Putting ‘personal’ back into personal banking

For most people, money is more than just numbers and transactions. It’s inextricably linked to accomplishment, peace of mind, and hopes for the future. Credit unions can win lasting loyalty and grow by framing banking products in ways in which people think about their lives.

IH Mississippi Valley Credit Union (IHMVCU) has always prioritized members’ financial goals. But in recent years, the credit union re-energized its member-centric mission—refreshing its brand to emphasize the importance of financial well-being for its members, employees, and the community.

“We want to build better member relationships by focusing on meaningful conversations about their lives rather than transactions,” says Amy Orr, Vice President of Marketing at IHMVCU. “Instead of just accepting members’ deposits and sending them on their way, we want to better understand their hopes, dreams, and challenges so we can help them improve their financial health.”

IHMVCU aims to drive aggressive growth with a Customer Experience Management (CXM) strategy centered around informed and scalable marketing activities. As its experience strategy unfolded a few years ago, the marketing team saw an opportunity to transform campaigns and start to pull member experiences together into highly personal and coordinated journeys.

“We dipped our toes into the digital world with basic marketing automation, but to better serve our members and achieve the growth we wanted, we needed more muscle,” says Orr. “Adobe Campaign and Adobe Analytics enable IHMVCU to succeed by making our financial solutions more relevant in the daily lives of our members.”

With help from M2 Partners, an Adobe solution partner, IHMVCU is using Adobe Campaign and Adobe Analytics to build a sophisticated member journey focused on the details of members’ lives—money management, new homes, family additions, and retirement, to name a few. That means every interaction, whether through email or in-person, is designed to serve member needs, which promises to increase member value while building loyalty, sales, and business growth.

Partnership focused on personalization

As IHMVCU adopted Adobe Campaign, M2 Partners played an instrumental role in developing a strategy, helping the credit union make the most of its new investment.

“M2 Partners provided technical expertise, strategic insights, and best practices, showing our leadership team the big picture of how Adobe Campaign can help our members and fuel growth,” Orr says. “It’s an ongoing evolution of testing and optimization. As we maximize our use of Adobe Campaign, we’ll start delivering additional value back to our members and the organization.”

The partnership also helped to create a vision that involves stitching together member experiences across email, phone calls, and in-person visits into seamless, personalized journeys. Knowing this is an ongoing effort, the marketing team at IHMVCU focuses on incremental progress, starting with key email campaigns.

To increase value to their members, the team launched an onboarding campaign for members who sign up for new products, such as a credit card, checking account, or mortgage. The goal is to not only get members to use their new financial tool, but to also help them get the most out of every product.

“Members aren’t buying products; they’re creating memories in their new home or getting one step closer to retirement. That’s our opportunity to educate and connect with them on a deeper level,” says Orr. “The more we know and understand our members’ needs, the more we can help make a positive impact.”

As IHMVCU and M2 Partners continue to roll out Adobe Campaign, the marketing team aims to start using automated triggers to keep members informed and engaged. For example, the credit union already knows some members leave the credit union after paying off an auto loan. Automated emails could go a long way toward preventing attrition and bringing them back into the fold.

Member data is key

Data is immensely important to the marketing transformation at IHMVCU, and Adobe Analytics helps to unify marketing campaign data—not only to measure performance but also to coordinate member interactions across the credit union.

“Adobe Analytics provides better visibility into what members want so we can continue to refine the messages we send,” says Orr. “We plan to integrate campaign data with our CRM system, giving retail and call center teams the information they need to have more productive conversations with members.”

With dashboards in Adobe Analytics, the marketing team can easily track campaign activity and drill down into performance by product. Even non-technical users can sift through the data, sorting and filtering to explore different angles and find opportunities to improve. Marketing also gains a deeper understanding of members, including their demographics, lifestyles, shopping habits, and engagement with IHMVCU.

“Using Adobe Analytics, our insights and analytics team is working to create up to 60 personas based on our member data,” Orr says. “With this clear view of members, we can start to test different campaign approaches and make sure we’re communicating the right information at the right time.”

A smooth path to better member experiences

With Adobe Campaign and Adobe Analytics as the new tools for marketing automation, IHMVCU is simplifying campaign management. Instead of manually exporting member lists, merging and uploading spreadsheets, and compiling reports, the marketing team can set up lists and construct campaigns rapidly within Adobe Campaign. As a result, the team can launch campaigns faster, spend more time on strategy, and take advantage of every opportunity to support members’ financial goals.

IHMVCU and M2 Partners see the marketing transformation as a journey that will offer business benefits to the entire organization and set the credit union apart as being uniquely focused on member experiences.

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