Update:  Some marketing collaterals have been published.

Please feel free to contact us with any further questions.

“Very simply put, E-Info is the delivery of content to e-statement members that comes as close as possible to content that is delivered to members inside their statement envelopes,” says Xtend President Scott Collins. “Many members have embraced electronic statements and newsletters as their preferred correspondence with their credit union. We are taking that a step further by presenting marketing content to the member on their way to view their e-statements, similar to tri-folds and hard-copy newsletters stuffed inside the envelopes with printed statements.”

The service is offered in two different forms. The first is what the CUSO calls In Your Face – the enewsletter or marketing piece is presented to the member when they click to view their e-statement. The second is being called a Teaser because the member is presented with a pop-up window after selecting the e-statement link and can click the banner for the full collateral piece. Collins believes that both formats will be popular with credit unions and members. He notes, “Electronic members are used to being marketed to in a different way and our credit union partners are excited about reaching them in as many ways as possible. Its up to the credit union to decide whether it’s In Your Face or Teaser will be most effective for their marketing plan.”

Participating in this initial release are First Trust Credit Union (Michigan City, IN), Focus Credit Union (Wauwatosa, WI), and Western Districts Members Credit Union (Grand Rapids, MI).

Download Press Release

Mike Escudero, a Filene 30 Under 30 member, makes an interesting observation about Credit Union web site design:

We only design our sites for existing members. Not a bad idea, as our number one mission is to serve members, but here’s the thing. We started tracking Web traffic at my credit union recently and found that people were really only visiting our site to log into Online Banking to check account balances, pay bills and move money around. Virtually no one was visiting our site to learn about accounts.

His point is, your existing members are already being served. Why not use your website to capture new members. Why is it so hard to sign up on our sites?

Currently, if you have it enabled in CU*BASE, there is an “Apply Online to Become a Member” button on both the It’s Me 247 Login Pages and the Online Banking Community Pages, but what about our websites? So I went and checked our Membership Application Snippet.

Yikes, that’s 2 years old, and its just a link. What can we do to make a badge, or graphic for your website to encourage new membership? (I am not asking for ideas about the application itself, that is beyond my control — Use an Idea Form.) Mike likes the ING approach.

What can we do to make it obvious on your website how to sign up a new member? Post in the comments.

<!-- IM247 Demo -->
<a href="http://www.cuanswers.com/demos/im247/ItsMeMovie.htm" rel="new" title="Watch the It's Me 247 Online Banking Demo.">
        <img src="http://cuanswers.com/demos/im247/snippet-badge-im247.jpg" height="125" width="125" alt="Watch the It's Me 247 Online Banking Demo." border="0">
</a>
<!-- End IM247 Demo -->

Adding the Online Banking Login to your webpage is easy and we’ve made this simple tool to make it even easier.

This is the new URL and all sites need to make this change on 9/16/2008.

SiteControl sites should use the SmartTag Snippet for Online Banking.

1. You’ll have to have javascript enabled in your web browser. If you don’t know, you probably do.
2. Enter your ARU/Online Banking ID in the box below.
3. Pick the button colour and style you want.
4. And voila! The source code for your website is automatically generated at the bottom.

Just copy the source code and paste it in your web site.

It’s that easy. If you have questions or problems, feel free to contact us.

Note: you can also link directly to the Online Banking Community using this snippet.

IMPORTANT: Remember that when it asks for your ARU/Online Banking ID this is NOT the same as your CUID for CU*BASE.  This refers to the ID that members use to get into audio response (unless you have a custom, direct 800 number), or if they go directly to online banking without going to your website, it’s the CUID they have to enter in order to log in.  Contact a Client Service Representative if you do not know what this ID is.

ARU/Online Banking ID

Your code to copy and paste will appear below