Is your chapter getting a lot of visitors through the door, but suffering from poor conversion rates? The problem may lie with the people you’re targeting, rather than the chapter.
I did a 10 minute presentation to a chapter this morning that was ‘off the cuff’ so to speak (rather than pre-prepared), because I wanted to get an understanding of how they functioned as a ‘personality’.
My advice to them was to be more aware of their own personality, because like tends to attract like.
So, while you may be a small chapter that battles to compete with big chapters, targeting people who ‘click’ with your group is a good strategy.
To do this, you should consider two things:
1. The chapter niche
2. The chapter demographic
1. The first and easiest to work with is the chapter’s niche. This particular chapter had a clearly defined three way split between marketing people, property people and ‘personal services’ people (such as travel agent).
Break your chapter up into its hubs and build a list of visitors who will benefit your business personally and your hub, rather than looking to get visitors in randomly for the sake of growing the chapter.
For example it may benefit an IT support company to attract a company that writes software.
For example, this morning’s chapter has a number of marketing related people (web developer, SEO, PR, branding, print). Hence, finding a photographer and events co-ordinator would be a good fit for them.
2. The second, more difficult and possibly controversial strategy is to consider your chapter’s demographic. Is it primarily baby boomers, Gen X, Gen Y? Are most members men or women? Is there, for example, a strong core of British immigrants who can attrack other Brits? Are people in the chapter sporty, sedentry?
By understanding the personality of your chapter you will be able to profile the prospective member most likely to click with you and other members in the chapter. It may be a debateable and perhaps controversial approach, but it is marketing 101 and a proven conversion tactic.
Colin is the Marketing Director of BNI New Zealand, a director of Iron Road Ltd and a professional speaker and copywriter.
