Category: marketing

Don’t Forget the Debrief!

Posted on | by Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE

Sometimes I think the most useful service I perform as a consultant has nothing to do with conducting stakeholder interviews or running focus groups or digging through background materials or doing secondary research or creating kick-ass strategies or even more kick-ass campaigns or teaching staff what’s involved in conducting a campaign so they can go forth and fish themselves, rather than just eating the fish sandwich I handed them.

Not that all that stuff isn’t great, of course, but I think maybe the most helpful thing I do for clients is get them to sit down for an hour or two after we finish whatever the main focus of the engagement was, discuss what we learned, talk about what we’d do differently the next time, and document the whole thing. In order to do this, we also have to actually figure out what happened. We go through questions like:

  • In concrete and specific terms, how did we do against what we wanted to do? Did we achieve the revenue (or number of attendees or number of new members or renewal percentage etc….) we were aiming at? Why or why not?
  • What went well? How can we tweak it to make it go even better next time?
  • What didn’t go well? Why? Should we try to fix it next time, and if so, how, or should we just write it off as an experiment that didn’t work?
  • Is there anything we wanted to do we didn’t get to or couldn’t make happen, and what did we learn that would get us there next time?

It’s hard, I know. When there’s a lot going on and not quite as many people as you wish you had to get it all done, it’s tempting to finish a project and just move on the next thing on the “To Do” list.

The problem with that is that we want our associations to be learning organisms. But if you never take the time to assess what happened and capture and share what you learned, your association will never get smarter as an organization – you’ll never get to the point where you’re increasing organizational capacity.

 

 

10 Tips for Creating an Effective Marketing Piece

Posted on | by Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE

I’m headed to Providence to speak at CESSE this week, and one of the sessions I’ll be participating in will be an idea swap where we’ll be sharing marketing materials. I’ll be facilitating the discussion, and the nice folks at CESSE asked me to prepare some general tips to help people as they reviewed each others’ materials.

So I figured: why not share them with you, too, blog reader?

  1. Short is better than long. Don’t stuff too much crap in there. This is not your only chance to talk to your audience ever in the history of human beings. They are not going to read pages and pages of text. Trust me on this one.
  2. Speaking of text, pictures are better than words. And make sure you keep your visual look consistent. It’s OK for an event to have its own logo, but it should work with your normal logo and fonts and colors. Your audience should know at a glance that this piece is from you.
  3. Use color! Innovations in print technology have really brought the cost down. There’s no excuse for visually dull pieces these days. And pay attention to what the colors you choose say about you.
  4. Use image heatmapping. We normally think of this related to websites, but you can test any image. (Crazy Egg is one of my favorite sites for this.)
  5. Speak in their voice, not yours. We’re all familiar with the “benefits, not features” thing (or at least we should be), but you also need to use their language. You talk with engineers differently than you do with nurses or accountants or beer wholesalers or construction contractors.
  6. YOU MUST HAVE A CLEAR CALL TO ACTION. This probably should have been the first tip, and yes, I am shouting. If you’re not clear about what you want people to do, you are not ready to invest in a marketing piece. End of story.
  7. Proofread. Triple check your details. Is the date right? Is the time right? Is the location right? Is the website URL right? Are the prices right? Also, make sure you actually included all the relevant details. I got a marketing email the other day for an event that didn’t tell me what day it was, what time it was, or where it was. When I clicked on the link, I at least got the date and time from the website, but still no location. How am I supposed to go to that event?
  8. Generally speaking, serif fonts are more readable in print, san serif fonts are more readable online. It’s OK to break this rule, but do it consciously, and in either case, make sure your font is not too small! Your 25 year old marketing assistant may be doing the layout, but you need to make your your 55 year old CEO member can actually read it.
  9. Run an integrated campaign. Print is great. Email is great. Social is great. The web is great. You know what’s really great? When you use them all together in a coordinated way to create a campaign where the pieces compliment and build on each other.
  10. Have a little fun. Of course, you have to know your audience, and a mostly student audience is very different from a mostly PhD in chemistry audience which is very different than a most surgeon audience, but be engaging and hip and energetic, not dull, dry, overly formal, and too serious. You’re trying to get people interested in and excited about your product or service, right?

Do You SAVE?

Posted on | by Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE | 2 Comments on Do You SAVE?

First, marketing had the 4 Ps:

  • Product, aka what you’re selling
  • Price, aka what it costs
  • Placement, aka how do you get your product to your customers
  • Promotion, aka how are you selling your product

Then, marketing moved to the 4 Cs:

  • Consumer, aka who is your audience and what do they want
  • Cost, aka what it costs (that one didn’t change)
  • Convenience, aka where do your segments buy your stuff (because they may not all buy in the same place/way)
  • Communication, aka two-way interaction with your audiences

But, Harvard Business Review argues, really forward-thinking marketers are now into SAVE-ing:

  • S-olutions, which forces you away from thinking about your products and into thinking about the problems your audiences have and how you can help them address those problems, which is a step beyond “what do they want?”
  • A-ccess, is still about the where, but incorporates the Google idea of the Zero Moment of Truth, the concept of the “purchase journey,” and your organization’s skill in and availability for customer service and interaction
  • V-alue, which is intimately familiar to associations, as we talk constantly about the “value of membership” – turns out, people are far less price-sensitive than we tend to think they are as long as the value is apparent
  • E-ducation, aka content marketing, or non-sales communication

What are you doing to SAVE for your members?

AMS, CRM, and “So Now What?”

