Earlier this year I attended the 2008 MAC Conference in Newport Beach. As I do whenever possible, I stay at the hotel where it's being held. And, as in most cases, the walk from my room to the conference area feels like a five mile hike. This time, though, I thoroughly enjoyed it!

To get from my room (at the back of the hotel) to the conference area, I had to walk down a path lined with various shrubs and flowers. It smelled heavenly! I loved my morning and afternoon walks. I kill most plants I even LOOK AT, so I had no idea what I was smelling, but I knew I wanted to bring that smell home with me. I ended up buying a guava candle before I left. It's not a match for that scent, but whenever I light it, it reminds me of how much I enjoyed my stay at the MAC Conference.

Smell can be a huge emotion and memory trigger. And don't tell me "but they can also trigger BAD memories and emotions, and that would be BAD!" I've yet to meet someone who has a bad memory associated with, say, freshly baked bread. Except for Nicholas Cage in Moonstruck maybe, or someone who was beaten with a bread pan in their teen years. But WHAT ARE THE ODDS OF THAT?

In the last week or so I've had conversations with two different clients that went like this.

• Me: "So about how many member e-mail addresses do you have for this group?"
• Them: "Uh, I think about... I'm not sure. Maybe a couple hundred?"
• Me: "Is it part of your application process to collect an e-mail address?"
• Them: "Yes. Well... it was on the online app, but I think... (to the other "them" at the table) do we have it on the form in-branch? I think so."

People. PEOPLE! You need to be actively collecting e-mail addresses. Here's why, courtesy of my Twitter friend Ron Shevlin who tweeted the link (e-mail me if you are scratching your head over "Twitter" and "tweeted"):

E-MAILS SENT TO HOUSE FILES FOUND TO PRODUCE HIGHEST RETURN-ON-INVESTMENT FOR SOLICITING DIRECT ORDERS

ORLANDO, FL, OCTOBER 13, 2003 -- A new landmark study from the Direct Marketing Association (The DMA) found that e-mail offers, particularly those sent to in-house customer lists, produced the highest overall return-on-investment (ROI) for marketers focusing on soliciting direct orders, generating leads or building store traffic.

Copy and pasted totally without permission from The Direct Marketing Association

There's more to this article (and I sincerely apologize for the screaming caps– their choice, not mine) but you can see why it's VITAL that we are building e-mail databases.

There's no excuse. You're sitting at your computer right now, so you can e-mail everyone who needs to make this change. I mean it.

For credit union day, that is. I know Gene Blishen of Mount Lehman Credit Union always has a wonderful BBQ.

Internally, I've always wanted our entire staff to go guerilla on behalf of the credit union industry, and have a BBQ outside a bank. I wonder how long we could do that before we got "escorted" away?

I don't know if we'll be able to make that happen, but I do know I'm going to get a t-shirt with the "It belongs to me!" slogan for the year on it. Maybe a "Happy Credit Union Day" too.

I'll keep you posted! In the meantime, what are your plans? 

It's tough, because we live in a world of cynical consumers who feel they're being marketed at from every angle. I know. I - someone in the marketing business! - habitually throw away stuffers in my regular mail because I've mentally check it off as "junk mail."

So how can you improve the odds that your members are reading your newsletter? Here are a few ideas:

1. Make it a self-mailer: That's when you design it with an area for an address label, so that when your printer folds it, you can seal it with a little clear, round sticker (that keeps Canada Post and their machinery happy), affix an address label, and add a stamp (stamps make Canada Post extra-extra happy!) Perhaps you have an indicia from Canada Post that you can include in the design on the same side as the address label space. Either way, when it arrives on its own, odds are better someone will open it and read it.
2. Make it available online: This can be as a .pdf file on your home page. Or as an attachment of that same .pdf sent to your members who have shared their e-mail address with you. Or in full on a special newsletter page on your website, if you have that capability. (NOTE: If you don't have or aren't considering creating an e-mail database of your members, you'd better start. Make it part of your new account opening. Seriously, do it now!)
3. Make it available offline: That means in a physical sense in the physical world. So in-branch, on staff members desks, perhaps a few copies mailed out to your business members. Put it in any other venue you think members will interact with it. However, online is critical, because more and more consumers are choosing this medium to stay informed. I don't have stats on-hand, but would I ever lie to you?
4. Make it readable: I may have a huge ego, but I think part of the reason this blog gets the traffic it does is because I have a unique tone and style of writing. Make sure your newsletter does too. This might hurt to hear, but financial news isn't always that exciting. Your point of view on it is what will make it interesting and pull readers in.
5. Reward readership: A simple contest only available to newsletter readers is a perfect way to do this. Make it easy for them, too. Ask them to e-mail their favorite photo caption from that issue, or to suggest a topic for another issue. The reward can be as simple as a free lunch. Or chocolate. Oh. That last one is what works for ME.
6. Encourage participation: The newsletter should reflect the interests of the readership, otherwise they really won't care. Ask for suggestions for topics, or for article submissions. Again, reward the participation in some way.

