nSight Marketing's Survey to Association Executives

by Melynn Sight

Thank you, busy association executives. For taking time to answer 8 questions that will shape nSight Marketing's communications with you in 2012.

Your key messages:

1. Keep other association examples and promising practices coming
2. Relevant examples and data (statistics) are both important
3. Send communications tips, techniques and creative approaches to help make for more efficient and effective communications
4. Offer tactical advice like communicating via social media, leader communications, and creative newsletter headlines
5. Help with the ever elusive value proposition

Your feedback will feed my editorial calendar. Yes, I will do something constructive with the results. I listened with interest. I hear you.

Thank you!

nSight Marketing's Survey to Association Executives

Planning Goes High Tech and High Output

Imagine there are no flip charts. Imagine if you can. No board table with members sitting in their predictable random order.

With no typical meeting room distractions like fluorescent lights, a laptop and overhead box projecting the slide on the pull-up or pull down screen.

Imagine all the people – board members - in a comfortable, refreshing and unpredicted environment - a relaxing setting that makes you feel good. Sofas, high top tables and bar stools, and bit screens across the living room type feel. Don't like sitting in a sofa all day? Move to the table where you can sit up straight. Need some coffee? Go make your own, one-cup at a time.

The agenda was adaptable and manageable:

• A beamed in webcast - a state economic outlook with a drill down into the local area for this association.
• The presentation on the big screen from a legal update to a discussion on value - what it is, how the association is doing with it, and ideas to communicate better.
• Presentations that were more like a big screen movie than a business meeting - and additional small television screens around the room
• The group focused on the vision and mission when discussing their strategic issues, their goals and what it would take to achieve them.
• Strategic Planning – real collaboration without rush or distraction.

The remote beamed between the walls, and breakout sessions with iPad for each group to document their ideas. It makes the output easy to capture and collect - and readable.

 

Settings like this where technology looks easy usually are not. Association Executive Mark Epstein (Tri Counties Association of REALTORS®) was behind the scenes certain the connections worked and the environment was laid back and easy.

 

When it comes to thinking differently, being strategic, a new, unexpected environment lent to board member focus, thinking clearly and being "there" in mind and body and spirit.

 

The ROI was obvious as we said goodbye. Comments included "relaxed, comfortable, engaged, productive and all on the same page."

Planning Goes High Tech and High Output

Keep Your Eye on Your Communications Goals & Test Out Your Plan

Launch and Learn. That’s what happens when you document your plan. And experiment. 

Kudos to Leslie in Palm Beach; to Jackie in Kansas; to Sionara in Nevada and Carrie in Minnesota. For the rest of you who are working on your plan right now: What will you do differently?

Remember it all begins with your communications goals and picking a few specific target audiences. These are the two keys to making real change.

I was impressed with one AEs choice of her target audience: HIGH PRODUCING SALES AGENTS. She is not so worried about the others. Carol and Leslie want to target their communications to the tech savvy. The ones who are looking for help. Those who will see value in what their association offers.

You have to admire a plan that sets aggressive goals and takes on new ideas so you really have to make change to reach them.

I respect those of you who print out your goals and your target audiences and post them in front of your computer screen so you can see them every day. If you don't, the plan will be a good exercise but it won't create real change.

Chris Brogan asked a great question in his recent blog about launching a plan - What are you doing differently? Are you learning from it what needs to change? 

Keep working your plan. Keep iterating. Keep working on it in the "live" environment as best as you can, and keep your eye on those few measurable results that let you know whether you are succeeding or not.

Keep your eyes on your communications goals, and test out your plan.

Keep Your Eye on Your Communications Goals & Test Out Your Plan

Your Audience is on the Go

Imagine this: you are waiting in your car, standing in line at the post office or grocery store, or waiting for a meeting to begin. You are on the train, the bus, or in a taxi. Long gone are the days we sat and enjoyed the quiet time. Today we grab our mobile device to check email or social media. Let’s face it, email was made for mobile devices.

At the NAR conference the past week, I saw more members and staff multitask on their mobile devices than looking at where they were going. Did you notice the same thing?

