Association Marketing: Building a Successful Strategy How easily can your association recruit new members? How long do your current members remain active?

How easily can your association recruit new members? How long do your current members remain active?

Creating an effective association marketing strategy is critical to better recruit and retain members. You’ll also be able to:

• Attract new sponsors

• Improve brand awareness

• Increase revenue

So what steps should you follow to build a strong marketing strategy? In this article, we’ll cover key marketing strategies every trade or professional association should know. We’ll also explain how idloom’s software solutions can enhance your marketing campaigns.

Top 10 Marketing Strategies for Growing Your Association

Different associations benefit from different marketing strategies. However, every association should focus on the following goals and tactics as they create their strategy.

Understand Your Target Audience

Who do you want to join your association? When defining your target audience, focus on their:

• Age range

• Education level

• Career

• Pain points

This is also true for sponsors. Knowing how to align your needs with a sponsor’s needs is key to building healthy partnerships.

If you already have a large membership, your target audience may be your current members. Understand their needs to engage with them better and increase retention.

Define Your Value Proposition

Define the benefits new members can gain to distinguish your association from competitors. For example, your association may:

• Help members build their business

• Improve their brand awareness

• Keep members informed of news or trends that affect their industry

• Raise profits

In addition, review feedback from current members to understand what they need from your association. Make sure the benefits your association provides coincide with their needs and promote this to new members.

Develop Compelling Content

Marketing content should engage your target audience. Show them what they stand to gain when joining your association. Do this by:

• Offering written testimonials from satisfied members in your emails

• Posting conference video clips on your social media channels

• Sharing infographics highlighting event attendance statistics and networking opportunities

• Informing members of challenges affecting your industry and providing strategies for how to deal with them

Leverage Personalisation

Use marketing software to target leads whose needs and values align with your brand. This makes them more likely to join your association.

Implement Membership Tiers and Benefits

Offer tiered association memberships to allow members to access higher-level resources and attend exclusive events by upgrading their membership. This gives them an incentive to stay and provides more opportunities to raise revenue.

Organise Engaging Events

Conferences, webinars, and seminars enable members to network and further their education about their industry and current trends. idloom’s event management software makes it easy to manage every stage of your events, from building a website to keeping attendees engaged.

Encourage Member Participation and Engagement

When members play an active role in your association, they form a strong connection with your organisation and are more likely to stay. Encourage member participation by:

• Asking members for feedback

• Responding to member questions quickly and thoughtfully

• Encouraging members to take advantage of your association’s benefits

• Offering online forums, resource libraries, and job boards in an online members-only portal

• Expanding certification programs that validate members and their organisations

• Asking members to brainstorm solutions regarding the challenges your association experiences

Offer Trial Memberships and Free Resources

Offer free trial memberships to let prospects experience the benefits of joining your association. Be sure to provide access to relevant events and resources, such as networking opportunities, and follow up before the end of the trial period.

Show and let prospective members experience the resources they could potentially leverage. With idloom.wall, you can determine not only what members can access on your portal but also what prospective members can see.

Collaborate with Other Organisations and Industry Experts

Partner with other businesses and peers to offer members a forum where they can exchange thoughts and ideas on issues affecting your industry. This can create a huge benefit for members, encouraging them to stay active in your association.

Monitor and Optimise Results

Assess the results of your current marketing plan to identify your strengths and areas for improvement. Use analytics tools to analyse your data and maximise return on investment.

Grow Your Association with a Better Marketing Strategy

Associations need to both attract and retain members. By taking the time to understand your target demographic, you can offer benefits that fulfil their needs. This helps you develop personalised and engaging content, events, and resources to successfully market your association.

With the idloom.events registration platform, you can automate and customise online, live, and hybrid event management. These events are necessary to attract members, grow your association, and build lasting relationships. Need to improve your retention rate? Using idloom.wall to provide a community portal allows members to securely share content and collaborate, increasing engagement. This reminds them of the benefits your association provides and can motivate them to remain active. Likewise, idloom.passport functions as an association contact management system to manage members and send targeted communication. The tool also allows you to set up courses and modules for certification programs, increasing your revenue opportunities. Contact us to learn more and see how we can help