Introduction: Data Is the Missing Link
Indirect lending brings members through your doors. But without data-driven follow-up, most of these new relationships stay shallow and transactional.
Credit unions that leverage smart data analytics can predict needs, personalize engagement, and turn one-time borrowers into multi-product, loyal members.
Here’s how you can unlock the hidden power in your indirect loan portfolio—and drive real, lasting growth.
✅ Tip: Automate and scale smarter engagement with Ostrich’s Personalized Marketing.
1. Track the Right Data from Day One
🎯 The Foundation of Member Growth
Every indirect channel provides you important contextual data that should be used to create a better onboarding experience. Credit unions are known for relationship banking and having personal connections to their members. It’s no different for members who come through an indirect channel.
For example, the onboarding experience should be tailored to the member. When a new auto loan member buys a new car from a name brand dealership versus buying a used car from a used car dealership, you can start to contextualize the onboarding experience. How you engage a new member from indirect channels in each situation can be the difference between an engaged member or a disengaged member.
✅ Critical Data Points:
- Loan type, amount, and term
- Member age and life stage
- Dealership or origination source
- Asset type (used vs new)
- Digital engagement (app downloads, logins)
- Savings/checking account status
- Participation in financial wellness programs
💡 Insight: Credit unions that track engagement data early see a 35% higher cross-sell success rate than those that wait until year-end (Filene Research Institute).
✅ Tip: Tag new indirect members with “loan-only” flags in your CRM to trigger personalized journeys immediately.
2. Segment Indirect Members Intelligently
🎯 Not All Borrowers Are the Same
Credit unions understand the different types of members that walk through their doors everyday. But, do you have those types segmented properly or is that data solely with the tellers and front line staff? Segmentation is critical in order to properly engage new indirect members.
Creating personas and needs based on your existing member pool is a great place to start. It will make it easier for your employees to better serve members. Rather than simply promoting whatever product or service is being incentivized you can contextualize and better predict the needs of your members.
If you’re not sure where to start, Ostrich’s financial health score and lead scoring can help you understand your members and how to personalize their experience.
✅ Sample Segments:
- “Auto Loan, Under Age 30”
- “Auto Loan, No Mobile App Registration”
- “Boat/RV Loan, High Net Worth”
- “Single Product, First-Time Borrower”
💡 Real-World Example: A Midwest credit union segmented indirect members by life stage and offered customized savings challenges, boosting deposit product adoption by 19%.
✅ Tip: Prioritize 1–2 segments at launch, then expand.
3. Build Predictive Engagement Models
🎯 Go Beyond “Spray and Pray” Marketing
Members acquired through indirect lending channels don’t have to be disengaged. One way to surely end up with members ignoring your outreach is to simply “spray and pray.” Sending generic messages to all members about whatever promotion is going on this month is a sure fire way to end up ignored and devalue your relationship. Just like when a member walks into a branch, your tellers don’t greet them as “member” they use their name, spray and pray marketing will devalue your relationship with your members.
Instead use predictive engagement models that look at a combination of product usage data, demographic data, and financial health data to personalize the experience for members. If someone has a credit building loan coming to maturity, it’s a good time to revisit the credit product they were seeking or help them continue building credit.
✅ Behavioral Triggers to Watch:
- No mobile app login within 30 days → Send “Get Started Guide”
- First successful loan payment → Offer savings account bonus
- Near loan maturity → Prequalify for next loan or mortgage
- Poor credit score → Credit building loan
💡 Proof Point: Institutions using predictive engagement saw a 23% increase in multi-product members within one year (Raddon Research).
✅ Tip: Start with simple rules-based triggers if full AI predictive modeling isn’t feasible yet.
4. Personalize Cross-Sell and Upsell Offers
🎯 Make Every Offer Feel Tailored
Good cross-sell offers make members feel seen. When a member feels like your credit union is going out of their way to help them, it generates trust. That is what great cross-sell and upsell offers feel like. Indirect lending members are valuable but too easy to blast with generic cross sell offers. Being smart about personalization is key to get them engaged with other products at your credit union.
Ostrich uses a financial health score that gives the member a sense of where they are financially and then enables credit unions to utilize that data on the backend to personalize cross sell efforts. The impact is a better member experience and higher product utilization from indirect lending channels.
✅ Examples:
- Auto loan borrower? Offer a credit card with auto rewards.
- First-time buyer? Promote first-home savings plans.
- Retiree auto loan? Offer wealth management consultations.
💡 Example: BECU personalized loan refinancing and credit card promotions post-auto loan and saw a 22% lift in product penetration.
✅ Tip: Layer personalization into email subject lines, SMS offers, and app push notifications.
5. Measure Member Growth Metrics Consistently
🎯 What Gets Measured, Gets Improved
Too many credit unions fail to measure key member engagement and growth metrics. Sure they are buried somewhere deep in the core, but few measure these key metrics in a meaningful way. For example, Chime which targets lower income consumers and competes with younger credit unions puts a focus on direct deposit in the first 30 days. They have learned that capturing direct deposit for new members (yes they use the term members just like credit unions…) is the most important predictor of an engaged member. Credit unions need to identify which growth and engagement metrics are most important to their organization and put a focus on that metric with indirect lending channels.
✅ Key Metrics:
- Secondary product adoption within first 90 days
- Digital banking adoption rate
- Direct deposit
- Member referral rates
- Loan renewal and refinance rates
💡 Pro Insight: Filene Research shows that tracking member engagement KPIs quarterly correlates with 8–15% higher retention rates.
✅ Tip: Create a “New Indirect Member Scorecard” and review results monthly.
Conclusion: Data Turns Transactions Into Relationships
Indirect lending doesn’t have to mean shallow relationships. Nor does it mean getting away from the core values of your credit union.
By tracking smarter, segmenting intentionally, predicting behavior, and personalizing engagement, credit unions can transform loan-only members into multi-product champions.
Ready to build a data-driven member growth engine? Explore Ostrich’s Member Engagement Solutions and start today. 🚀
