It’s everyone else, not me
By John Cooke
Credit unions remind me of Congress sometimes.
I’m sure you have seen polling that shows congress has a very low approval rating, but people give their own representatives a much higher approval. A Gallup poll from late July of this year showed Congress with a 17% approval rating, but when asked if their representative should be re-elected, 53% responded, ‘yes.’
It’s everyone else, not me.
I started attending credit union conferences 20 years ago as a photog with CU Times and with my wife. One thing I heard at every one of them is, ‘we have a great story, but we just need to tell it better.’ You would think over the course of that 20 years credit unions would have been telling the great story and their growth would be huge.
Nope.
Like how people view Congress, credit unions view themselves the same way: We tell our story well; it’s the rest of the credit unions that need to do better.
A couple months ago I started working on The Credit Union Connection, and I have read more press releases than I would have ever thought I would read. To be honest, some are just awful. One press release from a $400 million credit union led with a sentence that was at least 100 words. I was lucky to pass my 12th grade English class, but even I know that’s wrong.
Another press release was about a credit union announcing its new CEO. Only problem was it happened three months prior. Not exactly news anymore. Again, not a small credit union where the teller is the loan officer, marketing director and IT person.
The Credit Union Connection recently ran a poll asking about marketing budgets in the current challenging economic times. It admittedly was not terribly scientific, but one of the responses was that a credit union would be decreasing its marketing budget.
WHY?!
Credit unions do have to be responsible with members money but is decreasing marketing being responsible? Credit unions have a lot to offer members during economic downturns, but if no one knows, are you being responsible with your members’ capital?
Credit unions are about people helping people. If you are not really showing people (The No. 1 rule of storytelling is ‘show, don’t tell’) why they should join your credit union, are you being responsible? Not-for-profit businesses are still a business – profit just isn’t your primary motivator. That’s exactly why credit unions should be swinging for the fences right now.
When businesses don’t grow – and a large number of credit unions are not, as well as the number of credit unions – it will at some point start going in the wrong direction.
Growing up, my dad had a way with words you might say. He told me that the definition of insanity was trying things over and over the same way expecting a different result. If what your credit union is doing to grow is not working, STOP. It’s time to change what you are doing.
Being a boutique credit union is no excuse. Some small credit unions are finding a way specifically because they’ve invested in marketing. Lean on credit unions business partners. Many are genuinely there to help – not just take your money. Partner and grow, collaboratively.
Your Marketing Company is just one of the business partners that works with boutique credit unions with great success. Here are just a couple examples:
· Inspire FCU CEO: Our Story Shows There Is a Path for Growth
Larger credit unions also may be saying the standard trope: We have always done it this way. I am a firm believer in tradition, but don’t let that cloud your judgement. You might have a good marketing team but a business partner who will give you an unbiased view is useful. They also don’t get tunnel vision that can happen with your own marketing team. If they are good at what they do, they will advise you not to send some of the press releases I pointed to earlier – at least not without some edits.
My wife, the brilliant, masterful Sarah Snell Cooke of Cooke Consulting Solutions (she’s editing this, BTW), recently started a PR course for credit unions and their business partners, and she received dozens of responses of people telling her this was just what was needed.
The number of people who actually signed up for the class was, er, disappointing at best. Another ‘it’s everyone else, not me.’
My hope is, 20 years from now, credit union conferences will still not be saying we have a great story to tell, we just need to do it better. Instead, conferences will feature speakers talking about the tremendous growth credit unions have experienced because they have individually, yet collaboratively, shared their stories effectively.
But, if history is any indicator, like Congress, it will be: We are doing a great job of telling the story; it’s everyone else. Unless you are one of the very few, if you do not have strong growth, it is in fact you, and not everyone else.