The First 5 Marketing Steps You Should Take After Launching Higher Logic Thrive Platform

You’ve launched! Now what? Find out how to maximize the new marketing capabilities you’ll get with Higher Logic Thrive Platform. 

You’ve launched! Now what? 

When you launch Higher Logic Thrive Platform, you’ll have access to a new suite of features, including some amazing marketing capabilities. After our implementation team has walked you through a customized set-up, we recommend you take these five steps to help maximize your use of the tools:   

1. Create segments for targeting 
2. Set up web tracking 
3. Define what an “engaged” subscriber looks like  
4. Welcome new members 
5. Build a way to get quick feedback 

Let’s dive in. 

Create segments for targeting 

One of the best parts of marketing with Higher Logic Thrive Platform is that you can easily segment the audience you’re emailing. This means your communications are more personal and relevant, cutting down on unnecessary emails and increasing email engagement.  

(Note: If you’re using Higher Logic Thrive Platform’s membership management feature, getting the data is quick and easy! And if you’re using our strong third-party integrations, you’ll be able to grab the data you need, too.) 

We’re not just creating any old segments though – create segments that make it worthwhile to target. To get started, we recommend you create a general list of all your contacts, a list for your commonly used targeted audiences, and a list of the audiences you commonly want to filter out. Don’t create too many lists, but, as an example, here are a few data segments associations will find useful: 

• Mild to Moderately Engaged: based on any type of engagement (Ie. web behavior, email, community participation, renewal) 
• At-Risk: first year, no engagement, previously lapsed 
• Champions/Advocates: members who can help to further the mission of the association through small asks 

Higher Logic customers—learn how to set up target groups in the platform  

Set up web tracking 

Web tracking is one of the most useful marketing features of Higher Logic Thrive Platform. It’s a way to understand and group known user behavior on your sites.  

For example, you could enable web tracking on your website for your annual event. When a known user visits this page (a known user is someone who has clicked through a tracked link in one of your emails), you can put this visitor into a special group that you can now track and email.  

You’re now able to send any known users interested in your event a reminder to register, a special discount code, and  updates about the event. This means you’re sending relevant content to users who have specifically shown interest and encourage them to register. You’ll also avoid sending unwanted emails to those who might not be interested in attending.  

Follow these instructions to set up web tracking 

Define what an “engaged” subscriber looks like   

Next, use the engagement scoring module to set up criteria to measure when and where your audience is engaged.  Not only can these scores help you understand when unengaged users need attention, they help you identify your most active users.   

Engagement scoring comes in handy for things like: 

• Identifying new sponsor opportunities 
• Knowing which prospective members are ready for membership outreach 
• Finding members to tap for speaking or advocacy 
• Metrics you can incorporate into your engagement score include:  
• Recent clicks and opens 
• Web tracking behavior (Tip: Because we set up web tracking already, you can use web behavior to help create a fuller picture of their engagement.) 
• Renewal 
• Community participation 

When you create your score, make sure you remove your own staff from the criteria. This will keep your data cleaner when you’re ready to use it. And once you have your most engaged champions, like those members who are engaging every week, ask them to volunteer! These members are more likely to accept based on their existing habits. Ask them to do things like: 

• Complete a survey 
• Write a blog 
• Review policy/documents 
• Host an “ask me anything” or share a mini case study in the community 

Pst: Don’t forget, an engagement score can show you who’s disengaged, too. Once you have that data, you’re ready to go get them engaged and win them back.  

Learn how to use engagement scoring  

Welcome new members 

Now that you’ve gotten segments, web tracking, and engagement scoring set up, it’s time to welcome your new members. Do this by building an onboarding campaign.  

Also known as a welcome campaign, an onboarding campaign is the perfect way to welcome new members into the association. Members receive a series of personalized emails that run for anywhere from a few weeks to a full year, walking them through bite-sized emails about the benefits and opportunities for involvement and engagement. 

Tip: You can build this campaign for your new members, and you can also create a separate campaign to welcome members to your brand new online community in Higher Logic Thrive Platform. 

Helen Taylor, digital marketing manager at the Public Affairs Council, worked with the membership team to create a year-long member onboarding campaign. They’re getting results: 2x their typical email engagement, a 95% success rate toward their goal, and hours of time saved.

(Listen to more from Helen Tayler on The Member Engagement Show)

Ready to get your own results? Here’s how to build your first campaign   

Build a way to get quick feedback 

Feedback is crucial, especially when it comes to retention, but you are more likely to get a response if you make it quick and easy.  

Examples include: 

• Send a single click answer in your email instead of an entire survey 
• Spread questions out throughout the year or as a follow up to an interaction 
• Consider asking questions like: 
  • Why did you join the Association? 
  • What is your favorite part of the association? 
  • Which of the member benefits do you want to learn more about? 
  • In your first year as a member, which benefit was the most important? 
  • What is your preferred language? 

There you have it – five quick marketing wins to get you moving fast on Higher Logic Thrive Platform. To learn more about our member experience platform, visit our website.