Demystifying Inbound Marketing: 5 Essential Elements to Attract, Retain and Activate Members

Demystifying
Inbound
Marketing:
5 Essential
Elements to
Attract, Retain and
Activate Members

Demystifying Inbound Marketing: 5 Essential Elements to Attract, Retain and Activate Members © WebLink International
Session Agenda
• Understanding Your
Audience
• Content
• Distribution
• Authenticity
• Relationships
Stranger
Friend
Prospect
Member
Promoter

About Me
• Curt Moss, Senior
Product Marketing
Manager @ WebLink
• 12 years at member-
based orgs
– Las Vegas Chamber of
Commerce
– Chapter of National Safety
Council
• 8 years @ WebLink
– Faculty for W.A.C.E.
– Present at association and
chamber conferences
linkedin.com/in/curtmoss
@curtmoss
linkedin.com/company/weblink-international
@WebLink

About WebLink
• SaaS Company (Software as a Service), Leading Software
Provider to Chambers of Commerce and Business Associations
• Established in 1996, 60 Employees, based in Indianapolis, IN
• 94% Customer Retention Rate
• Based in Indianapolis, Indiana
• 94% Customer Retention Rate

About WebLink
• Association
Management Software
• Website Design &
Development
• Non-Dues Revenue
Programs
• Partner in Your Success

WebLink Websites
• Responsive website
design
• Automatically adjusts
for any screen
• Fully integrated
database & website

About WebLink
• iPad app for mobile
commerce
• Integrated credit card
reader
• New member sales
• Event registrations
• Pay open invoices

WebLink Blog

Next Webinar
Creating an Agile &
Innovative Association
Friday, May 16, 2014 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT
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Sterling Raphael
Founder
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Jeff De Cagna
Chief Strategist and Founder
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Maddie Grant
Chief Social Media Strategist
Social Fish
Doug Blizzard
Vice President of Membership
Capital Associated Industries
Our panel of 4 association and technology experts share insights on
becoming agile and innovative to grow and retain your membership.

How Can Inbound Marketing
Benefit Your Organization?

Extend Your Reach

Improve Your Value

Increase Member Engagement

Grow Your Membership

What is Inbound Marketing?

Digital curb appeal

What is Inbound Marketing?
• Attracting people to
your brand, rather than
pushing it on them
• Utilizes content to earn
the attention of your
audience
• Converting to them to
leads and analyzing the
results

Inside Out
vs
Outside In

Effective Inbound Marketing
• SEO
• Blogging
• Content marketing
• Social media
• Persona-based campaigns
• Interactions
• Analytics review

Why Inbound Marketing?
People’s behaviors have changed, and they are
tuning out traditional (interruption) marketing.
• 44% of direct mail is never opened.
• 200M people are on the do not call list.
• 86% skip TV ads.
• 91% unsubscribe from email.

Great Content
“Don’t interrupt what people are interested in.
Be what people are interested in.”

This isn’t the content you’re looking for

Why Inbound Marketing?
It’s more effective and it costs less.
• 54% more leads are generated by inbound
than outbound.
• Inbound leads cost 61% less than outbound.
Source: State of Inbound Marketing, HubSpot 2012

Source: Voltier Digital

Source: InboundMarketing Inc

Understanding Your Audience

Inbound marketing…
• Is only for big companies
• Takes too much time
• Is expensive
• Is hard
• Is it worth it?

“We can’t compete with…”

You have an advantage

The collection of data in your
membership database IS a propriety asset.

Your membership software contains…
• Contact information
• Employees
• Billings, invoices
• Contact history
• Committees
• Reporting
• Much more…
• Plus, you meet face to face

Use Your Data
• Size of business
• Type of business
• Length of time in business
• Annual dues
• Reasons for joining
• Reasons for dropping
• Interests
• You are tracking this,
right?

