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I’d estimate this strategy is responsible for about $2M per year in recurring revenue for our agency. Some of our best business comes from the industry associations & groups that we are involved in.

What industry groups have you joined in your niche? How are you engaging/participating?

Here is what’s worked best for us:

  • Join the association/group
  • Get the list (mail/phone and hopefully email – reverse scrape if they don’t provide it)
  • Sponsor the events (booth, lanyards, etc) and actually show up (hang out in the evening and mixers)
  • Look for opportunities to speak at their events
  • Run webinars/training specifically for their group (this works pretty well)
  • Send an intro package to the members (Be sure to get the new member list every month and send them a nice welcome)
  • eMail them on a consistent basis with value-added content
  • Get added to the Facebook Group if they have one
  • Upload the member list as a custom audience on Facebook for targeting
  • Add them to your direct mail list (this is huge). Send them a quarterly printed newsletter.
  • MAIL THEM – If you run webinars burn the content to CD and send it to them in the mail with a print out of the workbook. If you do industry interviews (you should) burn those to CD and mail them out to them.

You want to become known, liked, trusted, proven…dare I say omnipresent to the members & leaders of the association (at their events, in their inbox, on their social feed, in their mailbox). You do that by doing what I’ve outlined.