Leveraging the Power of AI for Chamber Marketing

This is the second blog post in a series of three I've focused on Artificial intelligence (AI) and how your chamber can use this technology to possibly enhance your marketing efforts.

It can be leveraged by chambers of commerce to improve their marketing efforts in a number of ways.

Here are a few examples:

• Personalize marketing campaigns: AI can be used to personalize marketing campaigns based on the interests and demographics of target audiences. This can help to ensure that marketing messages are relevant and engaging, and that they are more likely to be successful.
• Automate marketing tasks: AI can be used to automate a variety of marketing tasks, such as sending email newsletters, creating social media posts, and managing ad campaigns. This can free up staff time to focus on more strategic initiatives.
• Analyze data to improve marketing decisions: AI can be used to analyze data about marketing campaigns, such as click-through rates, conversion rates, and website traffic. This information can be used to make better decisions about how to allocate marketing resources and improve the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.
• Create and deliver content: AI can be used to create and deliver content that is relevant and engaging to target audiences. This can include articles, blog posts, videos, and other types of content.

Overall, AI has the potential to be a powerful tool for chambers of commerce to improve their marketing efforts. By leveraging AI, chambers can save time, improve efficiency, and reach a wider audience.

As AI technology continues to develop, chambers will be able to find even more ways to leverage its power to reach their target audiences and achieve their marketing goals.

Here are some additional ways that chambers of commerce can leverage AI for marketing:

• Use AI to create chatbots that can answer member questions and provide support.
• Use AI to track member engagement with chamber content and events.
• Use AI to predict which members are most likely to renew their memberships.
• Use AI to identify new opportunities for collaboration between chamber members.

By leveraging AI, chambers of commerce can improve their marketing efforts and reach their target audiences more effectively. This can help chambers to grow their membership base, attract new businesses to the community, and support the economic development of their region.

Marketing Strategies for Growing Chamber Membership

We all want to grow our chamber membership numbers.

A strong membership base is a key ingredient for a strong chamber to have a presence in your community and do great things for your members.

Do you have a marketing plan in place that will help you reach your goals?

The following is a list of marketing strategy tips for growing your chamber membership:

• Define your target audience. Who are you trying to reach with your marketing efforts? Once you know your target audience, you can tailor your messaging and outreach accordingly.

• Create a strong value proposition. What benefits do you offer to members? Make sure your value proposition is clear and concise, and that it highlights the benefits that are most important to your target audience.

• Use a variety of marketing channels. There is no single marketing channel that will reach everyone. Use a variety of channels, such as email marketing, social media, direct mail, and networking events, to reach your target audience.

• Personalize your outreach. The more personalized your outreach is, the more likely you are to connect with potential members. Use their names, interests, and businesses in your messaging to show that you understand their needs.

• Offer incentives for joining. This could include being invited to their first event on a complimentary basis, or other perks. Incentives can help to motivate potential members to join your chamber.

• Make it easy to join. The easier it is for potential members to join, the more likely they are to do so. Make sure your membership application process is clear and concise, and that there are no hidden fees or requirements.

• Follow up with potential members. After someone expresses interest in joining, follow up with them to answer any questions they may have and to encourage them to join.

• Track your results. It's important to track your results so that you can see what's working and what's not. This will help you to adjust your marketing strategies as needed.

Here are some additional tips for marketing your chamber membership:

• Highlight the benefits of membership. What are the specific benefits that members receive? Make sure these benefits are clear and concise, and that they are relevant to your target audience.

• Tell stories about your members. Share stories about how your members have benefited from membership. These stories can be a powerful way to show potential members what they can expect from your chamber.

• Use social media to connect with potential members. Social media is a great way to connect with potential members and share information about your chamber. Be sure to use relevant hashtags and keywords so that your content can be easily found.

• Host events and webinars. Hosting events and webinars is a great way to connect with potential members and educate them about your chamber. These events can also be a great way to generate leads and generate interest in your chamber.

