What Lies at the Intersection of AI & Marketing?

Is a road trip even a road trip without a game that gets everyone involved? Think I Spy, punch bug, the alphabet game with road signs. My family and I love to play these games to pass the time and entertain ourselves en route to our final destination. But we’ve also started doing something else recently.

Now, we use the hours we have and the power of ChatGPT to come up with ideas for a family business. You’d be surprised how fun and easy it is – we’ve already developed company names, logos, stories and value propositions for a pesto making business, a sourdough bread company and a cookie business. It’s amazing how ChatGPT takes our ideas and helps us brainstorm full-fledged business plans, all while we sit in the car and let the miles pass by.

For a marketing enthusiast like myself, that intersection where humans meet machines and the best of both worlds converge is fascinating. And then I think, how are credit unions leveraging AI for marketing purposes? Are you using AI tools in Adobe Creative Suite, Hubspot or Hootsuite, Salesforce? Are you taking advantage of AI content writing capabilities like the ones available through the Vertice AI COMPOSE solution?

If you aren’t by now, you should be. The reality is that we’re entering an unprecedented era in the marketing world – one where innovation, engagement, personalization and automation are all working together as a powerhouse for member attraction and retention. AI technologies offer a way for your credit union to bring creativity and data together for peak synergy. Let’s explore just how:

Enhance Data-Driven Insights

What’s a better way to make current members happy and gain new members than to learn everything you possibly can about them? The number one rule of marketing is “know your audience,” and, boy, does AI ever simplify that process. Well, simplify may be a strong word, but considering AI’s vast supply of real-time data, as well as its analytics algorithms, your marketing team can identify and categorize your membership into different segments by demographics, location, hobbies and interests, past purchases and so on. With AI growing at a rapid rate, we’re seeing these kinds of data-driven software showing up in programs we’re already using, such as CRMs.

But that’s only really step one in the process of how we as marketers can utilize AI to enhance our understanding of the mountains of data we collect. Because there are AI tools available that can continuously learn and assess natural language interactions, they – and by association, we – can begin to define patterns of member trends and behaviors. Not only is this great news for projects in the short term, such as planning your monthly social media and blog posts, but also for long-term plans because we can use those insights to predict future patterns. Imagine the possibilities if we can get ahead of the payments or loan needs of our members and market those services based on AI’s forecasts for trend evolution.

In addition, the benefits of AI’s natural learning capabilities and predictive analyses can trickle down into sales territory because they are a valid source of information to determine your most promising leads. With more detailed insights than ever before, we can create even better marketing plans, which can also pave the way for greater engagement!

Optimize Personalization

Everybody wants to feel like you’re talking directly to them, right? They don’t want a one-size-fits-all marketing pitch, but an experience that feels like it was curated just for them. With AI, personalization isn’t just a possibility but a reality. Thanks to all the data-forward nature of AI, it can perform analyses to determine the specific preferences and behaviors of your target audience.

For example, if your credit union is looking to run an advertising campaign to promote a credit card that offers cash back rewards, you can utilize AI to analyze trends and create multiple versions that speak to different audience segments. In this case, you may have one ad that is tailored more toward retirement-age people that shows how their cash back can be used for home updates or world travel. You may have another that is geared toward college students and demonstrates a more entertainment-rich atmosphere.

Then, if they’re interested in your ad, they might click on your call to action and be placed on an email list that is also developed with special considerations and segmentation in mind. The member journey can start from just one click, but if members feel seen and heard from the minute they see your ad through the email communication process and so on, they’re more likely to align with your brand.

Fuel Creative Inspiration

We’ve explored how the data and computer intelligence of AI can complement your marketing efforts, but those are only some of the capabilities that certain software can offer – let’s not forget about the creative side as well!

AI is increasingly being used to supplement the process of content creation. From video scripts and blog posts to graphic design elements, there are plenty of AI resources available that can light the spark for human creativity and provide ideas we may not have dreamed up. If you utilize the Adobe suite, you’ll find that there are now generative AI features incorporated into each program to take your marketing team’s work and amplify it by suggesting different elements that can make your materials stand out. The same is true of our partners at Vertice AI with their COMPOSE solution, which assists in producing creative, yet tailored content for your audience(s).

