<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=520757221678604&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">

member-communications

Blog Feature

By: Aimee Pagano
May 19th, 2022

One of the obvious and most critical objectives of any association is to retain membership. Retention is a key performance indicator that impacts brand reputation, member satisfaction, and conclusively—financial statements.

The issue, however, is that generational and cultural landscapes are constantly evolving—yielding new consumer-buying behaviors, content-consumption preferences, and desired communication channels. 

As market demand is rewired, businesses are all seeing a natural need for remodeling, restructuring, and/or rebranding so that they're lock in step with audience expectations and needs.

Associations, and certainly memberships, are no different. Naturally, member-based organizations have to be extraordinarily proactive when it comes to identifying and dissuading member exits.

Blog Feature

By: Nicole Crilley
May 16th, 2022

Email is arguably the most popular and effective marketing tool for organizations to run campaigns and produce funnel conversions.

 
It's used to generate interest, surface leads, and nurture those leads, all in pursuit of a particular sales or marketing objective such as joining or subscribing.
 
From an execution perspective, it's important to strategize where your email—or set of emails—fit into the larger marketing schema. In other words, what is your email really doing for you? The minute that email sends, what are you and your org getting out of it?
 
The answer? Everything if you focus on what's important. 

Blog Feature

By: Nicole Crilley
April 19th, 2022

Customization and personalization is no longer a prized possession. It's expected when it comes to communicating with consumers.

For associations, non-profits, and member-based groups—whose cornerstone value comes in the form of communication, content, and community—this 1:1 member communication is a must-have for marketers. 

The ability for members and customers to control the content that they receive, specifically through email, is invaluable to their satisfaction and your bottom line.

Cue the Email Preference Center (EPC)—a centralized location where users manage their communication preferences and topical interests.

Blog Feature

By: Emily Nash
April 1st, 2022

Whether you’re looking to engage with membership or nurture newly generated leads, email automation is a valuable, relatively hands-free productivity enhancer.
 
In fact, 59% of marketing professionals believe they can save as much as six hours per week when email automations are configured. Another 69% say that automation in this area reduces wasted time, and 72% say it allows them to focus on high-value work. 
 
That's quantifiable proof that data automation works, particularly for professionals with multi-pronged program goals and less hands
 

Blog Feature

By: Leslie Schiff
November 7th, 2017

mistake-876597_1920.jpg

A lot of associations spend too much time over-thinking their digital marketing strategies that they end up missing opportunities,” says Suzanne Carawan, Chief Marketing Officer with HighRoad Solution. “The truth is that consumers are far more forgiving in the digital space, so associations can worry less and take more risks.”

Communicating with members can be intimidating in the digital age. What if your email has a typo? What if your e-newsletter has a broken link? What if that new (and expensive) website simply doesn't click with your audience?

The short answer: Relax.

Simply put, it's OK to make mistakes; companies do it all the time. Whether it's sending emails with the odd misspelling, introducing online services that don't work perfectly at launch, or trying something new with their messaging that winds up falling flat.

And that's perfectly fine, says Carawan, because the need to keep the conversation going with one's audience outweighs the need to make sure that communication is perfect: “Maybe in the past someone would get fired for a typo in a print communication, but in the digital space it happens and you can go back and fix it immediately.”

Moreover, making a mistake doesn't have the same impact on a brand's reputation as it did a decade ago. The digital community is diverse, meaning it is much more inclusive and understanding than what marketers have traditionally been used to. As a result, associations are holding themselves to a standard that just doesn't exist anymore and all that worrying about making the wrong move is slowing them down.

“Slow and perfect gets beat by agile and good intent every time in today’s world,” states Carawan, adding, “Everyone is just trying to be heard, and very few people are going to judge you for trying something that fails. Think of online like the Mos Eisley Cantina in Star Wars. We're all creatures from different parts of the galaxy and all we want to do is grab a drink and talk to real creatures about real things—that’s the value of a membership.”

That doesn't mean associations have permission to get sloppy. It is still possible to go too far the other way – particularly among older generation who might be a little less forgiving than their Gen X and Millennial peers. What it does mean is that associations have more leeway to experiment with new ideas and services, try new approaches with their social media, or take the leap with initiatives such as website upgrades and digital marketing campaigns. 

Furthermore, notes Carawan, just as members and online audiences are more forgiving, so too must employers give staff the benefit of the doubt: “Don't fire the 24-year old who just sent an email with an error in it, because to them, this stuff happens all the time. They won't understand why it's a big deal because they live in world of emojis, abbreviations, and casual social media messages.”

No doubt, it's a new age for association marketing. And while it can be comfortable to sit on new ideas or marketing campaigns until they're flawless, sometimes the best play is to pull the trigger.

After all, adds Carawan, “No one's perfect, and we're all just trying to communicate.”

Want to learn more about improving your member communications? 

how-to-attarct
This article was authored by Matt Bradford, and originally published by the Canadian Society of Association Executives (CSAE). Click here to view original post.