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Every year, Google Marketing Live (GML) unveils a host of new ad tools and AI-driven capabilities. While the announcements sound exciting - keywordless targeting, smarter automation, and new AI assistants - marketers at credit unions need to approach them with a critical eye. At WebStrategies, we specialize in digital advertising for credit unions, and we’ve learned that Google’s “default” solutions often optimize for media spend rather than meaningful credit union results. Rather than jumping in headfirst, we’re taking a cautious, data-driven approach, testing what’s new, measuring what works, and scaling only what delivers. Here’s a breakdown of what we’re watching and how credit unions can benefit responsibly.

Last Month at the Financial Brand Conference (April 2025), Sean Payant, Chief Strategy Officer at Haberfeld, delivered a powerful challenge to credit union leaders: Stop letting outdated assumptions limit your growth potential. His session, "Overcoming Strategic Contradictions in the Banking C-Suite", exposed several internal beliefs that sound smart on the surface, but in reality, hold credit unions back from achieving sustainable, meaningful growth.

I’ve worked in digital marketing since 2007, and I’ve never seen a technology disrupt the way we do marketing as quickly as AI. The latest innovation, which is flying under the radar, may be one of the biggest steps forward we’ve seen since the launch of ChatGPT. It’s called MCP. So what is MCP? And why should credit union marketers care? Let’s break down what it is, what it can do, and why it makes tools like HubSpot more important than ever for a credit union.

Back in February, we shared a detailed breakdown of Google’s AI Overviews and how they were affecting search visibility for credit unions. That blog gave marketers a baseline understanding of how often these AI-generated summaries appear in the SERPs, and what you can do to appear in them. Now, after three more months of tracking, we’re back with new data, refined insights, and a clearer understanding of how credit unions can win in this evolving SEO landscape. 📌 Didn’t read the original post? Catch up here

One of the most impactful sessions at the Financial Brand Conference (April 2025) was led by Sean Payant, Chief Strategy Officer at Haberfeld. His session, Overcoming Strategic Contradictions in the Banking C-Suite, zeroed in on a critical growth opportunity for credit unions: earning and growing the Primary Financial Institution (PFI) relationship. Here’s why that matters more than ever and how your credit union can win that spot.

The Financial Brand Conference (April 2025) provided powerful insights into the evolving definition of "community" and its implications for credit unions today. One session that really stood out was, "What Will Save Community Banking?" led by Jean-Pierre Lacroix, President of SLD (Shikatani Lacroix Design). He offered research-backed guidance that every credit union leader needs to hear. Here's what we learned, and why credit unions are uniquely positioned to thrive.

After covering the most frequently asked questions in Part 1, this post dives into deeper use cases and often overlooked capabilities in HubSpot that credit unions can take advantage of.

Many credit unions are exploring HubSpot to modernize their marketing, enhance member experiences, and unify siloed data. So naturally, there will be lot of questions, especially around integration, tracking, and security. We’ve gathered the most frequently asked questions from real conversations with credit unions and our HubSpot implementation team.

Credit unions thrive on relationships. Whether you're trying to improve the onboarding experience, understand why members close accounts, or measure satisfaction after a loan closes, the only way to truly know how you're doing is to ask.

Email automation can be one of the most powerful tools in a Credit Union marketer’s toolkit. When used strategically, it not only improves engagement, but also enhances the member experience, drives conversions, and strengthens relationships over time. To help you visualize what’s possible, we’ve broken down automation ideas into three key stages of the member journey: Lead Generation, Member Experience, and Promoter Engagement. These examples are based on real workflows we’ve implemented using HubSpot for Credit Unions. Each section below includes a quick explanation and a table of workflow ideas you can adapt for your credit union.