Project: Write articles for magazines.
Description: Some examples of feature writing.
Yaquina Pacific Railroad Historical Society in Toledo Takes Visitors Back in Time
Published in Oregon Coast Magazine
Walking through the mail car at the Yaquina Pacific Railroad Historical Society is akin to stepping back in time. Suddenly, the sleepy town of Toledo, Oregon is alive again, with postal workers whipping through mail carts and readying sacks of letters and packages- including live chicks and bees- for the next drop off.
Of course, you have to have a vivid imagination to see the activity. But when you visit the Toledo Railroad Museum the many historical artifacts, a reminder of days gone by, will quickly steer your thoughts in the right direction. Seeing the world by rail is an almost forgotten way to travel- except at the Yaquina Pacific Railroad Historical Society, where trains are not only not forgotten, they’re heralded as a part of our country’s history.
Passenger trains and steam locomotives had a “massive impact on our country’s development,” according to Tom Chandler, YPRHS Conductor. And Toledo was the natural home for the museum. After all, the Baldwin steam engine was brought to Toledo in 1922- and there it remained. The powerful steam locomotive at the Yaquina Pacific Railroad Historical Society was once used for logging and is one of the oldest in Oregon. “A group of us wanted to rebuild the engine,” says Chandler. “That was our focus and how we got our start.”
Many of the people involved in the YPRHS had someone in their family who worked in some capacity for the railroad. Tom Chandler worked for the Milwaukee Railroad, President Bill Bain ran an excursion railroad and YPRHS treasurer Allan Preece’s grandfather was a conductor- and his father was a brakeman. “The board members have a deep knowledge of trains or a deep interest in railroads,” says Chandler. “And many members have a love for all things historic, collecting old boats, trains, cars and planes.”
A 1907 Southern Pacific wooden caboose houses the YPRHS offices and some charming memorabilia from the railroads, including old photos and china commissioned for railroad dining cars. A Southern Pacific #5132 car is currently under restoration. And Oregon’s only restored railway post office car was manufactured in 1923 and is the only railway post office car in the Northwest that’s open for visitation.
A tour of the museum yields some fun facts about the history of railroad production. Mail cars were in operation from the Civil War until 1979, when mail service moved elsewhere. Since the old letters on display at the museum didn’t have zip codes- and many didn’t have street addresses- the postal workers often had to memorize more than 10,000 town names to get the mail delivered.
The employees who worked on the railway post office car were armed, and train robberies were a rare occurrence- but even the mail drops were nothing short of exciting. The postal worker responsible for the drop would turn his hat around, put his goggles on, watch for landmarks and after hearing a warning whistle from the train’s engineer, throw the bags out, without slowing the train. The mail was then gathered by station agents and delivered to local post offices.
The railroad museum is Chapter #212 of the National Railway Historical Society. The museum joined the group to be part of something larger, and have found membership to be helpful for data gathering, research and sharing information about historic railroads. In addition, the national railroad organization provides funding in the form of grants and is helpful when the museum is looking for additional railroad memorabilia.
New for 2009, the Yaquina Pacific Railroad Historical Society is introducing a self-guided interpretive center and library, with extensive books, archives and videos that detail the history of the American railroad.
Yaquina Pacific Chapter NRHS
100 NW A Street
Toledo, OR 97391
Phone: 541-336-5256
Website: http://yaquinapacificrr.org
Anatomy of a Successful Marketing Campaign
Published in Credit Union Business Magazine
Executing a successful marketing and PR campaign for your credit union involves more than just writing a press release or creating a brochure. From setting goals and objectives to tracking results, there are a number of easy steps you can follow to keep your campaign on track.
Identify your marketing campaign objectives. Ask yourself some key questions:
What do you hope to get out of your marketing campaign?
Do you want to focus on finding new customers?
Do you need to work on customer retention?
What messages do you want to impart to prospects, members, business partners and credit union employees?
Completing a simple executive summary, a more complex SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats exercise) or gathering competitive intelligence helps you identify your marketing campaign objectives and get agreement on them too.
Set concrete marketing campaign goals. You may need to change these goals later, but this sets checkpoints so you can review your progress throughout the campaign. Here’s a sample campaign goals and objectives statement:
ABC Credit Union wants to retain current credit union customers and provide incentives to get customer family members to join. ABC Credit Union anticipates that 10% of customers’ family members will join ABC and that overall member retention will increase by 8% by the end of 2007.