Your advantage
• You already have an
audience for your
product
• You have data
• You interact with
members
• You have a relationship

Personas
• Classify the “types” of
members you have (3-5)
• Boss (decision maker)
• Doer (front line worker)
• Manager (elements of
both)
• Use your data!
• Develop content for
each persona
• What problems are
they trying to solve?

Content

2014 Nonprofit Content Marketing
Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends
• 91% use Facebook to
distribute content
• 69% use Twitter
• 65% use YouTube
• 65% are producing more
content than they were
one year ago
• 25% have a documented
content strategy

75% of nonprofits rated their
efforts middling to ineffective.
92% of nonprofits are
content marketing.

What kinds of content?
• Articles/blog posts
• Videos
• Case studies
• Photos
• Podcasts
• Whitepapers
• Editorials
• It doesn’t really matter

Content your members will VALUE

Value vs. Relevance

Value vs. Relevance
• The most
frequently used
word with
“Relevant” is…
• NOT

Value vs. Relevance
• No one says, “Wow,
that association is
really relevant for
me.”
• They want useful.
• They want ROI.
• They want value.

Answer member questions

Answer member questions
• You get emails, phone
calls and questions at
events.
• Stop answering them!
(sort of)
• Why help 1 when you
can help 100, or 1,000?
• Blog posts or FAQs
section of your website
• Share on social media
when updated

Find the questions they aren’t asking you

• LinkedIn Groups
• Quora
• Yahoo Answers
• Twitter search
• Google Alerts
• Other association or
industry websites’
FAQs.

• Use broad industry
terms first
• Google searches:
– How do I manage my …?
– Tips for
selecting/choosing a…
– HR for [my industry]
– [my industry] taxes

What problem are they trying to solve?
• How to do [whatever]
– Create a LinkedIn page
– Manage a Facebook
page
– Install a new phone
system
– Choose a payroll
company
– Find new office space to
lease

Create numbered lists

Create numbered lists
• More concise &
engaging
• Creates a promise for
what’s in store (no
guessing)
• Sets expectations
• “Quick” read

Examples
• 7 ways for [industry] to grow with technology
• Do you recognize the 5 warning signs your
business is in trouble?
• 8 types of [industry term] – which group are
you in?
• 11 email subject lines you can use to get your
clients’ attention
• 5 things successful [industry term] do

Ask them

Sample questions
• “What’s the biggest
challenge facing your
business?”
• Write about how your
association is
addressing that issue
• “What resources do you
need to help you run
your business?”
• Create additional
resources, or link to
existing ones – even if
they are not yours

Profile members & industry experts

• “How I got the
business”
• Tips for surviving the
first 2 years of business
• What’s the future of
[industry]?
• What’s the biggest
mistake you made
running your business?

• Why they joined
• What specific programs
and benefits to they use
• Include org type, size,
length of time in
business so others can
relate

Share others’ content

Share others’ content
• Find content via:
– Twitter search or the
people you follow
– LinkedIn connections,
groups
– Google alerts
– Email newsletters
– Local or industry
websites
Retweet
Share on
Facebook and
LinkedIn
Post links to other
content

Tell a story

6 Ways to
Produce
Content Your
Members
Will Value

Distribution

Develop valuable content

Get your content online
• Blog posts
• Website pages &
articles
• Videos
• Photos
• Partner sites
• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn

Create a plan
Date Type of
post
Topic Text Link/Media? Goal
4/15/2014 Promotion Annual
Dinner
Early bird registration
ends tomorrow for the
annual dinner.
Registration
page for event
Event
attendance
4/16/2014 Answer Benefits Looking for ways to save
money for your biz?
Check out our exclusive
member discounts.
Benefits page Member sales
4/17/2014 Question Business
Needs?
Take our 1 minute poll:
What’s the biggest
challenge facing your
business?
Poll page on
website
Retention
4/17/2014 Inside Look New
office
space
Get a sneak peak at our
new office digs!
Photos of new
office
Awareness,
engagement

