Read Time: 3.5 minutes
With the end of the year on the horizon and lots of agencies and studios looking at ways to invest in their marketing for 2019, I cannot help but think about the immense benefit being a member of SEGD has to offer.
It goes without saying that the warmth, friendliness and helpfulness of the members are tremendous features, but what else is there? What about the elusive conversation centered around **cough, cough** marketing ROI?
As I end my first year as SEGD President, I thought I’d highlight a few reasons why SEGD is a good marketing investment, and why you and your firm should be members.
- Statistics: SEGD.org has about 3 million page reads every year—HUGE considering our audience is larger than 95 percent of our members’ websites. (No offense to anyone’s stats). Most of those page reads are content about you—the member—and your amazing work and successes.
- Content: SEGD.org’s content is rich, compelling and relevant to our industry. There is a reason why 15 percent of all visitor traffic classify themselves as clients or potential clients. It is because the content is valuable and digestible and that makes it easy for a decision maker to gather a snapshot and be informed to make a decision. It also helps that through the content, visitors can very easily link to your specific website or social network. Great for business development purposes. We help you get connected and tell the world about your great work, your culture and differentiator.
- Our Online (and Offline) Community: As an open community, SEGD.org provides many ways for any member to participate in creating content and engaging in conversations. Through publishing blogs, having a Firm Listing and a Member Bio, contributing Member News, entering the awards and having articles written about your work, you can effectively and efficiently create a massive amount of brand equity and thought leadership.
Visitors hitting SEGD.org through search (422,000 annual visitors) come to the site not only to read about the trend-setting content we’re producing, but to find firms and look for firms that can provide solutions to their unique challenges. Distilling it down, 3.6 percent of page views equate to a link through to a firm’s page. This is a HUGE opportunity to channel a visitor down a sales funnel and get them to contact you. Again… new business!
- Involvement: The saying “it takes a village” rings true for your marketing effort. It’s an ecosystem of activities that move the needle and produce a positive ROI. By being proactive and participating, you essentially add fuel to the fire, thus amplifying your message and brand presence. here’s a reason why the highest viewed firms on our site are also the ones creating the relationships, closing business and being vocal about it. Their involvement is the positive and proactive approach that leads to greater marketing ROI.
- Networking: Not just an “in-person” activity, online networking and engagement is a huge driver in business development and building branding equity. Being able to take a conversation from one of our Chapter events and continue it across multiple media becomes a fantastic way to stay top of mind and expand your circle of influence. This is an important reason why our members don’t just join for one or two years, but stay involved for the long haul. It also helps that our events and education sessions are top notch and usually have a unique combination of amazing content and good times.
It also helps to know that our resource center is constantly being updated and added to with over 300 videos, 118 podcast courses, workbooks and several targeted education events a year.
It goes without saying that SEGD delivers more value than any other association. I’m not just saying this because I’m the President, but we utilize all of what SEGD has to offer for my own firm, OpenEye Global.
The ROI comes when you’re able to fold this into your current marketing activity and leverage the organization not just as an education platform, but as a brand amplifier.
If you’re wondering what the next steps should be, we’re here to make it easy. Click this linkto get more information and if you’re still not gung-ho on the benefits, reach out to me directlyso we can chat.
I’m here as a servant of the EGD community and the ever-expanding world of great design and experience it represents.
Bryan Meszaros,President, 2018 SEGD Board of Directors
