Archive for the 'Marketing' Category

01
Apr
13

Enhance your online education strategy in 90 days

By Aaron Wolowiec 2 Comments
Categories: Marketing, Meetings and Professional Development
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Webinar Poll Questions

Webinar Poll Questions

It’s no surprise to discover that most associations are guided by a strategic plan carefully crafted by key leaders and stakeholders. This plan often does not drill down, however, into the specifics of education strategy (and the chances it extends to digital learning are equally shaky). This is despite the prominence of professional development in both the organization’s mission statement and annual budget projections.

On Feb. 28, I had the opportunity to deliver a Wit and Wisdom webinar for my friends at CommPartners. During this session, I shared a more intentional approach to meeting the unique needs of association constituents. We discussed simple, but effective tactics for evaluating and developing relevant content, effectively marketing programs, and leveraging innovative instructional strategies to pique member interest.

At right, you’ll find the results to two different poll questions on the topic of education strategy. The first queried participants about “a separate strategic education plan.” Those answering “yes” have a strategic education blueprint separate from the organization’s comprehensive strategic plan. The second question asked participants about “a separate online education strategy.” Not surprisingly, the breakdown of responses was similar.

Should you be interested, the webinar is available on-demand. Likewise, the worksheets and presentation slides are also available for download. I’ve also curated the stream of participant comments shared in this program’s chat feature. Organized by topic, following are the lightly edited participant insights I think you’ll find invaluable:

Identifying relevant content

  • We use an advisory committee of member experts to help identify topics and speakers.
  • I do an annual education survey via email. The subject line reads “15 second education survey” and I ask for their top three education topics. Our response rate is overwhelming.

Effectively marketing programs

  • I gather emails for all education attendees and do a lot of contact via email.
  • We have done a member email swap with other associations for one-time use to advertise. We don’t do it consistently, but strategically.
  • We offer team discounts for groups of five or more.
  • We ask attendees for referrals (e.g., names, emails and phone numbers) for those in their company or other peers who might be interested in the course they just completed.
  • We actively engage our speakers and have them leverage their relationships in trade magazines to announce their presence on a webcast.
  • We offer snippet previews of past webinars. We also select older recordings that have broad appeal and offer them as a free benefit to show the target audience what we offer.
  • We have the luxury of on-air talent for our radio webcasts, so we aim to get one popular on-air personality per webcast to address the topic in a five minute promotional video.
  • Find the stars in your industry and try to feature them in a way that’s easy for them, good content and easily promoted.
  • Marketing and education departments should work hand-in-hand because the marketing department is the one responsible for getting the event or education offerings out there. The main goal should be the bottom line.

Competition

  • Our association has to compete with companies in our industry that offer free CE. This makes it more difficult to offer quality at low rates.
  • It’s hard to beat free. Try stressing that the CE you offer is a true *investment*, where free CE might lack quality.
  • Try to ensure your program is a lot more robust than what your competitors offer for free.
  • We had to stop trying to compete with others and simply offer the best education out there in our industry. People return to our programs because of the background and expertise of the instructors/speakers, as well as the ability to interact with the other attendees. Interaction matters.
  • We don’t address the “free” aspect because it puts us on the defensive. Offer a quality product and those that are looking for “real” professional development from quality speakers are your target audience.
  • Make your program more interactive, and provide tools and resources your competitors cannot provide with free CE programs.
  • A quality product is the key. There are members willing to pay for quality. It’s also important to know who’s doing the speaking or the teaching.
  • Both collaboration and communication are necessary to ensure you’re not competing with other departments within your own association in promoting events.

Innovative instructional strategies

  • Providing a constant stream of content outside of the webcasts helps.
  • We encourage live tweeting during our conferences, and are evaluating the live tweeting during our education courses. However, social learning is difficult to explain up the chain.
  • Our association offers live tweeting, but it is still not completely catching on. We are engaging content experts to do the tweeting.
  • We’re exploring gamification, such as offering “badges.”
  • We do promote live tweeting during our live annual meeting; however, not many members participate yet.

Economies of scale

  • One association I’m aware of gets the top people to do live webinars in one room over the course of a day, such as at their annual meetings where the speakers are already onsite. This is a great way to capitalize on having people accessible and to record the webinars for later delivery.
  • We actually do webcasts with multiple people live in a studio at once. And taking advantage of travel schedules is paramount to maintaining a shoestring budget.

So, my question to you is this: Does your organization have a separate strategic education plan? What about a separate online education strategy? How have these documents elevated the quality and sophistication of your programs, built the reputation of your meetings department and/or improved your organization’s bottom line? Likewise, how did you convince your organization’s leadership (staff and board) to expend more resources/time on creating these documents?

