A regional credit union based in Oklahoma approached Leadline Marketing with a clear outcome: increase awareness and drive signups for a new checking account designed for individuals early in their financial journeys.

Building on prior success in lowering the average age of its membership, the credit union now sought to deepen its community presence in the Tulsa region by positioning itself as a welcoming, trusted financial guide.

The primary performance target was simple: generate at least 50 new checking account applications.

Strategic Approach

To achieve this outcome, Leadline recommended a multi-channel digital marketing campaign, built to emotionally and practically resonate with the target audience.

1. Ad Campaigns With Accessible Messaging and Visual Clarity

We launched a series of paid media ads across key channels, centered around clear, compelling messaging and intuitive calls to action.

Our creative strategy included:

• Conversational language that broke down complex financial terms.
  
• Direct value propositions, such as:
  
  • “Start your path to financial freedom.”
    
  • “Open your checking account and start your money journey today.”
    
• Bright, friendly graphics and a youthful color palette reinforce an approachable, modern brand image.

These ads clearly articulated the account’s benefits, such as mobile banking, low fees, and local community support, while building brand affinity that resonated with consumers in Tulsa.

2. Influencer Partnerships to Build Local Trust

To extend reach and build trust, we launched an influencer marketing campaign with popular Tulsa-based content creators.

Key goals of this initiative:

• Humanize the brand with trusted, relatable faces from the community.
  
• Create authentic lifestyle content that subtly integrates financial education and account benefits.
  
• Drive engagement through localized storytelling, aligning the credit union with Tulsa’s community values.
  

By empowering influencers to act as storytellers (not spokespeople), we enabled a more organic, peer-to-peer connection with the audience.

3. Retargeting to Shorten the Customer Journey

Finally, we implemented a retargeting campaign aimed at re-engaging potential customers who had previously visited the credit union’s website or engaged with ads but had not yet converted.

This strategy helped us:

• Stay top-of-mind during the consideration phase.

Accelerate decision-making by reminding users of key checking account benefits at high-conversion moments.

Results

In a short time after the campaign launch, the initiative surpassed its original goal, generating a significant increase in new checking account applications—a clear sign of message-market fit and channel effectiveness.The campaign continues to drive consistent application volume even with a reduced budget after the initial period, helping the credit union solidify its presence as a trusted, community-focused financial institution for the next generation of account holders.

Why This Strategy Works for Community Banking

For credit unions and community banks in Oklahoma and beyond, this campaign provides a proven blueprint:

• Leverage clear messaging and localized trust-building.
  
• Position the checking account as part of a broader financial journey, not just a transactional product.
  
• Tap into modern marketing channels that meet consumers where they are—online and in their communities.
  

If you’re looking to grow account signups and engage potential members, this scalable, repeatable multi-channel approach delivers measurable outcomes.

Social media offers so many benefits to retail marketing (especially food and beverage/hospitality) that it’s hard to imagine a modern restaurant, hotel, boutique or even chain store without a robust social media presence.

Keeping customers engaged and excited to return to your business for months and even years on end may sound unrealistic. Still, social media has not only made it happen but also increased its relevance with the advent of influencer marketing—especially for retail and hospitality.

People tend to do two things when weighing many options:  a) remember the businesses with the most resonant branding and b) turn to the recommendations of those they trust—in lieu of friends/family, they turn to content creators on social media.

Retail Branding for Resonance

Branding for competitive markets like retail, food service, and hospitality hinges on successfully:

• Sharing that story in the right channels

• Telling a good brand story

Gone are the days when a restaurant, hotel, or service provider could generate enough business on word-of-mouth reputation and a few billboards around town. Modern customers spend their time and money on brands they want to associate with—those whose stories resonate.

How does a restaurant or hotel tell a good story? The human faces and history behind how a business came to be is a great place to start. Crafting and communicating an organization’s “why” is the secret to differentiating a brand and attracting customers who will return and recommend your brand to others.

Using this “why” to relate to current specials, products, or events puts the story element into every aspect of your business and opens up creative avenues for differentiating yourself further.

Real-World Example

Summit Club of Tulsa (The Summit) came to Leadline wanting to increase club usage among their members. We built a strategy around replicating the “in-person” club experience on social media—publishing high-quality content highlighting weekly events and menus to create an “I don’t want to miss that” feeling in followers.

Leadline established four content pillars around lifestyle, club events, food & beverage, and club history to immediately improve social media engagement and increase club attendance, reservations and event booking as a longer-term goal. We published curated content to their social media accounts three times a week, balancing the four content pillars.

The Summit’s immediate and long-term goals were achieved so successfully that our client invested in their long-term social media marketing and continues to build on our successful strategy.

The Power of Influencers and Reviews

As mentioned above, resonant branding will get you noticed, but the recommendations/reviews of real people are what bring in new customers and make them advocates for your business.

This is why social media marketing, influencer marketing, search engine optimization, and attention to Google business reviews are all tried-and-true tactics we usually include in a marketing strategy for retail clients. We’ve all asked a knowledgeable friend or family member to recommend spots to visit in a new city—if they don’t know, Google business reviews or the recommendation of a content creator we trust are the next best thing.

Influencer marketing is so effective because an influencer’s own niche or brand acts as an audience filter for marketers. The influencer already has an engaged audience of specific demographics and tastes; if they publish content framing your business or service as a great experience, expect a noticeable uptick in business.

For real-world examples of Leadline’s success with influencer marketing, check this blog or contact us today to see how we can tell your brand story online.

A Leadline client needed a strong recruitment campaign to meet growth objectives and tap into major sales opportunities.

Campaign Overview

A national realty company specializing in recreational, farming and ranching land came to Leadline needing more Land Agents—they had already identified exponential growth opportunities in the ten states they serve but could only realize them with more Land Agents on staff. 

Leadline developed a data-driven strategy leveraging excellent content/messaging and precise audience targeting to position our client as an ideal employer in front of the right audiences. After implementing our solutions, the client received more qualified applicants in the first week than they had in the previous six months combined.

The Challenge

As a fast-growing realty group in a niche market, our client was ready to expand its business; all it needed was more qualified land agents to broker transactions. Our client needed uniquely qualified candidates knowledgeable in land management with a knack for sales and a love of the outdoors.

The Solution

The Leadline team started by reviewing our client’s data and cross-referencing it with our own market research. From there, we built a winning strategy and deployed a multi-channel paid campaign to drive traffic to a custom landing page. Applicants could submit their information or proceed to the client’s full website to learn more.

Strategy + Marketing Intelligence

After a thorough audit and client data review, the Leadline team conducted interviews and research to define exactly what makes a successful Land Agent for our client. Combining all our insights, Leadline developed a strong paid campaign strategy with well-targeted audience personas.

Creative + Brand Development

To deliver the right message to the right audience, we developed top-tier video content illustrating Land Agent work in a compelling, captivating way. Videos were distributed in multi-channel ads targeted to specific audience personas, driving traffic to a custom landing page.

Performance Marketing

Building on our client’s previous advertising data, we were able to track and optimize this recruitment campaign for more qualified applicants, treating an application submission as “conversion” in the customer journey.

The Outcomes

Our client saw an immediate uptick in applications—more in one week than the previous six months combined.