The Cost of Generic Messaging: Why One-Size-Fits-All Communications Fail in 2025
In 2025, relevance is everything. Associations are up against ever-increasing competition for member attention—one of the top three challenges associations reported facing in this year’s Association Adviser Benchmarking Survey (report available here for download) was combating information overload or cutting through the clutter. Associations understand that to resonate with a diverse membership, they need to segment their communications, but our survey found that nearly 46% aren’t doing this as well as they think they should. Despite knowing better, generic, one-size-fits-all messaging still dominates a lot of what associations send out.
Let me be clear: broad messaging isn’t always bad. Sometimes you need it. Announcing your annual conference to everyone in your database? That’s a broad message with a broad purpose—awareness. But if that’s all you do, you’re missing the opportunity to guide the right people along the right path based on their needs and yours.
So, what does truly relevant messaging look like today? To me, it’s this:
- It matters to the audience.
- It’s culturally and contextually aware.
- And it makes sense coming from the source who’s sending it.
Relevance is more than good writing or smart design. It’s about fit. A message might be brilliantly crafted, but if it doesn’t feel like it applies to your audience or if it feels like it shouldn’t be coming from you, it’s going to miss.
What’s the Cost of Staying Generic?
When you stick to generic communications, you run two big risks:
- Your members don’t feel understood, connected, or represented.
- That disconnect drives lower engagement, fewer renewals, and missed revenue.
Members who don’t see themselves in your messaging are less likely to open your emails, show up to your events, or renew their membership. And that emotional distance becomes a financial one pretty quickly.
Why Are Associations Still Sending Generic Messages?
We know one-size-fits-all communications aren’t as effective as thoughtfully targeted messaging. So why do we keep using them?
It’s all about the bandwidth.
Most associations aren’t ignoring best practices—they simply don’t have the staff resources to tailor communications across every segment. In fact, a majority of this year’s survey respondents reported feeling understaffed association wide.
And I get it. When you feel like you’re trying to do more with less, creating several different versions of one message sounds like a heavy lift. But the good news is you don’t need to start from scratch each time, and you don’t have to do it all to make a difference.
One solid piece of content can go a long way. You can repurpose it in multiple formats and tailor it to various audiences with some strategic effort and, if you need it, a little help.
Where Do You Start?
If you’re thinking, “We’d love to tailor our messaging, but we just don’t have the tools or team,” here’s a practical way to begin:
- Identify the primary goal.
Strong content strategy needs to have a clearly defined purpose; otherwise, it’s just adding to the noise. What is the primary goal you’re using the content in service of (e.g., increased event attendance)? - Create one high-quality, broad communication.
Make it strong and comprehensive—something that can stand on its own but also be expanded or truncated and adapted (e.g., messaging that promotes your event to all members). - Pick meaningful member segments.
Focus on the top few segments you most need to reach in order to move the needle toward your goal. Choose just one for a test run (e.g., early-career members), then iterate with the others. - Use AI to help repurpose.
There are several advanced editorial AI tools out there that can do the heavy lifting, but even if your budget is slim to none, free general-purpose AI tools can help create some efficiency. Feed your content into a tool like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Copilot, and prompt it with (non-confidential) details about your audience. Ask it to rewrite the content in a way that speaks directly to that segment (e.g., “tailor this message to young professionals who are interested in socializing and professional networking, entry-level career development, and earning their first credentials). - Review and revise.
This step is crucial. Don’t skip the human edit! Make sure the tailored message aligns with your brand voice and gets the facts right. AI can make repurposing content more efficient, but human insight is what elevates it. - Test, track, and tweak.
Send the message to your segment and analyze how it performs. You’ll quickly see whether it landed, and then you can adjust your next communication accordingly.
Closing Note
Association members are in a daily battle with information overload. If content feels generic or off-base, they’ll scroll past. But they also notice when something feels like it was made just for them, and that’s where engagement grows.
You don’t need a huge team to get there. You just need a strong starting point, a smart repurposing strategy, and a willingness to try. And if you need an extra boost, let’s chat—our team of content and marketing pros are happy to help.
Because in 2025, relevance is a must for cutting through the clutter. And the more tailored your communications, the more trust, loyalty, and engagement you’ll earn in return.
Looking for a turnkey solution to help you deliver timely, personalized member outreach? Explore MemberReach today.