ABC Credit Union also has a great opportunity to find all-new members in 2007. It is estimated that there are 80,000 potential, eligible credit union members in our community. ABC Credit Union anticipates that 4,000 new members will join the credit union by the end of 2007, and that an additional 2,000 members will have finalized new memberships by June 2008.
ABC Credit Union needs to provide new member data at checkpoints throughout the campaign and at campaign’s end to show results. Setting down numbers may seem intimidating, but it’s the best way to track and report on campaign results.
Identify the target markets you want to highlight during your campaign. Now that you’ve set your goals and objectives, think about who you want to target with your marketing campaign. Your primary market consists of customers, prospects, business partners and your credit union employees. Your marketing messages and tactics will change depending upon your audience.
Townes Coates, VP of LE Direct (www. ledirect.net), a banking and financial advertising agency, talked to me about the challenges a credit union faces without properly targeting prospective customers.
“One of our clients received a great opportunity to market to state university alumni,” says Coates. “Unfortunately, their excitement at getting the new business quickly disappeared. Their initial marketing sweep didn’t bring the results they expected, or wanted, because their messages were too broad in scope, as was the audience. LE Direct worked closely with the credit union to identify mutually beneficial relationship opportunities, through targeted mailings, inserts and ads in alumni mailings and university magazines. They ultimately formed a powerful co-branding bond with the alumni association, and they found their targeted market, too.”
Identify key messages to deliver to your members, prospective customers, credit union employees and business partners.
There are thousands of publications that attempt to define successful branding campaigns. Essentially, your brand is what comes to mind when people think about your credit union. Once you’ve established how you want to brand yourself in the public eye, think about how to make your key message or messages meaningful to all of your customers.
Create benefit statements that summarize how you want to drive customers’ perceptions of your credit union:
Message #1 New Customer Prospects: “ABC Credit Union offers great loan rates, the best savings rates, on-line banking and service with a personal touch.”
Message #2 Existing Members: “You already know that ABC Credit Union membership offers the best rates with the best service, but did you know that your family members are eligible to join ABC Credit Union, too?”
Message #3 Business Partners: “Partnering with ABC Credit Union is a real benefit to your employees, at no cost- and no hassle- to you.”
Message #4 Credit Union Employees: “ABC Credit Union has a full benefits package and unlimited opportunities to grow and to learn all aspects of the financial services industry.”
Once you drill down to your key customer messages, use them in every aspect of your marketing campaign. No matter what membership benefits you highlight, make sure you let customers know about your key products, service standards and methods of communication again and again, to drive your key messages home.
Use key messages to drive targeted communications strategies and tactics. Once you’ve identified your key messages, start planning your targeted message plan of attack for each customer group. Your communications strategies will vary widely based upon your budget and campaign goals, but you’ll probably use some combination of the following: e-mail campaigns, public relations, collateral materials, newsletters or the Web to market your products and services.
Use targeted public relations to drive new memberships. “Credit unions have to approach PR carefully,” says Margaret Blankers, of Margaret J. Blankers Public Relations Group, LLC, a financial PR firm (www.mjblankerspr.com). “Not everyone is eligible for membership, so a targeted public relations plan is key.”
Get free public relations and find new customers when you partner with community associations and non-profit organizations or offer your own community involvement programs. Your credit union provides a much-need community service, and you have unlimited opportunities to gain the trust, interest and involvement of potential members. And, you also find members that are more likely to be active- and engaged- in the credit union.
Blankers has seen firsthand the benefits of a credit union rooted in community involvement. “One credit union, with 100 million in assets, established strong community partnerships when they started offering free financial education classes to young adults. The students act out real-life scenarios, learning how to budget and balance an account while paying utilities and phone bills. The credit union has trained more than 11,000 community members to date.” The result? Membership, loan demand and assets are all on the rise.
In addition to community involvement, become the financial services expert for local publications- editors will call when they need a quote or a statistic, and it keeps your credit union in the public eye. Releases of information before, during and after a special event also keep your name in the press.
And, you might consider budgeting for more concentrated public relations efforts. “We work closely with credit unions that have a defined field of membership, to address their unique PR needs,” says Blankers. “We see the greatest PR successes from companies that execute stand-alone public relations campaigns.”
Customer retention is the cornerstone of your credit union. You have opportunities at every turn to up-sell and cross-sell your members on additional products and services. Develop targeted e-mails, collateral materials and member Web site content for current members that highlight improvements in products and services and that reward their loyalty, too.
“Once you sign up a member, target family and friend referrals using a rewards system for members,” says Coates. “Our clients have had great successes using a monetary bonus or some financial incentive for referrals.”
