When considering texting for credit unions, most people only think of fraud prevention and mobile banking alerts. But did you know that texting is also incredibly effective for getting qualified loan applicants? With over 98% of texts being read, sending an SMS to share your programs is the best way to increase applications and make sure they are qualified.
1. Boost Loan Applications With Texting
Getting more members to view your loan information will boost your overall applications. Mobile keywords can change the way you share your loan programs by allowing members to text in to receive periodic alerts directly to their phones. To get impactful visits from the right members, post a separate keyword for each of your programs, such as a “Fixed” or “Adjustable” rate keyword, and then share it on social media, your company website, and ads in your offices.
A key benefit of keywords is that when a member opts-in, they will automatically be added to your contact database. To take advantage of this large audience at your disposal, send a mass text to all of your contacts to share your loan programs.
Choosing a texting solution that can automate campaigns alleviates the pain of manually send messages at the right time. You can schedule drip campaigns to be automatically triggered whenever a potential member does a certain action. If a member texts into a keyword and shows interest in a loan, you can automatically send them an application and other relevant information. Converting your hesitant members is made easier by automatically following up with a special offer or discount after a certain amount of time.
2. Entice Members with Targeted Text Offers
Understanding your members’ interests and needs is crucial for sending targeted loan offers. You can effortlessly sort your members into distribution lists based on the information you gathered to send relevant offers and increase loan conversion.
To maximize the amount of visits to your loan, use cross channel marketing to reach the widest audience. The ability to share your loans on virtually every channel, including SMS, MMS, social media, and voice is important to cast the widest possible net and get the most applications possible. Members often have a preference on how they communicate, so using multi-channel guarantees that you aren’t leaving any members out of the loop.
Targeting the right offers to the right members is crucial. For instance, Trumpia’s Smart Targeting feature is our unique tool that can bring in more qualified loan applications. Custom criteria, such as age, income, and location, can be used to send out compelling offers to the most relevant people. Say you are offering an individual retirement account. Schedule a message to be sent out to contacts that are 55 years or older. This not only increases the chance of them applying, but also betters the chance that they qualify for the program.
3. Streamline the Application Process
If you don’t guide your applicants through the loan process, you’ll be left with a pile of incomplete applications that will put a damper on your business. That’s why it’s important to utilize text messaging to send applicants information about your loan programs, deadlines, and answer FAQs to create a better conversion rate for your loans, as well as save you time and money. Sending a text to inform them of this information will quickly move applicants to the next step of the loan process and avoid long phone calls while still reaching your members on the go.
Improving your loan generation process will attract more loan applicants in the future. Because text messaging has a 45% response rate compared to email’s 6%, sending an SMS survey is the most reliable way of getting member feedback, which will result in improved loan programs and high member satisfaction. Additionally, Trumpia’s software can automate FAQs to avoid wasting time addressing the same questions.
4. Texting Helps Your Members Through The Process
When a member starts the application process, there’s no guarantee the loan application will be completed properly. It’s your job to nurture and remind your members to complete every step in order to keep them moving forward in the application process. An SMS alert service is a convenient way to remind applicants to complete the next step, ensuring loan conversion.
It’s also an unfortunate reality is some members will drop a loan application at the last minute. To get a shot at reacquiring the lost application, use SMS to periodically send them information or offers to entice them to come back. Better yet, use two-way texting to ask what went wrong and see if there are any ways to remedy the situation.
5. Banking Made Easy
Along with providing exceptional loan terms for their members, Credit Unions strive to make banking safe and easy. SMS is a perfect tool to allow members to securely and conveniently access their current account balance and account history while on the go.
Missed payments are frustrating for both you and your members. Avoid tracking down payments and giving out late fees by text automating your payment reminders. Whenever a payment due date is approaching, schedule a reminder to be sent to members that have not completed their payments. With a read rate of 98%, texting is a sure way of getting members to see your late payment notices.
And if you have an integrated API like Trumpia’s, you can automatically send transaction alerts to your members whenever a lot of activity occurs on their account. This will help prevent fraudulent transactions and shorten the response time when you suspect suspicious activity. Text messages are perfect for two-factor authentication to add an additional layer of security by sending a code to the members phone while they are logging into their account.
Implementing an SMS service for your credit union is vital to keeping you competitive with big banks. Check out our brochure on Credit Unions to see how SMS can revolutionize how your Credit Union does business.