Create a plan
• Share your content on
social media sites
• Links refer back to your
site (SEO)
• Engage followers
• Increase traffic
• Increase leads

If you don’t have a blog, get one

Search Engine (Topic) Optimization
• Use keywords relevant
to your members
• Search engines know
your website is active
• Show up in more
searches
• Drive traffic to your site
• Convert more visitors to
prospects
• Good content is key

Social Media Strategy
• Use 80/20 rule
• 1 post of your content
to 4 posts, shares, RTs
of others
• Use content to ask
questions, drive
engagement

Social Media Strategy
• “Blog comments are
dead”
• Conversations are now
on Facebook and
Twitter
• Participate in
conversations as a
contributor and not as a
“seller”

Who do they believe?
• Consumers trust
recommendations from
friends and colleagues
over advertising
• The “social graph” is
becoming more
important to
companies’ marketing
efforts

Landing Pages and Forms
• Ask for contact
information in exchange
for a valuable piece of
content like a case
study or white paper
• Build your mailing list so
you can nurture your
leads

Leads for
• New members
• Advertising
• Sponsorships
• Trade show exhibitors
• Vendor members
• Partners

Repurposing Content
Blog
Post
Webinar
Slide
share
Video
eBook

Targeted Distribution
• Members with a certain number of employees
may find a new benefit more useful that larger
employees
• Members in a particular business category may
be more affected by certain issues than other
members
• Members that joined for networking or learning
opportunities should know about new events
coming up
• Members in particular state or city could benefit
from you sharing a certain news article with them

Lead Nurturing
• Not everyone wants to
become a member
today
• Consistent and
meaningful touches
with viable prospects
• Automate your sales
cycle
• Increase your member
conversion rates

Lead Nurturing Plan
• Scheduled or triggered
communications
• Topic and persona
driven
• Can change plans based
on behavior of prospect

Use your AMS
• Set up “retention” or
“prospecting” plans
• Series of touches by
staff
• Calls, letters, emails,
personal visits
• Use the things that are
important to them

Analytics
• Which types of content
drive the most leads
and sales
• What topics drive
results
• Which networks
• What days/times

Marketing without
metrics isn’t
marketing.

Insight & Analytics

Facebook Insights

Website Traffic

What were your goals?
• Retention
• New member sales
• Generate website traffic
• Event attendance
• Connect businesses
• Highlight government
affairs items
• Industry/community
awareness

Helpful Free Tools available
• HubSpot’s Marketing Grader looks at your website based on six
criteria: overall, social media, blogging, SEO, lead generation, and
mobile optimization. http://marketing.grader.com
• Open Site Explorer gives you a ranking on your SEO performance
and even allows you to compare to a competitor.
www.opensiteexplorer.org
• FollowerWonk gives you analytics on your Twitter followers, and
helps you find people based on keywords. www.followerwonk.com
• HootSuite lets you sync and schedule your social media accounts.
www.hootsuite.com
• Photo Pin allows you to search by any term and gives you access to
a bank of free images to be used in blog articles, eBooks, etc.
www.photopin.com

Helpful Paid Tools Available (To Name
Just a Few)
• Hubspot software gives you everything you need to run your
organization's inbound marketing, all in one solution. Includes
email, landing page creation, social media, blogging, and more.
www.hubspot.com
• inBoundio dubs itself as the “worlds simplest inbound marketing
software” and is more budget-friendly for smaller organizations.
www.inboundio.com
• Optimizely lets you run website A/B testing to measure how visitors
engage with your site. www.optimizely.com
There is an infinite number of companies that provide email, SEO,
social media, blogging, website and lead nurturing solutions available
depending on your organization’s size, budget and specific needs.

