According to a new study by Titan List & Mailing Services, Inc., big banks are losing millions of customers to smaller credit unions due to additional or rising fees. Titan List discusses this recent trend and the impact on credit unions and smaller banks, as well as their approach to customer acquisition and retention through targeted data lists and direct mail campaigns.
Increases from banks such as $5 charged each month to consumers that use their debit cards to make purchases, or increased monthly fees on checking accounts, can be attributed to the bank’s reactions to government imposed fee reduction regulation programs that were designed to protect consumers and retailers from the high costs of overdrafts or other fees. This greatly affected the bank’s revenue, which led to price increases in other services such as checking accounts or debit card purchases.
Credit Unions have been seizing these opportunities to grow their members, due to the high level of consumers not satisfied with the fees and the service at large banks. According to Jared Braverman, director of marketing at Titan List & Mailing, “our credit union clients are having enormous success finding new customers through a combination of targeted data lists and direct mail campaigns. An effective criteria selection for the data lists uses geo targeting to search for customers in a specific radius, and then narrows the criteria with selects such as income, gender, or homeowners. Credit data can also be leveraged to pre-qualify leads with credit history, or existing credit cards.”
Direct mail campaigns have long been employed by credit unions or mortgage shops to find new customers, or offer incentives and services to existing customers. According to Braverman, “direct mail campaigns are an effective method to target a specific group of individuals that have an interest in a product or service. Other advertising methods such as tv, radio, or newspaper, don’t have the ability to target a specific demographic, so it is much harder to determine a realistic ROI. In addition, it is easy to track the results of a direct mail campaign by using custom 800 phone numbers or promo codes specifically for the campaign.”