Getting Started With The Digitalization Of Associations

This article about the digitalization of associations was first published on Boardroom, provided by IAPCO, author Frank M. Waechter, Founder and CEO of fmwaechter.com | Digital Marketing.

According to the World Economic Forum, digitalization is one of the key disruptors of the 21st-century. This process has caused profound changes in the way we interact and go about our lives. And has also transformed the nature of work and organizations. Ernst & Young suggests that the digital transformation is here to stay, and so it’s essential for associations to jump on board, embrace the digital mindset, and bring added value to their members – especially to new generations who are digital natives.

Digitalization, and thus digitalization of associations, is already underway, so embracing it is not a matter of if, but instead of when and how. In this post, we take a look at the most effective strategies and solutions that associations can use to achieve this.

Related: Digital Transformation in the Meetings and Events Industry

Should Your Association Go “All Digital”?

The first step is to kick-start a digital transformation strategy is deciding what to implement, how to do it, and on which time frame. Although it might be tempting to go “all-in” on digital, this isn’t always practical or necessary. Implementation success rates seem to be rather low – under 30% according to this McKinsey survey. On the other hand, those who are successful take an incremental approach to digitalization. Digital organizations don’t become so overnight, but they work and rework their strategy. Until they’re able to create new and stronger forms of engagement with their members. Therefore, it’s wise to make gradual changes strategically, using carefully chosen digital tools to enhance existing and more traditional operational models.

Low-Cost, High Impact Solutions

Mindset is as important as tools when it comes to the digitalization of associations. The process starts with building digital skills into the association’s culture, bringing key stakeholders on board, and breaking down silos before going all out. You can achieve this with limited financial resources – it all starts with the right mindset and with the disposition to make small-scale changes that have a significant impact.

Free content analytics tools are an excellent place to start. These tools enable data-driven decision making, which forms the basis for digital strategy. With this anticipatory intelligence, you can discover which content drives interaction best and which digital technologies your members are already using. The information can be used to predict what your members need. Also to formulate digital marketing campaigns using the format and channels your members prefer. For example, setting up an online community on a social media platform allows members to share and network 24/7 using tools they’re already familiar with. Some organizations, like the Association for Clinical Research Professionals, have created their online community platforms. Whereas others (like Trades Union Congress) offer their members online training in a webinar format, all through their website.

Related: Marketing for Associations: 4 Reasons to Use Google Analytics

Automation and Digital Tools

Another cost-effective tool is marketing automation. While not free, these software packages can save on labour costs. At the same time, deliver highly targeted communications that reach the right person with the right message at the right time. Also, consider the products or services your association already offers and how can they be digitalized. With marketing automation, it’s possible to segment members based on their interests and goals. And offer them tailored content.

Digital tools like machine learning or artificial intelligence have enormous potential for success, and they don’t need to be costly. Chatbots can be quickly built on social media platforms and drive a conversational approach to member interaction. And since they can learn autonomously and become more accurate over time, they are a sound investment.

Related: Does Your Associations’ Website Meet 2019 Standards?

Conferences and events are other areas of opportunity. Event apps are replacing printed conference guides, making them more portable and user-friendly. 

Examples of Digitalization of Associations

Organisations like the National Association of College and University Business Officers are building membership value into their events using year-round, multi-event apps that not only deliver smooth registration, networking and personalized content but also engagement, interaction and intelligence.

Another example of how digitalization can strengthen the reach of events: BILD, a Toronto-based land management association went paperless for its annual awards event. To do so, they implemented a CSP (content services platform), which bridges the gap between digital experience management (DxM) and content management. For the annual event, this move allowed members to submit and manage applications on a self-serve basis. Also reducing greatly time-related inefficiencies and risks of human error. Content management systems can be pricey, but there are affordable options too. In the beginning, association leaders may want to explore basic packages and solutions. Thus making sure their features target the most important goals for a particular event.

Related: 4 Concepts To Understand Digital Transformation in the Event Industry

Conclusion

The digitalization of associations is complex and multi-faceted, but its benefits outweigh the challenges. Taking a gradual approach to digital transformation can help your association remain competitive, future-focused, and member-oriented. Start taking steps now to give your association a strategic advantage and establish it as a trusted leader in your field. It’s never too late to become digitally aware and lead transformation successfully. If you are looking to give your association a digital strategy, get in touch with me. We offer digital solutions specifically tailored to multiple sectors in the MICE Industry.

