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Synergent Marketing Services has done it again! Our talented team has helped two credit unions—Merrimack Valley Credit Union and Bangor Federal Credit Union—create national award-winning campaigns using data mining and innovative marketing techniques.
On May 30, the Marketing Association of Credit Unions (MAC) announced the winning entries during an awards ceremony at their annual conference in New Orleans, LA. Since 1986, MAC has held these awards to celebrate the work of marketers in the credit union space. MAC serves as a trade association for credit union marketers and seeks to provide opportunities for professional development.
“Synergent works to develop winning strategies, creative designs, and data-driven campaigns that propel credit unions into the spotlight,” said Doug MacDonald, Vice President of Synergent Marketing Services. “This winning combination helps credit unions achieve strong results and ROI, proven through analytics and metric reporting. We are thrilled Merrimack Valley Credit Union and Bangor Federal Credit Union have been recognized with these prestigious MAC Awards and pleased to have played our roles in these successes.”
Cool Winter Auto Loans Postcard & Email Campaign
Merrimack Valley Credit Union
Lawrence, MA
Members: 83,177 | Assets: $1,036,989,199
Silver MAC Award – Market Segment Program – $501-$999 Million
In reviewing their transactional data, Merrimack Valley Credit Union realized that a significant number of members were sending auto loan payments to other financial institutions from their credit union account. Seeking to recapture these loans, they partnered with Synergent Marketing Services to craft a campaign with the goal of increasing their auto loan portfolio by 5%.
Not only did they exceed their goal, but the targeted campaign that reached over 7,600 members paid for itself in just three weeks and increased auto lending 53% over the same time period in the prior year. With 349 new auto loans totaling $6,126,233 in new lending, this campaign for Merrimack Valley Credit Union exceeded the initial marketing goal by an incredible 960%!
“From a marketing perspective, Synergent’s ability to tap into our data and provide business intelligence is very helpful when doing our targeted marketing campaigns,” stated Yean-Ai Long, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Merrimack Valley CU. “We are very pleased with the data analysis they provide in guiding our marketing strategies.”
Synergent Marketing Services helped Merrimack Valley CU achieve success using ACH data mining. Applying multiple points of criteria to their ACH data mining helped narrow the audience to reach the right members, with the right offer, at the right time. Using a catchy illustration with personalization that coordinated in a postcard and companion email delivery, communicating attractive incentives of interest rates as low as 1.99% and 90 days of no payments or interest was a breeze. Marketing Services went the extra mile to provide the best member service, providing a unique URL for members to use to apply online and presenting a payment example to show how much the member could save with refinancing.
“It’s important to partner with a company that understands credit union challenges,” stressed Long. “I feel that Synergent knows us and they are an extension of our credit union.”
Auto Loan Postcard Campaign
Bangor Federal Credit Union
Bangor, ME
Members: 13,679 | Assets: $156,078,517
Bronze MAC Award – Market Segment Program – $500 Million and Less
Bangor Federal Credit Union wanted to increase their auto loan portfolio by 7%. They partnered with Synergent Marketing Services to launch a loan recapture campaign that encouraged their members who were making auto loan payments to other financial institutions to refinance with Bangor Federal Credit Union.
“We have been doing an auto loan recapture program for a few years with another vendor and although the results were adequate, there was always something in the program that was missing,” said Tina Morrill, Director of Marketing for Bangor Federal Credit Union and member of the CUNA Marketing & Business Development Council Executive Committee. “After learning about Synergent’s TDM [Transactional Data Mining] tool and the expanse of the data mining involved, as well as their collaborative nature and design ideas, the decision to switch was an easy one.”
Using extensive ACH data mining to target a narrow audience of less than 1,200 members along with eye-catching creative that communicated incentives such as a 2% rate reduction and up to $250 cash back, the direct mail campaign helped Bangor Federal exceed its marketing goal by a whopping 829% and generated $929,147 in new auto lending. Compared to the same time in the prior year, Bangor Federal Credit Union experienced a 65% increase in auto lending. Giving the target audience the option of applying online via a unique URL printed on the postcard sealed the deal for Bangor Federal Credit Union.
“Synergent is just what we needed to take our campaign to the next level and because of this, we were able to solidify a CUNA Diamond Award and a MAC Award in the same year – what an honor!” exclaimed Morrill.