• Partner with other organizations. Partnering with other organizations is a great way to reach a wider audience. This could include partnering with other organizations that serve your target audience.

By following these tips, you can market your chamber membership effectively and attract new members.

Membership Marketing Plans

What is the goal of your membership marketing plan?

As we all know, our organizations provide benefits and services to our members, such as networking, advocacy, education, and promotion.

Your goal with your membership marketing plan should be to increase your membership base and retention rate by implementing effective marketing strategies that address the needs and interests of your target audience.

Our target audience consists of small and medium-sized businesses in various industries and sectors, as well as professionals and entrepreneurs who seek to grow their businesses and careers.

Your primary products are your membership packages, which offer different levels of benefits and access to the Chamber’s resources and events.

As you’re creating your annual marketing plan, are you focusing on the market trends and opportunities in your community?  You may want to consider the following in serving your members and prospective members:

• The demand for business support and guidance in the post-pandemic economy.

• The increased use of digital and social media platforms for business communication and promotion.

• The need for local and regional collaboration and advocacy among businesses and stakeholders.

• The desire for personal and professional development and learning opportunities.

In addition, does your membership marketing plan include the following objectives:

• To increase the awareness and visibility of the Chamber and its benefits among potential and existing members, using various marketing venues, such as the Chamber’s website, social media, community events, and print advertising.

• To create and deliver value-added content and programs that showcase the Chamber’s expertise and thought leadership, such as webinars, podcasts, newsletters, blogs, and workshops.

• To engage and nurture relationships with potential and existing members, using personalized and segmented communication and outreach, such as email marketing, surveys, testimonials, and referrals.

• To incentivize and reward membership acquisition and retention, using discounts, promotions, loyalty programs, and recognition awards.

And make sure to measure your membership marketing plan goals:

• To increase the membership base by X percent in the next year, resulting in an additional revenue stream of $X.

• To increase the membership retention rate by X% in the next year, resulting in a reduced attrition rate of X%.

• To increase member satisfaction and value rate by X%.

Your membership marketing plan should be a comprehensive and strategic approach to achieving your membership goals and enhancing your reputation (think Your Brand – for two previous blog post on branding go HERE and HERE) and value proposition in the market.

Your plan should also be aligned with your mission, vision, and values, and reflects your commitment to serving your members and the community.
 
For a great resource on membership marketing visit Marketing General HERE

Keys to a Successful Membership Marketing Campaign

This blog post is from a recent session I attended at the ACCE Annual Meeting, in Indianapolis, this year based on the title of the post.

The following are my notes from Michael Johnson, Senior Director of Marketing and Communications, Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, and his presentation, discussion, and it is in rapid form. 

What is a brand?

He said it is a collection of promises.  Others will tell you it’s your reputation.  When you think about it, they basically mean the same thing.

Promises vs perceptions – the audience makes the decision if the promise meets the experience/perception.  This is what the brand is all about for companies.

Promise vs what we deliver?   What our audience needs and wants.  Where they intersect is the member value proposition.

What promises are you making?  The following is based on research he did with his members and what they valued.

• Networking (in person) is number one
• Promotion and recognition
• Educational programming
• Economic development and advocacy

He went on to talk about what is your market perception with different audiences.

Prospecting audiences – small businesses, mid-cap, start-ups.  What do they want from us – ask them, it’s important to know before you start your next campaign.

Motivation and participation styles – engagement vs investing in the chamber, get something through the chamber vs getting something from the chamber.

What segments are important to you and how will you slice up those audiences for membership?  This is a great place to remind yourself of what types of members you want.  Remember the 80/20 rule?  I suggest you want to recruit folks who will fit the 20-part of the rule, they are the ones making a difference in your organizations.

The following two statements I found very interesting and something to remember in your membership campaigns.  The statements can be used by your sales team when recruiting new members or bringing back lapsed members.

A chamber membership can help you and your employees to:

• Make business connections
• Grow professionally
• Stay informed

A chamber membership can help your company to:

• Be recognized
• Build reputation
• Be heard by policymakers

The above two sets of bullets are where you should build your elevator speech from.  Keep it tight!

