3 Mistakes That Will Derail Your Credit Union's Marketing Goals in 2025
2025 is the year to make honest content a priority in your credit union marketing.
If your marketing strategies do not include actions that promote authenticity, transparency, and honesty, you are placing your credit union behind the 8-ball. In this article, we’ll examine strategies to leverage 2025 consumer marketing trends, from unfussy video and audio content that caters to how younger generations consumer media, to clear marketing messaging, to photography that represents your credit union authentically. Join us as we:
Walk through three major mistakes your credit union could be making this year.
Share the stats behind our reasoning.
Provide examples and recommendations to set your credit union up for success.
Mistake 1: Vague or Inauthentic Messaging
If your marketing messaging – like your headlines, ads, and email subject lines – aren’t clear and potentially make promises you can’t keep, now is the time to critique them. Qualtrics, an international marketing and customer data giants, has reported on the importance of building trust among consumers in 2025. Their 2025 Consumer Trends Report reveals that “trust in the information provided” is the number one priority for customers when interacting with companies in ’25. 61% of almost 24,000 consumers responded that having trust in the information they get from the companies they do business with, beating out historically strong predictors in satisfaction, like convenience (44%) and enjoyment of experience (15%).
Consumers are hyper-sensitive to misinformation right now and want to be able to trust who they do business with, above all else. The rise in scammers, fake media, AI-generated content, and bots has created a gap in trust that credit unions must recognize. Vague phrases like “Quick and easy account opening,” and “We have happy members!” should be retired.
Now is the time to leverage your impressive customer service and “people helping people” values throughout your marketing mix.
Map out what you can guarantee to do best within your organization, and shout it from the rooftops.
Share your member satisfaction scores widely across your marketing channels.
Promote what dividends are and why you are able to offer them.
Explain the difference between a credit union and a bank in simple, easy-to-understand language.
Invest in honest, realistic educational tools that your members can use.
👉 If you’d like to learn more about creating messages that speak your members’ language, check out our video with Abby Trauth, Director of Partnerships & Education at the Louisiana Credit Union League.
Mistake 2. Lack of Video and Multimedia in Your Content Strategy
Marketing CRM Leader Hubspot reveals in their 2025 State of Marketing Report that for both B2B and B2C brands, the top performing content format in 2024 was short-form video. What’s more, Millennials and Gen Z prefer a varied multimedia experience from the organizations they do business with, consuming podcasts, long- and short-form videos, streaming videos, and blogs.
If your credit union lacks a multimedia strategy for content marketing, you are missing out on producing content that speaks to the preferences of two valuable generations of consumers. It can seem overwhelming to create a strategy that includes so many different forms of media, especially with most credit union marketers are “wearers of many hats,” but the good news is that the same buyers who crave a multimedia experience care less about how polished your content is. In 2024, 63% of consumers preferred authenticity and transparency to the 37% who prefer a professional, high-production look (source).
Hubspot’s 2025 State of Marketing Report also shows which media formats organizations are utilizing. You’ll see a fascinating mix of media, including both traditional (images, blogs) and trendy (short-form videos, streaming videos, user-generated content). Another interesting stat that was gleaned from this report is the Millennial Generation’s preference toward subscription-based media. Consider newsletters, special content, and other gated content to attract this group.
👉For a deeper dive into creating content that is authentic and supports your unique values, check out our article on Differentiators and Social Proof.
Using Poor Stock Photography
One of the most pervasive marketing mistakes we see credit unions make is incorporating dated, inauthentic stock photography into their designs. Even the largest credit unions fall victim to bad, cringe-worthy, and out-of-touch stock photography. What seems like a relatively minor component of your overall creative strategy can have more dire consequences to your brand reputation than you might think.
The old saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” has never been truer. Humans can process images 60,000 times faster than text (source: 3M). If your credit union’s photography has dated elements, like technology and clothing, your organization will immediately be perceived as dated as well. It's easy to forget how quickly some things fall out of trend. Take laptops and phones for example: the decay rate on these gadgets is about 5 years. The cut of suits and the style of shoes are another.
A fascinating photography study from Cornell shows how consumers react to stock photos, real-life but low-quality photos, and real-life professional photos. The stock photos create a “trust gap” in the buyer’s mind. For an interesting exercise, take a look at a few images credit unions that have contemporary stock photos and custom photos as see for yourself how appealing they are.
Conducting a photography audit once a year is a great habit to prevent outdated stock photography from lingering. Sort through all the photos that exist in your digital presence, including webpages, social media profile banners, print collateral, and vendor marketing.
👉 If you’d like to learn more about credit union stock photography practices and how to use Google Lens to research your photos, check out our deeper-dive article here.