Did my bossiness at the end of point two irk you? Or do you love my straight-talkin' ways? Let me know by leaving a comment.

Here's some advice on creating a visually appealing newsletter.

1. Don't get fancy: Find a layout and stick with it. Sure, YOU'LL get bored with it, but you need to train your readers where to find certain information easily. Doesn't it irk you when grocery stores don't put certain items in their usual locations regularly? Don't irk your readers!
2. Be consistent: Pick one typeface and stick to it. Okay, I'll be lenient and let you pick one different headline font-but it better complement your main font! Create a stylesheet and stick to it. That means headlines are always the same font and same size. Likewise for your subheads and body copy. Using multiple fonts thinking it "adds interest" is the cardinal sin of designers - it doesn't, so don't do it!
3. Don't overdo it: If you have a two-page newsletter, have one feature article, typically on the front page, and two other articles. If you have a four-page newsletter, have two features and up to three other articles. Don't whack your readers over the head with a bucket-load of stories. Visually, if there are fewer their brains will say "That's an easy read" and they'll read it.
4. Pull-quotes ALWAYS GET READ: ... so always include them. A pull-quote is a short quote from a story that is enlarged and put in great big quotation marks, usually within the story the way you might insert a photo. Choose the most controversial or intriguing bit from the story to use as a pull-quote.
5. Photo captions are the SECOND-MOST READ element: Captions are the little bit of copy under the photos. Try to make these funny, instead of the usual "L-R: Board member 1, board member 2, board member 3..." Don't leave out identifying the people in the photo, because a newsletter starts with the word NEWS, and you must be responsible. But please realize that only the people in the photo truly care about those kinds of captions. Reward everyone else by at least making the caption interesting.
6. Proofreading: Find at least two other people to proofread the newsletter before it goes to print. If possible, find someone who has a grudge against you, because they will be METICULOUS!
7. Sidebar: Use one, and then underuse it. White space (otherwise known as "empty space", or "space you feel compelled to cram stuff into") is critical for making your newsletter easy to read. Leave a nice wide margin to the left or right of your pages, and only put minimal copy there. A link to your H.R. website page is a great idea, or a 3 tips on RRSPs would work (if your issue is investment-related).
8. Table of contents: Put this is your front-page sidebar IF you have more than two pages with more than three articles. Otherwise you don't need it.
9. Colour & paper: If you follow all these rules, you will have a great looking newsletter even in black and white ink, on white paper. However, if you want to print in colour, choose the darker of your credit union's colours. Print on a light coloured paper that's slightly heavier than whatever your credit union photocopies on. If you're unsure, go to your printer and ask to see samples. I would lean towards a professional-looking newsletter, and let the writing and content engage the reader versus printing on a bright fuscia or blue.

Angry because I implied someone might have a grudge against you? Let me know by leaving a comment.

Watch for the final installment, C.U. Newsletters Part 3: Tips For Getting It Read, tomorrow.

Our agency used to do a newsletter as a self-promotion piece. It had an awesome, funny staff photo on the cover and great case studies inside. It was targeted at existing customers, and anyone we could rope into our mailing list (think way back to those golden, don't-need-opt-in-approval marketing days. Sigh!)

It was used as a business-getting tool, and to that end it had marginal success. But I firmly believe newsletters are a business-keeping tool.

Here's why you should produce a newsletter:

1. Promote your brand: Are you a wealth-sharer or an agent of change credit union? Then you need to regularly include stories that underline this positioning. You need to LEAD THIS CONVERSATION in your marketplace.
2. Get referrals: If you don't have a member referral program, START ONE. Then promote the heck out of it in your newsletter. Word of mouth versus traditional advertising is likely the top reason you get new members (feel free to argue with me on that.)
3. Important announcements: Are you undertaking a banking conversion or other operational change? This is a good place to explain it.
4. Find great staff: If you're not constantly on the look-out for great staff members, you should be. Create a tiny section directing members to a page on your website for job postings. Then, instead of just posting a typical job description, think of why folks should be beating down your door to work there. If you can't think of reasons, you need to start MAKING some!
5. Compliance & legal: Obviously credit unions are legislated to make certain announcements, such as dates for AGMs. This is a good vehicle to use.
6. Create a relationship: Finally, a conversational tone that algins with your brand and is enjoyable to read lets you build a relationship with the reader. If people smile when they read your newsletter, you'll build an interested readership instead of a group of paper recyclers.

Do you have a bone to pick with this article? Pick away by leaving a comment!

Watch for part two tomorrow, C.U. Newsletters Part 2 - Tips On Newsletter Design.

