Marketing Strategy for Group Membership
PROJECT: STRATEGY INTENSIVE
6-MONTH RESULTS:
After following and implementing the strategy herself, Madison has grown her membership by 2.12x over the last 6 months.
PROJECT OVERVIEW:
Dr. Madison is a vestibular physical therapist with both a private one-on-one practice as well as a group membership option. Her practice is already full but she wanted some help developing a strategy for her Group Fit membership to accelerate its growth.
She’s built an incredible following and already had a great group of members so it was just simply time to get a little more strategic with her marketing efforts.
Here’s what the marketing strategy looked like for the membership:
Market research:
There are other physical therapists and support groups for people that have a vestibular disorder but there aren’t really any direct competitors to Group Fit. This presents benefits and challenges:
The benefits include: We don’t have to necessarily stand out from any others and we can have some fun with our marketing.
The challenges include: There might be a little more resistance with her target market because they’re not used to an offer like this.
Target audience & mapping the buyer’s journey:
While performing a SWOT analysis and some competitive analysis was still important, the biggest part of our market research was on fleshing out her target market more than she already has. This is one way to cut down on some of that resistance her target market may feel because we’ll truly understand where they are in their journey and what they want out of the membership so Madison can provide the most value possible.
The biggest take away from this piece of her market research included:
Not necessarily selling healing but the confidence to manage their disorder on their own
Some of the language that her target market uses to describe their disorder, the help they’re looking for and how they want to feel
The objections they may have about joining the membership
We also identified her target market’s buyer’s journey which revealed:
Referrals from other practitioners, but primarily from other members already in Group Fit, are going to be the most powerful pipeline.
The second most powerful will be social media and email marketing, especially since she already has a great following and list.
Many in her target market will also research their options through search or try to find resources via Instagram and other social media accounts as they search for help managing their vestibular disorder. The goal for social would be to consistently attract new followers through valuable-based content so she can get in front of them even before they’re fully ready to jump into Group Fit.
Brand purpose, core values, + attributes: Madison already has developed a pretty strong brand so we didn’t need to do much for her brand strategy. I primarily helped refine/define her brand purpose (specially for Group Fit), core brand values, and her brand voice and attributes.
Unique Value Proposition: Defining and illustrating Madison and Group Fit’s UVP was going to be a crucial element of her overall strategy. This will help us define her key messaging and deliver it in a way that not only highlights her brand values but also speaks to her target markets’ needs and the transformation they are searching for.
Throughout our conversations it became clear that Group Fit is so effective because she focuses on 4 main pillars. Having a distinct process is always a great way to get people excited but when we pair this comprehensive approach with her naturally empathetic and compassionate approach and her vast understanding and expertise when it comes to the vestibular system (both of which her target market is looking for and something that comes naturally to Madison), it really positions Madison and Group Fit as the best option for effectively managing their vestibular disorders.
Key messaging: Once we had her UVP defined, it was time to translate that into her key messaging to be able to effectively connect with her target market while maintaining consistency in her marketing efforts. This key messaging will be used in her social media content, website content, email marketing content, and any other piece of marketing that she puts out.
Website audit & SEO recommendations: Madison’s website was really well designed but she didn’t have a true landing page for the Group Fit membership. Because landing pages always convert higher, I recommended a redesign of this page to better illustrate the benefits of Group Fit and what’s included. I provided a rough wireframe to illustrate how she can restructure the page.
Even though Madison’s website ranked well for specific keywords, I did perform an audit and provided some recommendations on how to boost her on-page SEO to assist with fixing any on-page issues.
Marketing strategy: Once we had all the foundational elements developed, it was time to layout all the tactics to be used within the strategy and how each of the foundational elements works into these tactics. This included the following:
Sales funnel and email marketing: Madison already had a great nurture sequence set up with a lead magnet so I simply audited what she had and provided some suggestions. I also included guidance on how to most effectively promote the lead magnet and get people into the funnel.
Affiliate marketing and strategic partnerships: The idea here is to leverage her existing partnerships (and develop new partnerships) with other experts in the industry by inviting them to be an affiliate for Group Fit. This will leverage others’ communities to promote Group Fit while also giving them a benefit. We also discussed scaling her affiliate program by opening it up to Group Fit members in the future as well.
Content marketing: Madison is a content machine so she didn’t necessarily need help with coming up with content topics that will resonate with her audience. It was a lot more about how to utilize the content she does create to convert her audience into Group Fit members. This included teaching her how to create a content funnel as well as providing templates she can use to more effectively tell the stories of Group Fit members to illustrate how effective the membership is (we identified social proof and educational content as being the most important to her target market).
Social media strategy: Because she’s a content machine, she’s grown an amazing audience on Instagram. This really went hand-in-hand with her content marketing strategy on how to better convert this audience and strategies to reach more people within her target market. We also discussed how she can leverage TikTok in an easy-to-implement strategy because it’s not a platform she enjoys spending time on but she has seen some success on.
PR strategy: And last but not least, we discussed increasing Madison’s brand awareness through a PR strategy via guest blog posts, guest podcasting, and speaking engagements. Again, because social proof is a main content pillar that her audience will look for, this is an important piece of her strategy that will help elevate her positioning as an expert but also assist with her SEO strategy through backlinks.
Timeline: I prefer to give my clients a comprehensive marketing strategy so I layout every single tactic Madison should use and then provided a 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month timeline to show when she should implement and integrate each tactic. That way the strategy isn’t overwhelming right off the bat and will grow with her as she grows her brand.