Trade associations often play a dual role in both representing and advancing the interests of their members as well as educating the target audiences of those members. This tandem outlook can be both an asset and a burden, but with the right digital keyword strategy in place, they can meet both of these objectives.
So what should trade associations be doing in terms of a keyword strategy to meet their goals?
Core offer
While membership of some trade associations is mandated, most need to attract new audiences – not just for the good of the industry but to be sustainable themselves. Word-of-mouth recommendation is often the lifeblood of many a trade association but what if someone is new to the industry, has relocated to the UK, is looking for an alternative membership organisation, or simply has not previously been a member of any body?
It’s important to know the lexicon that target members might be using. Some options include:
- Trade association
- Trade body
- Professional association
- Professional body
Depending on the industry, these may all have slightly different nuances but a trade association needs to rank for the terms its target audience is using. This is particularly the case where members have multiple associations or bodies available to them in a particular field.
In many cases, the term to target may be influenced by the trade association name but not always. Some use the terms ‘group’, ‘federation’, ‘confederation’, ‘council’, but it’s important not to assume that the target audience knows what a particular trade body acronym stands for. If someone is used to hearing the spelt-out variant and not the full title in words, they may not know!
Membership benefits
Trade bodies offer a plethora of benefits for their members from access to industry data; the ability to stay up to date on legislation or news affecting the sector; opportunities to network and build relationships; access to educational and professional resources; the ability to be part of a group voice advocating a profession; the chance to influence government and stakeholders; information on running a business; and negotiated deals on insurance marketing, legal and HR support, to name but a few.
That sentence is deliberately long to make my point. It’s hard to rank well in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS) for a long list of items. Many trade bodies have a page about ‘member benefits’ which is simply a long list of bullet point items. This is satisfactory when someone has already landed on their site but it’s unlikely to attract many new members by search unless they are actually looking for a general overview of member benefits.
It’s more likely the member will be attracted by the specifics of one of the above and so, to rank for that search, the trade association site needs to create individual pages for their offering. It may be that a specific page isn’t required for every single benefit listed above, but there would certainly be merit in creating landing pages for the areas in which a particular trade body excels.
By way of example:
- CPD training for payroll managers
- Professional indemnity insurance for photographers
- Networking opportunity for fleet managers
A specific page for each trade association’s strength will help it to rank well. In addition, when a potential new member arrives on site, they will be met with content that meets their needs in a much greater depth than could be achieved on a general benefits page.
Members’ target audience
One crucial benefit of joining a trade body is that it enhances the reputation of the joining member. Whether or not there is any barrier to entry does not always matter. The fact is that customers view it as a badge of professionalism and quality. They like to see these stamps of legitimacy on websites, letterhead, van livery etc. even if they don’t truly understand what membership means.
In the same vein, many trade bodies aim to support their members by providing information to their members’ customers. In doing so, they help their members be seen as authoritative and trustworthy.
Some trade bodies are better known than others, but for most, building a website and expecting members’ customers to come, simply won’t work. Content creation is again key to attracting those customers and helping encourage them to use the products or services of the paying members.
Some examples of content that a trade body might produce to attract members’ customers are:
- How do I choose a decent plumber?
- Best place to get financial advice
- Reputable removals company
As well as high-volume terms above, there will also be numerous lower-volume more in-depth queries, known as ‘long-tail’ terms. These are used by customers who are more informed and therefore further down the marketing funnel and closer to purchasing a product or service.
Examples of long-tail terms that could be applied by a trade association are:
- What should I do if my kitchen installer goes bankrupt?
- How does a mortgage broker charge for their time?
- Will my data be protected on a dating app?
It’s possible to be quite creative here and the list of potential topics is often quite long. The subject matter could be around customer pain points, educational material, help to understand the difference between two products or services, keeping abreast of public debates, or distilling anything complicated into understandable materials.
For example, a few years ago there was a debate about whether gel nail varnishes contained harmful chemicals. It would have served a beauty trade body well to be the authority on that issue, informing consumers about the facts without the hyperbole that appeared in the media at the time.
The more ‘customer’ traffic that a trade association generates, the more it can be used as a carrot to dangle under the noses of new paying members too. As most trade associations have a public database, this traffic can then be steered towards the trade association’s members, helping them grow their business.
How to implement keywords and phrases within a website
Individual pages of a website need to be optimised around the particular keywords or phrases researched and deemed most appropriate. This means ensuring that they are used within the page title, page description, H1s, H2s and within the on-page content as well. This is a balance of art and science and is usually implemented by an SEO expert: the page must read well and be useful to the target audience (members or members’ customers) as well as help search engines understand the point of the page.
Depending on the trade association, there may be other types of keyword research required but most trade associations won’t go too far wrong if they start with these three areas – core offering, member benefits, and content for members’ customers.
Keyword tools come in all shapes and sizes with varying price tags but understanding the results provided certainly needs interpretation.
On that note, I’ll leave you with a favourite example of mine. Is someone searching for ‘mole removal’ hoping to get rid of a nasty pest from their garden or someone looking to remove a small lump from their skin? The British Pest Control Association and The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons might want to fight that one out!