Now it’s time to develop your messaging.  Put another way, what are the pain points for your members and communicate how you will alleviate that pain.

Once you’ve created your messaging, it’s now time to make a schedule to market it to potential new members, and bring back your lapsed members through digital resources.  Also, don’t forget your bi-annual mail campaigns either.

He went on to talk about onboarding emails with your new members.  The key here is to set-up a workflow of emails and stick to it.

He showcased a five-email campaign over a five-month period, each email with a different message.  You’ll have to decide what works best for you and what you want to highlight in each email?  Maybe that’s three emails over the first three months of a new member onboarding process.

He ended with asking the question, “What is Mission Critical?”  What are the five most important things your new members should do?  This should be the focus of your onboarding email campaign mentioned in the previous paragraph.

Good luck with tweaking your messaging and your next membership campaign.

Hyper Personalize to “Market of One”

This post is based on a recent seminar I attended a couple of months ago in Washington, DC.

The following are my notes based on the conversation led by Dave Will, PropFuel, CoFounder and CEO, and Jemilah Senter, VP of Marketing and Communications, Special Libraries Association.

 
They started out talking about marketing and how that is really broadcasting to your general audience.  And how you need to think about marketing to one.  There is a difference in membership needs vs an individual member’s needs.
 
The “Market of One” Philosophy
 
Personalization vs Individualization Personas – first name and other demographics is what personalization is all about.  Individualization is about just in time information on what your members need.
 
One to one conversation = market of one.  If you were face to face with a new member, what would you ask them?
 
Conversational engagement is about asking questions any time you are communicating with your members and getting that information in your database.
 
Segmentation is the key word they used over and over and the importance of starting there and then drilling down on what the individual wants from the membership.  That’s hyper-personalization.

For more information on the subject visit PropFuel's website HERE.

Critical Email Tips To Radically Improve Marketing Performance

I recently attended a session featuring Jay Schwedelson, Founder, Subject Line and Outcome Media, on the title of this blog.

He started with the comment, "open rates – is the key."

But things have changed since Apple changed the way they track open emails.  Open rates have been inflated by 40% by the new tracking that took effect May 1, 2022.
 
Content in the subject line – it’s what’s going to get your email opened.  Some words or things to use/do to make that happen:

• FREE
• Use brackets [   ]
• Capitalization
• Emoji’s, (emoji’s are boosting open rates) – sense of urgency with emoji’s – think about starting your subject line with an emoji.
• Have you thought about using …at the end of your subject line?
• Using the word "Offer" in the subject line.
• 101 in the subject – membership 101, etc.
• Tips on …. Have your subject line be a question?
• The use of fear, i.e. Don’t miss out on …
• Put title of recipient in the subject line – for marketers, chamber staff.  

 
All of the above suggestions are key to put in the first half of your subject line.  At the end of the day, you are not sending out enough email.  It’s all about engagement!
 
He went on to mention three top suggestions to get your email opened:
 

• Free guide or free report
• List/checklist
• On-Demand vs Watch Now

His final rapid fire comments:

• Repetition is good – 3 days in a row vs 2 days will raise your open rates.
• Monday is still the best day to send your emails.
• Benefit vs commitment (click for benefits vs download)
• Logos should go to your offer page not your home page.

Good luck in your email marketing campaigns!

Top Digital Marketing Trends and Opportunities

I recently attended a webinar on the title of this post moderated by Kevin Taylor, Communicate by Design.

Speaker Bill Shaheen, Vice President, MultiView, highlighted eight trends based on an association leadership study they recently conducted.  For a copy of their 2021 Digital Marketing Trends & Opportunities report go HERE.

He made the general statement that the biggest pain points for organizations to do better in their digital marketing are lack of time, resources and knowledge.

 

Here are my notes based on his presentation:

 

Digital Content Consumption – prior to Covid, people would spend on average 3 hours and 17 minutes consuming digital content, post Covid that jumped to 6 hours and 59 minutes per day.

