By Jaidyn Crookston | June 18, 2024 | 11 Minute Read

7 Marketing Strategies To Drive Community Engagement and Boost Your Program

Running a community engagement program and driving awareness takes a lot of moving pieces. You have to plan events, build relationships in the community, work with other departments at your institution, and so much more.

Chances are your community engagement and marketing departments work closely together to plan events and make sure community members/employees are aware of what’s coming. Working with other departments is crucial to your institution’s success, and you’re lucky to have a team that has your back. (If you work for a small institution and it’s just you calling the shots, that’s okay! Lonely…but okay.)

Whether you’re part of the community engagement team or the marketing team, here are some tips that will help you increase community awareness and drive even more impact with your community efforts.

1. Leverage social media to highlight community events

This one may seem obvious, but you should definitely be using social media to promote events and engage with your community.

Your audience likely spends a lot of time on social media, and it’s your job to meet them where they are. Figure out which platforms work best for you—Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, etc.—and create a content plan. Yes, even TikTok might be a good place to start engaging with your community.

Here are some social media content ideas for banks and credit unions:

Community event photos
Volunteer opportunities
Photos of employees in the community
Nonprofit partnerships
Community organization spotlights
Training resources
Causes your organization supports
Polls to get your audience engaged

And here are some real-life examples of banks and credit unions posting on social media.

Notice how each of these posts leads back to the institution’s community and establishes the institution as a caring entity that wants what’s best for its audience. Great job, everyone!

Whether you’re asking followers to come to a community event, support a cause, or vote for their favorite dog photo, social media is a great way to engage with your audience and grow your institution.

2. Add a dedicated community page to your website

When you learn about a cool new company, where’s the first place you go to learn more? Well, probably Google. But then that usually takes you to the company’s website.

You want a page on your website that clearly shows how your institution supports your community. Enter…the dedicated community involvement page.

Here’s what you might share on this page:

Community impact numbers
Past event photos and upcoming community events
Links for others to request grants, donations, sponsorships, scholarships, etc.

And here are some examples of bank/credit union community involvement webpages:

By showcasing your community support right on your website, you can show visitors that you care about them and their community. Who would you rather bank with? A bank that only shares information meant to get your money? Or a bank that clearly cares about its community and shows how much good they’ve done?

Your call.

3. Encourage employees to spread the word

What’s the best free marketing tactic out there? Word of mouth!

When it comes to spreading the word and getting community support for your initiatives, word of mouth beats advertising nearly every time. In fact, in a study shared by Marketing Charts, advertising ranks lowest as a source survey responders trust (38%). And what was #1? Friends and family (93%).

Image found here.

When employees spread the word about bank/credit union events, community initiatives, grants/sponsorships, etc., great things can happen.

Every time your institution makes a difference, most employees will be happy to share it with their friends and family. Everyone wants to work somewhere that cares about others, and your employees are no different. Give them something to talk about and make sure they have the resources they need to share with others. That means event images, social media posts, online articles, news stories, and anything else that clearly shows what you’ve done.

And if employees do need a little encouragement to share, throw a prize on the table! Maybe the employee who brings the most friends to an event wins a gift. Or maybe every company social post an employee shares or reposts is worth points for your employee rewards program.

With all that word of mouth going around, your institution is bound to earn some points!

4. Launch an ambassador program

Similar to encouraging employees to spread the word, you might try creating a network of employees dedicated to promoting your bank’s community initiatives. These ambassadors can help forge new community partnerships, increase employee involvement in community activities, and spread the word about your bank's commitment to community development.

Seacoast Bank has a CRA Ambassadors program that has driven engagement, gotten employees involved, and helped spread the word throughout the community. This program is basically a network of community-minded bank employees who work together to promote Seacoast Bank’s CRA program and forge community partnerships.

When building a program like this, strong communication and collaboration are key. Be clear about what you want your ambassadors to accomplish. Schedule regular check-ins and make sure they get the training and information they need. When done right, your ambassadors program can be a powerful tool.

