by threshold | Dec 2, 2025 | General
focused strategies to meet the unique needs of credit unions.
Credit unions excel in trust and community, but today’s members compare you to frictionless digital banks and fintechs. Modern credit union marketing must navigate this tension: driving growth while protecting the mission and competing on experience. Generic bank marketing is not enough; you need strategies built for your member-first DNA.
why credit union marketing is different.
Most marketing playbooks are written for national banks or direct-to-consumer brands. Credit unions operate in a completely different reality:
- Member-owned, not shareholder-driven.
Your messaging must show value and stewardship, not pure profit focus.
- Field of membership and geography.
You are often serving a specific region, employer group, or community, which changes how you target and grow.
- Regulatory and compliance requirements.
Every promotion touches disclosures, fair lending, and data privacy.
- High trust, low bandwidth.
Your members trust you with their money, but your internal team is usually lean and wearing multiple hats.
At the same time, your members are living in a digital world:
- About three-quarters of checking account holders are now active digital banking users.
- More than half of consumers want their financial provider to use their data to personalize the experience.
- Yet only about a third feel they are treated as individuals by their bank or credit union.
That gap is your opportunity.
Ready for it?
the shift: from product promotion to member-centric journeys.
The most successful credit unions design connected journeys around specific member needs (e.g., “Help first-time homebuyers”). Modern data and AI make this shift practical, driving higher revenue growth and conversion rates through personalization.
At Threshold, we call this people-first marketing, data-powered.
Your mission stays at the center. Data, AI, and automation simply help you deliver that mission more consistently and at scale.
core pillars of tailored credit union marketing.
1. clarify your credit union growth thesis.
Define your core growth goal for the next 12–24 months (e.g., Net new Gen Z membership, deposit growth). Then, define your target segment, identify your competitive edge for them, and choose 2-3 core member journeys to focus on (e.g., new member onboarding, auto loan purchase).
2. AIO marketing for credit unions (ai-assisted, human optimized).
AI should augment your team, not replace it. Use AI for:
- Member insights at depth:
Cluster members by behavior and life events.
- Faster, on-brand content:
Draft emails, ads, and copy for your team to refine.
- Smarter targeting:
Predict needs (e.g., auto refi) to trigger relevant campaigns instead of mass blasting.
3. bring the credit union difference into digital.
Your digital presence must reflect the warmth and trust of your branch network through:
- GEO and community-centric positioning:
Local SEO, market-tailored landing pages, and community-focused campaigns.
- Financial wellness as a core content theme:
Educational content and tools that simplify financial decisions.
- Modern experience:
Clear, mobile-first design and intuitive navigation for key tasks.
4. lifecycle marketing built around member outcomes
Move beyond isolated campaigns by managing the full member lifecycle:
| STAGE |
GOAL |
KEY TACTICS |
| Acquisition |
Right members, not just more members. |
Targeted paid media, clear differentiation messaging, simple digital onboarding. |
| Onboarding |
Help new members feel “this is my financial home.” |
Structured 30–60–90 day email/SMS journeys, personalized nudges to encourage primary account usage. |
| Engagement |
Deepen the relationship based on real needs. |
Use data to spot likely needs (e.g., auto purchase) and trigger relevant offers or education. |
| Retention |
Keep high-value members, reduce silent attrition. |
Identify churn risk and reach out with check-ins or tailored retention offers. |
5. data, governance, and trust.
Unify member data across systems for a single view. Establish clear, transparent rules on data use and ensure compliance is involved early in campaign design. When using AI, implement human review, test for bias, and monitor for accuracy. Trust is your strongest asset.
your 90-day tailored marketing plan.
| PHASE |
DURATION |
FOCUS |
| Days 1–30 |
Diagnose and Prioritize |
Choose one primary growth goal, map the current member journey, and audit your tech stack. |
| Days 31–60 |
Design the Pilot |
Identify 1-2 core journeys to improve, draft AIO content, and implement basic personalization rules. |
| Days 61–90 |
Launch, Learn, and Refine |
Launch the pilot, review data and feedback weekly, and optimize flows/offers. |
where threshold fits in.
Ready to turn your member-first mission into a modern, measurable marketing engine? Threshold can help with AIO strategy, GEO expertise, AI search readiness, and performance marketing that drives deposits, loans, and long-term member value.
Reach out for a strategy call today.
by threshold | Nov 12, 2025 | General
Small shops. Big ideas. Real results.
Threshold has been recognized at the 21st Annual Davey Awards with Gold for “Maxwell Downtown Brooklyn” and Silver for “Gateway 737: A Student Housing Website.” These honors celebrate work that blends elegant design with measurable performance for our partners in multifamily and student housing.
Why this win matters for our clients
Awards are not the goal. Outcomes are. These Davey recognitions signal that our website builds meet a rigorous creative standard while staying anchored to the metrics that move your business. When we design a website, we are building a growth engine that supports leasing velocity, brand credibility, and long-term equity.