 

E-Learning Has Skyrocketed – Google searches increased by 100% for online courses.

 

Connected TV (CTV) – using the Internet for TV programming, not your cable company.  Think Netflix, HULU, Apple, etc.

 

Video is the Most Popular – YouTube is right behind Google (parent company).  93% of brands acquire new customers because of video on social media.

 

Digital Ads – remains strong.  The younger generations consume through social media while the older generations consume through TV.

 

Contextual Ads Perform Best – these are ads that are related to the content you’re looking at on the Internet in real-time.  It’s not a static ad on a landing page.

 

Marketing Personalization is Mandatory Not Optional – give your members what they want when they want it.  Today’s databases easily allow this to happen.

 

Virtual Events Are Here to Stay – at least for 2022 and part of 2023.  Once people feel comfortable with in-person events, they will come back strong.  We’re already seeing this now.

 

Bill then pivoted to talk about digital marketing opportunities and suggested the following three things you should be doing: 1) increase your digital investment; 2) spend more on digital vs print; and 3) spend 5-6% of annual revenue on marketing each year.

 

He went on to talk about the top three places to invest your digital dollars: 1) website; 2) social media; and 3) email marketing.

Other areas he mentioned were search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing.  When it comes to social media, find out where your members are consuming their digital content.

 

Final suggestions:

 

• Target your communications to your different audiences within your membership.
• Video marketing through testimonials and e-learning promotion.
• And don’t forget to make it personal.  You want to speak to them as you really know them, based on their past participation with your organization.

Marketing Basics: What You Need to Know to Set Your Marketing Plan

I recently attended a webinar by one of my favorite marketers, Melissa Harrison, Founder of Allee Creative, on the title of this blog.  She is great!

The following are my top line notes from her session.

Melissa started by asking people to think about their marketing plan in 12-month chunks.

Define your competition and value proposition.  Find out what your competition is doing and tracking it on a spreadsheet can be very helpful as you create your plan.

I’ve said it before chambers, look to your left, look to your right, the next town chamber is your competition.

Your value proposition is the answer to what makes you unique and why your members join you instead of your competition.  For a previous blog post on your value proposition go HERE.

She went on to discuss how business goals and marketing goals are two different things!  Your marketing goals help achieve your business goals.  Business goals are more revenue driven or number of new members secured.

She also talked about how you need to understand your members journey.  This is the sales funnel that everyone talks about - awareness, interest, decision, sales.

She identified 10 elements to establish your marketing plan:

1. Overview – what are your goals and objectives for the year.
2. Key messaging – this is your elevator speech, the short answer to who you are and what you do.
3. Goals – revenue, new members, completing something in your strategic plan.  The goals should be clear and have metrics tied to it (numbers, timing).
4. Target audiences and persons – understanding a potential members path to join.  They are not all the same.  Also, everyone is not a potential member.  Someone could find you through your website or through some form of social media (this is their discovery, awareness, decision process of joining).  And be mindful that these can change over time.
5. Competitive analysis – what makes you different.  I’ve talked about the Hedgehog Theory in the past (what do you do best, what do you have passion for and where do you make money).  Where they intersect is the business you should be in.  Go HERE for that blog post.
6. Distribution channels – think direct mail, email, social media, advertising, video, events, etc.  She suggests your website should be your “home” of your brand as well as it’s a valuable touchpoint!
7. Budget – you need to be proactive and set an actual budget.  She shared a chart that showed most small businesses budget 7% - 8% of their overall revenue on marketing.  In addition, you need to decide how you will spend that money in the different marketing channels (i.e. advertising, video, website, print and design) you choose to reach your targeted audience.
8. KPIs/ROI – you must track your success.  What metrics are you going to use to track that measurement?  Stay focused on the numbers.  If you don’t measure your actions, you’ll have no idea if your efforts are successful. Create a dashboard!
9. Timeline – don’t just plan.  Do.  Give assignments and keep your team focused on the results.
10. Supporting documents – have a list of resources you can refer to when working through your plan throughout the year.

