Does this sound like you? You have great ideas for webinars, virtual events, or even interactive Zoom discussions for your members – but when it comes down to execution, the process is painful and time-consuming.
If so, there’s a better solution out there: using landing pages! Landing pages can help you effectively manage your events, from promotion and registration to follow-up and feedback. To help illustrate, learn how the American Society for Nondestructive Testing (ASNT) used this tool to manage a new event series.
But before we get much further, let’s define landing pages:
A landing page is a web page with a dedicated use. It often promotes something and includes a way for a visitor to take an action. For example, they could fill out a form to find out more information, download content, or sign up for an event. You can build landing pages using technology like your website’s content management system or marketing automation software.
Now, back to ASNT!
The Event: Membership Mondays
The team wanted to run a series of events – Membership Mondays – to highlight their valuable member benefits. They realized that many members didn’t know about important features of their membership, so they wanted to try hosting a regular open forum discussion about benefits to increase retention and contribute to membership acquisition.
These events were going to be virtual and open to members or non-members, but Membership Specialist Patricia White needed a way to register attendees, send out the link to join, and collect feedback following the event. Their team’s website manager had a lot on their plate, so adding one more thing didn’t seem feasible.
Setting Up Registration for Membership Mondays
Pat looked into using the landing page feature in Higher Logic’s marketing automation software, Communications, and tried it out.
Turns out, it was simple and easy. So instead of going through more steps with the web manager to use their website’s content management system, Pat was able to manage it on her own, saving time for everyone. She could easily customize each page with ASNT branding, add a brief description of the event, and give members a way to register for the right time slot.
Check out one of their Membership Monday event landing pages here. Pat’s favorite part of using the landing page is the submission page. She includes the links to the Membership Monday meeting and an “add to calendar” button.
“Using landing pages in Higher Logic Communications is so simple to do!” Pat said. “All I had to do was add images, branding, and the description. Since our team could manage it on our own, it saves time for our web manager. The ease of use in creating the landing page, getting information back, and being able to connect it to social media was so helpful.”
Anyone who registers is broken out into a special group, and that group automatically gets a thank-you message and a link to join on the day of the event. Plus, Pat also set up an automatic email that reminds attendees an hour before Membership Mondays begins.
Following Up on the Event
After the events, ASNT uses landing pages to run post-webinar surveys, asking questions like, “What did you like?” and, “What would you like to see in the future?”
This process helps them adds more information to the attendees’ records in their association management software, netFORUM. They can use this extra data to personalize programming for members in the future. The process also helps them effectively source valuable feedback about what’s working and where to improve with Membership Mondays. They’ve gotten additional topic ideas from members and non-members, helping them hone both member and prospect communications.
Since Pat and the team started this event series, they’ve have had great feedback from members who didn’t know certain programs were available. Plus, thanks to the email segmentation they set up, non-members and lapsed members have gotten valuable exposure to new programs and benefits.
Because ASNT can segment who receives their emails with Communications Enterprise, they could send promotions to non-member certificate holders. Some of these recipients have become members because of the extra exposure to ASNT’s benefits.
ASNT is seeing results on the lapsed member side as well. Expired members are being reminded to join again if they want to access valuable benefits.
“Our goal with marketing automation is to streamline all of our processes so that we send the right people the right communications at the right time. Whether it’s during member onboarding or renewal, the automation process makes it easier to get all those informational emails out when they need them.”
– Patricia White, Membership Specialist, ASNT
Want to learn more about landing pages or other features of Communications? Let’s connect!
Association Strategist
Beth’s marketing experience encompasses more than twenty-five years of marketing strategy and member/customer engagement in various industries, including puzzles and games, training, education and aviation.
In addition to marketing, Beth has worked in event management and web development, wearing a variety of hats in different positions. She has also been an adjunct professor of marketing at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia.
Beth received a Bachelor of Science degree in Merchandising from James Madison University, a Certificate in Event Management from The George Washington University, and a Masters of Business Administration/Marketing from the University of Phoenix. She has earned numerous awards for her marketing, including two Top Digital Marketer of the Year awards.
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