Association Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is like tending a field: preparation, nurturing, and continual care are essential for growth. Clearing obstacles that hinder progress—such as a poorly optimized website—lays the foundation for traffic that leads to memberships, conference registrations, and other critical goals. Just like planting seeds, search engine optimization (SEO) takes time to bear fruit. However, faster results can be achieved through strategic activities like acquiring backlinks and leveraging digital advertising. Once traffic flows in, robust analytics and reporting tools are essential to refine strategies and sow the seeds of success for future campaigns.

At Harvest, we specialize in helping associations thrive by providing the tools, strategies, and insights needed to flourish.

Contact us to start growing your association’s digital presence today!

Analytics and Tracking

Learn more about Analytics & Tracking for Associations

Setting up a strong foundation for your website starts with analytics and tracking. Here’s what you need to do:

  • Technical Review: Address any technical issues preventing access to your content, such as page speed, mobile usability, or barriers to search engine indexing. Properly set up tools like Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and Google Search Console.

  • Google Analytics 4 (GA4): Ensure GA4 is set up correctly and linked to other Google platforms and that key events like donations and volunteer registrations are tracked. If you have an online store, integrate the platform with GA4 e-commerce to measure

  • Google Tag Manager (GTM): Use GTM to manage all tracking tags, including GA4.

  • Third-Party Platforms: Ensure GA4 or GTM codes are implemented across all third-party platforms to track user journeys from initial traffic to form completion.

  • Campaign Tracking: Link your email marketing platform to GA4 or use custom URLs to track email performance. Track ads in GA4 to see the effectiveness of each campaign, and (for example) distinguish between organic and paid Facebook traffic.

Invest in Analytics and Tracking Setup to prepare your website for success!

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Learn more about SEO for Associations

Optimizing content ensures your website appears in the right search results and engages visitors. Effective SEO strategies help website visitors understand who you are, how you can help, and what actions to take.

Key actions:

  • Content Optimization: Update pages to align with how people search for your services. Prioritize critical pages for users and search engines in the navigation and across the site.

  • Link Building: Encourage other websites to link to your priority pages to boost authority and visibility.

  • Goals: Measure the effectiveness of your SEO by completing key events - the things you want people to do on your website.

Examples of association content to optimize:

To meet the diverse needs of your audience, your content should address a variety of search intents. Below are key content types and examples of how to optimize them:

  • Conference Pages: Avoid generic titles like just the event name. Instead, include descriptive phrases like “Illuminate Mental Health Conference (2024)”

  • Continuing Education (CE) Pages: Create dedicated pages for specific CE topics, categories, or target audiences.

  • Career Pathway Content: Cater to individuals exploring careers in your field with guides like “How to Become a Licensed Therapist.”

  • Professional Support: Highlight the resources available to members. This could include access to group insurance plans or professional services like legal support, marketing resources, or practice management tools.

  • Salary Information: Offer members exclusive access to the most accurate and up-to-date salary data in your field. 

  • Advocacy and Hot Topics: Be a thought leader by creating content on key legislative and advocacy efforts.

  • Big Topics: Write the best content on the Internet to position your association as the authoritative source for significant industry issues.

  • Audience-Specific Content: Tailor pages to different specialties or professional roles within your field.

  • Location-Specific Content: National associations could create dedicated pages for each state to support members in specific regions. State associations could include city-specific content for larger metropolitan areas.

  • Educational Content: Develop content that educates your audience about key challenges and issues, while prompting them to take action. 

By focusing on these strategies, your association can remain visible and relevant to potential and existing members while ensuring your content is a valuable resource for all.

SEO Keyword Analysis Report: Uncover growth opportunities for SEO and advertising.

Digital Marketing Audit and Strategy: This comprehensive audit includes analytics and tracking setup, SEO keyword analysis, competitor analysis, website analytics review, and a detailed digital marketing strategy. Feedback from this audit guides actionable steps to enhance your website’s performance.

