Say one thing. Say it well.

Say just one thing to make your marketing more effective

Say one thing. Say it well.

There. That’s most of what you need to know to be an effective credit union marketer.

The more focused your message, the better it’s going to work.

“Simplicate, and add lightness”
– Ed Heinemann, famed Aircraft Designer

Of course, like everything that’s simple in theory, adding lightness in real life is harder than it looks.

Here are five of the ways we help our clients simplify for more effective marketing:

Focus on one problem for one person

Credit union marketing is a juggling act. In everything you do, you have to manage several priorities at once: compliance concerns, budget, goals, ROI, brand standards, misspellings, and that one VP who thinks the word “FREE!!” must always appear in all caps with two exclamation points.

Those are your problems. The member doesn’t care about your problems.

Put them aside and focus on solving one problem perfectly for one member. The more specific, the better.

For example, imagine a member who bought a car a few months ago, but has a nagging feeling he may not have gotten a good deal; he was so excited about the car, he signed a bunch of papers at the dealer but doesn’t even remember the rate or term. He’s actually a little embarrassed about it. What’s the one message he needs in order to get over his embarrassment and refinance?

Start with a billboard or banner

A billboard (or web banner, or Facebook post) is a great way to distill and focus a message, because you have maybe two seconds of the viewer’s precious time before they click or drive away.

That’s enough for about seven words. Choose them wisely.

And if you nail this, do you really need to add all that much to the other materials?

Build around a strong, versatile brand and voice

Stick with a consistent, flexible structure and a distinct brand voice.

The top layer is your message of the moment – but a strong, distinct, and consistent brand underneath (words, phrasing, images, style, color, etc.) adds reinforcement and structure to your message.

No combo platters

Enforce a strict limit of one message per campaign. There’s nothing wrong with overlap, and concurrent or sequential campaigns can even have common elements and reinforce each other, but keep it strictly one message at a time.

Get all those words out of the way

More words are less persuasive, not more. Don’t force anyone to sift through 27 paragraphs of benefits and features to find the big juicy “OPEN AN ACCOUNT” button.

Put the details and legalese for people who want them on a well-organized page on your website, but never let the details get in the way of the message.

And eliminate pointless fine print – it just makes you look shifty.

Brian Wringer
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