The work that won
Maxwell Downtown Brooklyn: Gold Winner
A modern property experience that puts the neighborhood, the lifestyle, and conversion clarity front and center. Content architecture, page speed, and streamlined paths to help prospects reach the right floor plan and book tours without friction.
Gateway 737: Silver Winner
A student housing website designed to convert. Clear messaging for parents and students, intuitive mobile UX, and performance-minded visuals that load fast and reinforce trust at every step of the journey.
What the Davey Awards recognize
The Daveys spotlight world-class creative from small and mid-sized teams across websites, design, video, advertising, social, mobile, and emerging tech. For a boutique agency like Threshold, this is the perfect arena. It validates that a focused team with deep category expertise can deliver work that competes at a global level.
The Threshold playbook that turns design into performance
If you are evaluating partners, this is the repeatable system we bring to every engagement.
- Insight before interface
Stakeholder interviews, audience research, and competitive mapping guide the content strategy and funnel design.
- SEO architecture with intent
We build site maps and internal links around search intent and property-specific demand. Structured data, clear headings, and crawlable components help pages surface where prospects actually look.
- Clarity-first UX
Mobile behavior leads our decisions. Fewer taps. Strong CTAs. Intuitive navigation that turns curiosity into booked tours and signed leases.
- Design systems that scale
Reusable components and style tokens keep future pages on brand and easy to roll out across a portfolio.
- Speed, accessibility, trust
Lightweight assets, semantic markup, and WCAG-minded patterns make the experience fast, inclusive, and credible.
- Measurement that closes the loop
Analytics, event tracking, and clear KPIs show what worked and what to improve next. Every build ships with a learning plan.
What this means for 2025 and beyond
Winning is encouragement to push further. You will see more research-driven content, smarter lead routing, stronger local SEO for property pages, and conversion-focused creative across campaigns. Our goal is simple. Build digital experiences that your audience loves and your operators trust.
Work with Threshold
If you are launching a new development, repositioning a property, or leveling up your brand’s web presence, let us show you what performance design can do.
Let’s build your next win.
by threshold | Sep 15, 2025 | Culture, General, Thought Leadership
At Threshold, we believe that a strong company culture isn’t just good for our people but it’s good for our partners. We’re proud to share that Threshold has once again been certified as a Great Place to Work® for 2025, a recognition that highlights the passion, teamwork, and innovation our THeam brings to every client project.
This certification isn’t just about what happens inside our walls. It’s proof that when talented people feel valued, supported, and inspired, they deliver their very best work in helping our clients achieve results that go above and beyond expectations.
Why This Matters for Our Clients
For real estate developers, property managers, and financial institutions, working with a marketing partner is about trust. You need a team that’s aligned, collaborative, and ready to tackle challenges with creativity and precision.
Being a Great Place to Work means that:
⭕ Our people stay engaged → bringing fresh energy and ideas to every campaign.
⭕ Collaboration thrives → ensuring seamless execution across branding, digital marketing, SEO, and advertising.
⭕ Innovation is encouraged → helping us craft strategies that keep you ahead in competitive markets.
In other words, the culture that earned us this certification is the same culture that powers our ability to drive growth for our clients.
Looking Ahead
As we celebrate this recognition, we remain focused on what matters most: helping our clients succeed. From boosting web traffic with data-driven SEO and AEO strategies, to launching integrated campaigns that convert, our motivated THeam is ready to deliver.
When you partner with Threshold, you’re not just hiring a marketing agency, you’re gaining a team that is energized, proven, and passionate about helping your business thrive.
Let’s Build Something Great Together
Whether you’re looking to expand your reach, attract more qualified leads, or reimagine your brand’s presence, Threshold has the expertise and culture to make it happen. Contact us today to explore how we can create marketing solutions that move your business forward.
by threshold | Jul 29, 2025 | Digital Marketing, General, Marketing, Tech/Web
The Way People Search Has Changed — Has Your Website?
Search is no longer just about Google. Today’s consumers are asking ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and other AI-powered tools for answers, and they’re making decisions based on what those tools recommend. If your website isn’t optimized for this new wave of AI-driven search, you could be invisible to your next prospect.
Whether you’re marketing student housing, multifamily apartments, or local banking services, this shift in search behavior has real consequences. Traditional SEO alone won’t cut it anymore. That’s why we launched AI Optimization, a new service built to upgrade your website for visibility in both classic and AI-powered search engines.
Here’s how you can future-proof your web presence and make sure you’re showing up when, and where, it matters most.
1. Reimagine Blog Content as Conversational Answers
AI tools love content that sounds natural, helpful, and human because that’s how people ask questions. To rank in AI-generated answers, your blog strategy needs to evolve:
⭕ Write with question-based headers (e.g. “How much does student housing cost in Austin?”)
