for your financial institution.  Create SMART goals for each one of the targets on which you are focusing your marketing. 
• Determine your Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and develop a regular tracking mechanism for each one.  If membership growth is a top organizational goal, set a benchmark and then regularly measure this metric to make sure you are meeting or exceeding the goal.  Measurement on a continuous basis allows you to make adjustments to your strategy if the numbers aren’t meeting expectations. 
• What is your financial institution’s culture?
• Vision statement
• Core values/brand values
• Brand attributes
• Business philosophy and brand promise
• Unique selling proposition (what makes your financial institution truly different) 
• These act as the compass for your organization’s strategic goals, and having these in place will help you to deliver that YOUnique experience to your members and customers through your marketing and branding efforts.   Your brand elements will also help set your messaging themes.
• Determine your budget.  Before you get into outlining tactics and individual strategies to meet the goals outlined above, you need to have a solid marketing budget in place to invest for the kind of returns you want.  For example, we recommend that our credit union and community banks earmark at least 0.1% of assets for marketing use.  This number also depends on a lot of other factors including the size of your footprint, your awareness/perception in the market, how narrow you can define a target, media costs in your community, etc.  Does this budget include community sponsorships?  What about any operational costs from executing elements of the plan? Make sure you are knowledgeable about and clear on what your budget does and does not include. 
• Going from your KPI and organizational goals above, what products and services are you going to market, and how are you going to do that?  This is where individual campaign development will take shape.  
• Who is/are your target market(s)?  If you write “everyone” here, we need to talk.  There is a difference between a target customer/member and the RIGHT customer/member for your institution.  If you have a solid brand strategy in place, then defining your target market should come more naturally as you know who is best-suited for your financial institution and who you are best-suited to serve. 
• How are you going to tell the story and reach the right people at the right time?  Your budget will dictate what you can do, but the delivery strategies you implement here, if chosen correctly, will be what will move the KPIs.  Think strategically about the best methods for communicating to your target market, and remember that looking outside of the financial industry could give you some great ideas!
• Get buy-in from staff at all levels of your financial institution before the plan is complete.  Many times, people in my credit union would come to me with great ideas they’d been sitting on for months because they were afraid it would get shot down or be unsuccessful.  But they often turned out to get great results and there was more ownership of the marketing program because their voices were being heard.  Once you have buy-in, give everyone a 30,000-foot version of the marketing plan that highlights the overall strategies and reasoning behind the plan.  Then, communicate it and communicate it again through your employee intranet site, internal newsletter, staff meetings, and in other creative ways to make sure that everyone knows they are a marketer of your financial institution. 

Your completed plan will tie together all of these elements in a perfect way unique to your own financial institution.  However, remember that writing one is only half the battle.  It is only through consistent execution and measurement that you will achieve results. 

Good marketing is all about having a well-thought-out strategy and a plan of attack.  The more research you do, metrics you have, and buy-in from all levels of your organization, the better your plan and the better your results at the end of the year.  

Amanda

We bring these marketing philosophies to community banks and credit unions nationwide, and would love to bring them to your institution too.  Contact me for details.

Follow me on Twitter!

Like us on Facebook!

Monday Morning Quarterback: It's about having the right tools...

Greetings!

Well...it's Monday morning and time to be the "Monday Morning Quarterback" as I review the weekend. 

I'll begin by sharing that my daughter and her fiance bought a house about 30 minutes from us and its the perfect place to start their family.  Two-story, big rooms, lots of space and a yard that backs up to a wide-open field.  Great deck and really cool sun room.  Perfect right?

Well...you know how that goes.  The landscaping was "nice" but not what they wanted, the deck was spacious, but not well tended, the front door was cool, but a storm door would be ideal!  So, we went to work to help out....and that's where the RIGHT TOOLS come into play.

In any job, having the right tools is critical to both success and efficiency. For me, it was the pick axe and narrow shovel that allowed me to get into tight spots and be focused on the job at hand.  Especially for us, being 30 minutes from our house, made tool selection and access very important....the right shovel, leveling sand, a pick axe, hedging shears, etc.   For marketers, the same concepts apply!  The tool set you have becomes the resources to drive your success.  Here are three key "tool kits" to concentrate on:

Inside Tools

• Your team:  Developing the right mix of talent and focus
• Your support: Generating the necessary executive support and encouragement
• Your delivery: Ensuring you build teamwork to deliver at the customer point-of-contact

      KEY: Organize your tools close at hand for maximum leverage and success.

Outside Tools

• Extension: Enabling new capabilities and skills to add to your team
• Focus: Tactical focus to allow you to think strategy
• Expertise:  Clear expertise and advanced skills that move you ahead

      KEY: Expand your team exactly where needed without HR expense!

New Tools

• New to you: new ideas that you have not explored but others have succeeded with
• New to everyone: new ideas that can change the game in your market
• New spin: taking a proven idea and making it your own

      KEY: Sometimes the "new tool" is exactly what need to take that next step

The key is the tool set you have as resources...but it is also the WILLINGNESS to use the tools at your disposal.  This past weekend, it took the pick axe and the narrow shovel to get rocks out so that the paver wall would be leveled with the leveling sand and be perfect.  The tools and willingness combined to make it happen...for your bank/credit union... its the same.  Use the tools you have and be open to new ones or from other sources...it just may turn out to be the best tool ever!

Cheers!

Bruce

------------------------------------------------------------------------

We bring these marketing philosophies to credit unions and community banks nationwide, and would love to bring them to your institution too.  Contact us to see how.

Over 230,000 visits worldwide, we hope that you enjoy this blog.  If you find it helpful, please share it with your colleagues.  Also, check out our YouTube Channel for short video blogs about financial marketing.  

