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Toastmasters Club Marketing and Websites

How to make a great club website!

A good website can attract guests and, ultimately, members. A bad website can also scare them away.

What makes the difference?

As the website creator/designer/administrator, you have to first think of who is visiting your website.

Know Your Audience

Visitors to your website arrive as a direct result of your club’s marketing plan. In simple terms, where you advertise is where your website visitors come from.

A website is not a form of advertising.

A website is a tool to entice a visitor into being a guest at your next meeting.

Never try to market to everyone

One size does not fit all.

Use Niche Marketing

Niche marketing is a highly targeted form of advertisement.

Promote your club to a small, specific and well-defined audience. Many organizations adopt this strategy to support an underserved population and reap the rewards of customer loyalty.

Markets with the “niche” definition are subsets of larger markets with their own unique preferences and needs.

Example:

The “makeup” sector is broad, but within that market, there’s also makeup for problem skin, makeup for professional artists and so on.

Toastmasters:

The “leadership/personal growth” sector is broad, but within that market, there’s sub-markets related to business, community/geographic location, churches, families, friends, age groups, common interest audiences… common experience audiences…

Pick a niche and advertise where that niche audience lives, where they frequent… advertise in what they read…

If you have a Toastmasters club and it’s the only club within a 25-mile radius, then you might get away with waiting for prospective members to find you through the Find A Club search on the Toastmasters International website.

Even at that, only people who know that Toastmasters exists can find your club!

What about all the people who haven’t yet heard about Toastmasters?

District 48 is not a rural community and most clubs, metaphorically speaking, are rubbing elbows with lots of other clubs.

In an urban environment clubs compete against neighboring clubs to sign up new members.

Geographic Marketing alone is not enough to ensure your club has 20+ members. Waiting for visitors from Find A Club is not an adequate marketing strategy.

However, every club needs to capitalize on the visitors who do arrive to their websites. That's where great web design wins new members!

Tip #1 Flaunt your niche

"Your club’s website needs to tell the unique character of your club. More importantly, you want your website visitors to have an “Aha” Moment.

“OMG, this is just what I’ve been looking for!”

“I won’t feel weird… they're just like me… I’ll fit right in!”

Tip#2 Make your website visually appealing and reflective of your niche.

Website Design Statistics for 2022

Website visitors form an opinion of a website within .05 seconds.
94% of the first impressions on a website are based on its visuals and design.
50% of website visitors use web design as a defining factor when it comes to credibility.

"If your website is not visually appealing, no matter how much you flaunt your niche… no matter how engaging your content may be, chances are you are still losing prospective members to other clubs.

The Do’s for Club Websites

Follow the Toastmasters International Branding Guidelines

Have a welcome message on the homepage to spell out the 'who, what, when, where and niche' of your club

Consider delivering your welcome message in the form of a video

If you use text, limit your text to a few lines and insert a photo which reflects your message

By and large, your pages should include at least one good image and possibly a video.

Only use images and videos which show/demonstrate your club’s niche.

If your club’s niche audience is Foodies, then by all means have images of members and food.

Only use images where the club members look Happy! Inviting! Alive!

Other pages which should be included in your website:
“Directions” Your home page should include basics like when and where you meet, but it’s also a good idea to have a meeting directions page that might include a map, parking tips, and a picture of the exterior of the building where you meet.

“How to Join” Include information on how to join and provide a downloadable version of the Toastmasters application.

“Meet Our Members” People are curious. It might make visitors more comfortable to see who is in your club. Most of us don’t like to get involved with something where everyone is a complete stranger.

“Blog” or “Club News” One of the main reasons your visitors come to your website is to find out “What’s Up?”

The Don'ts for Club Websites

Don’t make your homepage long and complex.

Be sure your club’s meeting info is correct

Keep your content fresh and post interesting stuff!

A great way to keep content fresh is to use videos. Video of speeches, table topics, and contests are all a great way of showing your club and its members in action. Then be sure to share those videos on your club’s social media.