“On mobile devices, email is far and away the No. 1 activity of how consumers spend their time", says Loren McDonald, Vice President of Industry Relations at Silverpop.

As you craft your weekly email and other marketing pieces, think about your target audience, and write for them. They want snippets of information while sitting at a soccer game, waiting for a lunch date, or even sitting in a meeting. To reach your members, design you content for any device. Don’t expect members to read a long article on the run. Write each topic for your weekly update with no more than 2-3 lines of text. Link to more if members can and want to read it. Insert links that members can touch to read further.

Think of the world as it is, not as the association sees it. It takes some effort to craft a short snippet. If you do, you will connect with more members in prime time - while they are on the go.

Your Audience is on the Go

Living Your Brand

One inspiring hour.

Do you ever think about your hourly rate? If you’re in business, you are probably very careful about what you do to fill your most productive hours.

Some things are not about the pay. Today on my way to coffee with someone I connected with over Facebook, I was thinking about my hourly rate. Was this meeting going reveal value in exchange for my time away from my office?

I wish for more inspiring hours like this. I am lucky to meet a lot of people in my work life who are big, great thinkers and excellent communicators. Being around these people help me get better at what I do. I always learn from them. My world is mostly filled with smart and visionary Association Executives and business people. I look for what makes them unusual, successful, and authentic. I often leave a conversation saying to myself “There’s another one.”

Today’s meeting topped the list in a very different way. This wasn’t an association executive; rather, it was a successful, young and caring association member and entrepreneur.  My goal was to learn more about his story. And his personal brand.

A personal brand isn’t about where a person works, or that they are in sales. A strong brand is the one thing that makes a person authentic. David’s brand is the way he cares and wraps himself around other people’s problems - to try to help overcome them. He gets so much satisfaction from helping someone figure it out and solve a problem.

After one hour and a half, I got it. I got what David was all about. He lives his brand…he believes that what he gets is in direct proportion to what he gives.

So here’s the challenge for each of us: Since we all have some level of online presence, how do we live our brand through the tools we use to connect with other people?

David said it well: Think of social media not like a cocktail party, but approach it as Personal Interactive Marketing. Take what you learn and use it to teach others. Be authentic. And let others provide the feedback (and even accolades) about you.

David the REALTOR® is a very inspiring brand.  I like being someone who knows him. Now I know why others want to know him too.

You can find David Van Noy on Facebook and Twitter. And at www.reeceandnichols.com.

Living Your Brand

Right on the Money - Professional Development

by Melynn Sight

I sat in the room thinking about the money that associations invest in Professional Development for their staff. The investment instructors make (on their own dime and away from their work) to learn and make connections. More recently, at the Professional Development Director’s Summit in Wichita Kansas, RAPDD was one of the most well-run meetings I have ever attended.

There was healthy balance of staff and educators - Director and teacher and practitioner (including REALTOR®-teachers who came to learn and get better at their positions.)

For me, one of the best parts of the meeting was dedicated people on both sides of education with one mission: delivering more relevant education.

There were many gems to take away from the conference, among them:

• Since this meeting was only about education, people were really focused on making connections and delivering quality education.
• I felt new energy and insight that helped people look at their jobs differently.
• Inspiration to be different, “do" different, and find the more passion for their work.

I was surprised by a few comments:

Education is not important to my association ... Education is on the back seat on the priority list ... I can’t communicate the way I want to about educational offerings ... I’m at the mercy of my communications director to do “that”.

To these objections, I wonder if education is core to their association’s value proposition. I suspect YES. In my perfect world, education directors work with communications staff to determine the best way to wrap education into the communications plan. Making education a bigger part of the value proposition. Maybe it’s a new strategy, and new tactics to get members’ attention to come to class. It involves selling the ideas to the communications director or the Association Exec. Prioritizing education may seem like a difficult or even hopeless activity, and it may take a long time to convince other staff or leaders of your proposition. Yes, association staff, at the end of the day, we are all in sales.

Happy 5th birthday RAPDD.

