Most credit unions have a layer of members who joined for a single reason, often an indirect auto loan or a promotional rate, and never went further. The account is open, the balance is minimal, and nothing moves. These members already passed eligibility, already have a relationship, and already know your name. They are worth a campaign of their own.
Define what dormant means
Work with operations and compliance on a definition. Marketing inactivity, such as no transactions in a set number of months, is different from legal dormancy under state unclaimed property rules. Your campaign is aimed at the first group, ideally well before they become the second.
Segment by how they arrived
- Indirect loan members may not realize they belong to a credit union at all. Start by introducing yourself.
- Single-service savers opened an account and kept their checking elsewhere.
- Lapsed active members used to transact regularly and stopped. Something changed: a move, a new job, a bad experience.
Each group needs a different message. One generic we miss you email will not work for all three.
Find out why
A short survey or a round of outbound calls to a sample of inactive members is inexpensive and revealing. You may discover a fixable problem, such as a clumsy app enrollment process, that no campaign could overcome.
Give them a reason and make it easy
Lead with something useful to that segment: a checking account that beats what they have, a refinance offer, a better savings rate, or simply a reminder of what membership includes. Then remove friction. Link directly to digital banking enrollment, offer help switching direct deposit, and keep the ask to one step.
Use more than one channel
Email alone will miss people whose addresses are out of date, which is common in this group. Combine email with direct mail, digital banking messages, and outbound calls for higher-value segments. Follow your consent and contact rules for each channel.
Measure, then prevent
Track reactivation as real behavior: a login, a transaction, a direct deposit, a new product. Then take what you learn upstream. The best dormant-member program is an onboarding program that keeps new members from going quiet in the first place.
Space One Media is a full-service creative agency built for credit unions. If this is on your list for the year, book a discovery call and we will talk through where your members are going.