How sponsors engage with association members hasn't changed in a long time.
The current paradigm relies on associations sending ineffective email campaigns on behalf of sponsors, and it relies on sponsors generating all their leads from an association in the few days surrounding the annual, in-person conference.
But what if there was a way for members to seamlessly discover and engage directly with sponsors? In this model, sponsors could present association members with meaningful content and offers year-round while generating qualified and targeted leads as a result. Associations could generate more non-dues revenue than before with less time and effort. Sounds like a dream, right?
Today's launch of the Tradewing Community Sponsor Experience now provides associations and sponsors the tools to turn this into a reality.
All associations and sponsors will have access to a set of engaging features that come together to represent the Community Sponsor Lite experience. These provide Community Sponsors a direct presence inside of an associations' community and makes it easy for members to discover useful information about products and services that are relevant to them.
Associations that enroll in the Tradewing Sponsorships Program unlock an even more robust set of features that lets their Community Sponsors spread the word about their offerings to members through things like sponsored posts, access to leads, webinars and more.
Sponsors can then select which annual Community Sponsor subscription is the best fit for their needs from Lite, Plus, Pro, and Premium. Once they’ve selected a Community Sponsor subscription, they can begin engaging with the community.
Sponsor pages now support a richer presentation of information, a promotion on the right side of the page where special offers can be highlighted, and a carousel of photos and videos related to the sponsor's business.
Sponsors now have more space to share their stories
Just like before, sponsors can easily post as frequently as they want to their page, in order to keep followers up to date.
With the new sponsor dashboard view, admins now have a more holistic view of how members are interacting with their page, along with clear, actionable steps to get their page up and running as quickly as possible.
Give your sponsors the tools they need to succeed
They'll have the ability to add their organization to a specific sponsor category, as defined by the association admins, and they can set up promotions that will appear on their page and on events they sponsor.
A few months ago, we redesigned the member directory, and now the sponsor directory will have a similar look and feel.
Sponsors are now easier to discover
Members will see a list of sponsors, sorted by Community Sponsorship tier, with Premium sponsors at the top. They can also search sponsors by location or category.
On the Pro and Premium tiers, sponsors can create and host their own webinars, during dates and times that work best for the association. No need for associations to wait until there's another big conference to generate sponsorship opportunities. Simultaneously, these give sponsors the opportunity to engage with members in multiple, more condensed live settings throughout the year.
Sponsors have always been able to post to their page, but now they can mark a few of their posts as sponsored to amplify the message to a larger audience, beyond just their followers.
Let your sponsors contribute to the conversation
The posts are denoted as "Sponsored" to members.
Sponsors on the Plus, Pro, and Premium tiers can read community posts, making it much easier to understand important topics to the membership base and tailoring messaging accordingly.
Help your sponsors better understand the needs of your members
Association admins can always control which groups will appear in the Community Feed for sponsors. By default, any group with stricter privacy settings will not appear in the community listening feed. For example, your Board of Directors group's posts will not appear in the feed.
Tradewing is a powerful platform for generating leads, both from members perusing sponsor pages and from virtual event pages directly. The redesigned leads page allows sponsors to quickly follow up and monitor which channel across Tradewing is proving to be the most valuable for generating leads.
Seamlessly deliver new business to your sponsors
Previously, members could only message individuals, but now they can also message sponsors.
More ways for your members to collaborate
To help keep members' inboxes free from potential clutter, sponsors can only respond to messages members send to them. Sponsors can also initiate direct messages with members who have already submitted themselves as a lead.
If you're interested in generating additional non-dues revenue and saving yourself time in the process, reach out to your customer success manager or support@tradewing.com for more details.
If you are a sponsor and want to upgrade to the Plus, Pro, or Premium tiers, or simply want to learn more about ways to connect with associations in your industry, please reach out to upgrades@tradewing.com.