Our Work

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  • State Association for Insurance Agents

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  • National Association for Surgeons

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Digital Advertising

Learn about Digital Advertising for Associations

Search Ads

Search ads are a powerful tool, particularly after optimizing your website for search engines. These ads can drive highly targeted traffic directly to your most relevant pages, which double as effective landing pages. To maximize success, focus on specific, low-competition keyword categories that align closely with your association’s goals. Measure success not by clicks or impressions, but by key events like membership sign-ups and conference registrations.

Display and Social Ads

Display and social ads are excellent for reaching a wider audience, building brand awareness, and re-engaging potential members. However, success depends on careful targeting and cost management. Consider first achieving success with campaigns targeting email addresses and people who have been on your website but have not taken action.

The SEO Keyword Analysis Report reveals SEO and search advertising opportunity.

Performance Reporting

Learn about top-ten performance reports for associations using Looker Studio

Gathering memberships and conference registrations is just the beginning. Analyze performance data to refine strategies and maximize results.

Google Looker Studio is an affordable and interactive performance reporting solution that integrates data from Google Analytics, third-party platforms, and internal reports to visualize KPIs. Some of the most common Looker Studio reports that are beneficial for associations: 

A traffic source report provides a comprehensive overview of how users are arriving at your website and which sources are driving key events, such as memberships or conference registrations. Understanding these sources allows you to optimize your strategy for greater impact. Here’s a breakdown of some of the most important types of reports:

  • Organic Search: Identify which landing pages generate the most traffic and key events from search engines like Google. Use the search query report from Google Search Console to discover the exact keywords and phrases users are searching for when they find your site.

  • Referral Traffic: Explore which external websites are linking to yours and driving visitors. Pay attention to traffic from news outlets, government websites, companies, and other associations to identify valuable partnerships and outreach opportunities.

  • Social Traffic: Track the performance of social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and others in driving traffic to your site. Analyze which pages users land on and supplement these insights with reports from social media platforms to evaluate engagement metrics like likes, shares, and click-through rates.

  • Email Campaigns: Evaluate the effectiveness of each email campaign by tracking traffic and conversions in Google Analytics. Determine which emails successfully achieve goals like donations or volunteer sign-ups and refine future campaigns based on these insights.

  • Ad Campaigns: Measure the performance of your paid campaigns, including Google Ads and social media ads. Integrate additional ad reports from platforms like Facebook Ads to get a holistic view of your campaign’s ROI.

Other Key Reports

In addition to traffic sources, here are other important reports you can create and analyze to better understand your website’s performance and user behavior:

  • Top Pages: Identify the most frequently viewed pages on your website. This can highlight which content resonates most with your audience and guide updates or expansions of popular sections.

  • Location Data: Analyze where your visitors are located by city, region, state, or country. This can be useful for national associations looking at traffic by state, and state associations looking at traffic by large city.

  • Device Type: Discover whether users on mobile devices, desktops, or tablets encounter issues, such as difficulties navigating the site or completing forms.

  • Site Search: Review what users search for within your website’s search bar. This can reveal gaps in your content or opportunities to improve navigation and user experience.

  • File Downloads: Track the number of downloads for PDFs or other files on your site. This is particularly helpful for associations offering resources, reports, or other downloadable materials.

  • Video Views: Monitor how often your videos are viewed and whether viewers are watching them all the way through or dropping off early. This can inform future video content strategies.

  • Third-Party Data Integration: Include reports from external platforms such as CE management tools.

  • Internal Reports: Import internal organizational data to merge operational insights with your website and campaign analytics. This allows you to see everything in one unified dashboard.

Invest in a Looker Studio Performance Dashboard for better insights.

Ongoing Services

Build on each campaign's success to shape future strategies. These services can start after SEO implementation or as part of an ongoing monthly budget.

Invest in Ongoing Digital Marketing Services

Harvest Can Help!

Contact us today to help your association grow!