According to David Benning of the Online Resources Corporation, speaking on Mobile Marketing at the CMBDC Conference in Nashville: There are 2 billion cell phones in use worldwide, and 1.1 billion of those were activated in 2007. That’s 36 cells/second, while there are only 4 babies born/second globally. Cells cover 80% of the world, and 13.6% of US households have given up their land lines. 52% of users keep them on 24 hours a day, and 51% of users considered themselves “addicted” to their phones or “crackberrys.” PDA’s and cells are also increasingly able to access the internet. While they don’t yet include a GPS, some can triangulate enough with satellites to work with Google Maps. Cell phone users are usually under the age of 45 (think same demos as your online bill pay members) so they are also your prime targets for future growth.

What if your CU could let people know their balances at any time? What if you could direct them to the nearest surcharge-free ATM? What if you could tie into bill pay and text alert someone that their cable bill is probably due soon? Wouldn’t those types of services be invaluable to your members and begin to embed the credit union into their everyday life? Isn’t that how you want to build your brand?

So HOW FAST can your credit union begin to build on this market, support, and grow these members and potential members? Your competition is likely ahead of you. All the big banks are already in this market.

So how do you begin? There are multiple technologies that can be used to reach these people, from downloadable mini-applications to text to email to microbrowsers, and each technology has its plusses and minuses. Some can be branded with your logo and are easy to use, but can be difficult to upgrade and won’t work with all carriers. Others such as texting are more universal, but slow and expensive in the long term. You’ll have to check out your options and be sure that you home banking and bill pay systems are compatible.

It won’t be easy, but the payoff could be amazing.

Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 at 12:42 pm.
Filed under On Marketing, Product Innovation.
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