LinkedIn Screams Ahead as a Prospect Source for One Client

For a couple of years now I've been using online lead generation programs to effectively generate awareness for our clients, developing a prospect pool for membership and product sales when it was difficult to find these individuals through traditional means, and converting them to memberships.

Program Summary: If you are not aware of these programs, or have not attended one of my sessions on them, basically we create an offer (usually a FREE White Paper), use online media to promote or "push" the offer (Google PPC, LinkedIn, banner ads, etc.), and collect contact information (email address, name, postal address, etc.) when fulfilling the offer. Once captured, the now "prospect" is enrolled in a 3 to 5 step online conversion program that consists of emails and a final direct mail piece. If the prospect does not join, thier contact information is placed into the association's promotion file.

Here are the results after just one-week from such a program:

Campaigns                             Ad Clicks            Form Fills              Conversion Rate


White Paper DISPLAY             836                        12                          1.44%
White Paper SEARCH              123                         6                           4.88%
White Paper LinkedIn                234                      111                        47.44%

Total                                      1,199                      129                        10.81%

Needless to say, LinkedIn has performed remarkably well. In fact, when looking at the same information in terms of media spend, while the media spend for display and search was between $50 adn $95/prospect, it was only $6.60/prospect for LinkedIn.

Our client is extremely happy with these results to date.

Are you using online lead generation to help drive awareness of your association and help build your prospect file? If you are, please tell us how it's working for you?

Experts in Membership Marketing is published by Erik Schonher, Vice President, Marketing General Incorporated. If you have any questions concerning the content of this blog or MGI, please feel free to contact me directly
at (703) 706-0358. 

How to Sturucture a Well Designed Membership Recruitment Strategy

I've been speaking with several associations during the past two months on recruitment, testing strategies and developing effective programs to drive membership growth.  As part of my research, I just reread the results of a program I ran a year ago and thought it would be important to remind everyone that it's important to keep several things in mind as a recruitment effort is designed and implemented:

 

When developing your recruitment strategy for the coming year:

• Create a structured learning environment that tests multiple target audiences and offers.  
• Be sure that what is learned is actionable information for future campaigns.  
• Recognize that each new member represents multiple years of dues and non-dues revenue.  
• Refine recruitment programs to identify the most and the least productive combinations of offers, target segments, and creative appeal.  
• Finally, keep in mind that an initial investment today, even if it incurs a loss in present day dollars, if done correctly can acquire essential knowledge to refine future acquisitions and set the stage for long-term organizational growth.

Following these simple rules will help you not only get the most out of your current campaign, but many campaigns to come.

 

Erik Schonher is Vice President for Marketing General Incorporated, the nation's largest marketing organization specializing in membership growth, and can be reached at (703) 706-0358 or Erik@MarketingGeneral.com .