Communications with members is a key facet of the credit union environment. Pulsate enables credit unions, such as the $1.93 billion, Wichita, Kan.-based Meritrust Credit Union, to deliver highly personalized marketing communications and financial solution offers to members when and where they are needed.

Dublin, Ireland-based Pulsate offers a mobile-first, data-driven and behavioral-based engagement solution that can utilize curated, customized and relevant push and in-app messaging with geofencing. “We are an engagement platform. We serve credit unions and community banks, and we give them the tools they need to deepen the relationship they have with their membership,” Pulsate CEO Sarah Martin told Finopotamus.

Martin described how Pulsate’s dynamic platform helps drive higher engagement to increase share of wallet, grow deposit and loan balances, and improve consumer satisfaction. This allows credit unions and banks to more effectively reach the right consumers at the right time – regardless of location or channel – through personalized, relevant mobile communication and marketing strategies.

“It’s really essential that (communications) is data driven,” Martin maintained. “I am sure you are aware of credit union spending hours, days, weeks, just trying to compile a list of people to whom they should offer a certain loan product to or certain deposit product to. How we approach data is to remove the onus of that list creation from the financial institution and handle that through our own logic.”

Martin also discussed democratizing access to financial institution data. “Today all of that data is so siloed. It is slow. It means the financial institution cannot react in the moment. We are in this transition. Aiming to flip that from the FI making choices based on what they need in terms of their financial success so the FI can actually support the consumer and deliver that offer in the moment that they need it.”

How Pulsate Works with Credit Unions

“We’re more of an engagement tool or a communication tool. At our most basic, we are living within digital banking. The credit union team can use Pulsate to inform their members of an outage all the way through to financial education and anti-fraud education, through a channel they are most likely to engage,” said Martin, “or to conduct various campaigns.”

Martin provided examples of how some two credit unions use Pulsate:

• The $2.1 billion Lakewood, Wash.-based Harborstone Credit Union, uses Pulsate to drive auto lending conversions. “They consistently see almost a 50% increase in loans funded during the period of the campaign,” according to Martin.
• The $2 billion Moon Township, Penn.-based Clearview Federal Credit Union uses Pulsate remind their cardholders to support local merchants. Explained Martin, “Just a gentle nudge. Through the channel. They are actually seeing card usage increase 68% with this campaign. So, a very powerful mix of data ingestion and access to data on their members. And using that to really deliver the most powerful method in the moment that allows the member to really see that and take action on that information.”

For its beacon technology, Pulsate utilizes a mixture of the credit union’s data, either from the core or customer relationship management (CRM) platform, in combination with Pulsate’s geotargeting or geofencing capabilities, noted Martin. “That is technology which informs our system they are close to one of those local (credit union) merchants. And that data automatically triggers the personalized communication, to use your card today at that local merchant.”

Connecting With Meritrust

Meritrust Credit Union called on Pulsate twice over the last several years, in 2022 and 2024, to prepare members for online conversions. “We implemented Pulsate, a couple years ago when we were with our previous online banking provider,” said Emily Stewart, Meritrust’s director of digital marketing and analytics, and growth strategies. “We had that up until our conversion to our new online banking provider, Constellation Digital Banking platform. We actually just went live again with Pulsate just last month in July.”

Stewart shared aspects of the recent conversion with Finopotamus. “Even though we changed online banking providers we were able to pick up right where we left off with Pulsate, continue to leverage that technology. My staff did not have to relearn something because they already knew how to use it.”

Push and in-app communications are safer for members as well. Said Stewart, “There is a time and a place for texting, but we have been doing a lot of communication with our members about why they have to be really careful when they receive an SMS text. The safer alternative is to communicate with members via Pulsate (through) in-app push notifications. They know they are getting an authenticated message from Meritrust.”

Stewart pointed out the message could be an offer, like a cross-sell or pre-screen approval, some sort of message utilizing geofencing, or a push communication based on a certain life event. “There are also other opportunities that we use Pulsate that we want to communicate to our members about something that is happening. Maybe a fraud ring or some situation.”

Pumpkin Latte Served Here

Stewart said the credit union used Pulsate in other campaigns such as one involving pumpkin spice latte season, where Meritrust geo-fenced local coffee shops in its market. “We provided personalized offers to try to be top of wallet during that time. Our members who liked coffee shops, were sent a push notification when they hit the geofence. As soon as they pulled out their phone to maybe mobile order or to walk into local coffee shop, they saw a really great offer of 5% cash back to use the Meritrust debit card.”

“At that point in time, we were really testing our ability to use this technology not only through Pulsate, but our tracking ability,” said Stewart. “We were really pleased with what Pulsate brought to the table with that geofencing and how well it worked.”

Meritrust Credit Union is open to using Pulsate in other ways too, she noted. “We’re obviously really careful that we don’t over offer and constantly push stuff,” said Stewart. “But a lot of people love having their online banking push notifications because if you do it right, you are getting offers that are relevant.”

She continued, “One of the best features that they have is this geofence. We could potentially use it if we have a really great auto rate and we see our members shopping in dealerships. To make sure we are top of mind, either asking for us at the finance table or we are trying to push them to apply online at Meritrust.”

Pulsate Kudos

Pulsate works with over 270 credit unions and community banks reaching 20 million consumers. “Pulsate integrates with CRM and core platforms,” noted Martin. “We’re on a path to be able to serve financial institutions on 80% of all cores in the U.S.”

In March 2024, Pulsate announced it joined the Jack Henry Vendor Integration Program (VIP), following a recent integration with Jack Henry’s Banno Digital Platform. VIP also allows Pulsate’s mobile-first engagement platform to integrate with Symitar via SymXchange, a services-based programming interface that enables third-party vendors and credit unions to access the platform’s core data and business rules.

In April 2024, Pulsate was awarded “New CUSO of the Year” from the National Association of Credit Union Service Organizations (NACUSO) at the NACUSO Network Conference.