Long-term customers historically purchase additional products and services over time, greatly increasing their lifetime customer value. Monitor results of retention and loyalty campaigns to find what works best for you.
Cultivate business partner contacts, making sure they understand the benefits of partnering with you.
“Work closely with Human Resources and the benefits specialists at partner companies to find ways to be close to their employee base,” says Coates. “Keep reminding employees that credit union membership is an excellent company benefit and costs nothing to join.” Ensure Human Resources benefits specialists at partnering companies understand the benefits of working with you, too. “Credit union membership is just one more arrow in their quiver to hire and retain the best employees- and it doesn’t cost the company a penny,” says Coates.
To maximize your presence at partnering companies, Coates recommends working closely with partner companies’ Human Resources departments to stay on top of financial product cycles. Marketing communication tactics might include paycheck inserts that highlight new and ongoing products and services. This way, you address customers’ ultimate financial need, while contacting new and potential members, says Coates. “Human Resources departments are always open to ideas; they love finding new and creative ways to introduce and reinforce company benefits to employees.”
Business Partner Communications Tip: I’ve seen solid campaign results using a combination of communications tactics including e-mail blasts, intranet posts, blogs posts (if available), voicemails, newsletter articles and memos. Find out how your business partners communicate internally, and don’t be afraid to ask if you can jump on the internal communications bandwagon.
Get employees on board with your branding efforts, so they can effectively sell your products and services. In addition to sharing your marketing plan with employees, run a supplementary campaign that’s meaningful to them. For example, make sure employees understand how Web banking eases their workload and reduces incoming calls.
Start a dedicated internal communications plan that parallels your external marketing efforts:
Use staff meetings, e-mail, newsletters and your credit union intranet to introduce campaigns, provide samples of marketing materials and to share campaign results with employees.
Make sure every member of the call center knows about campaign response codes, where to store them and what they mean.
Hanging posters in every credit union location reminds staff of the latest promotion and helps to boost enthusiasm, too.
Some “avoid the headache” tips to follow as you plan your marketing communication tactics:
Understand and abide by NCUA regulations related to marketing materials and FTC regulations related to permission-based marketing.
Use response mechanisms to test campaign results. Asking respondents to reference a “priority” or “access” code when they respond to an offer helps track how customers heard about your marketing campaign.
“Seed” yourself and a few other employees into direct mail campaigns by including your names and homes addresses in the mailing lists. This provides you with a bird’s eye view of what customers and prospects receive. Seeding myself into campaigns has given me insight into campaign timing and an opportunity to objectively review every marketing piece, too.
Remember to use your arsenal of marketing communications tactics wisely, in a way that’s compelling to customers. Where many institutions jumped at the chance to use e-mail marketing campaigns a few years ago, that quickly presented a problem, says Blankers. “Marketing e-mails need to be preference based, not just permissions based. It’s an important distinction and it’s the difference between providing information about products and services customers want, and just being an annoyance.”
Develop messaging for e-statements that allow credit union members to indicate their marketing preferences. “This lets customers detail their interests, whether it’s a car loan sale, information about closing dates or saving rates increases,” says Blankers. “When the marketing e-mails arrive, they’re relevant, anticipating member needs.” Many of Blankers’ clients have moved from a traditional style credit union to tech savvy financial services, a sometimes precarious transition. “We advise our clients to walk the line carefully, using both conventional and e-methods to contact customers.”
Unlimited opportunity exists for credit union marketing, says Blankers. “People trust financial institutions, and especially credit unions. Consumers are far more likely to read something from a credit union, so there’s infinite opportunity to market to members and to prospective members, too.”
Create a simple marketing calendar that outlines your campaign tactics. The version I use clearly explains roles, responsibilities and deadlines and it’s prioritized, to help everyone stay on track.
Your marketing campaign calendar includes:
State your objectives in the Initiatives section of your calendar. “Market new loan rates to members.”
List collateral materials, Web site updates, Intranet updates and other campaign tactics for each campaign initiative in the Tactics section of the calendar.
Briefly explain the campaign tactic in the Description area of the calendar. “Send first-round e-mail tips to customers.”
List who receives the communications in the Audience area of the calendar. “New Members, Current Members and Member Families.”
Include due dates for campaign tactics in the Deadline section of the calendar.
Identify who’s responsible for executing each campaign tactic in the Resources area. “Retail manager, Credit Manager and Finance Manager must review and approve direct mail postcard.”
I like to list each deliverable date in the marketing calendar:
Create promotional materials and get approvals by August 1st.
Print promotional materials on August 3rd.
Mail promotional materials to prospects on August 10th.
