How much do you trust your members? How much should they trust you? A couple of days ago the NAFCU Compliance Blog kicked off a discussion about credit unions offering consumer opt-outs from third party and affiliate marketers.

Okay first, selling your members’ information is just shady. Come on.

But moving on – my attention perked when the Compliance Guy brought up a credit union that allows its members a full-on marketing opt-out:

These members have the right to exclude themselves from all credit union marketing campaigns. (Interestingly, this credit union currently does not need to offer their members an opt-out under the privacy rules and does not plan on offering an affiliate information opt-out.) I asked how it worked, and the compliance officer said that it seemed to keep a very specific segment of their membership happy. “And happy members deposit more,” she added.

I’d like to shake this credit union’s hand. What an enormous amount of trust and respect for their members’ time and privacy.

But that brings up a new question – how do you reach members that have opted out of everything? I think part of the answer lies in the reason for opt-out. These members aren’t trying to shut you out entirely, they’re filtering out irrelevant noise. So the key to reach might be relevance. Opt-in.

One simple-ish way to stay relevant and paperless is to offer topical RSS feeds and email alerts (see NPR’s news feeds). For example, right now I’d absolutely subscribe to a “small business” feed offered by an FI. But if I see another credit card app, I’ll probably set something on fire.

How would/do you reach members that have removed themselves from your traditional marketing?

Maybe a better question is – would you even give them the option?