Right on the Money - Professional Development

A Communications Review

Could your business benefit from having an extra set of eyes scrutinize the effectiveness and relevance of your communications? Perhaps you are unsure about how your communications build on your brand, increase loyalty, and better connect with members and even your employees. Whether that’s a committee of volunteers, or an outside view, it might be time to consider a Second Opinion.

The goal of a communications review is to study the flow of information from your communications (to and from your members, prospective members, and the public);the structure, flow, and practices of your staff and documents that touch them. Most important, how well you are achieving your communications goals in reaching each critical audience.

The review identifies the positive highlights of your communications and your process. It identifies communication inconsistencies and suggestions about how create the best possible communications standards and measurements going forward.

The results create a basis for a positive change. It helps you make the adjustments that will improve relevance to your members.

As with any audit, we look at four primary categories in a review:

Irregularities between your association goals and your communications tactics - In other words, communications that don’t provide a direct value link to your communications goals. In the perfect world there is a set of communications tactics (across all platforms) have a common purpose and target audiences; and all of your materials show intentional coordination. 

Compliance in communicating agreed-to messages and adhering to a communications process - The goal is that staff understands and supports the key messages and priority of your association, and there is discipline to focusing on “what’s in it for the member” when delivering member materials. In addition, there is a standardized process for distribution of your communications.

Measurements and feedback mechanisms to track your progress.

Willingness to accept ideas for change - Is yours a culture of continuous improvement and willingness to try different ideas? This is a key indicator of the work you have in front of you to take the recommendations and use them to improve long-term practices and results.

The result of the review is a written assessment, including specific suggestions for improvement.

The way you always communicated in the past is not necessarily relevant today.

Members want to get information, and learn differently. It’s up to you to keep up with the changes and figure out how to tell your story across platforms to make better (and more) connections. Is it time for another head in the game?

A Communications Review

I Am Convinced of the Potential of Association Marketing

I am convinced of the potential of Association Marketing.

I am convinced that any association has the potential to add enormous value to the member experience.

I am convinced that choosing your target audience and beginning with your association goals, you can get more members to do what you want them to do.

I am convinced that if you don’t resource marketing properly, you will not advance your value.

I am convinced that without a clear message platform, you cannot establish a connection with your members (a connection is a prerequisite to “convincing”).

I am convinced that creating a Marketing & Communications (MarCom) plan helps you segment, target, and measure your results against your goals.

I am convinced that good customer service is not enough.

Barriers you might be up against:

• I don’t have time to create a marketing/communications plan
• I can’t invest in a plan I’ll never use
• I can’t afford it
• I can’t sell this to my board
• I don’t have a marketing department
• Every department has different messages
• I want to show value but I just don’t know how to do it

Think about what you can do if you remove some or all the barriers above. And besides, none of them are true.  If you are as convinced as I am, what’s stopping you?

I Am Convinced of the Potential of Association Marketing

A Communications Plan Comes to Life!

Rarely do I get the chance to say WOW so early in the day.  But this morning, association executive at GrNBAR, (Massachusetts) Robin Maccini wowed me.

In May, 2010 I assembled a small but diverse group of associations (in size) to do an experiment in innovation. We selected one of the biggest challenges common to all the participating associations. To gain agreement was relatively easy:  Not enough members read and appreciate our communications. This problem statement gained agreement across the board: small and large associations alike.

Over the next four months, we lost a few association executives to other pressing issues; but four of us have been meeting frequently to chip away at this problem. The process involved:

• Brainstorming the root of the problem from the AE’s point of view
• Conducting member communications survey to understand members' point of view
• Conversations and education about what innovation and communication means
• Promising practices from various associations who have addressed their communications issues already
• An overview of the strategic communications planning model
• The assignment to write a plan of their own.

This is where WOW comes in. This REALTOR® association in New Bedford, MA - with 580 members and a determined association executive has developed a strategic communications plan that will both (1) earn her respect from her board and staff, and (2) give the association, and the communications staff clear and though-out direction, including built-in measurements.

Every association has the chance to WOW your members with a renewed approach to your communications. I doubt that Robin will fail in her efforts to change the way members perceive the value of their membership.

For more information about the communications plan, click here.

A Communications Plan Comes to Life!