The key benefits of a community based marketing strategy

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When looking at today’s competitive landscape, it’s clear that associations face a battle in their attempts to drive engagement and retain members. Amid the countless distractions and digital noise that exist online, traditional marketing strategies often fall short of creating meaningful connections that drive long-term growth. That’s why community based marketing is becoming increasingly popular with organisations.

Facilitating authentic engagement, community-focused strategies focus on building strong, genuine connections between organisations and their audiences. It includes strategies like those used by MCI to engage and grow memberships for the Medical Library Association and they’re crucial in sustainability.

As we’ll cover moving through this article, when you foster a vibrant community, you can create an ecosystem with more engaged members in addition to appealing to partners and sponsors. This opens up new revenue opportunities and can significantly extend your impact.

Community based marketing generates revenue

An aspect of community based marketing that will surely appeal to association leaders is that it can create diverse revenue streams - which represent the lifeblood of many organisations. By building a vibrant, engaged community, associations can not only meet the needs of their members but also attract interest from external stakeholders, such as customers, sponsors, partners, and industry leaders.

Associations that cultivate a collaborative and dynamic environment become appealing to stakeholders who see value in engaging with a passionate community. This engagement results in sponsorships, collaborative events, and strategic initiatives that can drive significant revenue, as can be seen in the work done by MCI for ASHHRA (the American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration).

When you emphasise relationship-building beyond just membership, your association can position itself as a centre of innovation within your industry, ensuring a steady influx of resources and opportunities for growth.

Enhanced member engagement

Another area in which community based marketing helps associations is in the connections they have with their members. As such, the focus on shared interests, values, and goals, serves to

create a sense of belonging and purpose, making anyone involved feel like they’re an integral part of a tight-knit, vibrant community.

If members receive content that speaks directly to their interests, they are more likely to engage with and contribute to events, programmes, and initiatives. This targeted approach might include customised newsletters, ‘member spotlights’, special interest groups, and digital content that aligns with their professional or personal growth goals.

Furthermore, by fostering these connections, you encourage members to become active advocates for your association, sharing their positive experiences with peers and bringing new people into the community. This word-of-mouth promotion can be a powerful tool in attracting sponsors and partners, further extending the reach and impact of your association.

Sponsorship and partnerships

When an organisation has an engaged community around it, it can represent a major draw for sponsors looking to target an active audience. Consequently, associations can leverage the strong relationships they have with their members to secure lucrative sponsorship deals that can fund future events, initiatives and projects.

An appropriate community based marketing example is MCI’s reimagining of the MPC Rocks Party which turned a standard gathering into a dynamic sponsorship platform. During this collaborative event atmosphere, our team was able to attract sponsors eager to engage with both members and key industry leaders, resulting in increased sponsorship revenue.

Monetised events & programmes

Associations can further drive revenue by creating premium events and educational and certification programmes that appeal to a broad audience. Hybrid and digital formats also serve to extend reach, allowing organisations to monetise specialised content such as webinars, online courses, and exclusive networking sessions.

By focusing on a mix of membership growth, strategic sponsorships, and monetised events, it’s possible to cultivate multiple revenue streams that support your goals. Also, engaging with both members and customers in this way helps to build a sustainable, thriving community - a valuable asset to any association.

Cultivating industry influence and thought leadership

An expansion of industry influence is another advantage that can be enjoyed through a well-implemented community based marketing strategy. Your community can be a huge reservoir of expertise, which means that you can make use of this resource and host discussions on best practices, and emerging trends and share industry insights.

This collaborative exchange positions you as a hub of knowledge and a thought leader within your sector. Naturally, this is again going to grab the attention of external stakeholders and potential partners.

Showcasing your expertise and relevance

When you curate a lot of valuable content, such as whitepapers, webinars, or expert panels, it showcases your relevance within your industry and your commitment to advancing your field. Content can also be co-created with members, encouraging them to contribute their expertise. This further enriches your association’s reputation and extends its reach beyond your existing member base.

Additionally, being recognised as a thought leader helps you to achieve high visibility with potential partnerships, sponsors, and collaborators. Subsequently, industry leaders are more likely to align with your organisation which demonstrates a forward-thinking approach and is actively engaging in shaping your field.

Leveraging technology for deeper engagement

For those organisations that want to put marketing strategies like these into place, technology plays a central role. Ongoing discussion and interaction are critical in this regard and this can be facilitated with online community forums, members-only portals and via social media.

Furthermore, data analytics can help associations better understand the behaviour of their audience, as well as their preferences, and how they engage. This real-time information allows you to adjust your content quickly to ensure that it’s fully aligned with what members and other stakeholders need.

Enjoying the advantages of community based marketing

Faced with the challenges presented by the modern digital landscape, associations need to employ innovative strategies to engage their audiences and ensure sustainable growth. Community based marketing is a powerful approach that builds authentic connections, fosters a sense of belonging, and creates new revenue streams.

Creating a buzz like this takes time and marketing know-how, two commodities that association leaders often don’t have in abundance. That’s why many turn to expert agencies who understand how to create the communities that offer so much.

At MCI, we have many years of experience in helping associations to create impactful community-based marketing strategies. As such, if you’re looking for help in this area, we’d be happy to discuss your precise needs in-depth to see how we can assist.

You can talk to our team simply by clicking on our contact form and filling out your company details. Alternatively, if you’d like to see our full range of engagement services, you’ll find everything you need to know on our website, as well as our AEI Report, which includes the Engagement Loop - a framework to guide associations with their engagement strategy.

MCI Content Team

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