Loan Prospecting While You’re Closed

Today, January 2nd is a legal holiday. Most (if not all) of our credit union and bank clients are closed. Their loan officers are relaxing at home with their families. They are not actively pursuing loans today, nor should they be. But, credit union members and bank customers may have very well been looking for a loan over the weekend. Auto manufacturers have been inundating TV with their ads and new year specials. Many people may be looking to conslidate their credit card debt and get financially fit in the new year.

This morning, on January 2nd, LKCS delivered loan leads to our credit alerting clients. We identified which of their account holders did, indeed, apply for home loans, auto loans and credit cards over the weekend. And, LKCS was able to send e-mail notifications to these account holders on behalf of our clients — sending pre-screened firm offers of credit while our customers’ institutions were closed. And we’re able to have direct mail letters ready to go tomorrow morning – ensuring that we reach every account holder that applied for credit at any other financial institution, mortgage company, car dealer, etc. Furthermore, we sent these leads to our clients – enabling their loan officers to follow up in person when they get back in the office – arming them with a list of account holders to call and close loans immediately.

Electronic marketing, web sites, and social media extend your reach and enable your account holders to conduct business 24/7/365. People expect instant gratification and will do business with whoever gives that to them. Make sure you have the tools in place, such as credit alerting, to ensure that your institution is positioned to capture business 24/7/365 — not just between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on business days.

Preference for Direct Mail

Fifty percent of U.S. consumers prefer direct mail to e-mail, as reported in a study released by Epsilon on December 1st. Fifty percent. That’s half of your members, customers, and prospects who PREFER direct mail to e-mail.

The same study found that:

• 25% of consumers found direct mail to be more trustworthy than e-mail.
• 60% said they enjoy checking their physical mailboxes.
• There is an “emotional connection” to postal mail.
• 75% of U.S. consumers say they get more email than they can read.

Interestingly, the survey points out that marketers are actually being hurt by an over-reliance on e-mail marketing. The survey quoted a decline in the perception that reading e-mail is faster than reading postal mail. According to Warren Storey, VP of Product Marketing and Insight at ICOM, a division of Epsilon Targeting, “There is definitely a growing trend that email inboxes are getting more and more full. Over the last three years, we’ve seen an increase in the percentage of consumers saying, yeah, they like getting email but they get far too many.”

According to the report, the ideal way to reach consumers is to use a combination of media including direct mail. This is not surprising to LKCS. We’ve been touting the benefits of multi-channel marketing campaigns for years. Use the new e-marketing tools to reach half of consumers who want to hear from you via e-mail, SMS, and social networks. And use traditional marketing methods such as direct mail, newspapers and TV to reach the other half.

Postal Service Announces Increase, Adds Value to Your Statements

BAD NEWS: First-Class postage is increasing by 1 cent as of January 22, 2011. (Standard rate postage is also increasing by 1.9%.)

GOOD NEWS: The second ounce will be FREE for First Class Presort mail pieces weighing between one and two ounces. This could result in a HUGE savings for many of your monthly and quarterly statements. Currently, if any of your mail pieces are over one ounce, you are paying about 22 cents per piece for that 2nd ounce.

With this announcement from the USPS, it is clear that the postal service recognizes the value of including marketing campaigns with your statements and notices. In fact, according to Paul Vogel, USPS President and Chief Marketing/Sales Officer, “This gives companies expanded opportunities to advertise new services and products to their customers as part of bill and statement mailings.”

Well said.

And with transpromo variable data printing capabilities, you can incorporate these marketing messages and ads directly on your statements. You don’t need to include additional stuffers, buck slips, brochures or newsletters.  Add personalized letters to your statements – make these statement letters the first page of your statement and transform your statements into effective direct mail campaigns. Print targeted onserts directly on the statements, cross-selling relevant products and services to your account holders by looking at their relationships, balances, demographics, and even their real-time credit data.

LKCS can get your statements to generate revenue for your financial institution. And now we can make it even easier to add targeted marketing without increasing postage.

The E-Mail Revolution

I remember the founder of our company once telling me how revolutionary the fax machine was to his business. LKCS (or Letterkraft Printers, Inc. at the time) no longer had to mail proofs to our clients — we could fax them and clients could receive proofs in minutes instead of days. And, I remember thinking big deal, it’s just a fax machine.

I have a fax machine in my office. It doubles as my printer. It prints – a lot. But, it receives and sends very few faxes.

WOW! E-mail revolutionized our business. (I’m sure my kids don’t care….it’s just e-mail after all.) Our sales and customer service representatives send and receive well over a thousand e-mails each day. (Yes, thousands — I just checked our e-mail archives to be sure.) While I don’t have hard data, I find it nearly impossible to think we used to send and receive over 1,000 faxes daily.

It makes me think….and should make you think as well.

• Are you effectively using e-mail as a marketing tool to communicate with your members/customers?
• Should e-mail become your primary method of member/customer communication? Or should you still rely on traditional mail or phone calls?
• What’s the next big business revolution? Cell phones? Mobile internet? Social media? Something else?
• Have you made these emerging technologies part of your marketing plan? Or are you still thinking about them?
• Are you ready for the next revolution?