Does Your Conference Need Social Media?

Social media for conferences is absolutely essential. In the digital age, there is no question about it. As we have touched on before, this is where your target audience lives.

According to Eventbrite, close to 25% of traffic to event registration pages comes from social networks, and people who register after hearing about your conference on social media are 3X more likely to share it with other people.

Firstly, social media effectively serves as a platform for you to communicate with your target audience. Through engaging with them you can build a community, generate brand awareness, increase customer relations and loyalty.

As an association, it is imperative you achieve the following objectives:

  • Increase customer familiarity
  • Improve customer satisfaction
  • Grow brand awareness
  • Determine market positioning
  • Develop competitor insights
  • Identify and establish relationships with partners
  • Keep the conversation going after the event
  • Build a community
  • Generate new leads

Furthermore, to achieve any of this, you need an in-depth digital marketing strategy. Social media for conferences can be quite challenging, but we have got you covered! Try out these 3 tried and tested strategies.

1.  Create a unique hashtag

Regarding social media for conferences, you cannot overlook the power of the hashtag.

By utilising a hashtag consistently, you will boost the online conversation around your conference. When people discuss your event online, they will use the hashtag – especially on Twitter. When delegates post photographs online of themselves at the conference, they will utilise the hashtag.

Just pick one, keep it simple and use it every single time you post.

It can potentially:

  • Group together all online conversation and media around your conference
  • Allow your audience to easily connect with one another
  • Encourage their followers to join in your conference conversation and find out more about it
  • Increase the online exposure of your association and conference

You should make your hashtag clearly visible in the following places:

  • Your social media biography’s
  • Your entire association’s email signatures
  • On registration and website pages
  • Encourage speakers to use it in their online interactions leading up to the conference
  • On all your branded material
  • Use it in all your social media interactions

2.  Organic sharing

In order to promote organic sharing, you first must make it easy for your audience, partners and keynote speakers to share your content or event page online.

This can be done by getting a web developer to include social sharing buttons across your conference website. Furthermore, use your followers as a resource. By urging your followers to engage with your content, you will gain deeper insight into what they value. You can achieve this through the following:

  • Telling a story
  • Sharing an experience or behind the scenes content
  • Speaking about current events within your industry
  • Highlighting and discussing a previous speaker’s speech or theme from a past event
  • Pointing out something important about your audience
  • Sharing compelling visual images
  • Asking an intriguing question
  • Discussing relevant facts
  • Being humorous – sharing unique humour relevant to your audience and industry
  • Telling them why you are hosting the conference – why you are interested in the topics that will be addressed
  • Explaining to your followers why attending the conference will be beneficial to them
  • Asking them what activities they would like to engage in on the day
  • Asking them what they would like speakers to address at the conference

Further to this, ask your partners and keynote speakers to invite their followers to your event page. This way you will harness their following and take a step forward towards expanding your community.

Provide them with everything they need in order to do this. Make it easy for them by supplying them with a content pack including branded images, relevant hashtags, proposed copy and links.

3.  Targeted social media advertising

Social media is a cost-effective strategy for promoting your conference because you can allocate budget for paid advertising which gives you the opportunity to reach people beyond your followers, based on the demographics and psychographics of the audience.

You will first need to identify your target audience as this is an effective way to reach like-minded people that will most likely want to attend your conference or at least show interest and hopefully attend the next one. In addition, you can also use paid advertising to retarget already interested users. For instance, through Business Manager on Facebook, you will be able to identify who has clicked on your registration link but may not have gone through with the full process. These could be individuals who are interested but are waiting for a payday in order to purchase a place at your conference.

By retargeting users, you can remind them of your upcoming event.

Social media for conferences can be a tricky and tedious task, especially in the last three months leading up to the event. Outsourcing your digital marketing is a cost-effective way of ensuring you reach the right people and that your interactions online are professional and productive. Above all, get in touch with me today for advice on digital marketing in the MICE industry.

5 Key Elements for Successful Conference Promotion

Conference planning is a demanding task to manage and implement. From the months of preparation to the environment leading up to it and balancing the needs of delegates and speakers on the day. There is nothing more disappointing to a conference planner than having unsold conference tickets as ticket sales are a direct indication of how well you promoted the event. Conference promotion can make or break your event, but before we get to that, you need to consider the following aspects:

Clarify Your Objective And Target Market

What is the purpose of your conference? What would make it a success? This comes down to figuring out exactly what your target audience wants.

