10 Tips for Attracting Members to Coworking Space

Are you a coworking owner struggling with attracting new members to your space? This problem seems to be popular among coworking owners, so you’re not alone. The coworking niche is narrow and needs a specific marketing strategy, especially when consumer behavior after COVID-19 sharply changed. But there are no reasons to worry about it. Here I will show you 5 essential marketing strategies that will help you to attract new customers and improve your business.

1.      Knowing your target audience is important

Before we start considering practical marketing strategies, let’s ensure that you know who your target audience is. Try to describe, what is the type of coworking space. Maybe you have a food coworking, coworking for lawyers, or female-only space?

Why it’s so important? While you know who will attend your coworking space you can build a marketing strategy and communications exactly for this target market. You can determine the companies, groups, and individuals most likely to use or be interested in your business depending on the location of your coworking (e.g., maybe you have some IT companies or universities nearby and their workers can attend your coworking space).

For determining the target audience, you need to find answers to the following questions:

1)      What are their main needs and how can you help them?

2)      Does your coworking have some intersection points with customers?

3)      Try to make a portrait of your customers. Their age, demographic, where they work, and what they like to do as a hobby.

4)      What is the problem with their current workplace? How you can solve it?

Use these questions as a basis for the next marketing steps. It will help you create unique communication messages that perfectly fit your customers’ interests.

2.      Brand your coworking space

So, now you know, who is your target audience. But what’s next? The next step is very approximate to your customers. Your main aim is to create branding for your coworking space. When I say «McDonald’s», everyone knows, that its major colors are white, yellow and red, everyone remembers this big «M» letter as its logo. You need to initiate something like this, your customers need to associate the branding with your company.

Branding consists of such elements as:

•      A logo: one of the most crucial elements of branding. The logo needs to display the positioning of your brand. Also, it needs to be noticeable and remarkable, try to take into account your customer’s attitude to the color pallet and follow all the modern trends while designing it. Don’t forget the other vital detail: your logo will be placed on your website, social media, and presentations, so make sure all colors go together.

•      Сorporate colors need to logically elongate the brand’s positioning. It’s better to learn more about color psychology because color greatly influences customer behavior. For example, the blue color is associated in our brain with calm and relaxed feelings, red color is usually used for the purpose of showing energy, etc.

•    You can use taglines as a summarization of your branding. Try some short but memorable phrases, which will be associated with your brand only.

Based on these branding elements you will build a communication message to your target audience. That’s why it’s so important to create a branding system that will suit your coworking space perfectly.

3.      Be original

Do you know how many coworking spaces there are all over the world? Based on historical data from 2018 through 2022, the total number of coworking spaces is set to reach between 42,000 and 50,000 worldwide by the end of 2024. A huge number of competitors to deal with, yeah? So, why your customers should choose only you among all these 42, 000 coworking spaces? It’s a great reason to think about your differentiation.

Make your own difference. It can be some events connected to the interests of your target audience, creative design, or online payment option. It’s not so hard to create a difference with benchmarking. Research the market, features of your competitors, and interests of your target audience. What new features you can give to your customers? Believe me: they always will be enjoyed new ideas, which can simplify their life.

4.      Create your website

Nowadays the Internet makes a big effect on customers. Actually, it’s the first place where your customers meet you. So, be sure, that they will love this place! All of us are looking for something on the Internet that attracts, trusts, and interests us. What should your site have in order to interest the customer?

• The simpler the better. It’s not necessary to create hundreds of pages, be sure, that your customer will be able to find all the information in five or ten minutes. No one needs these long and boring searching for price or additional features;

• Personalization. Remember that each person has their own expectations of your products and services. No one likes to be called “Dear Customer” in an email, and everyone likes to be offered products on topics that are of particular interest to them! So knowing the tastes and interests of your regular customers is the key to creating long-term relationships.

• Trust. your site must have a dedicated contact page with a feedback form, email address (preferably not free), location and phone number.

•  Attractive and modern design, that will definitely fit customer’s expectations;

• Be sure that you have not only a desktop version of your website but a mobile version as well;

• SEO has not gone anywhere, no matter how many people hide it. It is still a quality marketing channel that brings customers and requires smart investments, financial and human. Hiring specialists to audit the SEO promotion of the site can pay off quickly.

