{"id":364,"date":"2012-11-05T09:33:49","date_gmt":"2012-11-05T09:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.naylor.com\/associationadviser\/index.php\/2012\/11\/05\/newsletter25007_364\/"},"modified":"2012-11-05T09:33:49","modified_gmt":"2012-11-05T09:33:49","slug":"newsletter25007_364","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.naylor.com\/associationadviser\/newsletter25007_364\/","title":{"rendered":"Evolving State of Member Communications"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin-bottom: 5px; margin-right: 10px; width: 110px; height: 88px;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.naylornetwork.com\/NAY-ADVISER\/assets\/charles%20popper%20resized%20color.jpg\" alt=\"\" align=\"left\" \/><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;\">By Charles Popper<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Each year, I look forward to attending the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) annual conference and expo. As always, this year\u2019s recent gathering in St. Louis provided me with an opportunity to catch up with many of Naylor&#8217;s clients and meet new ones as well. But of equal value, the conference provided me with a concentrated platform for listening. I left St. Louis with a better understanding of the climate that associations face today and, more importantly, with an assessment of how well equipped associations are (or are not) to deal with the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead of them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.naylornetwork.com\/NAY-ADVISER\/assets\/takeaways.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<table style=\"border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%; margin: 5px; background-color: #dcdcdc; border: 1px solid black;\" width=\"\" cellspacing=\"3\" cellpadding=\"3\" align=\"center\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"border: 1px solid black;\">\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Research shows associations\u2019 biggest challenges are cluttered communication, confusion about member benefits and competition for No. 1 share of voice in their industry.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Cutting your communications costs is not a long-term strategy for communication effectiveness.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Smart organizations are integrating their member communications channels\u2014but consulting with readers and advertisers before implementing bold changes.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>One particular session I attended can summarize my overall assessment of where associations stand against the headwinds of today. To be purposely vague, this session dealt with evolving communications and utilizing the correct media mix; for example, print, online, digital, etc. As we have learned from our communications benchmarking survey, the top three communication concerns facing associations today are:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">1. Cutting through the clutter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">2. Communicating member benefits effectively.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">3. Maintaining or becoming the No. 1 source of information in their marketplace.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">These topics should come as no surprise to anyone who regularly reads this column. I was sure that they would be addressed in the ASAE presentation I attended as it was billed as a session for educating the audience about &#8220;transforming their publishing programs.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">The first two presenters used the word &#8220;strategic&#8221; multiple times to describe their communications programs. However, the actions they described sounded more like expense reductions to me. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>They described how well (or not) the tracking and engagement of their members and readers was and how they have had minimal complaints, so they must be on the right track.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: bold; font-size: 10pt;\">Beyond Cost Cutting<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">The presenters were simply evaluating their actions of today without putting them in the context of where they came from or ultimately where they wanted to go. Can you offer an opinion about how well a runner is doing in a race if you don\u2019t know how long they&#8217;ve been running and how much longer they need to go to get to the finish line? Clearly not.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Yes, the presenters and their organizations were successful in reducing their costs, but expense reduction alone does not make a strategic plan to tackle your communications. Nor does it address any of the top three concerns associations have about their communication effectiveness as previously cited.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Like his fellow panelists, the third presenter leaned heavily on the word &#8220;strategic,&#8221; but his definition, as defined by his actions, extended well beyond expense management. The others put expense priorities ahead of their readers and advertisers, and it was with the readers and advertisers that the third presenter started. This individual walked the audience through the process that he took. It began with clearly articulating his communication goals, objectives and bottom-line expectations. After solidifying his plans, he took it to his customers\u2014the readers and advertisers\u2014to validate and finalize the approach to be taken. After implementation, he measured for effectiveness.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; font-size: 10pt;\">Keys to Effective Association Communication<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The final presenter\u2019s approach closely mirrors the one that we shared during a recent presentation to the members of the Georgia Society of Association Executives (GSAE) at its annual conference. We illustrated what the key core activities were for a communication plan:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Step 1:<\/span> Approach your communication with an integrated mindset. One key component to integration is being able to articulate each communication vehicle\u2019s purpose, goal and objectives.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Step 2:<\/span> Perform a gap analysis. Knowing how your goals and expectations stack up against the demands and expectations of the reader and advertisers is essential.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Step 3:<\/span> Measure. Are you being effective? Too many people use &#8220;gut intuition&#8221; instead of fact or statistics to back up their assumptions or hypotheses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Step 4:<\/span> Make ongoing improvements or mid-cycle course corrections.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">The process ends with beginning anew and repeating.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">The third ASAE speaker validated this process by articulating the results that he had achieved. After conducting the steps, at the end of the day he saw expense reductions of 30 percent while growing revenue by $100,000. His was the only plan that reduced expense and grew revenue. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">In today\u2019s business climate, that\u2019s the kind of approach associations need.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a style=\"font-style: italic;\" href=\"mailto:cpopper@naylor.com?subject=August Association Adviser\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Charles Popper<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;\"> is Naylor\u2019s vice president of association relations. He has more than 15 years of business-to-business and consumer publishing experience. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<table style=\"border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%; margin: 5px auto; background-color: #dcdcdc; border: 1px solid black; text-align: center;\" width=\"\" cellspacing=\"3\" cellpadding=\"3\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"border: 1px solid black;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; font-size: 10pt;\">Rate this article 5 (Excellent) to 1 (Poor). Send ratings and comments <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><a href=\"mailto:associationadviser@naylor.com?subject=Evolving%20Communications_Popper\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; font-size: 10pt;\">here<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cutting your communications costs is not a long-term strategy for revenue growth or member retention. Smart organizations are consulting with readers and advertisers before integrating their member communications.<br \/>\n<em>By Charles Popper<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Evolving State of Member Communications - Association Adviser<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.naylor.com\/associationadviser\/newsletter25007_364\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Evolving State of Member Communications - Association Adviser\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cutting your communications costs is not a long-term strategy for revenue growth or member retention. 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