Melissa ended with a list of tools, templates and resources you can use to execute your plan.

• Tracking timelines – Asana, Trello, Basecamp
• Online listening tools – Hootsuite, SproutSocial
• Content calendars – (templates from Melissa)
• Email marketing, CRMs, inbound software – Constant Contact, Pipedrive, HubSpot, ConvertKit
• Graphics and copywriting – Canva, Fiverr
• Website and analytics – WordPress, SquareSpace, Google Analytics/AdWords
• Video Platforms – Vimeo, YouTube, Flipgrid 

She finished with a tip for success – “listen harder, focus on digital.”

Good luck in creating your marketing plan of the future.  For a copy of her slide deck go HERE.

Member Recruitment: How to Grow Recurring Revenue, Reach New Markets, and Advance Your Mission

The following blog post are my notes from a webinar sponsored by Marketing General and presented by their SVP Tony Rossell, on his new book and title of this blog Member Recruitment: How to Grow Recurring Revenue, Reach New Markets, and Advance Your Mission. Get your copy HERE.

He started out by talking about the power of membership and the difference you can make in your industry.  He went on to ask the question – “What’s Your Strategy?”

 

The discussion pivoted to what marketing channels are you using to recruit members?  He mentioned, in my opinion, the new buzz word in the space, “Omnichannel.”  What does that mean?  In a nutshell, it means meeting your prospective members where they are, at a time they want to engage, and on a platform they choose.

 

You already are doing this with your website, mail, email, digital advertising, conferences, texting and possibly video.  In my opinion, the key is messaging and I subscribe to the COPE process (create once publish everywhere) keep the message the same.

 

Speaking of messaging, it’s one of his five pillars of a membership plan.  The five are:

 

Define your target market – he mentioned the data pyramid, some may call it the sales funnel, it’s makes you focus on who to target as a priority (i.e., lapsed members, prospects who attended an event of yours, a referral and then your list).

 

Special offers – this is your call to action.  Many do a 15 month for 12 membership campaign.  He talked about how membership is a push product.  We need to go to them.  They don’t show up at your chamber door to buy like the retail sector.

 

Messaging – what is your value proposition?  For a past blog post on that subject go HERE.  Find out what your members want from you.  This can be done with your annual member survey.

 

Channels – what platforms are you using to get your message out?  Website, mail, email, digital advertising or texts.

 

Resilience – you need to track and analyze your results and adjust accordingly.  

 

He went on to talk about the two biggest reasons why membership growth is a challenge:

 

• Paralysis of analysis; and
• No budget or staff resources are put in place for the plan.

 

Just get started!  Get a test out there.  Go to your lapsed members first.  Some may have dropped because they had to watch their budgets last year.

 

Membership builds loyalty, trust and repeat customers, that’s why corporate America are calling their customers members and charging them to do it (think COSTCO).

 

I did a blog post in the past “Membership is Everybody’s Business.”  For that post go HERE.

 

At the end of the day, we are membership organizations, and as he said, you can’t renew your way to growth.  You need new members to grow your chambers and have a healthy organization.  And as far as budgets to fund your recruitment campaign, make sure you know the LTV or lifetime value of your members.

 

Another key aspect to your marketing is to test your message and frequency of responses to maximize your recruitment dollars.

 

For more resources from Marketing General, Inc., including their annual benchmarking survey go HERE.

Email Marketing Techniques that Drive Results

I attended a seminar recently on the title of this blog that was led by Jay Schwedelson, Worldata, on email marketing.

The following are my notes based on his presentation and you may be surprised by some of his suggestions which is based on recent research in the email marketing sector.

Email Marketing - how much is too much?

• 92% who unsubscribe haven’t opened that email in a year.
• Delivery to the inbox is the key - engagement from a previously sent email!
• Studies say open rates go up if you’re sending at least 5x a month.
• Don’t send emails about your keynotes or registration info.

