Growing your membership base and increasing your loan applications are continuous goals that need to be met. The success of your credit union largely depends on how easy it is for prospective members to sign up. This blog series talks about the changes you can implement to support these efforts. If you haven’t read the first part of our online loan and account opening series, you can check it out by clicking this link.
Here are 5 more ways you can boost online account opening and loan applications:
Reassure applicants that they are on the right page by using branded URLs
Many financial institutions partner with third-party vendors for their online account opening and loan applications. This often leads to confusion for some customers because they feel they are being sent to a different company. Avoid this by ensuring that your credit union’s name is included in the URL.
Highlight application buttons and make them easy to spot
Ensure that your application buttons are located on a prominent area of the page. Avoid using plain text links! Those are easily ignored. Buttons with contrasting colors are best. Consider putting a button at the top of the page, and another by the bottom. If you have a sidebar, include one there as well.
Make it a priority to summarize your service’s main benefits
Product and service pages of most financial institutions are structured in the same way — and it’s not working. Product pages should be designed as landing pages, but the majority of banks and credit unions focus on listing down features instead of benefits.
Long paragraphs or sets of bullet points describing every single feature isn’t necessary. Stuffing the page with too much legalese and unhelpful descriptions makes it much worse.
Upgrade your pages by first making sure that you use headlines that summarizes your product’s most significant benefit. How will your product help your members reach their financial goals? When including additional details of the product, focus on adding benefits that truly matter.
Think ‘less is more’ when it comes to cross-selling
Yes, the best time to cross-sell is during the application process. Unfortunately, many financial institutions go all out and present every available product offer they currently have. This often backfires and can lead to abandonment of the application. The majority of consumers freeze and/or get confused when they have too many choices. Try to offer no more than three cross-sell offers during the online application process.
Provide rate information on your product pages
Customers look to a savings account’s APY as the main criteria when evaluating options. This is why it’s surprising that many financial institutions don’t include it or make it difficult to find on their product pages. One reason why many institutions don’t include it is because they don’t offer competitive rates, so they don’t want to put a spotlight on them. This shouldn’t matter at all. It’s probably time to shake up your product strategy if you feel like the sure way you can get members to sign up is by hiding your interest rates.
With IMSI’s user-friendly online account opening and loan application solution, your members are guaranteed a quick and seamless experience. Aside from being able to sign up for an account and fill out loan applications online, they also receive immediate decisions on their application. Our solutions also free up time for your team, allowing them to work on more pressing duties and helping them serve more members in less time.
Learn more about our online account opening solutions and our web loan applications!