Authenticity and Transparency

Know your voice
• Assign one person to be
in charge of your
inbound marketing
strategy
• This will eliminate
duplications of content
• Keep your voice
consistent
• Others can help, but
need an “owner”

Be responsive
• Your website and social
networks are a way for
people to reach you
• Online questions and
complaints must be
addressed promptly
• Not responding can be
bad
• Don’t be afraid to admit
your mistakes

Respect your audience
• Keep data private and
secure
• Don’t over-post
• Typically, 1-2 posts per
day via each social
network is enough to
keep your audience
engaged

Ask for what you want
• Be direct with your
audience
– Share a video?
– Sign up for an event?
– Give their opinion on an
industry issue?
• Be relevant, educational,
inspirational
• Don’t hide that you’re
looking to grow your
membership and get
people engaged

People are people
• Try to connect like you
would IRL
• Picture your audience as
real people
• Don’t change who you
are just because you’re
behind a computer screen
• Give thanks and
recognition

Relationships

Building relationships is key to
turning prospects into members

Instead, think about connecting
with people intentionally.
Stop the random
social media posts.

LinkedIn
• Don’t just “set it and
forget it”
• Update your profile often
• Send them a personal
note to connect
• Post to your company
page, too

4 Simple
Steps To
Growing Your
Membership
With LinkedIn

Twitter
• Search out members
and prospects on
Twitter
• Categorize into lists
• Look at your lists for a
few minutes each day
• Re-tweet content that
you like and share
valuable content

Facebook
• Ask members and
prospects to like your
page
• Don’t send friend
requests to every
prospect
• Create private lists
• Respond to posts on
your company page

Schedule posts (some)
• Tool such as Buffer or
Hootsuite
• Space out posts for the
day
• Post items to different
networks
• Use different “lead ins”
on different networks

Your Website
• Prospective member’s
introduction to your
organization
• First impression you
have in starting that
relationship
• Demonstrate your value
• Activities vs
accomplishments

Your AMS
• Store social media
profiles, just as you
would a phone number
or address
• Record key
conversations within
your AMS
• Track lead source for
future reporting

Bonus Tip – For your members
Add members’ social media links on their listing
on your website. Connect them with potential
customers.

Listening is key

Don’t Forget - Listening is key
• Don’t get so caught up in sharing content that
you forget to listen.
• Building relationships online takes time, just like
it does offline.
• Listening will help cue you into your members’
and prospects’ passions and help you tailor your
future content to their interests.
• Don’t delete posts, even if they are negative
about your organization. Simply respond in a
timely manner to show you are addressing the
issue.

Opening Remarks – DJ & Terry
Coming up: 3 Questions

WebLink Recap: An Integrated Solution
• ONE web-based centralized
database
• Prospects, members, non-
members and all reps in
same system
• Financials, events, email,
committees, website,
reporting
Central
DB
Financial
System
Website
Email
Marketing
Members
Events
Prospects

Association & Chamber Websites
• 500+ client websites
• WebLink Local business
directory drives 67%
increase in traffic from
organic searches
• Adds value for members
• Non-dues revenue
• Responsive website design
– automatically looks great
on all devices

WebLink Website Management System
• Very easy to add pages and
edit content
• Drag and drop new content
sections
• Quickly modify the
navigation menu
• Easily add photos, videos,
buttons, documents, blog
posts and more

3 Questions
Please answer these to receive a
copy of the presentation.

Webinar Summary
• Right audience
• Great content
• Right time
• Right channel
• Ways to respond &
share
• Engage your audience
• Stand out from the
crowd

“Turn strangers
into friends.
Turn friends into
customers.
Turn customers
into salespeople.”
- Seth Godin

Demystifying Inbound Marketing: 5 Essential Elements to Attract, Retain and Activate Members

WebLink International
3905 Vincennes Road, Suite 210 Indianapolis, IN 46268
P 317-872-3909 | 1-877-231-4970 | F 317-872-3929
weblinkinternational.com | weblinkblog.com
Curt Moss
Senior Product Marketing Manager
curt.moss@weblinkinternational.com

Demystifying Inbound Marketing: 5 Essential Elements to Attract, Retain and Activate Members

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