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“They handled everything from our website to linking it with our social media accounts and payment platforms. I can now focus on my business since it’s automated.”
Although Chamber of Commerce organizations are at the heart of every city and region’s economy, many board members have a difficult time knowing how to expand their membership base beyond just word of mouth referrals. Why is that so? Isn’t an organization that helps local businesses a win-win solution?
Here at SEO’D Digital Marketing, we’ve worked with several chamber of commerce organizations and their board members to analyze, rebrand, and strategize how they can increase their impact on the community.
Here’s what we’ve found:
When a local business owner decides to join your Chamber of Commerce, they are sold on the benefits of joining. Perhaps they want to make known their new business to potential clients. Perhaps they want to use the benefits such as discounted prices on ads or entry to events. Regardless of what specific benefits your Chamber offers, they’re there to grow their business and prosper.
So why do they stop their membership? Perhaps it’s because their needs and their desires were unmet. Did you promise them the moon when you could only provide them half? Did promotions and events fizzle out in your network? Did things continue to get canceled or postponed because of COVID? Are there not enough opportunities for growth, networking, or marketing?
The best way to keep your members is to help them thrive. Firstly, ask your members through informal and formal methods (such as a survey) what they’d like to see and what they want more of. Ask them about their business needs and what they want from their Chamber. Explore what other Chambers near you offer their members and see what you emulate.
This is a big struggle for most Chamber board members and directors. You’re great at running your own operations, at networking with people, and running the organization — but marketing? Ads? Online strategy? Social media? Forget about it. It seems like there’s so much to do and all of it falls on the shoulders of just a few members. Even if you muster the energy and time to work on marketing the Chamber, you may lack a clear strategy and plan on what to do.
Fortunately, it starts with a plan on what kind of audiences you want to reach and figuring out what the best platforms are for your target audience. Sounds easy, right? It will take time, testing and trials, and some researching into the various free marketing methods out there such as content creation, SEO, and SMS marketing.
[Read our complete checklist for SEO that you can do on your own to increase website traffic.]
As a Chamber of Commerce administrator, you may be in charge of hundreds of business profiles that live on your website and directory. If they change their information, who should be responsible for changing it on the website? Is it on the business owner or is it on you, the administrator? Depending on the layout and structure of your website (your CRM), the business owners may be able to directly update their information for their business profile on their own. Or it may be on you to updated everything. With a great website that is easy to use, this necessary process can be shortened and (less) painful.
Communication is critical for every Chamber of Commerce. But with so many different platforms such as email, text message, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and more… Some administrators find themselves needing to post the same message again and again. How many times can you really send out an excited message about the Friday mixer? Pictures need to be resized to fit the different platforms, you need to remember multiple accounts, you need to keep on schedule for events…. The list goes on and on, trapping administrators into a hamster wheel of posting. To resolve this, be smart about your communication platforms and utilize automation tools that post on multiple platforms for you and allow you to schedule out your posts in advance. Scheduling your posts allows you to batch create messages, set when they will be posted, and then voila! Step away and worry about it no more.
Along with having a great chamber of commerce website design, and implementing a local SEO strategy to help grow website traffic, below are seven additional marketing ideas for your chamber of commerce:
Pro Tip: Make sure the subject line is catchy and creative, and you’re not making any of these common email marketing mistakes so that members actually open the email.
Are you going to try out any of these marketing methods and tactics for your chamber of commerce organization? Contrary to popular belief, marketing is no longer about promoting ‘me’. Instead, focus on promoting and helping your members and potential members (local business owners). By providing value to the community, you will increase your chamber’s reputation and presence in people’s minds and have a greater audience when you promote the value of membership.
Schedule a consultation call with us today and receive a free marketing performance audit ($500 value) from our team of digital marketing experts.
A creative website design and marketing agency for small-to-medium businesses. Marketing for the greater good.