Michelle Dobbins of the Credit Union of Georgia Recently Featured on Close Up Radio

ACWORTH, GA, UNITED STATES, November 11, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Plenty of marketers can sell a hairbrush to someone who is shopping for a curling iron. Michelle Dobbins, vice president of marketing at the Credit Union of Georgia, prefers to learn what her customers actually need. The numbers show her method is working. Dobbins has led membership growth from less than 2% to 5% over the past two years alone. Her team has also collected several MAC Awards from the Marketing Association of Credit Unions this year.

Her starting point was a candid look at habits. While the credit union grew considerably during COVID, Dobbins explains, its marketing hadn’t evolved. Print pieces and community development efforts still mattered, but they were not spreading the word widely enough. “We needed to focus on awareness,” she says. Dobbins responded by leaning into digital marketing and targeting ZIP codes the credit union had never reached.

Her goal is to be in the right spot at the right time with messages tailored to what a member needs that day. This approach can mean a reminder about low auto loan rates just as someone starts shopping for a car, or an update on the latest banking scam.

Dobbins did not begin her career in finance. After college, she picked up part-time jobs at community nonprofits, where she learned to wear many hats. She later held leadership roles at Community Inclusive Recreation and ETC Arts Studio, where she encouraged inclusivity and promoted art classes for people living with disabilities. That work shaped her view of giving back. “The secret is to be part of the story,” she shares.

Banking arrived by happenstance. Dobbins had always been good with her own finances and enjoyed working with analytics, but she knew she wanted no part of cold calling and sales. That’s when she landed her first credit union job. “I just fell in love,” she says. She sees her work now as a different kind of marketing as members receive education about something they need.

Memory drives her approach. Dobbins recalls going through the teller line as a child with her mother every Friday, collecting a lollipop and a punch on her card. She wants members to have similar moments, such as opening a child’s first savings account or getting a call from a bank that giving a heads up on a worrying change in a grandparent’s spending. “Those moments,” she explains, “are how we become memorable.”

The Credit Union of Georgia has served Northwest Georgia since 1960, and Dobbins is quick to explain the appeal. Members get local service without long phone transfers, she says, along with higher dividends and lower rates. A basic savings account opens with just $10. “You can start small. No dream is too big.”

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month and Dobbins is happy to share how she learned to talk about fraud. Her first attempt at a fraud warning sent members racing to the phones to ask if they had become fraud victims. “I inadvertently blew up the call center,” she admits with a laugh. Learning the lesson, Dobbins rewrote her playbook. Today the credit union offers friendly, practical education, including blog content and tips for dodging scams during the holiday season.

“My goal is to arm members with educational resources so they can make better decisions,” she says. Dobbins also reminds members that “we are all the guardians of our own personal information,” while making sure a kind human voice is always a phone call away. “And we all deserve a human to help us,” she asserts.

Technology figures in her plans. A board member at Multimodal AI, Dobbins expects AI to help credit unions understand where members are in life. She earned a digital marketing certification and is building Microsoft Copilot agents so each weekly report receives the same analysis.

Asked what she would tell a young marketer, Dobbins answers with one word: tenacity. She also urges women to stop apologizing and over-explaining. Remote work, she says, has been a game changer for women raising families. “We can now do both.”

Away from the office, Dobbins is an adrenaline junkie who has jumped out of a flying airplane, scuba dived in the Great Barrier Reef and regularly enjoys hot yoga. She also loves to travel and cook and build core memories with her family.

Her parting advice is simple. “Don’t let others dim your light,” she says, adding that marketers should stay authentic and keep learning.

About the Credit Union of Georgia

The Credit Union of Georgia is a local, member-owned financial institution that has served Northwest Georgia since 1960. Each lending decision is made locally, and members can open a basic savings account with $10. The credit union is federally insured by the National Credit Union Administration and is an Equal Housing Lender. Learn more at cuofga.org.

About Michelle Dobbins

Michelle Dobbins is vice president of marketing at Credit Union of Georgia, where she leads marketing and business development while managing community outreach teams and the foundation. She holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from Western Michigan University and a master’s degree in public relations from Kent State University. She serves on the board of the National Financial Educators Council’s Georgia chapter and Multimodal AI.

Close Up Radio featured Michelle Dobbins, Vice President of Marketing at Credit Union of Georgia, in a two-part interview with Jim Masters on Monday November 9th at 2pm Eastern, and with Doug Llewelyn on Monday November 16th at 2pm Eastern

Listen to the Podcast
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/part-1-close-up-radio-spotlights-michelle-dobbins-of/id1785721253?i=1000801124912
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-close-up-radio-242020413/episode/part-1-close-up-radio-spotlights-michelle-dobbins-of-the-credit-union-of-georgia-349745976/
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2UhVqQIJjKAajBrrsBrCo5

For more information about Michelle Dobbins, Vice President of Marketing at Credit Union of Georgia, please visit https://www.24-7pressrelease.com/press-release/539005/marquis-whos-who-honors-michelle-dobbins-for-expertise-in-strategic-marketing-and-communications-within-the-credit-union-industry/ and https://cuofga.org/

Lou Ceparano
Close Up Television & Radio
+1 631-850-3314
Visit us on social media:
Facebook