Brand awareness and effective marketing are crucial elements of growth for every organization, including credit unions. But staying on top of the latest trends and strategies can be challenging, especially as consumer expectations and technologies evolve at lightning speeds.

As we enter the new year, the industry will certainly see many new marketing approaches emerge, but credit unions should pay particular attention to these three: voice search, lead nurturing programs and chatbots.

1. Voice Search the Death of SEO

Devices like Amazon’s Echo are no longer luxury products—they’ve quickly become mainstream in American homes. Nearly a quarter of all U.S. households own a smart speaker, according to a study from Nielsen, and a report from OC&C Strategy Consultants projects this to rise to over 50% by 2022. Additionally, 65% of people who own an Amazon Echo or Google Home can’t imagine going back to the days before they had a smart speaker, according to GeoMarketing.

With such a sharp and rapid rise in this trend, some are now speculating that voice search will be the death of SEO as we know it. Perhaps not, but it is clear that the way consumers find products or information is changing, with some projections estimating that as much as 50% of searches will happen on voice-activated devices by 2020 (this year!), according to comScore.

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