5 tips for creating an automated member awareness campaign

Welcome to the third installment of our blog series on marketing automation for destination marketing organizations (DMOs). We started the series by talking about how impactful a welcome email is when a visitor signs up for your newsletter. In our last blog, we walked through putting together a strategic meeting sales prospecting campaign for cold prospects. Both of these practices share a goal of building strong relationships and creating opportunities for engagement.

For this final blog, let’s shift our focus to an equally vital aspect of your marketing strategy: creating a member awareness campaign.

If you haven’t put one of these together before, the goal is to ensure your current members are well-informed about educational opportunities, resources, and advertising options with your DMO.

By leveraging marketing automation, you can streamline communications and personal outreach to maximize the value you provide to your members. Additionally, you can take advantage of the automatic sync of member data from Simpleview CRM. This will ensure that your member information is always up-to-date and accurate.

Let’s explore five ways to effectively engage your members and ensure they fully benefit from everything your DMO has to offer.
 

1. Segment your audience

You can create targeted campaigns with information specific to accommodations or venues (if they are leads receiving or not, non-extranet or extranet using, etc.), however, we are going to focus on creating an awareness campaign that will appeal to all your members.

Work with your Simpleview CRM Analyst to create a search by using either “Created Date” for partners or “Join Date” if you have members. Let’s use the time period of “‘In the last year” to filter the audience — that way we will focus on members who have been working with the DMO for a year and are ready for a refresher.
 

2. Email frequency and best practices

When thinking about member automated programs there are two main types: Welcome and awareness. Traditionally, a welcome program is created to introduce new members to the DMO, teach them how to take advantage of their member benefits and get them using the Extranet. We’ve seen success in sending seven emails over a two-month span.

Conversely, a member awareness program is a way to reintroduce the members to the DMO and drive home how much they can benefit from their membership. This campaign usually lasts longer due to the fact that these are current members who are already receiving regular emails from the DMO. Therefore, placing the cadence at one email a month for a year makes sense so you avoid inbox fatigue — which happens when you send too many emails in a short period of time and can lead to opt-outs.
 

3. Email recipients and management

We suggest sending these emails to your primary contacts. Make sure to take advantage of the Act-On Subscription Management Center as a way to provide members the ability to unsubscribe from the awareness campaign vs. all your communications.

Who should your emails come from?

In your welcome campaign, you’ve probably had the first email come from your President or CEO, however, with the goal of this campaign being to raise awareness of the benefits each member already has — these emails are best to come from the Director or Vice President of Membership.

In addition, it’s always a good idea to introduce each team member along with a description of how they can help members — make it easy to contact them.
 

4. Content suggestions

There are various topics and themes that a DMO can include in its awareness campaign. We put the following content suggestions together to engage your members, provide valuable information, and enhance their experience with your DMO.

This is not a full list, however, we’ve grouped the most popular topics:

Extranet

• Ease of use
• Ability to view your member information and update all your member information like listings, leads, and reports
• Easy to locate who to contact at the DMO for help
• Help videos or documentation on how to maximize their use of Extranet
• Documentation on how to use Extranet as a member

Marketing Opportunities

• Strategies to drive traffic to your member website listings and business location
• Event listings to reach a broader audience
• Promote special offers and deals to entice potential visitors and increase engagement
• Listing opportunities in the visitor guide, meeting planner guide, or sports facility guide

Member Benefits

• Opportunities for digital, social media, PR, group tours, and meeting sales partnerships — fostering collaboration and growth
• Regular updates and reports on the tourism industry's trends and the DMO's performance as a destination, helping them stay informed and make strategic decisions
• Dedicated contacts within the DMO to help with any issues or questions members have, ensuring they get the most out of their membership
• Access to various educational opportunities, workshops, and events to help them grow and develop professionally
   

5. Let's wrap it up

The last email should consolidate all the information shared throughout the campaign, however, it shouldn’t be 1,000 words. Highlighting who members can go for one-on-one help as well as links to self-learning resources can be very beneficial. We’ve seen some DMOs add in links to the actual emails sent during the campaign, should members want to explore them more, and they’ve seen good engagement.

The important thing is to leave the door open for more conversations.
 

Here's a summary

• Work with your Simpleview CRM Analyst to identify the criteria needed to target members who will be the best fit for your campaign
• Set your awareness email campaign to send monthly emails to these established members to avoid overwhelming them with communication
• Highlight the value of their membership and provide resources for maximizing those benefits, like Extranet guides, marketing tips, partnership opportunities
• The final email should summarize key points, offer personalized assistance, and provide links to resources for further engagement