BACKGROUND:
Oswego County Federal Credit Union is based in upstate New York. Its four locations offer a wide variety of member services, ranging from high-rate checking and savings accounts to retirement accounts, certificates of deposit and money marketing accounts. While Oswego offers outstanding financial services, its growth can be credited to more than a great product line-up. It can be credited to great data. “We are great believers in using data,” notes Bill Carhart, CEO of Oswego County FCU. “The only way you can market effectively these days is to take the time to create highly targeted offers that make sense for each member.”
PROBLEM:
Oswego County FCU had a problem. Its former marketing services provider didn’t share its vision. The provider lacked creativity and problem solving and didn’t seem to “get” the credit union’s vision for truly personalized marketing and communications.
“The results were well below industry standards,” Carhart says. “We have a very unique membership and unique marketing ideas. We did not want the cookie-cutter approach.”
SOLUTION:
Oswego was immediately impressed with IMS’s deep data experience. “IMS continually strives to leverage our investment in technology to create an enhanced value proposition for our customer base while helping them drive revenue,” says John D. Mashia, Jr., President, and Chief Operating Officer at IMS, Inc. “We felt confident that we could help Oswego County FCU drive a successful omnichannel campaign by leveraging our unique data-driven suite of technology services.”
Oswego also loved how the team engaged with its data house to come up with creative solutions. “IMS could sit down and speak their language,” Carhart says. “They worked together on the data side of things, understood what we were looking to do, and how they could marry our needs to the capabilities of their advanced technology.”
RESULTS:
Carhart describes the results of the new partnership as “wildly successful.” As of March 31, 2017 (based on data from February – November 2017), it has seen an astonishing 1105% MROI on the program.
• Direct response rate was 4.9%, higher than the industry average of 4.5%.
• Indirect response was 24% compared to 18% industry average.
• Direct results from the campaign were just shy of $4 million in new accounts.
• Indirect results were close to $13 million.
Looking forward, Oswego will continue to invest in its member data and let that data do the talking. “Our MROI is already outstanding, and with the help of IMS Direct, we’re looking forward to seeing how much higher it can go,”
Carhart concludes. “After all, no one ever said, ‘Our ROI is too high!”
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