Members are the lifeline of your credit union. Showing your members they are valued is a crucial piece of your marketing, both in person and with digital interactions. Keeping your members happy is a great way to develop advocates within your community that will help spread the word about your credit union, helping grow your membership through word of mouth.

For most nonprofit organizations, fundraising is something that touches almost every area of their organization. NPO's and NGO's often use the term development because there is a continuous system that cultivates engagement for each area of the organization. Ultimately, all of those avenues of impact engage people toward a goal that ends with financial support. This is why whole teams of staff and volunteers are dedicated to development, keeping the organization focused on working toward its mission.

It’s no coincidence that you’re seeing more and more for-profit companies participate in charitable giving and volunteering, and take a moral stance on big issues. According to the 2020 Zeno Strength of Purpose Study, 94 percent of global consumers say it is important that the companies they engage with have a strong purpose. In the Deloitte Global Millennial Survey 2019, 42 percent of millennials said they have begun or deepened a business relationship because they perceive a company’s products or services to have a positive impact on society and/or the environment. Further, 37 percent said they have stopped or lessened a business relationship because of the company’s ethical behavior.

Nonprofits, NGOs, and charitable organizations have transitioned heavily in the marketplace to being forces for awareness and action in Western Culture. Whereas once, marketing was focused solely on fundraising events, membership drives, or various development pitches, nonprofit branding has become a significant force of influence, as social good has become intertwined with our daily lives. As a nonprofit, the brand has the potential to be the driving force or a disassociative challenge toward your goals of creating awareness, development, or public support for your mission. An effective brand shows the areas where target audiences are aligned with your organization, calling them to partner with you toward success.

There are few things as disappointing as sitting down to your computer, downing your third cup of coffee as you sit there late into the night cranking up content piece after content piece, only to have it hit the internet to a chorus of crickets. What happened? You put everything you had into that content, poured out your heart, as well as all the information you know about a particular topic. What more could people want? The truth is, a lot more.

We've spent a lot of time together talking about branding, and it's been a real treat (at least we think so). But most of the content we've spent consuming and communicating about branding has mainly related to the tangible. And that's because the tangible stuff is super important. You can't really have a brand without a logo, or a typeface, or a color scheme. But while those things are great attributes, there are many intangibles that build your brand that are worth discussing.

The rebrand. It's not a term for the faint of heart, and it's certainly something you can't just walk into willy-nilly. Not if you want good results, anyway. When you're staring down a rebrand, there's a lot to consider. Whether you're just excited to get going or unsure where to start, it's easy to jump the gun in your process and skip some essential steps. Before you begin, you've got to hit the pause button and ask the important question—are you prepared?

We all like to think we know our customers. That we have them completely figured out, that surely they think like us, and that we are as familiar with them as we are our own GamGam.

As we continue forecasting what marketing trends we think will be a major hit for 2020, today, we turn our sights on branding. Easily one of the most exciting facets of the marketing world, branding just gets better and better as companies have to try harder to compete to gain the attention of overloaded customers. Today we are taking a look at the best trends of 2020 when it comes to branding, and why we're so excited about them.

While it’s still unsure how Instagram’s latest like policy will change the face of influencer marketing, we think it’s safe the say that the marketing niche certainly won’t be going anywhere. So much so, that by 2020, influencer marketing is projected to be a $10 billion industry. That’s billion. With a “B.” With so much focus (and budget) on influencer marketing, you’d assume that most marketers can track what the ROI of their influencers are. But you know what they say about assumptions.