Thousands of Arizona Federal Credit Union members joined together at ‘The Us Experience’ due to various credit union event advertising strategies Tru Advertising implemented. Each strategy targeting various demographics for a successful outcome. At the member benefits fair, not only were there great financial tips and perks but delicious food from local food trucks, awesome local music and one-of-a-kind giveaways including a car lease. Tru Advertising was given a VIP ticket into the event, capturing photos while checking out the turnout; all executed by our strategic planning.

Like any event in the stages of being planned, the advertising and marketing components are a top priority. This part of the process can either produce a successful outcome or the complete opposite. Given a certain budget, we exceeded our advertising efforts by only spending 20% of what we were given within six days! Through our advertising efforts, we reached our target audience and ended up hitting the maximum capacity of attendees. Our campaign did exactly what we planned for it to do, and then some!

Online advertising has made drastic strides over the past few years making it a go-to option in the advertising space, but we can’t forget about where it started from – regular print advertising. These print mailers are found in your mailbox and we have all become accustomed to them. Both methods can be highly effective but if we are being trend-savvy, digital advertising shows your awareness of the current market and ability to identify what people are responding to right now. The biggest advantage of digital advertising is that it is a variable cost form of advertising. An ad campaign is much easier to scale to a specific budget compared to the flat fees associated with running a print ad. Many people feel mailers have to be consistent in order to capture attention, meaning more money is put into the campaign. Unlike mailers/print, digital advertising helps target a much wider geographic net toward an extremely specific kind of consumer, which is exactly what we did with this campaign. Check out the credit union event advertising strategies that we found to be most effective, spending a fraction of what a USPS stamp would cost (not even including print fees).

Not only email advertising, we’re talking Gmail advertising. Unlike regular email, Gmail ads hang out at the top of a user’s screen within the Promotion Folder; so when users are viewing this folder, they are willing to pay more attention. Normal email campaigns tend to get lost within a users inbox and some members have gone numb to the constant alerts and personal emails. This eye-catching approach is a newer platform, therefore has a great click-though-rate for the time being. This is a very cost effective campaign platform and other targeting criteria’s can be included into the equation. For this particular event, we utilized member’s Gmail addresses only. The cost per click via Gmail campaign is 51% less than a USPS stamp which means not only are we saving paper, we’re saving lots of money! This targeting criteria attracted the following demographics the most:

If you know a thing or two about Facebook’s revised algorithm, then you understand the pay-to-play environment Facebook has created. Sometimes it’s worth paying for visibility here and there, it generates brand awareness. Unlike the good old days of simply just liking a post, Facebook has made it a bit more difficult to get in front of new members organically. Targeting Facebook fans doesn’t cost a fortune and remains a solid ROI for most Credit Unions, especially those promoting community. Promoting to your current fan base is a must, being that only 10% of your audience sees your post (depending on past engagement from previous posts). Advertising to your fan base is pennies on the dollar and depending on their response, sets up future posts for success! This targeting criteria attracted the following demographics the most:

Boosted posts charge per engagement. Including targeting those to make comments to like posts, it also accrues fans! By targeting members with their email address and excluding current fans, you are most likely to accrue new fans without paying for them! Like campaigns are strictly meant to get more fans and cost twice the amount of boosted posts (depending on targeting criteria). Boosted posts assist in organic reach. If you know a thing or two about the Facebook algorithm, then you understand the importance of engaging with fans or non-fans. On average, only 10% of your fan-base sees what your business posts (depending on past engagement). Boosted posts do just that, they boost viability and are highly recommended once or twice a month in efforts to assist other post engagements. This targeting criteria attracted the following demographics the most:

This event was different than the Members Fair, The Good Life Event was held to promote the one-on-one services offered by Arizona Federal, offering a credit consultation happy hour. Instagram is widely popular, owned by Facebook. It has made some recent changes (other than their logo), recently announcing that it would eventually be changing people’s feeds and no longer displaying images chronologically, but rather based on some proprietary algorithm. Meaning a post will gain traction due to how it pertains to your audience. Targeting certain audiences, especially those who are app users, makes for a great ROI. After all, Instagram is an app, so this platform is great for targeting “online banking apps” (either yours or competitors alike). It’s also great to promote events within certain geographic locations since phones also make for great GPS’s. Event Advertising to potential members makes it easy when the event is within their area of familiarity (by their home, by their work or by their school). This targeting criteria attracted the following demographics the most:

Banner ads have been around since 1994, just about as long as the consumer internet. But let’s face it, we’ve been there and done that. However, younger consumers are new to the banner experience. Banners ads today are placed with more relevancy than those back in the day. Although most of us are numb to banners, those who are researching topics and then come across them due to relevancy lead to generous ROI. Banner ads tend to be relatively small, so you don’t always have a lot of space to work with. Younger consumers turn to the internet for research therefore are reading reviews and blogs, perfect real-estate for such banners. Here we found that the 18-24 year-old females searched, “How To Improve My Credit Score” and RSVPed to Arizona Federal’s event. Clear and to the point, free food and drinks with credit consultations. This targeting criteria attracted the following demographics the most:

Credit union event advertising brings your community together, attracting new and existing members alike. From credit score consultation happy hours to member benefit fairs, these events promoting strategies will fill up your RSVP lists! At Tru Advertising, we can provide you will all of the proper tools to help make your online event advertising strategies a home run, all while building your subscriber base and increasing brand awareness at the same time!