For a conference and its promotion to be a success, this needs to be addressed. Once you have established this, you should then have a clear objective and purpose based on the needs of your audience.

Topics And Agenda

Once you have clarified your objective, you need to then decipher which topics and questions your speakers should be addressing. What agenda will help them relate to your target audience best?

Guests And Facilitators

A capable facilitator is crucial to you’re the success of your sessions or workshops. You will need to find someone who is articulate, agile and has enough knowledge of the topic to ask the right questions.

When it comes to selecting your guest speakers, it will prove highly-beneficial if you recruit individuals who have an online presence.

Picking someone with the relevant expertise and experience is a given, but the more credible they are the better as this will boost awareness around your event when you start to promote it (more on this later).

Now to avoid a futile attempt at hosting an event, use these 5 key elements for successful conference promotion.

Create Videos

This is the direction online advertising is currently moving in. Incorporating video into your online promotion will result in higher, more responsive engagement. Don’t panic, it can be done inexpensively.

Just create a simple interview-style video with your guest speakers highlighting the objective and major topic of your conference. Ensure the mention the value in attending.

Thankfully, there are DIY video editing applications that are capable of producing professional looking results and which allow you to work off of templates. All that is required of you is editing the clips you choose to upload. You can even add sound.

Email Campaigns

Email campaigns are very effective for conference promotion. The ROI on email promotion averages at 38:1. Some may say it is a dated method of promotion but the numbers and results state otherwise.

Again, there are incredible, user-friendly tools for doing this. MailChimp will allow you to shift all focus on the content.

This application allows the user to upload a list of recipients, manage subscriptions and track the open rates.

The only real work you will need to do is create engaging content to include in the mailer. You can also send out emails in phases, such as announcing early bird tickets, competitions, surprise speakers and “preparing for the event’ emails.

Create a Conference Hashtag

Social media will be your most powerful means of promotion, and when looking to have engaging conversations with your audience, Twitter is the most popular social media channel. You will also be able to leverage your conversations and connections on LinkedIn.

You can start by creating a conference hashtag. This will encourage people to engage in online conversations.

Use something simple like the acronym of your event name followed by the year. This can be easily monitored. Include the hashtag on all your branding online and on the day/weekend of the conference. This way, when delegates attend, they will utilise the hashtag when posting online.

Further to this, look for relevant conversations that your target audience might are engaged in and join in. Offer value in your responses and you will get the right attention.

For hashtags specifically related to your conference, conduct a search on Twitter using keywords that are connected to your industry, then join in on those conversations. This method of conference promotion is entirely free, it just takes a lot of effort.

Create Valuable Content

Instead of push-marketing, why not instead give your target audience interesting content that they can use and share? Try to establish your brand as a thought leader on specific industry-related tropics.

Share information on guest speakers and their influence, insight into the topics they will be covering and why. Be relatable, be valuable. Do not simply promote the price and submission deadline for the conference.

Why is it valuable for delegates to attend your conference? Other than industry insight, it is about networking.

After you have announced your guest speakers and keynote speaker, ask them to talk about your conference to their own audience. Having someone credible speak about your event will generate invaluable interest leading to an increase in ticket sales.

Search Engine Optimisation

According to Eventbrite, search (Google) can drive between 5-10% of ticket purchases or registrations.

You can achieve this by ensuring your pages (landing pages, web pages, blogs) are SEO-optimized.

Do the following to rank higher in Google:

  • Add your event name, a keyword, and the location of your conference (city) in your title tags
  • Include your event name and relevant keyword in the “Header 1’s” of your pages
  • Finally, add the address of your event and embed the google map location of your conference on your pages.

If you are unfamiliar with keywords, view this guide. To use keywords to your advantage when actioning conference promotion, you need to discover which key phrases are relevant to your event.

Use Google’s Keyword Planner to understand keyword performance, test multiple keywords, and compare keywords to each other.

Related: Social Media Marketing for the MICE Industry

Conference promotion takes a lot of research and commitment. There are many different methods such as influencer marketing and even outsourcing your marketing altogether. If you need expert advice or a proficient support structure, get in touch with me.