My Marketing Strategy
Nicolette Lemmon, President & Founder

As you begin planning for 2011, the news continues to be disconcerting regarding a rebound.

What should you be considering for your organization?

First, a multi-layered marketing strategy that focuses on achieving corporate goals. Even if your goal is to retain what you have and replace loans that are being paid off.

There are opportunities in every marketplace, but you have to work harder to find them and capitalize on them.

How? For your members and prospective members, it is about having the right financial products for members at different life stages at the right pricing with convenient delivery systems and promoted so when they are ready to do business, they’ll turn to you.

Second, there is a need to make sure you are focusing on the lifetime value of a member through targeting different segments of the membership by age, geographic area, and product usage, to build more profitable relationships.

Third, create an ongoing marketing flywheel with layers of marketing efforts include a variety of touches where members will see the messages such as direct mail, advertising, e-marketing, branch retailing, and on the website.

Fourth, for better decision making, the marketing promotions are based on profiling using data analysis software and then tracking of results. The lynch pin is consistency across all communications for easy recognition of your brand that carves a niche in the mind of each member.

Fifth, and finally, is to make sure budget expenditures are aligned with the marketing efforts that support achieving the corporate goals. As results are tracked in terms of members, loan and deposit accounts, and dollar balances, the senior team can review the progress toward the goals and determine a return on investment.

The marketing planning process continues during the year to account for economic changes, consumer changes, and introduction of new products or services.