Learn more about Seacoast Bank’s CRA Ambassadors program here.

5. Share customer stories

Everybody loves a good story, but focusing on your institution’s story won’t always land with community members. The truth is that you’re a bank or credit union. It’s difficult to build emotional connections between real people and a faceless company.

So give your company a face. Better yet, focus on telling the stories of the people you help most—the people community members can relate to and clearly picture. Add compelling words and images that prove you aren’t just a company looking after the bottom line. You’re a financial institution that cares about your customers/members, and you want to shine the spotlight on them.

Here are some ideas on what customer stories you might share:

A local business owner came to your bank for a loan and tripled their revenue in a year
A struggling parent took a financial education course through your institution and was able to save for a home down payment
A local elementary school class played a fun, engaging game that taught them how to save for their future
College students applied through your institution’s scholarship program and were able to graduate
A local nonprofit used your donation/sponsorship request form to apply for a donation, and with the proceeds was able to impact a hundred LMI teenagers struggling with food insecurity

By humanizing your brand and putting a face to the message, community members will be better able to relate and view your institution in a positive light. Practice this method anywhere you share your story—social media posts, webpages, advertisements, billboards, videos, and more.

The more customer stories you share, the better.

6. Partner with local media

Have you considered partnering with local TV and radio stations to spread the word about important initiatives and showcase how your institution has served the community?

Media outlets likely have a much wider reach than your own institution, so it makes sense to partner with these stations. And chances are you’ll reach people you never could have connected with otherwise.

Like Veritex Community Bank, you might partner with local media to raise awareness and drive support for community initiatives. When it comes to marketing your bank or credit union, sometimes you have to think outside the box!

In 2020, Veritex Community Bank partnered with CBS-affiliated TV stations in Dallas and Houston to air commercial segments for their community partners.

Each nonprofit or community organization had 45–60 seconds to explain its initiative and ask the public for support. These segments aired during the mid-morning shows “Good Morning Dallas” and “Great Day Houston.”

Here are some examples from the bank’s Great Deeds campaign:

Veritex Community Bank’s name and logo was on each commercial, which helped build its brand and tie everything back to the bank. After each segment aired, the bank’s call center received a spike in inquiries about the bank’s services, and community members expressed their gratitude for the bank’s efforts in raising awareness for important issues.

Learn more about how Veritex Community Bank partnered with local media, including TV and radio stations, here.

7. Use Kadince software to track your impact and share it with the community

It’s difficult to share your community impact when you don’t know your community impact.

But tracking that community impact and finding the hard numbers is…hard. Many financial institutions track their community involvement efforts on spreadsheets and outdated software. But honestly, that just doesn’t cut it.

If your bank uses Kadince software, you can leverage its capabilities to track, manage, and report on your community involvement activities. This can streamline your efforts, making it easier to organize events, track volunteer hours, and communicate your impact to both internal and external stakeholders.

And if you don’t yet use Kadince CSR software, you should! Kadince makes it easy to track and manage all your community involvement efforts, including volunteer hours, sponsorships, community partnerships, events, and so much more. Plus, you can run reports and build dynamic widgets to easily share this data with your community and team members.

Want to see how Kadince can make marketing your community involvement efforts and building support so much easier? Schedule a 30-minute demo.

What are you waiting for?

In this article, we’ve covered several new ways to market your institution’s community initiatives and drive impact.

Implementing these marketing strategies can help your bank increase community involvement, strengthen your brand, and build lasting relationships within your community. Finding ways to market your efforts and drive engagement doesn’t have to be difficult. Boosting your program is all about the numbers, and the more people you reach before and after an event, the better.

So what are you waiting for? Get out there and start talking about the difference you’ve made in your community. We’ll be here cheering you on.

None of Kadince, Inc., its affiliates, or its respective employees, directors, officers, and agents (collectively, “Kadince”) are responsible or liable for any content or information incorporated herein. Read full disclosure.