5.      Expand your network with local companies

The secret of the next step is on the surface: pay more attention to local companies, considering them as a separate segment of the target audience. Therefore, even before opening a location, you should create an account in Google My Business and a label on Google Maps. Fill them in as much detail as possible. This will increase the position of co-working in Google and help attract relevant customers.

Also, if you want to find your local target audience, don’t be afraid of using coworking listing sites. Usually, such sites give an opportunity for adding your coworking space to their list. They are very easy to use, with the help of Google Maps people in your city will be able to choose coworking spaces, that are located near them. It is also worth looking for services that post information about local objects, pages, and communities on social networks.

Try to build a strong and long-term partnership with local brands related to your niche. For example, a local coffee shop advertises you in their lounge, instead of placing branded coffee in your kitchens or loading branded coffee machines with the appropriate sticker. Your visitors and residents will be pleased to receive discounts on services and goods that can be found nearby, i.e., a gym. This improves the lives of residents: there is no need to look for a place to train, and you can also save money due to membership in your coworking space.

I would like to emphasize that it makes sense to establish cooperation with local businesses. Entrepreneurs can become speakers at your events, offer their goods and services to your visitors, in return tell their customers about you as an open and friendly business. And a good image will never be superfluous.

6.      Make an accent on your social media

We hardly live on our smartphones, spending about two hours a day on social networks alone. Social media platforms will give you an excellent opportunity to be in touch with your target audience 24/7. Each platform is unique and means a smart approach for content promotion, that can help you to gain a profit. Thereby, LinkedIn will do a great job of selecting a target audience and communicating directly with decision-makers in companies. Instagram, on the other hand, will allow you to communicate yourself creatively and to the general public. If your budget isn’t big but you want to start advertising on social media, you can try Facebook as a first step. Facebook allows accurate targeting and you can focus only on these localities, that have a lot in common with your customers. Using a free ad maker will help you create beautiful ads and reach your target audience efficiently.

According to the data, the top 3 most effective platforms for social media strategy are Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. But don’t lean on it too much, the best platform is this, which is suitable for your target audience.

Helpful lifehack: leave links to your website on your social media just where possible, it will drive traffic to your website.

Don’t forget about paid placements in more or less traditional media – from magazines and radio to billboards and online publications. You will be very surprised when you know their reach and the percentage of potential customers of your location who trust these channels.

One thing you need to remember: if you want your social media strategy to be effective, you need to communicate there regularly. As soon as you stop posting your customers just forgive you. Try to be on their feed as much as it possible for your time management.

7.      Events for members = engagement

Organizing events should be the cornerstone of any coworking space. Depending on the type of event, its visitors can meet, learn something new or just have fun. This should appeal to existing residents and may gain publicity among potential visitors. In any case, it will be a good opportunity to show yourself.

If you find an opportunity to gather local business representatives to the event, you can get unexpected bonuses – an increase in demand for meeting rooms, workplace rentals, and offers for cooperation. Another option is to use LinkedIn Local if the service works in your region.

8.      Encourage your members

Discounts, prizes, and giveaways can do wonders to fill your location with new people. For example, free beer on Fridays, the fifth day free when you buy four, rewards for referring a friend, or simply invitations to events.

However, be careful not to be blunt or to encourage people “for the sake of ticking off”: if you offer a prize or favor, offer it politely, on time, and in full. It will pay off with a multiplier.

9.      Ask for guest posts and reviews

You can reach other companies in or related ones in the industry with the help of guest posts and reviews from existing residents. It is necessary to carefully choose those who will give these reviews and write them on different platforms. Are these companies influential in their markets or can they promote your brand? Choose carefully partners who will speak about you.

As with reviews, a link to your site from client or partner sites will increase your ranking in the eyes of Google and work for SEO. The more and the better influential and respected companies say about you, the higher your position in Google’s search results will be.

10.  Stay in touch with your customers

Before crossing off the checklist, let me remind you that the main thing in all this work is the people whose attention you want to attract. Often the easiest way is the simplest, so you should just talk to them. The ability to communicate and tell stories is what sets us apart from any other species on this planet, so a heartfelt and engaging narrative can convince potential customers to visit you and become your residents.

There are many ways to do this – join a community, attend an industry conference, or follow the proven path of listing local companies, finding local freelancers by geography, and sending them emails. A personalized approach will help you stand out from the competition and make a good impression on the recipients.