Membership

Lunchtime Links: Thoughts on Marketing Campaigns

Build a consistent message when creating your membership renewal campaign. Also: Can you actually learn something from spam?

A good marketing campaign goes a long way. Do it well and you can really build on your strengths. Do it poorly, and . . . well, let’s not imagine that.

Anyway, some ideas for building a strong marketing campaign in today’s Lunchtime Links:

Get optimized: Joe Sapp of Talley Management Group argues that you should work on your membership renewal tactics so the campaign is well planned. “Organizations have more ways to communicate with their members,” he writes. “Before you start your renewal campaign be sure that you have a consistent communication plan that your staff and key volunteers are aware of. Avoid having a different message for each method of communication, this helps keep your members getting [the] right message each time.”

The sensationalist approach may not work for you, but you might be able to use some of these ideas to formulate subject lines and headlines.

Marketing tips from spam: Christina G. Smith of YourMembership.com has a somewhat surprising take on what works from a marketing front — based on what works with spam. “While spam is not something to base your marketing strategy around, reading the occasional spam headline can provide you with content ideas,” she claims. “Look at how they appeal to the audience. Their goal is to get you to open and then click. The sensationalist approach may not work for you, but you might be able to use some of these ideas to formulate subject lines and headlines.” So crazy it might work?

Ensure your message isn’t marked spam, though: Do you find that your emails head toward the spam folder more than you’d like? CMSWire’s Colleen Pettit has some ideas for working around that. “If a subscriber hasn’t clicked or opened your email in the last 45-60 days, or two-plus publications,” she explains, “you should consider an attempt to re-engage, change the frequency of communication to this user, or remove him or her from your list to improve broader inbox placement.”

How Pinterest did it: Speaking at Y Combinator’s Startup School at Stanford University on Saturday, Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann says the secret to his company’s fast growth was smart grassroots marketing — not clever engineering. AllThingsD was there. “A lot of people in Silicon Valley didn’t get, and I don’t know if they still get, Pinterest,” Silbermann explained, noting that he stuck to his guns with the vision. “The fact that it made sense to someone is what really mattered to me.”

Is the grassroots route the way for you to grow, too? Let us know what has worked for you in the comments.

Ernie Smith

By Ernie Smith

Ernie Smith is a former senior editor for Associations Now. MORE

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