Increasing membership numbers is not a one-time job; it’s a continuous process. And work doesn’t end at getting members; you have to keep working to retain them. Is it difficult? Absolutely. Is it impossible? Not at all. And we’ll show you how:

1. Engagement

A community can only be established if there exists a constant, two-way interaction between you and your potential and existing members. People are becoming increasingly active on social media platforms, predominantly Facebook, and these platforms allow you to form groups and communities within them. So, you are saved the trouble of building your own platform from scratch. Create a members only group on Facebook to interact with them.

But, an online interaction alone will not hold your members together. You need to conduct real meetings and gatherings for your members so that they can know you and each other better. You can also involve them in focus groups so that they feel more privileged as members of your community.

2. Be a Problem Solver

There are two approaches to landing members – one, by offering them your friendship, that is, by giving them certain benefits; and two, by offering to solve their problems. People tend to trust those who help them out in times of need, and they stay loyal to them. Gaining and retaining members is no different. If you know the kind of audience you are targeting, list out the problems that they might be facing in their professional lives, and provide solutions to these problems. Your members are not going to stay by your side because you’re offering them discount coupons and premiere tickets, but because you’re offering them real solutions to real problems.

3. Understanding

In order to be a problem solver, you first need to understand your audience. Whenever you interact with them, be it through social media or feedback forms, you gather vital information about your audience that will help you curate more customized solutions for them. There are a multitude of platforms that can help you log details about your targeted members, including CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Systems, where a big database of your audience’s information can be maintained. There are hundreds of CRM applications that you can get installed and maintained by software providers.

4. Like Meets Like

Instead of building a community from ground up, you could tap into existing communities that share a common goal or vision. When you find such communities, offer them benefits for sharing their members with you so that it’s a win-win situation for the both of you.

5. Visibility vs. Accessibility

Marketing lives by one mantra – Curiosity is the best tool. If you are sending out membership requests to your audience via an email that contains the perks they’ll be receiving as members and also a link to your website, they are definitely going to click on your website link and look around. Instead of classifying this as nosiness, use it to your advantage. Fill your website up with interesting content, but only make snippets of it available to visitors, while the entire thing stays accessible to members only. This will make them curious, and they’ll be more inclined to becoming members in order to have full access to your website content.

6. Tales & Testimonials

A potential member will only become a member after confirming the benefits from current members. So, make this process easier for them by showcasing your existing members’ stories, testimonials, and achievements on your website and pages for your potential members to see. Also, make sure it’s not just words. Pictures of your members, or even video clips, add to their credibility. Investing in good media peripherals will maximize your ROI in terms of membership numbers.

In conclusion, make your potential members feel that you’re not just building a community based on mutual benefits, but a family based on the foundation of trust and belonging. Again, ensure consistency when it comes to interacting with them, and always put your members first.

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Events are meant to promote networking, and networking does not begin on the day of the event itself. In order to get your attendees excited about the event and also to create new content for the same, you need to engage with them prior to the event, and this is how you go about it:

BLOGGING

Blog posts are rich in content and they largely influence the way your event is perceived by your audience. By creating good quality blog content, you can not only engage with existing attendees, but also expand your reach to other potential attendees. Resort to platforms like LinkedIn, apart from your own website, to put forth your event and your views in front of thousands of other professionals in your niche. You could also request your speakers and partners to write guest posts so as to give your audience a little glimpse of what they’re up for in the event.

TWEET-CHAT

It’s really surprising how much can be achieved with a string of 140 characters. Tweet-chatting is a live event that one can host on his Twitter account, encouraging followers to participate in a discussion on a certain topic using an assigned hashtag. Choose any topic relevant to your industry and make sure it’s something that calls for discussion and is not mundane, create a suitable hashtag, schedule a tweet-chat and ask your speakers and other professionals from the industry to join in.

TWITTER POLL

While we’re on the subject of Twitter, here’s another amazing feature that Twitter launched quite recently, namely Twitter Polls. Users can now post a question with two choices for answers and ask followers to vote. As an event presenter, you can ask your audience engaging questions that vest in them a certain power of deciding what goes in the event and what stays out. For example, ask them to choose between two cuisines, and say that the winner cuisine will be served at the event. You could also ask them to choose between two topics, themes, or even guest speakers. This will ensure that they feel more connected to your event.

WEBINARS

This is a really cool way to connect with your attendees before the event and give them a feel of what the event will be all about. Bring in your keynote speakers, plug in a webcam, create a YouTube account and, using the ‘Hangout on Air’ feature, you can instantly start broadcasting live. On enabling live chat, you’ll be able to interact with your viewers who would ask questions and make comments that can be moderated in real time. The best part is – you can wear PJs while you’re at it and it won’t even be unprofessional!

PRE-CONNECT

As I pointed out in the introductory sentence of this post, networking is what people seek when they attend events. So, give your attendees a chance to network before the event through online conferences. You could use apps like Presdo Match that have networking functions, allowing attendees to connect with each other.

FACEBOOK CONTESTS

Competitions and prizes turn every mature adult into an excited child, so what better way to get your audience geared up for the event than hosting an online contest? Facebook competitions are very easy to organize, and you can always give away event merchandise, free event tickets online, free sessions with the keynote, an overnight stay at a good hotel and other cool goodies as prizes. Using Gleam, you can host a competition and give incentives to the participants on the basis of likes and shares. Also, you’ll be able to grow your databases by capturing their email addresses.

FUN CAMPAIGNS

The best way to get noticed is by being different. And different certainly equals silly in many cases. Instead of sticking to tried and tested methods, come up with fun competitions and campaigns where you prompt your attendees to upload funny pictures to earn a discount on the tickets, or a free goodie. Create a crisp hashtag for this campaign so that it’s easy to follow the activities, and by the end of it, you can also put them all together to display on your page.

Presenters work really hard to make an event happen, so placing its fate in the hands of the one day that the event is on is a huge risk. Your chances of having a successful event depend largely on the build-up, too. So, make sure you direct your efforts into these pre-event engagement techniques to increase your chances of making your event a memorable one.

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