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Suzanne Carawan

By: Suzanne Carawan on May 18th, 2016

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This is What Conversion Feels Like

Brand Marketing | inbou

mailto:demo@example.com?Subject=HighRoad Solutions - interesting article


This is how you should feel when someone willingly provides you their email address because they want to consume your content. Whether they're signing up for your newsletter, registering for a webinar or downloading your latest research, receiving the input of someone's email is as big as a slam dunk. And like LeBron, you should yell & beat your chest and yell "THAT'S WHAT WE DO!"

Marketers have the competitive spirit. They want to outplay you, they want to unnerve you and most importantly, they want to win. Many associations are telling me that they want to grow and compete in today's world and I ask them this key question: 

Does your organization know how to compete? Do they think in terms of competition? Do they work for the love of the game? 


Most associations are now developing marketing departments, but historically have had communications departments. At some point, marketing was the term used to mean selling membership, events and products and got lumped in with communications. Right now, we're a bit of a mess as an industry in understanding the differences between marketing, communications and sales and it wasn't important until now to figure it out.

Why? Because association's external communication was all about retention through education and was not laser-focused on such capitalist topics such as profit maximization and cost per acquisition. Traditionally, associations focused on risk mitigation of their communications and focused on the question of "what could go wrong if we take action".

The new digital marketplace in which we all now exist requires us to be marketers and focus on the question of "what could go wrong if we don't take action". This philosophical difference is immense. It's the question of do I play nice and get along well with everyone and don't make waves, or do I fully embrace who I am and go out there and play my game.

I love LeBron. He's a guy that's totally committed to continuous improvement. He wants to win, but win in a noble way. He isn't going to go play college kids to make himself feel like a winner and he isn't going to cheat his way to his next level of play. He's going to look for the competitor that's better than him, match up and go get it.

I put the question back to associations as well---are you truly looking for your real competitor and assessing how you stack up? Are you using this competitor as a benchmark towards your own improvement, but not getting obsessed with copying what they're doing? Do you have enough confidence and clarity in your association's brand to focus on what makes you the best.

If the answers are that you know who you are, you are in a team environment that supports excellence and continuous growth, then your brand is radiating out a vibe of attraction and you will grow. When you have this and you get the next notification that someone new subscribed to your newsletter or blog or webinar, you are excited. You are THRILLED! You are ENERGIZED! You want to yell LET'S GO!!!

Energy begets energy. Make sure your staff has all stars and key players that can bring everyone up in their play. Work your tail off and then go for the slam dunk. You'll miss some, but the ones you make? 

Those are the small victories that make history.