This way, everyone stays on target with copy, design, print and mail deadlines.
Marketing Campaign Calendar Tip: If you’re planning to run an extensive campaign, consider creating separate marketing calendars by audience type (“Internal Communications Promotion”), by campaign tactic (“Direct Mail Program”) or deadline (“1st Quarter Marketing Campaign”) to make this process more manageable.
Your calendar should grow and change as needed to support your project. Make sure all interested parties receive new calendar copies when hefty revisions are made.
Your budget is the most inflexible part of your marketing campaign. Stay on top of budgetary concerns with these tips:
Get cost estimates before you plan your marketing wish list to help ease budgetary woes.
Remember to factor in people costs, including the time it takes to execute campaign tactics, in your budgetary planning meetings.
If items get cut, as they so often do, have a back-up plan. If you don’t have money to do a direct mail campaign, focus on e-mail, Web and inbound phone marketing.
Establish progress review checkpoints to evaluate your marketing campaign.
Before you begin your marketing campaign, determine how you will track specific campaign results, and how frequently you will report on results.
Using historic activity helps benchmark your marketing campaign. For example, “In the years 2004-2006, ABC Credit Union’s new memberships flatlined. In 2nd quarter 2007, we completed a direct mail program and 200 new customers signed up for memberships.”
Tracking campaign response codes is a clear-cut way to measure the effectiveness of your campaign. “300 new members referenced Access Code 20072Q when they joined ABC Credit Union in 2nd Quarter 2007. Access Code 20072Q appeared on ABC Credit Union’s ‘Nice To Meet You’ direct mail postcards sent in March 2007.”
Web site analytics, member surveys, unique 800 numbers and Web sign-up pages help measure campaign results, too.
Not sure how much credit union growth you can attribute to your marketing campaign? You’re not alone. When surveyed, most company marketing executives say they don’t know how to measure marketing ROI.
Measuring campaign results is an imperfect (sometimes painful!) process. But providing results from a successful campaign at planning meetings will likely net you a boost in your marketing budget next year.
Organizing a successful marketing and PR campaign for your credit union may seem intimidating, but really- it’s just a matter of checks and balances.
Disaster Recovery
Published in Credit Union Business Magazine
Catastrophe modelers predict hurricanes more destructive than Katrina for 2006. You probably have a Disaster Recovery Plan in place today. But in the event of a disaster, do you have a Business Continuity Plan (BCP)?
Credit Union Business magazine spoke with Disaster Recovery industry leaders to find the best tips for creating or updating your BCP. While most credit unions have Disaster Recovery plans in place, “few have a plan for business continuity,” says Tom Williams, Business Recovery Consulting Manager, Centurion Disaster Recovery.
Before exploring tips for BCP best practices, you have a couple of questions to answer:
Have You Reviewed Current Credit Union Disaster Recovery Guidelines?
Before you get started, review current guidelines from regulatory agencies to ensure compliance. After 9/11, the NCUA revised Disaster Recovery standards and released their Contingency Plan Best Practices, high-level guidelines for credit unions. This document highlights the need for Business Continuity Planning (BCP), encouraging credit unions to “go beyond their information systems and develop comprehensive contingency plans for all critical resources.”
Do You Have Clear Direction for the Planning Process?
Management’s tasked with classifying areas for planning participation and identifying key planning leaders. Establish directives and educate employees to clearly explain responsibilities and roles in the planning process. “Employees look for leadership during a catastrophe,” says Williams. Emphasize maintaining service levels instead of systems. And, make BCP a priority to ensure cooperation from all levels of the credit union.
Now for the tips- some lessons learned by top Credit Union Disaster Recovery experts, and their clients.
Tip #1 Everyone Has a Disaster Recovery Role.
Your BCP requires input from every department, says David Palermo, VP of Marketing, SunGard. “Identify areas affected by a disaster, then prioritize and assign associates a BCP discovery role.” Individual department plans drive the execution and performance of the core Business Continuity plan.
Palermo emphasizes the change in focus from technology failure to dependencies upon technology. Types of questions to ask, says Palermo, might include “What happens to each department with an inoperable system? Can you execute payroll? Can Member Services operate without their CRM systems?” Palermo says to expect and welcome recovery redundancies in the fact-finding process. “They help validate the plan and provide layers of added protection in the event of a disaster.”
Making your BCP a shared process improves intradepartmental communications. Planning leaders broadcast information from their areas to management, further impacting service and system disaster planning needs. And, it’s much easier to update individual plans than to refresh a sizable master plan.
Tip #2 Role Play.
