Part 5 of the 5-Part Series: Why Member Engagement No Longer Means Face-to-Face
Tactic #5: Inbound Marketing That Captures Prospects’ Attention
In the olden days of marketing, way back in the 20th century, marketing was comprised primarily of outbound – interruptive campaigns. Marketers created campaigns that were specifically designed to interrupt you from what you were doing so they could get you to listen to them. They would leverage direct mail or advertising to deliver their message to a targeted audience. If successful, they would gain the attention of their intended audience for a short period of time.
The internet changed that. We no longer need to try to interrupt people from their thoughts. We now try to connect with them when they are thinking about the products and services we provide. We do this by offering great content. This content is the magnet that draws interested people to us. No interruption required – just good compelling content proliferated online for our target market to find.
But it isn’t enough just to engage them, we must also capture them at this moment of engagement. By “capture,” we mean we must provide them with content compelling enough that they will fill out a form, thereby giving us their name and contact information so we can connect with them later.
Every member-based organization’s website should have a visible mechanism that allows people to download content or sign up for topical alerts and a newsletter. An organization’s sign-up process should be straightforward, highly visible and located on multiple pages. People simply won’t keep coming back to your website over and over again to find the information they need — you must make it easy for them by providing solid content and the ability to opt-in to receive your communications.
Let your content be the magnet that draws your prospects to your digital properties, and then do everything you can to capture them. Relevant content changes the nature of your dialog from a one-time chat to an ongoing conversation. And that is exactly what a marketer (and member-based organizations) want.
To summarize, we believe membership-based organizations should embrace marketing – especially online marketing. Here are the five trends we’ve written about that have changed the game:
- Social Media and Building Awareness
- Content Marketing
- Storytelling
- Thought Leadership
- Inbound Marketing that Captures Your Audience
How many of these tools and techniques are you using to grow your membership?
SEE ALSO: Part 1 of the 5-Part Series: Why Member Engagement No Longer Means Face-to-Face | Part 2 of the 5-Part Series: Why Member Engagement No Longer Means Face-to-Face | Part 3 of the 5-Part Series: Why Member Engagement No Longer Means Face-to-Face | Part 4 of the 5-Part Series: Why Member Engagement No Longer Means Face-to-Face | How to Survey Association Members