What is engagement strategy? It’s the way you increase the depth of the relationship your members and customers (and other stakeholders, too!) have with your cooperative. Many organizations equate ad campaigns, blogs, discount programs, promotions, events and similar outreach and marketing activities with an engagement strategy. Yet there are important differences between the tactical programs and outreach you implement – and your engagement strategy. One important difference is: engagement strategy considers your members’ motivations and expectations and invites them to act in ways they prefer. Two years ago, Hanover Co-op recognized this. They we were often operating on auto-pilot: running programs yet feeling bogged down in the day-to-day and growing less rapidly than they wanted. Though they’ve been in business for over 80 years with 24,000 members and over $70 million in sales annually, they realized they were losing sight of the co-op’s longer-term vision, and of the varied customers who could help them get there.

3. ● The Engagement Pyramid pulls together all the other components of your
Strategy.
● It describes the positive actions that move your customers, your members
toward increased, more valuable participation and involvement in and with
your co-op.
● It describes how your members and customers interact with your co-op --
through actions in your programs/services which help you reach your goals and
make your vision real.
● Each action on the pyramid has a different value to the co-op -- AND to your
members & customers!
● Before we can build an Engagement Pyramid, though, we need to look at the
other components of Engagement Strategy.

4. What are the other components of your Engagement Strategy?
● There are several - highlighted here in BOLD - and they are ALL IMPORTANT.
● To develop your Engagement Strategy, you need to understand your Vision &
Mission, your Goals and the Programs or Services that help you reach those
Goals.
● You need to know your key Audience Segments and the important Personas
within them
● You need to understand your Superpowers and how those factor into the Value
Proposition for your Personas
● THEN you can build your Engagement Pyramid
● And THEN you can select and implement Technology to track and measure
customer/member engagement throughout their relationship with your co-op

5. Why is having an Engagement Strategy important?
● Because without an engagement strategy you won’t know if or when you hit a
bull’s-eye
● You’ll just be blindly shooting or throwing stuff against the wall -- and hoping
something sticks.
● In one of their blog posts on the topic, the well-known research firm, Gartner, says
of Engagement Strategy....
“It’s not that the [organization] can’t succeed without a strategy... But without
such a strategy, it will be difficult to actually judge what worked, what didn’t,
and which investments or process changes paid dividends…”
● They go on to say, “... Define the engagement strategy FIRST, and the
investments of time and money that follow are far more likely to succeed by
design rather than circumstance.”
● https://blogs.gartner.com/ken-agress/2011/09/30/define-the-engagement-strategy-
first/

6. We used to think of engagement strategy as the programs/services we offered and our
marketing & sales outreach.
Ah-ha Moments or Eye-Openers when starting to work with BSA on Engagement Strategy
● Engagement Strategy is NOT a membership & shopping-focused project only; it
involves
○ members AND customers AND partners AND producers/suppliers
○ shopping AND everything else the Co-op offers/does
● Engagement Strategy is NOT an email blast, promotion, an ad campaign, an event
○ these are the programs and outreach we implement. The WHAT WE DO
● Engagement Strategy is the WHY WE DO the outreach and programs we do. It
informs our WHAT
● Engagement Strategy is not a Marketing Department Only endeavor. It requires
Board, Leadership, and x-Co-op team involvement

7. One way to think about the different Engagement Strategy components is to think of some
as being internally or “Co-op-focused” and some as externally or “Customer-
focused”
The INTERNAL-focused Components include:
● Vision & Mission
● Goals
● Superpowers
You need to clearly understand:
1. what you are really trying to do. and
2. what makes you unique ...
...before you can clearly articulate that to your members and customers.
The INTERNAL-focused components include:
● Programs, and
● Audiences & Personas
You need to clearly understand:
1. who you want (and need) to engage with your programs to achieve your vision and
goals, and
2. what makes them tick - before you can reach out to them.

8. When we talk about customers or members today, we are talking about all your
constituents or stakeholders -- whether those are customers, members, community
partners, producers, suppliers, etc.
You can think about the Value Proposition & Engagement Pyramid components as what
connect the two “sides”
And the underlying Technology Platform tracks and supports it all.
We’ll start with the Co-operative-side Components, follow that with the Customer-side
Components and then address the Connecting Components, including the Engagement
Pyramid.

