Open Your Eyes to a Credit Union

Credit unions across the country are doing amazing things. They provide underserved populations with access to banking services and products, they empower their members with financial resources and tools, and they invest in the communities they serve.

Yet according to CUNA Mutual Groups latest Trends Report, membership growth is down year over year. Why is this?

Of course, there is not a single driving factor, but most anyone in the credit union industry would agree that lack of awareness is a significant part of the problem. As Teresa Freeborn, CEO of Xceed Financial Credit Union (a PixelSpoke client), pointed out at America’s Credit Union Conference in June, when it comes to marketing, banks outspend credit unions by $43 to $1.

That’s why CUNA (Credit Union National Association) is aiming to raise awareness with “Open Your Eyes,” a national campaign to educate consumers about credit unions.

This campaign has already launched in nine states — Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Indiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Michigan, Kansas and Missouri — and will launch in the Pacific Northwest in early 2020.

“Open Your Eyes” drives consumers to yourmoneyfurther.com, which educates consumers about the power of locally owned cooperative financial institutions and prompts them to enter their zip code to find a list of nearby credit unions.

Here are three ways you can leverage the momentum from “Open Your Eyes”:

1. At a minimum, make sure that yourmoneyfurther.com has the correct link to your website (we’ve already found some broken links).
2. Given that you likely want consumers who are motivated by this campaign to be impressed by your credit union and join, consider linking instead to a customized landing page to increase conversions.
3. Sign up for more information from CUNA and contact your local credit union association to learn more about when and how the initiative is rolling out in your area.

As Freeborn points out, “This isn’t something one credit union can do—it must be a collaborative effort… We need to stop asking, ‘Should we do this?’ and start asking, ‘What happens if we don’t do this?’” Let’s join forces and inspire consumers to make the switch.