MarketMatch is also a nationally and internationally requested speaker.  Contact us to bring our marketing ideas to your next conference.

Here are the conferences where you can find MarketMatch.

See our story here. (click)

Chat with me LIVE! (click)

Or email me directly (click)

937-832-7894 x101

Follow me on Twitter @baclapp

The Key Ingredient to Successful Business Development

During my first week here at MarketMatch, I’ve been commuting from Columbus to Englewood (a little over an hour drive) in order to get acclimated to the team and my new role as VP of Client Management.  I wanted to maximize this extra time in the car by listening to an audio book.  My business coach, Dan Stover, recommended a book to me about leadership, and so I spent those hours in the car this week learning about how to be a better leader.

One of the things that stood out to me was a point the author made about passion.  Our body language as we speak about something is the indicator of the amount of passion we have about the subject on which we are speaking.  Passion cannot be faked. 

You can know the ins and outs of a given service – for example, like all of the kinds of checking accounts your financial institution offers and their features.  But, if you don’t bank there and realize the benefits for yourself and really look to see how your credit union or bank is truly helping someone financially, your body language is going to convey something less than passion.  Therefore, the likelihood of making a sale is substantially less. 

How many conferences around the country have sessions for successful business development?  Like, a lot.  But here’s a piece of advice: your biggest asset as a business development person is yourself and the stories you have to tell. 

Even though banking is an errand, we are in the business of emotions.  People aren’t emotional about their loans!  They are emotional about what loans get them: a new car, a bigger house with a backyard for their kids to play in, a dream wedding, or a few extra dollars when ends won’t meet.  These are the stories on which we should be building our product suites, our marketing strategies, and our business development plans. 

Everyone has a story when it comes to their financial picture.  Find the stories.  Therein lies the passion with which you can weave a pitch to a new business client, a meeting with a potential new homeowner, or a potential employer group. 

Amanda

MarketMatch solves business problems for credit unions and banks through marketing by providing FOCUS, generating MOMENTUM, and creating measurable RESULTS.  

Contact me to learn how MarketMatch can help you with your marketing efforts, whether it is through marketing strategy, branding or rebranding, budget planning, and much more.  Learn more about all of our client services by clicking herewww.marketmatch.com/services.

Follow me on Twitter!http://twitter.com/AmandaLThomas

www.weknowcreditunions.com
www.weknowcommunitybanks.com

And the Oscar Goes to... The Customer!

Greetings...

The Oscars were watched by an estimated 1 Billion people globally last night... it must be true-- movies and perhaps a short "escape from reality" brings people together!  I had an "a ha" moment during the 2013 Oscars telecast -- specifically during the "Captain Kirk" intro an it was reinforced throughout the evening.  Giving people a "moment in time" what they really want...escape to Paris in Les Miserables, journey on a boat in the sea with The Life of Pi, or simply see action at its finest with James Bond in Skyfall.

So my Oscar goes to...the Customer and Member!

Our customer, or member, simply wants a "moment in time" when they visit us, too.  They want that new car, the dream vacation, or simply to pay for my child to go to the right college!

And we can give them that moment!!  IF, we have all of our touch points and brand aligned.

As I began to think about this-- and how we can give our customer/member that moment...there were three key lessons that jumped out at me while watching the Oscars last night...

1. Relevance matters:  How can we provide the "right moment" for our customer/member? By asking the "right questions!"  James T. Kirk STILL draws attention and a standing ovation?  He has stayed relevant across time!  How does a make-up artist on a small, low budget film attract any attention?  She/he is relevant to his target audience and blows out their opportunity!  Both important points for marketers in every industry...relevance is the ONLY thing that matters.
2. YOU can win:  How does the small film from Africa make it to the Oscar night with a 9-year old leading star?  Because she has talent! No matter how small, how remote, how unknown you are today...tomorrow can be a different day is you have a true point of difference AND everyone works together to make it a night/day of magic for the customer/member!
3. The Story Matters:  Regardless of age, color, creed, economic, or social status... having a moment in time that is all about "me" is what connects people.  Action film, historical documentary, love story, epic drama..that format has mattered little...the moment that I can "get away" from it all has mattered greatly. Remember, its the STORY people want to hear and connect with!!

Money connects people, too.  Big bank, small bank, savings and loan or credit union....we can ALL connect to our customers/members.  We operate in the banking industry where money is the great connector for us...but that MOMENT of TIME is the sticking point for the customer!  You can get "money" lots of places...but meeting my dreams and having "my time away from it all" is where price is minimized and value enhanced.

Think Starbucks...that's EXACTLY what they provide.   Sure a good cup of coffee...but the WIN is that the cup of coffee is EXACTLY how I want it and WHEN I want it.  People want access to time (mobile deposit)...more of it... security for it.  EXACTLY what we as bankers and credit union folks provide.

Our challenge??

Being Relevant...Realizing that WE CAN win...and connecting people to US how they want and when they want...regardless of the format.  Sure, some formats offer better storytelling or better service but the bottom-line...there is ROOM for each of us to stake our claim and be a Oscar winner.

It just takes focus and energy...

But that is the next blog!

Cheers!

Bruce

------------------------------------------------------------------------

With more than 182,000 visits worldwide, we hope that you enjoy this blog.  If you find it helpful, please share it with your colleagues.  Also, check out our YouTube Channel for short video blogs about financial marketing.  

We bring these marketing philosophies to community banks and credit unions nationwide, and would love to bring them to your institution too.  Contact us to see how.

MarketMatch is also a nationally and internationally requested speaker.  Contact us to bring our marketing ideas to your next conference.

Here are the conferences where you can find MarketMatch.

See our story here. (click)

Chat with me LIVE! (click)

Or email me directly (click)

937-832-7894 x101