Posted on | by Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE | 1 Comment on AMS, CRM, and “So Now What?”

This is the final post of launch week for the new Spark whitepaper, Member Relations: An Association-Centric Approach to Customer Relationship Management:

We’ve looked at CRM as an approach, CRM as software, how AMS and CRM are alike and different, and now we’re on to: “What does it all mean?”

CRM is not a one-to-one replacement for AMS. But it can still be highly valuable to associations that don’t do many of the traditional things associations do, or that outsource some of those traditional association functions. Its greatest application may, in fact, be as a supplement to AMS, supporting associations with robust sales functions. And in an era of flat or declining memberships, associations must become more comfortable with an active sales culture.

Want more? Download your free copy at http://bit.ly/10s8UUb.

The full PDF includes case studies of three associations that are each taking a unique approach to this interplay.

AMS v. CRM

Posted on | by Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE | 1 Comment on AMS v. CRM

From the new Spark whitepaper, Member Relations: An Association-Centric Approach to Customer Relationship Management:

The once distinct line between AMS and CRM is blurring. CRM systems are increasingly able to integrate with third party solutions to provide additional functions, social networking platforms in particular, and AMS systems are adding many “classic” CRM capabilities. The key difference is specialization.

Want more? Download your free copy at http://bit.ly/10s8UUb.

 

CRM: The Software

Posted on | by Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE | 1 Comment on CRM: The Software

From the new Spark whitepaper, Member Relations: An Association-Centric Approach to Customer Relationship Management:

Now that we’re on board with CRM the concept, what about CRM the software?

One of the major differences between CRM software and other types of databases is Sales Force Automation (SFA). SFA focuses on contact management with the goal of supporting a formal process for moving leads through the purchase loop until they become customers.

Want more? Download your free copy at http://bit.ly/10s8UUb.

 

CRM: The Philosophy

Posted on | by Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE | 3 Comments on CRM: The Philosophy

From the new Spark whitepaper, Member Relations: An Association-Centric Approach to Customer Relationship Management:

CRM, properly understood, supported, and implemented, helps us manage customer (member and non-member) relationships in a coordinated way across our associations so that every staff member can access the information we maintain on our audiences and use that information effectively to build stronger relationships with those audiences.

Want more? Download your free copy at http://bit.ly/10s8UUb.

Announcing: Member Relations

Posted on | by Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE | 1 Comment on Announcing: Member Relations

I’m excited to launch the second Spark whitepaper – Member Relations: An Association-Centric Approach to Customer Relationship Management, which, with the assistance of George Breeden and Tom Lehman, I recently completed.

This week, I’ll be blogging about the contents of the whitepaper.

The basic premise is:

Associations are starting to look at CRM (customer relationship management) software, either as an adjunct to or a replacement for, their more traditional AMS systems. However, without a proper understanding and adoption of CRM as a philosophy, the software itself it pretty pointless. Moreover, AMS and CRM are not a one-to-one replacement for each other, so it’s important to understand what they can each do (and not do) and how that matches (or doesn’t match) your association’s needs before taking the plunge. Finally, I offer case studies of three associations that have each taken a different path to meeting their audience data needs, and share what they’ve learned and their advice for others who might be considering the same approach.

I’ll be writing more about each of these points this week, but in the meantime, pick up your free copy at http://bit.ly/10s8UUb, no divulging of information about yourself required.

Membership Marketing on a Shoestring

Posted on | by Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE

I’m presenting on the topic above at the Events By Design Small Staff Association workshop today, and while it’s too late to join us, I thought I could share my best membership marketing tips for small staff associations (aka “the handout”) with everyone.

Barter! 
Find a complimentary organization or two, and swap member lists, swap magazine ads, swap e-newsletter promotions, swap banner ads, swap conference attendance/booths/speaking spots, etc.

Email! 
It takes time, but you can do personalized, segmented HTML emails using some very simple shareware tools, some skill, and a little legwork. It doesn’t require subscription to RealMagnet or Constant Contact, etc. (although that does make things WAY easier).

Word of Mouth! 
Who are your passionate members and volunteers? If you know, ask them to spread the word about the exciting things you’re doing (you are doing exciting things for them, right?). If you don’t know, FIND OUT!

Customer Service! 
Don’t underestimate the value of excellent customer service at every level, from the CEO to the mail clerk. Retention is even more important than recruitment – it’s a much lower cost, higher value transaction. “How can we serve our members better today than we did yesterday?”

Little Things Mean a Lot! 
Get the invoices out on time. Track who’s paid and who hasn’t paid. Proof read all written communications. Test your emails to make sure your links work. Double-check to make sure your return address (snail- or email) is correct in your marketing materials.

Your Association’s Chanel Suit

Posted on | by Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE

Chanel suits are fashion iconography. A Chanel suit is the prototypical dream clothing acquisition: stylish, simple, elegant, and timeless. Assuming you can afford one, it will form the foundation of your entire wardrobe. It’s a classic.

The same should be true of your association’s brand. It is the foundation of your marketing and communications wardrobe. Everything you do, say, or produce as an organization should relate back to your brand, to a common vision of what your association is.

To get to that level of consistency, you must have a clear, memorable statement of what you stand for, and everyone, from your CEO to your mail clerk, needs to live it.

Oh, and if that vision has to do with being the “market leader” or “providing exceptional value” or “world-class” anything (or sounds like it could’ve been the result of the late, lamented Automatic Mission Statement Generator), toss out the cliched business-speak, and start over, from the place of using simple words to explain what really matters to your association.