Do you see membership marketing as different to other marketing?
At Copper Bay we believe the answer is no…when it comes to the basics.
It is easy for your membership organisation to think they differ from other commercial entities. ‘Those’ companies are just trying to sell the latest widget or service and make a quick buck before moving to the next sale, right? While you provide real value for your members and build long-term partnerships…right?
While those statements might be true for some organisations (but not all), you need to remember that marketing…is marketing…is marketing. Yes, there are differences in the nuances of marketing for membership organisations but there are basics you need to have in place. I feel this is something some organisations miss because they get too caught up in what makes membership marketing different.
Five tips to build your membership marketing practices:
1. Build your prospect list
Your organisation may have been going for decades, but you won’t have the contact details of everyone who could benefit from what you offer! Prospective members do their research with the same vigour as if they were booking their next holiday, and it is your job to capture their details as early as possible.
Use gated content, newsletters, webinar signups, events and anything else where a prospect might show interest. Building an ever-increasing prospect list and tracking their engagement will give you a true ‘warm’ list and your sales team will thank you! And no, buying a list does not count!
2. Reach the existing audience
Your prospective members are already using the Internet daily for work or pleasure. They are on the Internet and this allows you to reach them.
Use tools such as Paid Ads, SEO and even Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) to ensure you are discovered when people show signs of needing your services.
A good place to start is a paid ads campaign on Google to discover which keywords your members use to inform your SEO strategy.
Don’t stop there—track and analyse your campaign data to identify which platforms and messaging resonate most with your audience. Test different ad formats, such as video or carousel ads, to see what drives the best engagement. By continuously refining your approach, you’ll stay ahead of the competition and ensure you’re reaching the right people, at the right time, with the right message.
3. Promote your value as if you were Apple/Amazon/Google…
You need to align value with member pain points at every stage. Make a direct connection between your member’s current problem or desire and how you fill that need. Make it emotional, put yourself forward as the guide to their hero story (you’ve read StoryBrand right?). Position yourself as a desirable organisation they only wish they could join!
OK, I am not expecting to see any turtle necks or flash mobs on Trafalgar Square, but showing them how you solve real problems and are not just a badge on their website will go a long way to convincing them to take the leap.
Remember to delight them in their first interactions with you, those first few hours or days of registering are the most important to build a lifelong member!
4. Put data at the heart of every prospect engagement and organisation strategy
Marketing has been using data to make decisions for years, but how much data are you collecting and using in your prospect engagement? Are you tracking your drop-off rates at each stage, seeing what is getting the most engagement, personalising experiences (see below) based on an individual’s previous experience?
Have the right data points in place and review them regularly. Bonus points for using that data to personalise comms!
Warning…data is also used by leadership as a bat to beat us with when it comes to marketing activity and spend, but that is a whole different post!
5. Talk to prospective members in a personal and individual way
Membership marketing can easily fall into the trap of talking to the collective, not the individual. You may have already tried to solve this with segmentation and some automation, but marketing has moved so far in prospect engagement through personalised funnels and reactive content.
Don’t think of members as a whole but as thousands of individual journeys. Create funnels, trigger content based on interactions, and use AI to analyse each experience to make personalised content. Make it personal to deliver the greatest value and drive higher conversion rates.
Driving member growth through acquisition is not easy, but the challenge can be eased if you get the basic marketing tactics right.
If you want to build a marketing strategy that has these fundamentals right, why not speak to us? We’ll help you take the first step on the Member Growth Framework to help build your strategy.