⭕ Use clear, concise answers, not long-winded fluff
⭕ Prioritize usefulness over length
It’s time to stop writing blogs for algorithms and start writing for real people and the tools they’re using to find you.
2. Add Featured Snippets & FAQ Sections
Pages that clearly answer common questions are more likely to be pulled into AI summaries. You can improve your odds by:
⭕ Including a short, direct answer right after every header
⭕ Building out FAQ sections on key landing pages
⭕ Targeting voice-friendly queries like “best credit union for students” or “pet-friendly apartments near campus”
This small adjustment can make a big impact in how often your content gets cited by AI platforms.
3. Prioritize Location-Based Relevance
For industries like real estate and financial services, local context is everything. AI tools often recommend services based on geography and your site needs to make that easy.
To boost local visibility:
⭕ Use geo-specific terms naturally in your content
⭕ Keep your Google Business Profile and local metadata accurate
⭕ Add structured data that signals your location, service area, and hours
4. Build Topical Authority, Not Just Pages
AI engines look for trustworthy sources not one-off blog posts. That means your site should have depth around core topics. For example:
⭕ A credit union should have multiple pages about auto loans, mortgages, and financial literacy
⭕ A student housing site should cover amenities, leasing FAQs, moving tips, roommate advice, and more
This content clustering strategy tells AI tools: “Hey, we know this topic and you can trust us.”
5. Don’t Forget UX: Speed and Mobile Matter
It’s not just what you say. It’s how fast and cleanly users can access it. AI search tools simulate real user experience and are more likely to recommend sites that are:
⭕ Fast-loading
⭕ Mobile-friendly
⭕ Clear in structure and hierarchy
Threshold’s web design team builds AI-friendly sites with conversion-focused UX so users (and AI tools) find what they need fast.
Introducing: Threshold’s AI Optimization Service
To help brands stay ahead of the curve, we’ve developed a new service: AI Optimization: the next evolution of SEO.
Here’s what we do:
⭕ Make your content more conversational and answerable for AI tools
⭕ Implement structured data to guide how your site is interpreted, ranked, and cited
⭕ Boost visibility across modern search engines like Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and more
Early adopters are already seeing increased visibility and traffic. It’s not just smart. It’s future-proofing.
Ready to See How AI-Friendly Your Website Is?
AI search is here, and it’s changing the digital landscape fast. If your site isn’t built for it, you’re already a step behind.
Let’s change that.
by threshold | Jul 28, 2025 | General
Consumers Have Changed. Has Your Marketing?
The way people discover, evaluate, and engage with brands is evolving faster than ever, and your digital presence needs to keep up. Today’s consumers are savvier, more skeptical, and more selective. They’re not just comparing prices; they’re comparing experiences. They expect relevance, speed, transparency, and connection, and they’ll swipe right past anything that feels outdated or out of touch.
At Threshold, we help brands navigate this changing landscape every day. Here’s what’s driving modern consumer behavior and how to evolve your digital strategy to match. Let’s dive into consumer behavior trends 2025 together:
1. Relevance Is the New Baseline
Consumers expect content tailored to their context from personalized ad creative to dynamic landing pages that speak directly to their intent. Hyper-targeted strategies are no longer optional. Whether someone is searching for a checking account or a student apartment, they expect the message to fit their moment. That’s why we build campaigns powered by dynamic creative, AI-driven targeting, and personalized messaging that adapts to each audience segment to serve the right message at the right time and turn attention into action.
And soon, we’re taking it even further with dynamic landing page solutions designed to align perfectly with the ad experience and drive stronger conversion. Because relevance doesn’t stop at the click. It continues through every touchpoint.
2. Trust and Transparency Are the New Loyalty Drivers
In both housing and financial services, consumers aren’t just choosing a product. They’re choosing a partner they can trust with their money, their future, or their home. That trust is earned through transparency, local relevance, and values that feel authentic, not performative.
In real estate marketing, think about showcasing real resident stories & testimonials, community-focused content or user-generated content (UGC), or how your community invests in and supports local culture and well-being.
For small banks and credit unions, it’s about highlighting financial education, local involvement, and a commitment to doing what’s right for members, not shareholders.
We help brands bring those values to the forefront through clear messaging, meaningful creative, and campaign strategies that reflect what modern consumers care about: honesty, community, and a sense of belonging.
3. Cutting Through the Noise Starts with Smart Creative and Smarter Experience
With audiences swiping past thousands of brand messages every day, the bar for attention isn’t just higher, it’s relentless. To break through, your digital presence needs more than great design. It needs to convert.
At Threshold, we combine bold creative with high-performing websites built to drive action. And now, we’re taking that a step further with Dynamic Landing Pages — personalized post-click experiences that match each search ad’s messaging, keywords, and intent.