Oh, can you feel the danger? I am about to commit to READING A BOOK BY A CERTAIN DATE! Okay, the deadline is "before the end of fall"–but still! Pretty scary.

Sandra McDowell of First CU and I have bravely started a book club with the purpose of finding ideas on how credit union employees can live their brand and be brand champions.

Our first book is Citizen Brand by Marc Gobe. Our plan is to read it over a month and convene for a discussion somewhere between Chilliwack (me) and Powell River (Sandra), which right now is looking like Vancouver. If you are planning to be in Vancouver this fall, feel free to join us! ;) Otherwise, watch this blog for updates on an exact date, play along at home, and send me your comments. I'll bring them up at our discussion, and then blog here about any eureka moments.

Oprah, look out!

I saw an article by Kristin Laird recently in Marketing Daily:

"Sears Canada Inc. is heading back-to-school with four pilot pop-up retail outlets at universities across Ontario.

The mobile tent-store will appear at Brock, Western Ontario, McMaster and Queen’s universities to offer student life staples, like housewares, home decor, bed and bath, electronics and cosmetics merchandise.

“A pop-up temporary storefront concept has been gaining popularity in Canada,” Dene Rogers, president and CEO, Sears Canada, said in a statement.

The pop-up locations are about 900 square feet and include a recruitment area for students to inquire about possible job opportunities with Sears."

I like this idea. C'mon, credit unioners... tell me all the reasons why you couldn't pool together and brand an ATM and have it at a college campus for back-to-school week, or back-from-Christmas-break week (thinking ahead.)

Welcome to episode 1 of the Cuckoo Podcast. What a better way to ensure your interviewee is on time and prepared than by ambushing your own children. Of course I lied and told them I was only testing the equipment. When I finished it by saying "I can hardly wait to post this to iTunes!" she didn't cry for too long. You can bet as soon as she sees that this is live, she'll send all her friends to listen.

It really is her fault, though, because when we were driving down the road she blurted out in a very random way "I want to change my bank." Of course, this got my attention. The reason she gave... well, is the title of this podcast.

You can listen by streaming audio here on the blog or by subscribing in iTunes to listen on your iPod.

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I know it seems like I've been slacking, but over this busy summer I HAVE managed to ask three people what it would take for them to become a credit union member (remember this post? Johanne, thou hast not been forsaken!)

And dang it if all three weren't ALREADY credit union members! But here's the ironic thing I found out. My question opened a very emotional memory for one of these people–I'll call him John.

"I recently lost my member number." John told me. He used to have quite a low number, and when his credit union merged they adopted a new banking system which resulted in him losing his low number. Now he doesn't feel special, he said.

Let's forget for now that, after some scoop reporting, I tracked this merger down to find out it happened OVER FIVE YEARS AGO and that he obviously has difficulty with the definition of "recent." This fellow still hasn't gotten over it! I've only HEARD stories of people like him (and they're usually in their 70s. This man is in his mid-40s.)

And that begged another question - why was his sense of importance to the credit union tied to a number? Didn't the credit union make him feel valued in other ways?

His answer? No. Now (he says) I'm just like everyone else. Before it was a topic of conversation, now there's no conversation. This could have been one of those catalyzing moments that had him moving all of his business away, but when I broached this he shrugged in that ambivalent way many consumers do when weighing the aggravation of the event against the aggravation of finding a new financial home and said "I have all my stuff there."

I'm completely unaware of whether or not I have a member number at my credit union. The only numbers that matter to me is my account number and my PIN numbers, because I need them for transactions. Maybe if I had a member number I would feel more like I belonged?

What are your thoughts about numbers?

In all the mystery shopping I've done at various credit unions and banks, if I was going to put a percentage on the number of good tellers/reps vs. the number of brilliant tellers/reps, I'd say it was 8 to 1.

One thing that I think is wrong, wrong, wrong is that these brilliant people get promoted AWAY from the members. Before you freak out, let me explain.

Yes, these fantastic people need to stay within the organization. Yes, these fantastic people need to be rewarded for their fantastic-ness. But the answer is not to jump pluck them off the front line and plant them higher up. Here are some of my ideas:

• Sit down and have a heart-to-heart chat about how valuable this brilliant person is to your credit union, and discuss a long-term career path for him/her
• Have the brilliant person take a personality profile so you can zero in on finding the next brilliant person (don't just automatically promote up the ranks unless you know you've got another brilliant person waiting their chance to shine)
• On the way to their new path, include the brilliant person in your replacement plan. This means there's a two-month job sharing that will happen with brilliant person and brilliant person-to-be to transfer the brilliant skills

My last comment is this: brilliant front-line people are gold. Pay them (cash) and reward them (benefits) accordingly.

Disagree or have a different perspective? Share it with me!

