Webinar Recap: Creating Compelling Content for Associations That Produces Membership Growth

Published by Melissa Madigan, Marketing Coordinator, ACGI

In honor of Thank You Thursday, I’d like to extend a big thanks to Chip Griffin, Managing Partner and Virtual Chief Digital Officer with Franeo. Yesterday, Chip shared best practices and insights for growing membership during our webinar,” Compelling Content Marketing of Associations: Grow Membership and More”.

If you missed it, we recorded the webinar. You can access it here.

During the webinar, Chip explored the process of creating content that not only grows membership, it also provides value for existing members and those other publics your organization needs to reach.

Here’s a recap of some of Chip’s main points:

Planning. It’s important to do your research and set goals prior to taking any action. Define your audience(s):  members, prospects, both or the general public. Develop a strategy to educate, inform or problem solve that’s aligned with the needs of your members and prospects.

Creating Content. Now pay attention here, because Chip shared plenty of ideas for creating (and harvesting) content, so I’ll give you a quick list:

• • Repurpose content –internal reports, case studies, data sheets, press releases and even blog posts –break up your long form content into shorter “snippets” to use for blogs or take a collection of blog posts and turn them into a white paper. It can go both ways.

“Different people have different media consumption habits,” says Chip. Not everyone likes to read blogs. Others may prefer ebooks or Facebook. The better you know your audience, the smarter you can be about selecting and delivering the right content on the right channels.

• Content farming. If you’re trying to shift the burden of content creation away from your internal staff to other people, try Q&As. Chip’s five question process will get you on track for making this an effective way of producing useful content.
• Curating…The key is adding value. Extract quotes and statistics, summarize and write your own commentary.
• Telling stories. Make it personal. Get away from “about us” style features (BORING…). Recruit members as authors. Let them use their voice to create connections.

Recommended Reading. Chip shared a couple of content marketing resources for association management pros: Content Rules by Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman and his own Association Executive’s Guide to Digital Marketing and Communications. We encourage you to check out those resources, as well as sign up for our next webinar on September 24 at 11:00 a.m. ET, “Growing Non-Dues Revenue, a Webinar featuring Wes Trochlil,” president of Effective Database Management.

Miss Chip’s webinar, or want to share it with others? Download the presentation by clicking the button below.

Photo Source: Barbragago.com