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Roundtable: Using your Website and Novi admin as a Marketing Tool
Roundtable: Using your Website and Novi admin as a Marketing Tool

April 7, 2021

Jaime Morgan, CAE avatar
Written by Jaime Morgan, CAE
Updated over a week ago

During this roundtable, we shared ideas and discussed ways to use your website and Novi admin as a marketing tool. Customers shared examples of their marketing strategies and processes, and how Frontend Content, Events, and Novi Groups can combine to amp up your marketing efforts.

A written recap follows the recorded video.

Main Topics Covered:


Roundtable Recap:

Poll: How often do you update your website? (Daily, Weekly, Bi-Weekly, Monthly)

  • 54% update their website weekly

  • 20% update their website on a daily basis

  • 26% (bi-weekly to monthly)

Frontend Content

Tips

  • Top Featured section: Did you know? You can link a static page or Ecommerce product in the top featured section, in addition to events and blog posts!

  • Navigation is important. Think about the user experience - can they find what they need quickly?

  • Member Compass - don't forget, you can put content front and center when users log in! You can even set one or more blog categories to display articles.

See also:


What's Worked Well?

A big thank you to Michelle Blakley with AAGD and Russ Webb with BAAA for sharing!

Tip #1: Have a Strategy for your Home Page.

The Apartment Association of Greater Dallas uses Google Analytics to help drive the content they place on their home page. They identify what pages their members are visiting most, and what information are they trying to find. Then they used the analytics to determine what content to place on the homepage of their website.

"Whenever you're thinking about your website, it really needs to meet your company's strategies. So for us, it's getting individual people to sign up and categorize themselves into their companies."

They set internal goals to define these questions: "What do we want to accomplish on our homepage?" and "How do we communicate that to streamline people down in the marketing funnel?"

AAGD uses its homepage to answer three main questions from their members:

  1. "Who is AAGD?" This points the website visitors to information about How to Join and Membership benefits.

  2. "How do I get involved?" AAGD then defines what involvement means for their association. For them, it means career development, networking, serving, and supporting the industry. AAGD created action items for each of these to take you to a related section of their website. For example, career development redirects to a calendar filtered to education classes, and Supporting the association redirects to a page where members can learn more about sponsorships and donation opportunities.

  3. "How do I stay informed?" AAGD uses this section as an opportunity to encourage their members in 4 key areas: Encouraging them to log in, Read their magazine, Join the mailing list, and Read the blog.

Things to look for in Analytics - what pages are getting the most visits/activity?

Are members looking for how to create their account? What about searching for how to join, member benefits, or how to get involved?

See also:

Tip #2: Stay consistent within your brand when using photos and graphics.

Make sure it feels consistent, if you have brand colors, utilize them! Find stock images that are color-based to your brand/logo colors.

Tip #3: Promote Advertising opportunities in an Eye-Catching way!

With the new directories, the Bay Area Apartment Association has created additional advertising opportunities for its members. They wanted to make sure to create something that would catch their eye, "What can we do to make it stand out?"

The result? BAAA created animated GIFs on their Supplier Directory in the advertisement sizes available. Check it out:


Events

How are Novi customers marketing events?

  • Feature on Homepage

  • Share on social media (Facebook, Instagram most commonly used)

  • Facebook advertising/boosted posts

  • If you have a community platform, sharing it there

  • Retargeting platforms such as Feathr

All-Access Passes

AAMD recently held a weeklong virtual event, Lease-a-Rama, that had motivational speakers, everyone dressed up in costumes, and gave away prizes. The event was held at the same time each day, for 1 hour, for a week. It's always been a team-building event, but they marketed it to their Management Company members as an all-access pass. So their members weren't limited to just sending people who are in AAMD's membership but from all over the country. This resulted in over 1000 people registering!

Keep a Virtual Ticket option even as events go back to In-Person

BAAA mentioned they'll have a virtual ticket option for their events indefinitely for the future. Previously with in-person events, since their territory is spread out, members would have to drive hours to attend an in-person event. They've found the virtual component allows them to provide benefits to their broader membership base.


Novi Groups and Directories

Since the new directory functionality is built of Novi Groups, we shared how Novi customers are using Groups and Directories to promote member benefits.

Showcase New Members in their own separate Directory by using the Member Since date in the Group condition. This has two benefits: It says "we're happy to have you as a new member" by providing free advertising in the directory. The second benefit is that it incentivizes the member to go and update their profile! If they see they are the only member without a logo, for example, they'll be more inclined to go add it or ask how they can get featured on your website.


Additional Resources

SEO:

  • Need some research on keywords? SpyFu is software that will help you develop some strategies. (Thanks, Michelle & AAGD)

Canva - For anyone with a small staff or no budget for a designer, Canva is a great free or low-cost tool for static or animated graphics!

Linktree - Use Linktree to connect audiences to all of your content with just one link. (Thanks for the tip, Kendall at AAA!)

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