Why does that matter? Because most ad clicks land on generic pages that kill conversions. These dynamic pages create a seamless experience from ad to action, and the results speak for themselves:
⭕ Cost-per-acquisition dropped from $502 to $96
⭕ 3x increase in conversions
⭕ No additional ad spend required
When your ads and your landing page work together, every click has more impact, and your digital strategy works harder without spending more.
4. Search Behavior Is Shifting — Fast
Today’s consumers aren’t just Googling. They’re asking ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other AI-powered tools for instant, intelligent recommendations. Whether you’re leasing student housing or promoting local banking services, your digital presence needs to be optimized not just for keywords, but for how people ask questions and how AI delivers answers.
That’s why we’re launching AI Search Optimization, a new service designed to future-proof your site and elevate visibility across both traditional and AI-powered search engines.
We optimize your web presence for how people actually search by making your content more conversational and answerable, so AI tools can understand and recommend it. We embed structured data to guide how your content is ranked, interpreted, and cited.
This is not a replacement for SEO, It’s the next evolution of it. And brands that embrace AI Search Optimization early are already seeing better visibility and stronger lead flow in a crowded market with the goal of making your brand the answer, not just an option.
5. Short-Form Video Still Rules
From TikTok to Reels to YouTube Shorts, short-form video continues to be where attention lives, especially for younger audiences. These platforms shape culture, influence decisions, and drive discovery. That’s why we prioritize short-form video placements in Meta, TikTok, and YouTube campaigns, helping brands show up where their audience is already scrolling.
Whether it’s showcasing amenities, highlighting promotions, or driving traffic to landing pages, short-form video ads work best when they’re native to the platform, fast-moving, and optimized for mobile.
We guide our clients on best practices and formats, then build media strategies that get their videos in front of the right viewers at the right time for views that turn into value.
Adapt or Get Left Behind
Marketing in 2025 isn’t just about clever campaigns. It’s about creating digital experiences that are relevant, responsive, and built to perform. From AI-powered search to dynamic landing pages and data-driven media strategies, staying ahead means aligning with how people actually search, scroll, and engage.
At Threshold, we don’t just keep up with consumer trends. We turn them into smart, scalable strategies that help brands convert more and waste less.
Let’s talk. Our team can help you future-proof your marketing through consumer-driven strategy, creative campaigns, and next-gen performance tools — like AI-powered media, dynamic landing pages, and search strategies built for the way people discover brands today.
by threshold | Mar 8, 2025 | All, Culture, Design, Digital Marketing, General, Marketing, Tech/Web
Ava Page-Arnold
When Holder Properties set out to develop Gateway 737, a brand-new off-campus student housing community serving the University of South Carolina, they had the location, the vision, and the team—but no brand identity. That’s where Threshold stepped in.
the challenge: no brand, no presence, no problem.
Unlike established student housing communities with years of branding, reputation, and renewal leases to rely on, Gateway 737 was starting from scratch. The development needed more than just marketing; it needed an entire brand identity that would capture attention, build excitement, and drive pre-leasing momentum well before opening its doors.
our strategy: crafting a brand students couldn’t ignore.
To make Gateway 737 a standout in the highly competitive USC student housing market, we built the brand from the ground up with: → a bold, youthful identity – We created a name, logo, and vibrant color palette that resonated with USC students, reflecting their lifestyle and aspirations. → a high-converting digital presence – We launched a landing page early to capture leads and later built a dynamic website with engaging visuals, interactive elements, and conversion-driven design. → engaging marketing collateral – From brochures to banners and even transforming a construction trailer into a leasing lounge, we ensured every touchpoint reinforced the Gateway 737 brand. → a buzz-driven leasing approach – Instead of relying solely on paid advertising, we leaned into word-of-mouth marketing, on-site activations, and brand storytelling to generate organic excitement and demand.
the results: a leasing win for the record books.
The response to Gateway 737’s brand and marketing strategy was nothing short of remarkable:
→ 250+ leases signed in the first month (27.5% leased)
→ 115 leases signed in a single week
→ 90% leased within four months (Sept–Dec 2024)
→ 100% leased by first week of March 2025
Despite being a brand-new property with zero renewals, Gateway 737 quickly climbed the ranks to become one of the market leaders in pre-leasing numbers—a testament to the power of strong branding and strategic leasing execution.
why it worked: the gateway 737 formula for success.
What made Gateway 737’s brand and leasing strategy so effective? It all came down to:
→ a strong brand identity that made an instant impact
→ a digital experience designed for conversion
→ marketing that met students where they were—on campus and online
→ a leasing strategy focused on engagement over pure advertising spend
final thoughts.
The success of Gateway 737 proves that with the right branding and marketing strategy, even a brand-new student housing community can dominate the leasing game. Looking to replicate this success for your next student housing development? Let’s chat.
