The key to your group’s long-term health and effectiveness is how well you attract and accommodate new people. All groups want a regular flow of new members joining them and contributing towards their campaigns. But this won’t happen without a good strategy.

In this guide, we’ll look at how to build your group’s profile and how this can be used to attract new group members. We’ll explore how to market your groups effectively, showcase activities, and motivate people to join, get involved, and stay engaged long-term.

02 Dec 2025

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What’s a profile and why is it important?

When we talk about raising the profile of something, we mean how much people in your community know about your group. If people don’t know about your group, they won’t join it. That’s why it’s important for groups to keep visible and include plenty of profile-raising activities in their plans.

 

Building your profile

Think about the different activities your group could do and how they might fit into these categories:

  • Things people read.
  • Things people see.
  • Things people experience.

Which ones one’s do you already do? Are you reaching people in different ways? It's best to have a mix of activities so you can connect with how different people like to receive information.

If you're interested in raising your group’s profile, you might be interested in our resource on how to get media coverage.

Marketing your group

Alongside thinking about your groups profile, it helps to think about how you want people to feel when they interact with your group. If people have a positive experience, they’re far more likely to engage with you – and maybe even get involved.

 

 

Balancing facts and feelings in communication

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
Maya Angelou.

As campaigners and activists, we're used to dealing in facts, evidence and data. We often try to show the urgency of the challenges we face by sharing all the evidence we have. We want to tell people what we know and expect that this will motivate them to take action.  

But people are often more motivated by how something makes them feel than by the facts we tell them. So, it’s up to us to make sure we properly consider how we want people to feel when we communicate with them, and how to build this into plans.

Building lists and finding leads

Raising your profile and marketing your group helps you and reach out. But that’s only part of the picture. We also need to think about how we can actively bring people into our groups by building contact lists and making targeted offers.

 

 

You can find out more about Action Network.

The GDPR resource mentioned in the video can be found here.


Onboarding and one-to-ones

If your group is struggling with declining membership, it’s worth asking: is the issue recruitment or retention?  

Often people don’t stay because they haven’t been properly onboarded. A one-to-one conversation can make a big difference. It’s a chance to welcome someone, understand their motivations, and make sure these align with the work of the group.

 

 

Need some extra ideas? Use this resource for welcoming new people to your group.

In the video we discussed self-deterministic theory – you can read more about this here. The motivation continuum diagram can be viewed here.

 

Resources