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| The Growing List of Online Marketing Opportunities |
- A Checklist of your options
by David Ehrlich, President, Track Marketing Group |
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| For online marketing options, the list grows almost daily. Taking advantage of online marketing activities can dramatically increase member retention, grow membership, increase non-dues revenue and conference attendance. |
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| Are you making it easy for people searching for you to find your web site? |
| Search engine optimization is the process of tweaking your web site content to get more hits from search engines. This can make a huge difference in the number of hits you receive from people using search engines and directories. Paid options also exist to get more hits. |
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| Are You Proactively Driving Traffic to Your Web Site? |
Email campaigns are a great way to motivate current and prospective members to visit your web site. You can easily send graphic emails and track how many opened the email, clicked on links, and forwarded using a "refer a friend" option. An appropriate email send to the right audience with a compelling subject line works well. Have a privacy statement and easy opt-out procedure. Consider segmenting so people can receive targeted communication about their areas of interest.
We often use offline communication to reach prospective members on targeted lists. While there are also email lists you can rent, the quality of offline prospect lists is still superior and we gather email addresses as part of a marketing campaign.
Online advertising options include paid links from other sites, banner ads (seems so 90's but can still be effective if placed on a relevant site), and sponsorships including in newsletters that are read by your target audience. Electronic newsletter ads reach your target in a way that is not perceived as spam - they understand you're paying to share your message. |
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| Is There Useful & Relevant Information on Your Web Site? |
| Once they arrive at your site, you can include white papers (usually in PDF format), search options, foreign language conversion tools, and even special mini web sites around specific events or programs. These mini sites are also great for getting new hits from search engines. |
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| Are You Making Your Site Interactive and Actively Engaging Your Audience? |
Consider using surveys to learn more about your member's needs and interests. This is one of the most obvious and inexpensive ways to retain your members. When we conduct annual surveys the feedback that members share is impressive.
While we often give them the option to respond online or via mail, the responses from people who go online are usually the most insightful since people are used to typing on the computer. Obtaining 40% response rate is fairly easy with an online/offline survey.
Quick member polls are also great to take the pulse on hot topics. Online stores and searchable databases take advantage of the interactivity of the internet. Many members appreciate taking care of business whenever they choose. Message boards, chat events, and live and on-demand webcasting of seminars can also serve to build the bond with members, especially those who can't travel to your meetings. |
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| Is Your Web Site Content Exciting And Dynamic? |
You can make your content come alive and take advantage of increasing bandwidth by including slide shows, streaming audio & video, and flash animation. Don't use wiz bang technologies simply because you can - rather leverage innovative options to touch your members in a personal and dynamic manner. For example, we produced a two minute video to share the excitement about an upcoming annual conference.
Web logs and tools are great for learning what is working and where you need improvement. For each option, there are things you can easily do yourself and of course there are professionals ready to take you to the next level. |
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