It’s Here! Take a Peek at VSECU’s Brand New Website

We are thrilled to unveil VSECU’s new website, over a year in the making! VSECU is a values-based financial cooperative that aims to improve the quality of life for all Vermonters. Founded in 1947, it is now the second-largest credit union in Vermont and is a leader in sustainable and renewable energy lending in Vermont and New England.

The VSECU project aimed to: 1) Communicate VSECU’s unique impact to strengthen its emotional connection with members, 2) Facilitate the heavy lifting of conversions, and 3) Create a targeted and personalized experience to meet the goals of its wide-ranging audiences.

Leading with purpose

Instead of leading with products, VSECU’s new website leads with values and impact. The first section in its main navigation is “Empowering You” with a category focused on “People Helping People.” Its new homepage leads with an invitation to “join the movement,” and a robust “Why VSECU?” page further outlines the ways in which the credit union fuels impact, its results by the numbers, and the cooperative and values-based banking principles.

Optimized for conversion

An emotional connection is critical, but so are conversions. All of VSECU’s product pages are carefully written and designed to direct visitors toward the next step, whether that be opening an account, applying for a mortgage loan, or scheduling a retirement planning consultation. An integrated appointment scheduling tool lets visitors automatically book phone, video, or in-person appointments to learn more about a given product or service. PixelSpoke also designed a flexible landing page template to drive conversions from top-of-the-funnel campaigns.

Targeted and personalized experiences

The homepage is tailored to prospects and members, with the prospect version focused on VSECU’s unique value proposition. The member version includes common quicklinks as well as a goal-based guided selling tool to help current members reach their next financial milestone. Quiz tools and benefit-based selling tools on product pages also help guide visitors toward the best-fit product options, and interactive calculators automatically pull from the website’s rates tables to help inform buying decisions.

Other notable features include: a comprehensive Member Help section, a custom-built “Find a dealer” tool for VSECU’s unique fuel-buying program, and subtle animations throughout the site to draw attention to important content and add an element of surprise and delight.

The new website was developed through an inclusive process involving many VSECU internal stakeholders. Being a completely new website versus a redesign, the credit union understood the importance of designing and building a site through the lens of the user and applied a human design thinking approach rather than a focus on serving operational needs first. From concept to design and development, the project took a total of 13 months.

The website is built using flexible WordPress templates that empower the VSECU marketing team to update rates, product pages, photos, blog, and other information as needed. Moving forward, VSECU and PixelSpoke look forward to continuing their partnership to further evolve the website and better support the financial well-being of VSECU members.