Practice makes perfect! Mock drills and simulated disasters provide your best line of defense in the event of a catastrophe. “We challenge clients,” says Williams, “to create diverse disaster scenarios and related obstacles to overcome.” Ask participants to take an active role in setting up simulated disasters and encourage them to provide creative input to mock drill design.
Identify potential disasters based upon your location, timing and business climate. What key services do you need to provide members if a catastrophe strikes at the beginning, middle or end of the month? Consider seasonal or quarterly impacts on disaster recovery plans too. “Reality is always very different from what you might expect,” says Larry Tankeloff, Senior VP Business Recovery Services, USERS.
Set up plans based upon varying periods of recovery. The NCUA recommends planning for intervals of at least one day, one week, and one month without core operating systems, an office or communications. Prioritize business needs based on key service activities for your members. Activities conducted before, during and after the disaster play a key role in the planning process.
And don’t overlook what experts call the human factor. “If a disaster impacts employees’ families, anxiety may outweigh their need to work. Provide them with a means to handle business and a way to spend time with family,” says Tankeloff. Williams agrees, encouraging employees to “take the opportunity to create a Disaster Recovery plan at home, too.”
Tip #3 Over Communicate.
Communicate what you learn in the planning process. Within the credit union, get employee agreement on your BCP. Let members know that you’ve rehearsed disaster response techniques. Publish plans during times of potential disaster instructing customers where to go for updates. Communicate changes to Disaster Recovery plans as they happen.
Use the media, e-mail, newsletters, your Web site and staff meetings to communicate Disaster Recovery plans to employees and members. Press releases help members find alternate locations and provide updates to disaster-related services.
Faced without phone lines during Katrina, “We used our Web site to communicate with members,” says Vicki O’Brien, CEO of Jefferson Parish Employees Federal Credit Union (Jefferson, LA). “We informed members beforehand to watch the site for Disaster Recovery updates.”
Let members know if you’ve waived fees, restrictions or deadlines in the event of a disaster. Release information often and provide regular updates to keep BCP at top of mind.
Tip #4 Think Outside of the Box.
“Instant Messaging and Text Messaging saved us during Katrina,” says Palermo. “And satellite phones may work when challenged with clogged cell phone lines.” Collect e-mail addresses, cell phone and pager numbers from employees and members as part of your planning process.
An alternate meeting location provides a place for employees to meet and hear disaster updates. Tankeloff explains “we’ve found setting up a place to rendezvous in a local hotel to be a lifesaver. In addition, providing a place for employees to stay with their families helped lessen their anxiety.”
Ensure that employees can access core systems from off-site locations through trial runs. But like Jefferson Parish, you may find yourself going back to the basics, says O’Brien. “Without electricity, we relied on paper and currency to service members.”
Identify and organize essentials in case of a disaster. Store items including cell phones, radios, bottled water and generators in a secure location that’s easily accessible in an emergency.
Tip #5 Share Information.
Talk to community business leaders at trade association meetings to find out what they have planned for a disaster. Suggest that your association or chamber of commerce provide Disaster Recovery seminars.
In addition to sharing information, discuss sharing resources too. Your exchange might be small (communicating updates through voicemail) or large (an exchange of equipment or space). You can find sample Disaster Recovery exchange agreements and contracts online.
The Jefferson Parish Employees Federal Credit Union used shared branching and resumed business within days of Katrina. “Several credit unions adopted us during Katrina,” says O’Brien. “We have strong relationships with 3rd party vendors and credit unions through association memberships. When Katrina hit, credit unions from all over the country contacted us offering assistance.”
If you use 3rd party vendors, review their Disaster Recovery plans and attach them to your BCP. Provide copies of your plans to outside vendors as necessary. The NCUA also recommends alternate site reviews as part of your annual review process.
You can find Business Continuity Planning resources on the Internet and through credit union associations. Do you need professional help? Consider outsourcing. Core processing service companies provide credit unions with a rich resource for business continuity. Disaster Recovery companies have proven, tested software based upon experiences including 9/11, Katrina and other disasters. In addition to building traditional DR plans, these companies work closely with clients to create practical BCPs.
Palermo advises credit unions to “practice, practice, practice business continuity plans.” Review, update and test your plan annually or as needed. Some of the best DR plans go up in smoke during a disaster because they're outdated. Use the time set aside for updates to ensure that employees understand the plan’s directives. Store copies of the plan off-site to ensure safekeeping. The NCUA also encourages an independent audit of your Disaster Recovery plan, to review, test and ensure the accuracy of your plans each year.