9. Let’s dive into the internal-focused Components.
As we go through each of these, we’ll:
● First present the component or concept
● Then share the Hanover Consumer Co-operative Society’s experience
● And then ask you to do some individual reflection

10. SOURCE: proverb, sometimes attributed to Antoine de St-Exupery

11. Your co-op needs - and may already have - a Vision and Mission (i.e., you know not
only WHAT you do, but also WHY you do it)
Vision = This is essentially what you think is missing in the world -- it describes a
world you want to see and that your organization is dedicated to creating.
Mission = The actual work you are going to do
Examples:
1. Organic Valley https://www.organicvalley.coop/about-us/organic-food-co-op/
Vision: a healthier, more sustainable food system
Mission: To create and operate a marketing cooperative that
promotes regional farm diversity and economic stability by
the means of organic agricultural methods and the sale of
certified organic products.
These statements are clear – concise – AND they are aspirational.
Let’s look at another co-op.

12. 2. REI
Mission: “We inspire, educate and outfit for a lifetime of outdoor adventure and
stewardship."
Interesting… we could not find a Vision statement; evidence that it is easy for us to say
WHAT we do and it is not as easy to state WHY

14. So how do we make your lofty aspirational Vision statement tangible? We break it down.
We build a pathway of goals that your organization can achieve that fulfills your
mission and that lead you toward the Vision.
At your co-op your Ends are likely your high level Goals.
a. Goals are set to achieve your mission
b. Your programming is designed to achieve those Ends/Goals
When thinking about goals we can “read” the pathway as follows
> we must achieve short term goal X in order to achieve interim goal Y
… OR…

15. > to reach longer term goal X we must first accomplish interim goal Y which requires us to
first achieve short term goal Z
Once there is a clear goals pathway, then it is much easier to design relevant programs that
can engage others in working toward them.

17. Let’s look at the last of your internally-focused Engagement Strategy
components - your Superpowers. Your Superpowers articulate why
people join your co-op / why they engage with you.
They state:
What makes your co-op UNIQUELY great? (i.e., what special quality,
physical structure, experience etc.)
1. What causes people to identify with you?
2. What can they get from you that they can’t readily get
elsewhere?
3. What makes your vision & mission personally relevant to the
people with whom you want to engage?
Broccoli and Carrots are both very healthy. What makes them UNIQUELY
great?

18. • 100g serving of broccoli will provide 148% of your Vitamin C for the day
• 100 g serving of carrots will provide 334% of the Vitamin A needed daily
People needing/wanting Vitamin C will go for broccoli while those needing/wanting
Vitamin A will choose carrots
Garlic on the other hand – well, what other food wards off vampires?!

20. Now let’s spend a little time looking at the EXTERNAL-focused Components of an
Engagement Strategy
The “EXTERNAL-focused” Components include:
● Programs
● Audiences
● Personas
Programs are often where we start. Programs are meant to help us achieve goals. They are
meant to be engaging to others. We cannot design the most effective programs without first
having clear goals and a clear understanding of our stakeholders/customers/members.
Now let’s talk about Audiences & Personas

21. ● Your Market is the targeted customer base for your co-op’s services &
programs
● Your Audiences are the people that engage in your Programs and help you
reach your Goals.
● You might have multiple Audiences (or broad categories of potential customers or
stakeholders) within your Market.
● Within each of those Audiences you probably have distinctly different groups or
Segments.
● And you can take it one step further and identify Personas within your Segments
● Personas are sizable, representative sub-groups of important constituents
within each Segment.
● So if, for example, you are REI, then:
○ Your overall Market might be the United States
○ Your broad Audiences within your Market might be:
■ Men
■ Women
■ and Youth who love the outdoors and outdoor activity
○ Within Women, your Segments might be:
■ Young & Healthy Women (e.g., in their 20s & 30s)
■ Middle-Aged & Active Women (e.g., in their 40s & 50s)
■ Mature Women on the Move (e.g., 60s+)

22. ○ And within your Young & Healthy Women Segment, your Personas might
be:
■ College and graduate students committed to sustainability and the
environment
■ Weekend-Warrior Professionals seeking sunshine, fresh air and
exercise after being in an office or traveling for business all week
■ Mothers with Young Children looking to instill a love of the outdoors &
active fun in their kids
● PERSONAS help you really understand your ideal customers’ goals,
motivations, challenges, expectations, behaviors and preferences.
● PERSONAS are representative characters that you (and everyone in your
organization) can internalize, and use as consistent frames of reference when
making decisions about your company.
● By developing a deeper understanding of the key Personas within your segments,
you can also (among other things):
○ better message to and engage similar groups who are not yet
customers or members or vendors or partners of your organization
○ improve engagement with your existing constituents -- and increase the
likelihood that they take

