In the Chinese tradition, an animal with distinct characteristics represents each year. Different lucky and unlucky factors tie to each animal, and people born in an animal’s year inherit the animal’s traits. This Chinese New Year (beginning on February 10) is the year of the Wood Dragon – an animal representing confidence and intelligence.
And this year is also a golden opportunity for your institution to be reborn by rebuilding your community bank or credit union website!
A new digital branch will implement the modern features consumers expect, making it easier to do business with you. But delaying this vital project will only bring bad things…and luck won’t have anything to do it.
Here’s why this year must be the year of the website.
Self-Inflicted Bad Luck
Refusing to update your community bank or credit union website hinders your institution’s growth this year. It’s one of the reasons your customer or member acquisition is stagnating or declining. It’s even a question of survival in this competitive market.
A recent CUtoday.info article noted, "we found [merged] CUs with net worth ratios north of 30% or even 40% saying they lacked technology, while never explaining why they chose not to reinvest some of that capital into things as simple as websites."
Your members and customers expect a functional, sleek, modern website with mobile compatibility. In fact, 57% of these people won’t refer you to others if your site has poor mobile design.
Other common website issues hampering your growth include:
- Outdated visuals
- Search function doesn’t work
- Cumbersome menus
Issues like these are fixable, but financial institutions often don’t invest in the repairs. Invest in your community bank or credit union website. If you don’t...the results are more self-inflicted than unlucky.
Inherit Results
Your community bank or credit union website isn’t just a pretty face. Taking the time to design something incredible pays dividends for your business.
Once again, mobile plays a big role. Data shows visitors are 67% more likely to use your services with a good mobile website. Since organic search is the top website traffic source, prioritizing SEO will also yield tangible results when locals search you.
But even things as simple as the call to action can move the needle. Your members or customers need someone to prompt them to act…otherwise they never will. These statements (and buttons) must remain clear and clickable throughout the community bank or credit union website.
Be the Dragon
Remember: the Dragon is confident and intelligent. Your community bank or credit union website should reflect these qualities. How? Let’s look:
- Confidence – Your website’s visuals and copy boldly promote your brand and call visitors to action. This isn’t in a selfish or salesy way (that would be cockiness, not confidence). However, it reflects belief in the strength of your offerings as real solutions to people’s problems.
- Intelligence – Your website has a clean aesthetic and sensible user experience. It’s efficient, avoids clutter and minimizes the consumer journey to the solution. You also understand the trends and know mobile-friendly and SEO sites are important to your success.
Your community bank or credit union website can become the Dragon right now (even if the last redesign was a while ago). On The Mark Strategies redesigns websites so they are modern, mobile-friendly and effective in the current market. Book a free consultation today!
