Weekly Campaign Idea: A Membership Club

Do you offer any sort of membership club for your audience? Membership clubs make fans feel like they're part of something exclusive and an important asset for your brand. In return for sharing an email address, club members usually get the benefit of being the first to learn about great offers and promotions. If you're a member of a fan club for a band or a sports team, you're part of a membership club. As a business owner, creating a club is a great way to grow a highly targeted email list. If someone signs up to be the first to hear about something special happening with your brand, you know they're a valuable customer.An easy way to start building your membership list is to use a campaign. You can collect emails directly into your email marketing software and it's a campaign that takes very little time to maintain.

Example of a Membership Club Campaign

Tootsie Rolls' latest campaign is an invitation to join Mr. Owl's Treehouse Club. According to Tootsie Rolls when you join the club you'll be the "First to know about new giveaways and have a chance to win exclusive prizes. "We know Tootsie Rolls runs multiple promotions throughout the year so this is a tempting offer to get to be the first to hear about all of their awesome giveaways.

Here are 4 Tips for Creating a Membership Club Campaign

1. Determine if your business could benefit from a club: One of the best ways to know if something has the potential to be successful is to survey your audience before you do it. If you find that you have a lot of exclusive materials that you're not getting in front of the right eyes, ask your fans if they'd be interested in joining a "club" where they get first access to your top offers. If the interest is high you know you've got a great idea. If the feedback is mediocre, try one of these 50 other ways to engage with your fans using a marketing campaign.

‍2. Make your club worth joining: With the amount of email, sales, and offers online today, people are pretty savvy when it comes to knowing whether they're getting a good deal or not. Make sure you have something exciting to offer your fans if they join your club. This could be exclusive content, special offers or first access to your new products.

‍3. Connect your campaign to your email software: ShortStack integrates with a variety of email software including MailChimp, Aweber, Constant Contact, Salesforce, and Highrise. Connecting your campaign form with an email marketing service means you can collect emails directly from your campaign into your lists. From there you can even set up auto-responders so you start sending your club members awesome content from the moment they sign up.

‍4. Promote your club: The more the merrier! Make sure you're promoting your club across all your social channels. Try using one of these 46 ways to get the word out about your campaign.

‍5. Consider adding an extra incentive: Incentives make the world go round (or at least the internet). Even though you'll be offering your fans instant access to some of your greatest offers and resources, it's always nice to provide a little extra motivation to sign up. For example, Tootsie Rolls is doing a giveaway in collaboration with their club. Members who sign-up have the chance to win an awesome scooter. Since your campaign will be ongoing you could have one giveaway a month for any new members of your club. It provides a little extra incentive to join!