There was a saying that if it's in print, it must be true.

Well, look at the extent some people go to to share their displeasure:

And just to be really helpful and cover all the bases...

The point: Be aware what the world is saying about your credit union and address it as needed. Don't find yourself looking at www.[mycreditunion] sucks.com website one day.

We once worked with a credit union client on a complex system of cross-referrals slips to get around barriers imposed by Ficom that keep credit union members separate from the insurance side of the credit union business. It was interesting to see banks have the same challenge.

In a Globe and Mail article titled "A piece of drywall away from being..." Tara Perkins wrote "If a customer walks into the banking side of the RBC location in Oakville and asks an employee if they know where they can buy some car insurance, the employee's likely to squirm. Responding with "we sell insurance," or "next door," or even just pointing to the insurance office, could be breaking the law. They're instructed to hand over a generic brochure about insurance that does not promote RBC."

So I thought, let's test this. My assumption is that even though there are no bank insurance offices near any of the bank branches here in Chilliwack, since it's a Canada Bank Act law, the response to my scenario should be the same.

My scenario:

"I need to buy life insurance on my home equity line of credit and other insurance on my home. Can I get that here?"

Let's see how the big 5 did:

• RBC: They had an insurance brochure in their rack, which they helpfully gave me. The insurance discussion would be handled over the phone, with payments for premiums withdrawn from my RBC account. However there was no hesitation to tell me about their insurance services, and while the insurance brochure was very plain, it definitely wasn't the "generic brochure about insurance that doesn't promote RBC," since "RBC..." is on the top left corner of every page.

• CIBC: I got a pretty blank look at my home insurance question. She didn't really have an answer for that. About home equity insurance, I was told I could only get insurance on their own mortgages. She said she could get me a brochure about it, but the way the desk was attached to her leaning arm, I didn't think it would be soon in coming.

• Scotia: If I bring my mortgage/LOC over they can insure it (life, disability, etc.) I made a point of relating how my credit union has a separate branch for insurance and would I have to go somewhere other than that specific branch, or could they look after it right there, and they assured me they could.

• TD: No life or disability insurance available. They can provide credit insurance on mortgages and lines of credit. I think this is a 'ding-ding' for TD! However, when I visited a different branch, they had wicket posters advertising insurance. Huh?

• BMO: Hey, they told me they weren't allowed to talk about insurance in the branch! And when she tried to find a phone number for me on her computer, there wasn't one. BMO obviously takes this insurance separation seriously. I asked why she couldn't talk about insurance and she replied 'I guess because we aren't an insurance company?' with a question in her voice. She was so nice about helping me, though, that I wanted to reward her with one of the BMO mints hanging out on her counter. But I knew it would blow my cover.

This is obviously a complex subject, governed by complex legal documents written by legislative types intent on job security. Why does it matter whether or not I can buy insurance from my f.i.? Wouldn't that be doing me, the member/customer, a service?

If anyone wants to enlighten me on why this is such a complex topic, feel free. But I'd much rather get a kick-ass no-bake brownie recipe.

I discovered a neat thing today when I checked out my sad little balance at the TD. For those of you who've forgotten, I opened accounts at Canada's 5 major banks to do mystery shopping for this blog.

Anywho, I logged in and found this:

Here's my critique:

1. Too much copy.
2. Haven't we gotten beyond the ALL CAPS full name thing in (de-) personalizing our offers??
3. Use it sparingly, not every time I log in.
4. It's brilliant.

Now, I already know that you're thinking two things.

First, you're worried that my boss, Tim, will tear me a new one for spending 3/7 of my time (check out the tabs) on non-work-related internet surfing. Thanks for the concern, but he actually encourages us to use social media, as it will play a big role in the future of marketing.

The second thing you're thinking is, "How can she have 75% of her criticism be negative and yet say it's brilliant? Is she taking Will Ferrell's crazy pills?"

Here's why it's brilliant:

1. I took the time to read it.

Do you know how hard it is to get people to read your marketing messages? Very hard. I will clarify, though - the IDEA is brilliant. The execution sucks.

Are you "helpfully interrupting" your members online?

I know many people have wondered why drive-thru ATMs have braille on them. My daughter asked me this a few years ago. She didn't know whether to believe me or not when I replied "For blind people, of course."

My latest curiousity about these machines is why they can't angle the screens. Have you ever had to select which account and the options on the screen doesn't line up with the buttons? So you have to scrunch down a little to make sure you're pushing the right one, because heaven forbid you choose an account you don't have OR you select "French" by mistake and test the patience of the people behind you when you ask them "What does 'choisir' mean?"

I'm not an amazon woman (5'7") but when my 4'0" daughter ALSO had to scrunch down, I knew I was onto another ATM anomoly.

Hmmm... Quelle étrange!