I work at an association, where currently about 90% of communications are directed at the entire member base. Our target audience is small but when it comes to communication, every member counts and we cant settle for a 35% reach rate. (The lack of segmentation is another problem, for another day.) Nevertheless, there are segments of our population that seem unreachable. As a business owner, you have a similar group… People who are not at all interested in even taking the time to figure out if they could, perhaps, be interested. They either don’t see or just ignore a large portion of your communications. And even if you know in your heart of hearts that your product, service or offering could be of value to these people, they’re simply not listening. So how do you reach them? Now, I know that we’ll never get a 90% response rate. It just won’t happen. But that doesn’t stop me from trying every day to reach one new person. Whether I’m kicking off a campaign, setting up a new social media account, designing a print piece, testing SMS services or writing a headline, my objective is the same…. To get the attention of at least one “quiet” member. Here are a few things I’ve discovered thus far: 1. The basics matter. No matter how many new things you try, people always come back to tried and true favorites. You need a . You need great customer service. You need to offer products/services that provide value and you need to tell everyone in clear and compelling terms what that value is. Those are the basics, and they matter immensely. 2. You need to be where the “unreachables” are. Not everyone is visiting your website, looking for you on Google, reading your emails or saving everything you mail them. So you need to go where the “unreachables” are likely to be. In our case, this is Facebook, LinkedIn and sometimes Twitter. We know that our members are always on the go, so text messages often work. Our members are also involved with other associated industries, so it is important for us to be active in those communities, online and off. Where are your “unreachables” every day? 3. You gotta have a hook. Everyone needs something. The trick is finding that one thing that grabs the attention of those who haven’t been listening. We are all busy, and we all have relatively short attention spans (some shorter than others). A great headline, an amazing image, an intriguing offer… These can all turn an “unreachable” into an active client. If you knew the one hook that would work for everyone, you’d be implementing it by now. But as you know, it’s not that easy. And sometimes it takes trial and error, a/b testing or segmentation based on other known factors to really get it right and grab the attention of someone new. 4. Time it right. Think about some of the reasons your “unreachables” might be missing or ignoring you correspondences. Timing could be a big part of it. In our industry, members often work late, so sending out an email at 5:30 pm is perfectly natural and results in good click-through rates. But what if your target audience is working moms? As a working mom, I can tell you that I am not reading work-related email as I am shuttling kids to baseball practice or cooking dinner. In fact, I may not even check work email until the following morning, and by then there are 50 emails in my inbox, and I’m just skimming – if that. No great hook and I don’t even see your communication. But, if you send me something compelling at 12:30 pm, when I’m eating lunch at my desk and reading the news, I’m much more likely to notice it and to have the time to take action. Timing matters. 4. Strive to be share-worthy and shareable. We started our association blog as a way to communicate our news, event information and member offers. But we also feature articles with helpful tips, analysis of industry trends and information on relevant local initiatives. Posting these kinds of stories – things that are of interest to members even if they don’t have anything to do with us – makes us . And making sure all of our content is easy to share on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and via email makes use shareable. If our active members share our content, they are potentially reaching those members who have been unreachable through traditional association communications. Your content needs to be worthy of sharing and easy to share. One or the other doesn’t cut it. It really needs to be BOTH. 5. Sometimes, you just need to play. Even if you do all of these things and implement a comprehensive strategy designed to be exactly where your “unreachables” are, exactly when they are there with exactly the right hook, it may not be enough. Sometimes, you need to play around with something new. Throw something up and see if it sticks. Maybe it’s creating an online forum for questions. Maybe it’s teaming up with another organization to co-sponsor an event or to cross-promote specific communications. Maybe it’s creating a direct mail campaign. Or maybe it’s offering an incentive for referring another member. Sometimes getting creative is they key to engaging. How have you captured the attention of your once quiet audience? Do you think it is important to continually try to reach out to these people, or does it somehow dilute the quality of interaction with the clients/members that are currently active? I’d love to hear your thoughts, as this is one of by biggest ongoing challenges.
Post via Social Amateur