Now, AI is not a one-way ticket to content creation – you can’t rely solely on AI to create your graphic elements or write your text elements. That’s where the brilliance of the human imagination should shine through. However, using AI to add life to your creativity is a match made in marketing heaven.

Foster Collaboration and Experimentation

Here again, we see the collaboration of humans and computers produce incredible new ideas and, hopefully, results. You see, AI facilitates a culture of experimentation and innovation in terms of how we market to our audience. Consider the AI tools that improve SEO optimization – now we have the potential of reaching new people by understanding which keywords will catch their attention and elevate our credit unions’ accessibility on the internet.

By working alongside AI-driven tools and platforms, we can test new ideas (such as a social media scavenger hunt or an advertising slogan that goes viral – think Nike’s “Just do it”), gain traction in real time thanks to analytics and rapidly adapt to changing market dynamics.

Like many things, marketing is about trial and error and finding out what resonates with past, present and future members. With the help of AI, there is a no limit to the number of new concepts that can help us drive continuous improvement and growth.

Better Tools Mean Bold Benefits

There’s no doubt that AI is a useful tool when it comes to marketing your credit union’s name and brand. The journey we’ve just taken through the many tools and aspects of AI have certainly shown that. But the benefits that come from those tools are the real reason that your credit union may was to consider how AI fits into your marketing plans. Here are just a few:

• Quicker, more efficient and more informed decision-making. When you have better data, better analytics and better opportunities to determine what’s next for your credit union membership, you can make marketing decisions with conviction.
• A whole new world of marketing possibilities. The combination of AI and human creativity can open the floodgates of what is possible when it comes to your marketing campaigns and how to execute them. Thanks to this dynamic duo, you may be able to create videos like you’ve never imagined or reach your audience via channels that were not accessible before.
• Automation that saves time and resources. A huge advantage of utilizing AI in marketing is finding ways to automate the manual processes that cost your team time and effort. If a software out there, such as Tableau, can sort through and organize all your monthly analytics (from email campaigns to podcast views), you can concentrate on other projects. If your email marketing system has an integrated AI feature that will help you schedule recurring notifications or if Vertice AI’s COMPOSE solution can help you come up with engaging content for multiple audiences with just a few prompts, why not use them? Part of the appeal of AI is to generate results while alleviating some of the burden on your team.
• Improve audience engagement and build stronger connections in your communities. Having a better understanding of your target audience and then using those insights to create unique and personalized marketing collateral unlocks serious potential when it comes to engagement and, ultimately, your credit union’s reputation. You know that saying, “you catch more flies with honey?” Well, AI is the honey and your audience is much more likely to flock if they feel like you are talking directly to them, as well as anticipating their wants and needs in your future plans.

While traditional games on road trips will never get old (because I’ll never not play the alphabet game), traditional marketing is no longer cutting it. When AI and human ingenuity cross paths, they’re bound to become natural allies, working in tandem to push the boundaries of what is possible in marketing. By embracing AI-powered technologies and harnessing their full potential – while also incorporating the human aspect of traditional marketing – we can unlock new realms of creativity, innovation and, most importantly, impact for our audience…our current and future members.

If your credit union is ready or even looking to utilize AI for marketing purposes, be prepared for synergy that drives transformative results for your brand and your institution. As we navigate the evolving landscape of marketing in the digital age, we can be sure that the intersection of old and the new promises to be a powerful force for positive change and will shape the future of marketing in ways we have yet to imagine.

As the VP of sales, marketing and education for Vizo Financial, Jaime Agostino oversees marketing, sales and educational offerings for the Corporate. Ms. Agostino holds a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing from the Pennsylvania State University. She currently holds her Series 7 (Registered General Securities Representative) and Series 63 (Uniform Securities Agent State Law Examination) investment licenses from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and has also achieved the following professional designations: Certified Trade Show Marketer (CTSM), Credit Union Development Educator (CUDE), SIE - Securities Industry Essentials Examination, Inbound Marketing Certified and Content Marketing Certified.