Don’t let your engagement die out after the early days of your marketing strategy. Allow your association to build real, long-lasting marketing connections and you could see sustainable growth in the future.
We’ve all experienced that one social media post that seems to have better engagement than the rest. But how do you take that short burst of success and keep it going long-term? With any association, staying tack sharp with its marketing efforts is a must. Whether it’s through traditional marketing, content marketing, or the ever so popular social media marketing, you want your overall strategy to produce long lasting engagement well into the future. But unfortunately, short bursts and rapid marketing growth does not always equal a sustainable marketing plan. Yes, it’s true that any amount of engagement on your association’s marketing messages is a good thing, no matter the length.
But if your association wants to see interested audience members convert to members, it needs to push for a strategy that promotes long-term growth. So, let’s go over exactly how to do so. If you’re looking to turn your short term bursts of engagement into something that holds weight well after the shelf life of your marketing efforts, keep reading on for our best tips on long-term marketing engagement.
In the beginning stages of your association’s social media marketing exploration, your audiences are eager to give you the engagement you’re looking for. There’s no doubt your association’s social media channels were pulling in heaps of interaction, a swarm of new followers, and engagement rates like never before. And that’s expected within the first few months of your social media marketing efforts- members are excited to see your organization on their favorite social media platforms.
As time progresses, you might begin to see those rates die down slowly, and then almost all at once. It seems like your audiences have even forgotten about your association’s posts altogether. While it is part of the process of social media growth, it doesn’t have to be a permanent trend. It can be tempting for your association to want to dive into new social media channels in search of that aggressive engagement it once had. However, it’s best to stick to media channels you’ve already established connections on. You want to get the most out of your follower base, especially since you’ve taken the time to build up your presence. To start, you can reach out to select followers that seem to be extremely active on social media platforms.
By having these connections, you can leverage a symbiotic relationship with audiences and get them to repost and share your social media content. Think of it this way, you want to have a relationship with those social media users who are your association’s biggest fan. You also want to keep open communication with your entire social media audience. Invite them to openly communicate with your association and its content by posting interactive messages that get them thinking. By reaching out and making that connection through social media, you should see an increase in engagement in your social media posts and marketing tactics, therefore creating a much more sustainable connection with audiences.
Next, let’s talk about content. According to LinkedIn Technology Marketing, 72% of B2B marketers have a content strategy. That’s right, well over half of marketers know how effective content can be for acquiring new audiences and converting more leads into customers. And your association can profit on the value of content, too. But often times it goes as follows: Your association comes out with a particular content piece that blows up with engagement. Audiences flock to it, digesting and sharing this content with other prospective viewers. And while engagement like this is appealing, it can leave you wondering why other content pieces don’t seem to do as well. Twitter’s business blog suggests a shift in content diversity. But what do we mean by this?
Well, if your association is used to producing and promoting one style of content, it could be leaving doors to other engagement opportunities closed- limiting long-term growth of your marketing audience. Let’s take video content for example. Is your association producing it? If not, there’s an entire target audience that could be slipping out of your reach. According to Forbes, over 500 million people are watching video on Facebook alone every single day.
That’s half a billion viewers - and an entire audience you could be reaching out to. Consider incorporating a few well thought out videos to your content library, and your engagement could streamline into something more sustainable in no time. Additionally, you always want to keep content promotion at the forefront of your association’s content marketing efforts. Neil Patel states that a proper content strategy consists of 20% content creation and 80% content promotion. This means that for as much content as your association produces, it needs to promote that content more than twice as hard. If your association doesn’t push its content towards audiences, it won’t get the type of engagement that promotes long-term growth. Be sure to incorporate content promotion into every content piece you produce. When coming up with a content strategy, promotion should always be considered first and foremost.
And finally, we have the traditional route of marketing through paid advertising messages. If your association got its foot through the marketing door through free marketing tactics like social media and content, paid advertising is a way to bridge the engagement gap you could be experiencing. It’s the next step in a natural marketing progression that can leverage your audience for higher engagement rates. And it’s also a way to create a longer lasting interest with audiences. Creating a buyer’s journey with audiences through paid marketing can help you stay in their minds longer than a simple social media post.
Consider using paid advertising platforms that your association is familiar with, such as Facebook or Twitter paid post boosting options. This gives you a way to promote your social media posts to a larger target audience while still staying on channels you have familiarity with, eliminating confusion and complexity. You can also use paid marketing tools to help your association get its first steps into the paid marketing world. Tools like Perfect Audience allow you to follow steps and guidelines that do most of the work for you.
Perfect Audience allows your association to upload advertisements and marketing messages to their platform and in return, pushes those promotions towards your set target audience. It also allows you to control your marketing budget, great for associations looking to market on a strict budget. In any case, paid marketing can help your association cross that barrier from fast paced, short engagement, to being on your audience’s mind for a long time. Don’t let your engagement die out after the early days of your marketing strategy. Allow your association to build real, long-lasting marketing connections and you could see sustainable growth in the future.
