Community banks and credit unions are entering 2026 with more opportunity than ever to shape how customers and members experience their brand. Expectations are rising, but so is the potential for marketing teams to create more consistent engagement across every channel. With the right strategy in place, marketing becomes one of the most powerful drivers of loyalty and growth.
The Element Group believes marketers have the chance to build on the same principles that are reshaping branch design, training, and customer experience. A retail mindset reminds us that people respond to open communication that feels personal rather than transactional. When marketing applies these ideas, it presents the brand with the same intention that customers and members feel in the branch.
The opportunity in 2026 is not about reinventing your approach. It is about executing with purpose and discipline (fight the urge to chase the shiny objects). When marketing, retail, IT, and branch employees work from a unified strategy, customers and members experience a brand that understands them, anticipates their needs, and communicates with clarity.
Our goal in this post is to highlight the key strategies we believe should be included in your 2026 marketing plan.
Fundamentals Still Matter
Even with the rise of AI, community banks and credit unions should continue to rely on proven marketing tactics.
1. Optimize Local Search Visibility
Marketing teams need to ensure every branch appears accurately and consistently in local search results. Updated business profiles across Google, Bing, Apple, and social platforms make it easy for people to find the branch. Additional local SEO optimization on your website can further improve visibility.
For small teams with multiple locations, two ways to manage third-party listings at scale include:
- Using a third-party tool to update your entire network’s listings, including holiday hours.
- Creating an automated workflow that requests reviews and helps drive four and five-star reviews to your listings pages.
2. Consistent Monthly Reporting on KPIs
Marketers who report and analyze KPIs on a predictable schedule gain a clearer picture of what is working and where gaps exist. Monthly reporting allows teams to make small adjustments before they become larger issues. It also gives retail teams clearer guidance on which messages to reinforce in the branch.
When our team works with clients, we aim to connect marketing activities back to leads, in-branch traffic, new accounts, account growth, and NPS. It’s not always possible to capture every data point, but we consistently work toward this level of reporting to define ROI and make smarter decisions around time and budget.
3. Leverage Your Target Audience Across Ad Platforms
Defining your audience is table stakes. In 2026, leaders should move beyond audience definition and actively leverage audience segments across paid platforms.
By feeding audience data into predictive AI models across Google, social channels, and YouTube, platforms can extend ad reach by identifying lookalike users with higher intent. Marketers who adopt this approach create more efficient acquisition paths and gain an advantage as organic search traffic continues to decline.
4. Direct Mail Is Back (what’s old is new again)
Direct mail has seen a resurgence, and we expect that momentum to continue into 2026. Mailers give marketers a way to target highly specific audiences and drive measurable branch traffic. Combined with relatively low production costs, direct mail remains a dependable workhorse.
When using direct mail, Element recommends driving recipients into branches. Rewards and giveaways create a reason to act and increase foot traffic, where staff can showcase their trusted advisory skills.
Where Marketers Are Seeing Results With AI
AI adoption can feel overwhelming, especially with the volume of tools and use cases available.
5. Focus on Low-Effort, High-Impact AI Opportunities
We evaluate AI opportunities using a simple quadrant, with effort on the y-axis and impact on the x-axis. The goal is to prioritize high-impact, low-effort work that moves the needle quickly. Our top ten are :
- Competitor research and positioning
- Brainstorming rough ideas into campaign briefs
- Summarizing and extracting themes from customer and subject matter expert interviews
- Generating multiple options for headlines, ad copy, CTAs, and emails
- Repurposing long-form content into email, social, and paid media formats
- Rewriting content for different personas
- Drafting first-pass blog posts or landing page copy
- Refreshing and optimizing existing content
- Generating social post variations
- Drafting sales enablement copy and talk tracks
6. Use Existing Member and Customer Data to Predict Opportunities
Data-led marketing sharpens targeting and improves campaign performance. By leveraging existing customer data, marketing teams can better segment audiences and align campaigns to real needs.
Use cases include:
- Churn prediction with triggered retention offers
- Cross-sell prompts that guide employee conversations
- Automated NPS reporting to highlight service gaps
- Behavior-based messaging flows in chat and digital channels
7. Optimize Location Pages for LLM Search Results
The SEO community has strong data showing how LLMs like ChatGPT are using search engines to find answers. One key takeaway for banks and credit unions is that these tools often apply local modifiers when creating answers.
For example, when searching, “find me a credit union that offers personal car loans,” at Element’s Portsmouth HQ, we see ChatGPT query
- Portsmouth NH credit union car loans
- credit unions near Portsmouth NH that offer personal car loans
- credit union auto loans Portsmouth NH
Institutions can leverage this type of knowledge by optimizing their third-party listings (see tactic #1) and having individually optimized branch location pages on their website.
