Chloe Mark, a digital/brand journalist at ArcStone, wrote an interesting article several weeks ago on building strategies around customer centric and customer first content marketing and I thought it could be pretty applicable to a building a successful marketing strategy for associations.
If you’re not familiar, content marketing “is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action,” says Joe Pulizzi of the Content Marketing Institute. Content marketing itself is a great method for more mindful interaction with your customers. However, when we look at content marketing through the lens of customer centric and customer first, our goals become much more focused and, undoubtedly, more successful.
As association managers, your goal is to convince prospects to become members, right? Sounds easy enough. However, it still surprises me to see associations failing to promote themselves through consumer focused content marketing. Many associations put too much focus on themselves and what they offer, rather than serving the customer first. Yes, you should tell a prospective customer about your association and the great benefits that come with being a member but the way in which you communicate that message needs to be customer-centric and customer first. If you’re unsure whether or not your marketing strategies uphold a customer-first focus, start with these few tips below.
1. Reassess the copy
Review your website copy – how many times is your association’s name there? Does it scream “you, you, you”? A prospective member doesn’t want to be sold, they want to be helped. Take a look at your content and make sure it’s benefits-focused. Clearly show them how their involvement in your group will enhance their professional career and help them grow as an individual in the industry.
2. Consider their journey
Your first interaction with a prospective member should be a investigative conversation, not a sale. This means considering where they are in their buyer’s journey. The buyer’s journey, a term made popular by Hubspot, “is the process buyers go through to become aware of, evaluate, and purchase a new product or service”. It has three unique stages – awareness, consideration, decision. Considering this process, it doesn’t make much sense to aggressively sell your membership when someone is in the awareness stage. If you can provide valuable information and support to a prospect on their journey, they’re much more likely to not only become a member but also tell friends and colleagues about their positive experience.
3. Transparency in qualification
In many cases, associations will accept almost anyone into their group. However, for the ones that require more specific criteria or credentials, it’s important to clue your prospect in on the qualifying journey. Be honest about whether or not you think it’s a good fit for them. Most people will appreciate the honesty because it saves time and energy. If they are, in fact, not a good fit, be sure to point them in the right direction. By helping them now, you’re showing the prospect that you care and that they’re not just another number in the application cue. And who knows, this prospect could qualify in the future and you don’t want to ruin your chances then by paying for a bad experience in the past.
AMO makes it easy to build a functional, user-friendly website. It supports quick content updates to ensure your messaging is always customer-first and benefit focused. Take a look around with our quick tour here!