23. 1 of several personas developed by the Co-op

24. Now let’s bring it all together by connecting the Co-operative-focused side of
Engagement Strategy with the Customer-focused side.
You do this with your:
● Value Proposition
● Engagement Pyramid (we told you we’d come back to this!)
● and Technology

25. What is a Value Proposition?
● Shopify, an e-commerce platform company, defines value proposition as follows:
● “The value you promise to deliver to your customers post-purchase. It’s
ultimately what makes your product [or company or organization] attractive to
customers [constituents]. A strong value proposition meets three criteria:
○ It’s specific: What are the specific benefits the customer will receive?
○ It’s pain-focused: How do you fix the customer’s problem or improve
his or her life?
○ It’s exclusive: … How does it set you apart from your competitors?...”
● Shopify goes on to say: READ SLIDE
● IN SHORT, your value proposition is your company’s unique differentiating
message in a single sentence for a specific target persona.
● Why are value props important?
○ Many reasons, but this quote from Kissmetrics, a customer engagement
automation platform company, sums it up nicely: “People won’t ever
buy from [or engage with] you -- if they don’t even understand why
they should pay attention to you!” -Kissmetrics

26. The Co-op’s value proposition ties to Superpowers

27. To track and measure you’ll want to build your Engagement Pyramid. The pyramid
● organizes the roles you need your audiences to take on by their level of
engagement
● As people become more engaged you spend more time and money engaging
them -- more engagement = more personal interaction
We need people to engage at every level or we get out of balance. A strong base is
important. It is also important to identify the people interested in moving up by becoming
more engaged.
PROSPECT Interested in the cause and aware of the organization. Awareness is the
major factor.;
CUSTOMER/FOLLOWER Understands and believes in the cause; trusts the
organization enough to approve the use of their name to endorse the organization,
its programs or a particular campaign. Attention and Trust/Time are major factors.
SUPPORTER Contributes significant time, financial or social capital to the
organization. Time and money are the major factors.
ADVOCATE Someone who actively recommends you to others, who does your
marketing for you. Knowledge is the major factor.
PARTNER Leads others in carrying out the organization’s work. Leadership skills are
the major factor.
So, how do we keep track of all this?! Technology!! But that’s a topic for another day.

29. Now it’s your turn to do some Engagement Strategy work!
Instruction: This is a packet of worksheets you can use after you leave today’s
session to work on your own co-op’s Engagement Strategy.
TODAY, RIGHT NOW, though, we want to help you kickstart that effort.
Using the COVER SHEET from your Packet. take a few minutes to write the following:
● Your co-op’s Vision
● Your co-op’s Ends (or Goals).
○ If you have more than 3 Ends/Goals -- pick the THREE 3 you are focused
on this year.
○ THEN Circle the ONE that is your top-most priority.
● Your co-op’s 3-4 Superpowers (what is unique about your co-op that your
audiences value)
● One (1) important Program that helps your co-op reach its top-priority
Goal/End
● One (1) important Audience/Segment/Persona for that Program

30. HAND-OUT: PYRAMID WORKSHEET
Instructions: Now let’s take that info your just wrote down on your COVER SHEET and
map it onto your Engagement Pyramid
● For the Program you selected, list actions you need/want your key Persona(s) to
take to meet your Goal
● Is your Persona LIKELY (i.e., motivated) to take those actions? If not, what
actions will your Persona LIKELY take?
● Assign the actions to levels on the pyramid; the more high-value the action, the
higher on the pyramid.
● Does the program allow for actions that move the persona up the engagement
pyramid? In other words, are there actions at all levels of the pyramid? If not, you
might need a new program to reach your Goal or might need to redefine your
existing program to include more actions at certain levels of your pyramid.
● Are most of the Program actions taken by your Co-op or by the Persona? If the
former, perhaps the program needs to be redefined to allow for more Persona
engagement (i.e., there’s a difference between benefitting from a program and
engaging in it)

33. THANK YOU for joining us today!
For more information contact beth@bethsaundersconsulting.com