What’s Rising in 2026: Executing a Retail Mindset
8. Reframe Tellers as Trusted Advisors
The evolving role of the bank teller can serve as a great marketing tool for banks and credit unions. With the adoption of self-service options, such as Interactive Teller Machines (ITMs), now is the time for traditional tellers to evolve into financial trusted advisors.
As clients can now handle many routine transactions independently, employees can dedicate more time to connecting with their customers and members. This enables them to educate clients and improve their financial literacy and situation through various financial products and services.
To help tellers transition into advocate roles, banks and credit unions should establish training programs that teach employees how to communicate with customers and members in a more personalized manner. Training should emphasize the need for agents to be proactive rather than reactive in their interactions with visitors, providing helpful suggestions without being prompted. Additionally, employees should be educated on all available products and services and understand when cross-selling is appropriate.
9. Invest in Higher-End Promotional Merchandise
Promotional marketing remains an effective way to build brand awareness, but the approach has shifted. Institutions are moving from quantity-driven tactics to higher-quality items that reflect the brand experience.
Common applications include:
- Apparel such as outerwear, performance wear, and polos
- Personalized gifts tied to life events, such as first-time homebuyer kits
- Customized branded items like mugs, bottles, and bags
- Employee uniforms that reinforce pride and professionalism
We are seeing increased interest in recognizable consumer brands, including Yeti, Hydro Flask, Carhartt, and The North Face.
10. Acquire Gen Z With Intentional Experiences
Gen Z is more difficult to reach than previous generations, which makes early strategy critical. In conversations with marketing interns Kate Long and Hannah Ritchie, both emphasized the importance of modern technology, mobile excellence, and personalization.
Kate says, “Institutions need to prioritize digital experiences that build trust. This means creating engaging content and maintaining an active online presence. Gen Z expects fast mobile service, a smooth user experience and consistent engagement on social media. Personalized digital interactions help institutions stay relevant and attract Gen Z.”
Hannah says, “With digital signage, consider making it interactive. If it catches someone’s eye while waiting around and they realize it’s interactive, that visitor is going to be more likely to read and engage with the content as opposed to standard signage. This is a great tactic to use on Gen Z because many have a short attention span, so if they’re standing inside your branch waiting around staring at blank walls, they’re going to be unengaged and dissatisfied. The bottom line: be sure to engage customers and members of Gen Z, and for those who can’t be swayed to walk into your physical branch, give them an incentive to do so through promotional offers and giveaways. You’ll have a better chance at getting them to come in and engage with them face to face!”
Emphasize Local Identity and Community Roots
11. Community Institutions Win Where Big Banks Cannot
Hyperlocal storytelling helps customers and members feel understood. Authentic stories connect marketing efforts to real community moments and reinforce credibility.
Effective approaches include:
- Partnerships with schools, nonprofits, and local programs
- Mission- and values-based content
- Branch teams must understand what makes the community unique, so the marketing stays authentic
- Member and small business spotlights
12. Strengthen Retention and Loyalty Through Recognition
Retention grows when customers and members feel seen. Recognition should be a deliberate part of the experience.
Tactics include:
- Smart re-engagement nudges and loyalty rewards
- Community impact updates that show real outcomes
- Monthly member spotlights
- Customer features that highlight achievements
Financial Literacy Content
13. Drive Attention With Social Media Content
Digital content builds authority and supports customers at every stage of their financial journey. Focus areas include:
- Viral trends and audio that align with the brand
- Short educational videos and interactive tools
- Webinars and workshops
- Financial FAQs
- Consistent social media activity
- Personalized mobile advertising
- Omnichannel integration within retail campaigns
- Seasonal content such as back-to-school education
Filling a content calendar can be a daunting task, we’ve put together a list of 50 ideas in our Social Media Guide for Banks and Credit Unions.
14. Education as a Differentiator
General financial literacy isn’t a differentiator, but showing customers and members how you are working within their community is the way to stand out. We really like this message from Forrit’s CEO – https://www.linkedin.com/posts/forrit-credit-union_forritcu-creditunion-financialsupport-activity-7318355980709150721-IJwr.
Educational content builds trust and positions staff as trusted advisors (see tactic #8). Effective formats include:
- Financial topics explained through local context
- Webinars, workshops, and in-person events
- CEO Q&As and event spotlights
Institutions do not need to start from scratch. Trusted resources such as
can serve as a foundation, then be customized to reflect local needs.
Here’s to a Successful 2026
The strongest marketing plans balance fundamentals with forward-looking execution. That includes disciplined reporting, practical AI adoption, and executing a retail mindset that shows up in-branch, online, and in the community.
For CMOs, success is not about chasing every new tactic. It is about choosing the right ones, executing them well, and building systems that compound over time. Institutions that do this will not only keep pace in 2026, but they will define what modern community banking looks like.