Marketing is as essential to your workspace as any other operation. As important as management itself, the marketing of your new (or not new) shared workspace is critical to the success and survival of your workspace. Without the proper Coworking marketing strategies, you’re at risk for major opportunity costs as well as potential prospects not knowing where you are, what you do, and why you’d be the ideal option for them.
To ensure a sound marketing strategy we recommend putting the pieces in place for the infrastructure, the visibility of your space, and having a clear pathway to convert prospects to members. Here are three tips to follow.
Your Secret Weapon is the CRM to Your Shared Workspace
Having a CRM (Customer Response Management) System in place will provide your workspace operation with instant benefits immediately upon installation. A CRM simplifies the process by automatically creating a customer directory that generates data and updates itself in real time.
By having this information, you can set forth an infrastructure to communicate with everyone who has come into contact with your shared workspace whether it be stopping by for a tour, opting into your guest Wi-Fi, or signing up for anything that involves an email confirmation.
CRM also is a huge benefit to your customer service processes, which we know is a big plus when recruiting new members. To service any current member who contacts your company, your representatives will have immediate access to their previous history, status with the space, preferences etc. This makes it much easier for whoever is assisting the member to cater to their needs.
Even in the case of a new prospect contacting your space, you’d have instant visibility to whether this is a first time caller, if they’ve had interactions with your sales team in the past, and other important data.
A CRM system is vital to consider when implementing a workspace management platform for your location.
Online Presence
Using the location of your workspace to its advantage is a primary tactic to increasing your marketing reach. Make sure your space is listed on Google, so prospects can see their proximity to your space as well as what places and attractions are nearby for food and recreation. Say, for instance, a freelancer is looking up houses for rent in San Diego. This way, they can easily spot coworking spaces in their preferred areas while researching them.
Encourage users to review your space across Google as well as other online listings such as Yelp! As you probably know, in today’s ‘Google everything’ world, better reviews lead to more visitors.
To further this, the best practice is for your members to use their social media to spread news and promotion of your space. By having your members also serve as ambassadors with word of mouth recommendations of your space, you can gain an instant reputation and build trust amongst new prospects. As we’ve mentioned before, the ultimate free promotion for your space is your members sharing the word.
Conversion Automation
When you have a system in place that simplifies the process of generating contracts, invoices, and creating profiles for new members, you’ll always have an open path to take on new members and businesses.
Like we mentioned in our e-book, The Five Essentials To Opening A Coworking Space, you should always be ready for the day 30 new members book spaces. In fact, it’s a common practice for some operators to have leases signed as much as 6 months prior to opening.
This also includes having virtual memberships, an extremely low-risk/high-return service to offer your members. The key is to have a streamlined sales funnel as well as an onboarding process that is smooth and intuitive. You can achieve this by utilizing the best Coworking management software that can generate contracts and sell member services directly.
Make sure to offer as many membership options as possible. You will broaden the scope of prospects you reach out to, as well as improve your odds of retaining current members long-term.
Another important key to your marketing strategy is to meet demand as soon as possible, leveraging your location as well as your online presence, and offering simplicity through the conversion process. This saves time, spares you and your staff from the stress of performing manual processes, and provides an efficient and seamless pathway for members to sign up and pay.
For more information on how WUN can provide the tools for the best marketing strategy to grow your shared workspace, please click the button below.