Westerra_
Chief Marketing Officer
I joined Westerra Credit Union in September of 2019 as Chief Marketing Officer, part of a new executive leadership team tasked with a full digital transformation of the company. As CMO, my strategic priority was pretty straightforward: modernize the brand in all aspects. That, of course, meant updating the brand identity, look, feel, tone and voice, but it also went much deeper than that, to co-leading and/or supporting other strategic priorities such as re-energizing the culture, diversifying revenue sources, improving business capabilities, and attracting new credit union members and deepening relationships with existing members.
This was an incredible journey and learning experience as a marketing professional, especially in the midst of a global pandemic. I could probably talk for hours about the magic that is created when a group of smart, passionate people work together in service of something they believe in. The challenges and opportunities, the flow of ideas, the accomplishments, and even the mistakes. What follows are the most noteworthy contributions my team and I made to Westerra’s transformation and the impacts those contributions made on the brand, company, and business.
Built In-House Marketing Team
When I arrived at Westerra, the marketing team consisted of mostly generalists, few of whom had deep knowledge of creative concepts, digital marketing, social media, or marketing analytics. My first order of business was to build a new team with a mix of people from inside and outside the financial services industry who were experts in their disciplines. Having started my own ad agency, this was not new territory for me and my extensive network of marketing and advertising talent made assembling this new team much easier than it might have otherwise been.
Key Results:
Within ten months, we assembled a results-focused team of top notch creative talent, digital marketing, performance media, CRM, social media strategy and management, marketing analytics, UX design, community relations and corporate communications. Ours was a hybrid model that worked with outside agency resources for larger brand initiatives and focused in-house resources on day-to-day, quick-turnaround support for retail operations, mortgage, talent & development and other stakeholders.
Established Marketing ROI and Improved Business Capabilities
Westerra had almost no structures in place to track or measure the effectiveness of our marketing and advertising when I took the reigns. My first hire was a performance marketing and media expert who immediately went to work building out these structures, working with our Finance team to establish Marketing ROI. Working with our Chief Digital Officer, I co-led a SalesForce implementation (Marketing Cloud and Financial Services Cloud), which was an invaluable learning experience on many levels. My team also supported our digital team with UX design on our new 5-minute online account opening platform and designed and launched a new digital-first spending account to coincide with our new brand. Our marketing team also supported Talent & Development and Operations with change management communications on these implementations, as well as supported our Chief Lending Officer in building our previously non-existent, dedicated mortgage practice.
Key Results:
Established Marketing ROI of 267% over four years. Introduced new deposit account product that increased checking account openings by 38% over three years. Successfully implemented SalesForce Marketing Cloud with email open rates 27% higher than previous platform and beat industry open rate benchmark by 18%. Tripled click-to-open rates of previous platform and doubled industry click-to-open rate benchmark. Contributed to growth of real estate loans from $139 million to $683 million and consumer loans from $30 million to $200 million.
Re-energized Westerra’s Culture
For any company to be sustainably successful, it must have a healthy, thriving culture. And no company can take on a large-scale transformation and rebrand with an indifferent, marginally engaged staff. I co-led the effort to reimagine Westerra’s purpose, vision, mission, and values with our CEO and other the Chiefs. I was in charge of articulating these foundational beliefs, and designing and delivering them in a way that would inspire and engage our staff. I worked with our Chief People Officer and Chief Lending Officer to craft our consultative service and sales strategy and cultural tenets. Additionally, my marketing team supported our Talent & Development team with change management communications, new branded swag, and engagement ideas.
Key Results:
In three years, Westerra went from the 45th to 69th percentile of Gallup’s Employee Engagement Platform in our peer group. We increased the ratio of engaged to disengaged team members from 2.5 to 1 to 16.25 to 1. Increased Gallup Q8 Survey score (The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important.) from 3.64 to 4.29.
Modernized Westerra’s Brand Identity
Westerra was founded as the Denver Public Schools Credit Union in 1934. Over the next 7 decades, the DPSCU would merge in credit unions from other school districts and later, from other industries such as Safeway Rocky Mountain Credit Union, Gateway Credit Union, and Sheetmetal Workers #9 Credit Union. With this diversification, DPSCU changed its name to Westerra in 2006. The brand had not been revisited since then when I arrived in 2019. Working with our Creative Director, we led a full brand identity creative exploration that included a new logo design, brand colors (working directly with Pantone), brand guidelines, and focus group feedback from members and non-members.
Key Results:
Created a new, modern brand identity and color palette that communicated something fresh, new, and vibrant was coming to the brand. Post-launch brand awareness study showed brand momentum score increased 15%, helping make Westerra the second most recognized credit union brand in the Denver metro area despite being the sixth largest credit union in the market.
Improved Retail Delivery and
Introduced New Branch Model
One of my responsibilities as Chief Marketing Officer was leading our contact center, something I had never done before. When I arrived at Westerra, the morale in our contact center was exceedingly low, and our performance reflected that. During my leadership, we completely transformed our contact center to be one of the most engaged and highest-performing teams in the company. I was later given responsibility for our branch network with the goal of transforming it as well. This not only involved engaging our retail delivery staff, but also introducing a new branch model that focused on moving basic transactions to self-service, while freeing up retail staff to engage in deeper, more meaningful conversations with members. This also meant an entirely new branch interior redesign that will serve as a model for future branch openings and relocations.
