Marketing

Chambers of commerce offer a variety of opportunities and services to the community. But to raise awareness of these programs and services, a chamber professional must consider the unique value each holds for specific individuals or groups within the community.

To effectively reach your audience — be it members, prospects, the media, or other stakeholders — you need to go where they are and speak to them directly. This is where marketing comes in. Take into account the four “P’s” of marketing: product, place, price and promotion. These shape and focus your chamber’s image and message, and they foster a relationship with those key stakeholders.

Marketing is often confused with advertising, but it’s actually what influences advertising; it’s the umbrella of the communications mix. It’s a carefully planned process involving strategies and tactics to assess needs, develop messages and images, and deliver products and services. It employs advertising, promotion and public relations to communicate and to deliver products and services to a clearly identified target audience.

Award-Winning Chamber Examples

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Tulsa Regional Chamber's (Okla.) Career Awareness - 2017 ACE Award of Excellence
Commerce Lexington Inc.'s (Ky.) "Here's Our Proof" Marketing Campaign - 2016 ACE Grand Award
Carroll County Chamber of Commerce's (Ga.) Advantage Carroll Campaign - 2016 ACE Award of Excellence
Greater New Braunfels Chamber of Commerce's (Texas) New Image Campaign - 2016 ACE Award of Excellence
Laredo Chamber of Commerce's (Texas) 100th Anniversary Centennial Celebration & Marketing Campaign - 2016 ACE Award of Excellence
Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce's (S.C.) "I AM The Chamber" Membership Promotion - 2015 ACE Grand Award
Newmarket Chamber of Commerce's (Ont.) "Learn, Connect, Thrive" Membership Promotion - 2015 ACE Grand Award

Articles

Expand Your Nonprofit’s Universe with the 2018 Digital Outlook Report (registration required) - Prepared by Care2, hjc, NTEN, and Resource Alliance and provides data-driven trends and strategies and highlights best practices, expert insights, and innovation in digital marketing and fundraising.
Report: What Channels Matter Most for Event Marketing? - A report on B2B event marketing finds that email is the biggest pre-event driver of interest, but while it’s still heavily used during and after an event, other options may be more effective. Associations Now (Mar 2018)
Tap into the goldmine of email advertising - Important stats show that email is very much alive and well: 72% people prefer to receive promotional content through email, compared to 17% who prefer social media, according to MarketingSherpa, and numbers from the DMA show that 49 percent of consumers prefer to hear weekly from companies sending promotional emails. Article by Jeff Kupietzky, SmartBrief (September 28, 2016)
2016 Marketing Trends You Should Not Ignore - Associations News Feed (April 14, 2016)
29 Checklists & Cheat Sheets to Make Marketers' Lives Easier - by Natasha Alex, Mention (December 10, 2015)
What Makes a Marketing Email Go Viral? - Article by Katie Bascuas, Associations Now (August 27, 2015) focuses on a new study that highlights the elements of viral marketing emails.