Inbound Marketing for Associations
Associations are a diverse, vibrant sector and substantial contributors to a nation’s economy. They promote and protect vital industries and worthwhile political causes that ultimately impact nearly everyone in America. In today’s highly competitive digital environment, however, associations cannot survive in an isolated bubble. They, too, need marketing support to aid in acquisition and retention of members and continual engagement with donors and sponsors.
Why is Inbound Marketing Especially Effective for Associations?
Associations and inbound marketing are naturally compatible as they follow a common goal: educating and providing people (members, donors, attendees or sponsors) with content they crave. Association marketers are well equipped to supply an ongoing stream of great content for inbound marketing campaigns as they are used to providing members with compelling messaging and information to promote their agendas.
But Can’t Traditional Marketing Work as Well?
Today, marketing is not focused on what the marketer wants; it centers on the needs and aspirations of the customers. This is the sole reason why organizations are making the shift from traditional, outbound marketing to inbound marketing.
A recent ROI report published by Hubspot in collaboration with MIT states that 93% organizations deploying inbound marketing methodologies have witnessed at least 75% increase in web traffic within 7 months of going inbound.
Still not convinced about going inbound?
Most associations already have formidable content creation machinery in place that produces creative, helpful content for members in the form of newsletters, emails and reports.
But inbound marketing is not just about content creation; it combines automated email marketing, SEO, social media marketing and analytics to drive higher volumes of traffic to websites and faster conversions (which is the ultimate goal of all organizations, let’s face it!). To stand out in the sea of free educational content floating around the web, your association needs a data-driven marketing strategy with compelling content at it’s core to entice audiences and convert them into members.
Inbound marketing shares some foundational activities with traditional marketing, such as:
- Analyzing the needs and challenges of the target audience through research, interviews, surveys and studies of market trends
- Auditing present marketing processes, digital assets and calibrating against competitors
- Creating campaigns with well-defined, measurable goals
However, inbound marketing is geared toward the way people make decisions today utilizing a variety of online platforms. So it differs from traditional marketing in some of these activities:
- Devising marketing strategies with a full-funnel approach designed to guide audiences effortlessly along their journey from being strangers to promoters of an organization
- Optimizing content for search engines (after all, what is the benefit of creating content if it can’t be found by audiences?)
- Automating emails and workflows to distribute targeted content that is relevant to audiences based on where they are in their buyer’s journey
- Repurposing and retargeting content to increase its shelf life
- Analyzing the efficacy of efforts in real time according to numerically-based metrics.
- Maybe most unique and beneficial about inbound marketing is that its proven processes will keep converting strangers into members and loyal evangelists of your association with no extra effort or cost.
Click here to Learn more about inbound marketing for your association.
Watch out for our next blog in the series, Using Inbound Marketing for Member Recruitment.