You Must Be Relevant

• FOMO is the key to email marketing.  Fear of missing out!
• Offers that expire have a 62% overall respond rate for BtoC and 55% for BtoB.
• An offer must have urgency to it!
• Subject lines.  Go to subject line dot com.

Top Words to Use

• Free, limited, exclusive, tomorrow, today, last chance.
• Free is the number one word for the subject line for emails.
• 38% open rates increase if you use the word urgent.

Quick Tips

• Half sentence subject lines...
• “The most valuable...” - People will open to learn what it’s about.
• “Our keynote is...”
• Title casing - capitalize each word in your subject line...
• Use brackets or parentheses boost open rates by 31%
• Inbox rate is key, not deliverability rate.  The difference is showing up in spam filters.
• Subject lines that start with a number “5” has a 21% increase in open rates.  Think listicles.
• Pre-headers - the words after the subject line will increase your open rates by 24%.
• Single offer emails work.  One email, one offer.  Don’t send an email with multiple offers.
• Use light box to get emails - it’s a pop up on your website.

He went on to talk about auto opens and auto clicks being done by companies and associations to protect their networks.  Think of it as a different version of your current spam filter.

Tools and Free Stuff

• If you're looking for a great resource on evaluating your email "subject lines" go HERE.
• For a great resource on when to send emails based on days and times go HERE.

Good luck with your email marketing campaigns!

Target Marketing by Generations

I read a fascinating article recently that referenced a study by the Zenith agency on target marketing to generations.

And I connected with the idea that we need to stop thinking about target marketing by generations and start targeting based on what individuals want.

I bet you’ve been in those sessions on the characteristics of each generation and then the person next to you says, “that’s not me” and "I hate being labeled."

Well this study talks about basing your target marketing on income, attitudes and mindsets.

For the article by Zenith the ROI Agency go HERE.

It’s worth a read and should be factored into your annual marketing plan.

Engaging and Retaining New Members Using Drip Marketing

Amazon has 22 benefits - they introduce you to a few at a time through weekly or monthly emails.  I'm a member and I've personally experienced these onboarding emails. That's how I learned about e-books, prime music, etc.

I recently attended a session led by Larry Guthrie and Leslie Whittet, both from the Association for Corporate Growth where they talked about how to market the benefits of your organization a little bit at a time with your members.

If you're an Amazon customer you're familiar with their monthly email that talks about a specific benefit or two.  What they are doing is putting their benefits in bite size messages.

They spent a good amount of time discussing the difference of onboarding versus an orientation?

Onboarding improves retention rates - period!  An orientation is just the beginning of a true onboarding process.  The onboarding process could be the first 90 day period of your new members interaction with you.

This is where drip marketing comes into play. You communicate with them on a regular basis over this 90 day period by introducing the different benefits of your organization.  You might want to communicate on a biweekly basis.

The value proposition is a major part of your onboarding process.  Advocacy, education, networking are benefits that you are providing your members, are you doing a good job of communicating those benefits?  Your communications should always be member focused not chamber focused.

Maybe your onboarding (90-days) communications might be:

• Welcome kit
• Communication on an advocacy effort you're working on with a link with more information
• Communication on how to participate in your next networking event
• Communication on a couple of benefits that they might not be aware of

 Your goal is to have your members "learn it and use it!"

Drip marketing is showcasing your member benefits in your communications in a strategically planned out process.

I also think it's important that in these communications you are not asking for more money.  Remember, they just paid you a sum of money to join.

Think of drip marketing as a guided tour of your chamber.  You're breaking up your value proposition into small digestible bites of information. Make your communications clean and concise.

Biweekly emails focusing on a different set of benefits is a plan worth considering.

Once you've finished your 90-day onboarding with new members you might want to check in with them at the 6-month interval. Remember, at the 9-month interval you'll be sending your first auto-invoice.  That three-month window before an invoice is sent will be a great time to fix any problems from the information you might get at that 6 month check-up.

Good luck!