It’s a fact: professional associations always need to be looking for new members. Among the strategies used most today, lead capture can be the answer to reaching your goals!
This is the technique used to reach groups of people interested in your services and turn them into members.
This can be done through digital solutions, like email, social media, ads… plus one of the most traditional channels: events.
In this article, I’ll walk you through the steps and help you capture leads for your association.
Get ready to learn techniques that can help your organization double in size (and revenue!).
What Are Leads?
Basically, a lead is someone who has shown interest in your association or the services you offer.
Usually, this interest is shown when the person provides contact information, like name, email, or phone number.
That way, your association can start communicating through marketing actions that turn these people into members.
After all, if someone has already shown interest in your service, they’re more likely to keep looking for solutions you can offer.
To get leads, it’s important to invest in several strategies. This includes filling out forms on websites, engaging on social media, attending events, and other actions.
Benefits of Lead Capture for Professional Associations
- Growing your member base: expand your reach and connect with new people interested in your services;
- Personalized communication: build better marketing campaigns using the data you gather about your leads;
- Lower member acquisition costs: lead capture is a cheaper method than traditional advertising;
- Member retention: once converted into members, well-engaged leads can become organic promoters of your brand.
How to Capture Leads for Your Association
Regardless of the content format you create, it’s important to follow a few principles in content production. They are:
Create Informative Content
First of all, your content needs to be relevant and informative.
So, develop materials that address the problems and challenges your target audience faces, offering valuable solutions and insights.
Also, make sure to optimize your content with relevant keywords. That way, you’ll improve your visibility on search engines and reach a wider audience.
Content examples: blog posts, whitepapers, educational videos, webinars, and other types of events.
Strengthen Your Branding
Another point you need to work on is staying present in people’s minds.
That way, you’ll always be the go-to solution when a problem comes up that your service can solve.
For example, when your lead needs events or training in the field, they’ll come to you, because they know your association hosts the best events for members.
But that will only happen if they know your brand.
In other words, you need to attract them with informative content. You also need a strong brand, a social media presence, ads, and a presence at the events your leads attend.
Ultimately, you need to show your relevance in the field and highlight the values and differentiators that make your association unique.
Content examples: social media posts, ads, event sponsorships.
Use Tools to Capture Leads
Finally, it’s important to capture your leads’ data at some point in your content.
Usually, this data is captured through forms.
After all, the lead needs to signal their intention to read more of your content or learn more.
To do this, you can use:
- Event registration forms;
- Landing pages to collect contact information;
- Pop-ups on your website or blog;
- Newsletter sign-up buttons, and more.
In practice, building this kind of content is much simpler than it sounds. Let me show you how!
4 Ways to Generate Leads for Business Associations
1. Informative Content
As mentioned, informative content is one of the biggest draws for your audience.
That’s because it tends to educate and teach, answering your audience’s biggest questions and pain points.
It can take different formats, but it’s commonly seen as downloadable educational materials, blogs, email marketing, podcasts, and so on.
This content helps reinforce your branding and position you as a reference in the field.
But some content can also be “premium,” requiring a form to be filled out to access it.
By filling out the form, you get the lead’s data.
So, remember to create content exclusive enough that people feel the need to fill out the form and share their information.
2. Social Media
Still on the topic of branding, social media is a great tool!
That’s because through it, you can raise awareness of your association and attract people interested in becoming members.
You can also use social media comments and groups to build loyalty with your association, promote networking, and create communities.
To do this, create groups for your association on platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram, and even Instagram.
Keep in mind: more than being present on every platform, it’s important to be on the platforms where your members actually are.
It’s also worth participating in forums and sharing relevant content with calls to action.
A call to action is exactly that: a prompt to act, like the classic “link in bio.”
In other words, it’s a text or button designed to get the reader to click a link. They’re then redirected to a landing page where they leave their contact information.
3. Paid Ads
Paid ads for events are a more direct strategy for generating leads for your association.
They can generate greater visibility for you in a short time, helping your brand get remembered and recognized by many people.
You can also create specific campaigns for form completion and lead capture.
For example, you can use Google Ads to get a page to the top of search results.
It could be a blog post with forms and buttons embedded in the article.
You can also use Meta Ads to run ads targeting your audience on Instagram.
Keep in mind that using ads comes with a cost for your association. So, it’s important that the cost of acquiring that lead makes sense within your marketing strategy.
4. Events
Finally, one of the best strategies for generating leads for your association is investing in events.
That’s because this is a unique opportunity for your attendees to get to know the people behind the organization.
Plus, events organized by associations tend to be educational, generate networking, and attract great speakers.
All of this will draw the attention of an audience that could become members of your association.
Either way, when they register for the event, the lead will already give you all their contact information.
That way, you can continue the relationship after the event, offering additional content and engagement opportunities.
To create events that really grab leads’ attention, keep this in mind:
Invest in Appealing Formats
One of the first steps to creating an appealing event is investing in formats that are interesting to your target audience.
In this case, your event is usually aimed at professionals in the field. So, it’s worth investing in practical formats.
Consider webinars, workshops, panel discussions, roundtables, and more.
Offer an Online Registration Form
Offering an online registration form is essential to make it easier for leads to register and to ensure efficient participation in the event. Make sure the form is quick and easy to fill out.
After all, too many questions can make a lead give up halfway through registration!
So, focus on the basic information and make the form easy to access.
In other words, offer it on an event website where leads can find the benefits and differentiators of the event.
Partner with Influencers
Partnerships with relevant influencers in your industry can help increase your event’s visibility and credibility, drawing the attention of qualified leads.
So, identify influencers whose audience aligns with your target audience, and invite them to take part in the event as speakers, moderators, or promotional partners.
That way, they can help promote the event to their followers, boosting reach and engagement.
Use an Event Platform
Make organizing your event easier with an event platform!
This technology is essential for business associations because it simplifies event creation and helps you run multiple actions at once, or across the same year.
After all, a large organization is going to run more than one event a year, right?
That will likely increase your chances of reaching more people!
So, to focus on building relationships with attendees, it’s worth using a platform like Even3.
That’s because you can automate many time-consuming tasks and cut down on the time it takes to organize an event.
For example, when you create an event, you automatically get a website too, which can be edited without needing any coding or design skills.
You can also bring all the events your association organizes together under a single event portal for your organization.
All of this increases the engagement and conversion of leads, strengthening the success of your lead generation strategy.
So, how about starting to create your event now? Take advantage of a free consultation and discover the best tools to reach your goals.