13
Dec
12

Transforming your community into a collaborative learning environment

By Aaron Wolowiec 1 Comment
Categories: Content Curation, Learning and Marketing
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On Dec. 4, I had the pleasure of presenting a breakout session on collaborative learning environments during the 2012 Higher Logic Super Forum. Early in the presentation, we discussed the expanding role of content curation and how it can serve as a valuable tool for associations who wish to make meaning of the sometimes excessive information, content and messaging they share with members.

Simply put, content curation comprises three elements:

  • Sorting through vast amounts of content.
  • Organizing it around a specific theme.
  • Presenting it in a meaningful way.

And it’s valuable because:

  • We live in an era of content abundance.
  • Content curation offers high value.
  • Content curation maximizes resources and builds community.

Simply consider the more formal education programs your association offers each year. This likely includes face-to-face programs, digital learning, other meetings and events, and any certification, accreditation or licensure programs. Now multiply each of these programs by three marketing touch points and it’s more messaging than the average association member can reasonably absorb.

And we’ve not yet even considered the informal learning opportunities generated within our industry’s peer networks. So, it quickly becomes evident that a simple content curation strategy could easily help qualify some of this information, further promoting the organization as a valuable resource and content expert. Content treasurers may take many forms. Following is a partial list:

  • Guest bloggers/journalists
  • Slide decks/executive briefs
  • Handouts/resource materials
  • Discussion boards/online communities
  • Podcasts
  • Audio/video recordings
  • Social media feeds/conversations
  • Participant discussions/chat transcripts
  • Question/answer summaries
  • Program outlines/white papers
  • YouTube videos
  • Newsletter/magazine articles
  • Facilitator interviews
  • Case studies

It’s important to note here that true content curation requires some sort of transformation. It’s not about simply posting a slide deck to a website for someone to download. Rather, curating a series of slide decks from a single conference on the same topic might result in an executive brief highlighting only the key points/images from each.

Besides, when’s the last time you downloaded every single slide deck from ASAE’s annual meeting? Okay, it’s possible; I’ll give you that. Let’s take it a step further. When’s the last time you then reviewed, considered and implemented the ideas from each? This, my friends, is nearly impossible. Not to mention, the thought alone is purely overwhelming.

But it’s not enough to simply create content – curated or otherwise. You must then communicate and share this content with others. Otherwise, why do it? Following are just some of the ways you might consider sharing your content with association constituents:

  • Newsletter
  • Magazine
  • Blog
  • Website
  • Online community
  • Email
  • Direct mail
  • Social media

When utilizing these communication channels to share content, consider these tips:

  • Utilize a consistent learning, education or content brand. This may include a clever name, logo and tagline, as well as certain graphics, colors and fonts.
  • Identify your organization’s available communication channels and draft a comprehensive marketing strategy that utilizes multiple media.
  • Develop an editorial calendar that focuses on a specific subject each month or quarter based on the volume of content you have to share.

Finally, creating a collaborative learning environment requires the engagement of your community. There’s no need for this responsibility to land squarely on the shoulders of staff. Consider your target audience. It’s likely bigger than your current membership. Some examples of your organization’s various constituent groups may include:

  • Subject matter experts
  • Board members
  • Speakers/facilitators
  • Legislators
  • Sponsors
  • Vendors/suppliers
  • Members
  • Staff
  • Volunteer leaders
  • Components

You’ll note here that not every constituent group will be interested in the same content or should be communicated to in exactly the same way. What’s the right combination for each target audience? When you are able to curate the right content and share it with the right constituents via the right communication channels, engagement soars.

Furthermore, utilize these individuals as content experts. Whether this means recruiting them to serve as presenters, facilitators or curators, or simply featuring their blogs and industry resources within your established community, bring them into the fold. Develop file sharing, communication and collaboration tools that makes this process even easier and less cumbersome.

So, my question to you is this: How does your organization curate content? Likewise, how have you transformed your community into a collaborative learning environment (or what strategies are you considering for 2013)?

03
Aug
12

Practice what we preach: Breathing life into curated content

By Aaron Wolowiec Leave a Comment
Categories: Marketing, Meetings and Social Media
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

On July 26, I had the good fortune of presenting a webinar for Higher Logic. Titled “Curating Conference Content to Promote Member Engagement,” this session delivered five simple, but effective strategies for curating conference content. A link to the presentation – complete with examples and case studies that may be easily adapted for implementation within your own organization – is available here for download.

During the program, a simple poll question was asked: “Does your organization currently curate content in some way following your major annual meeting?” Here, major annual meeting was defined as the meeting with the largest attendance, the meeting that produces the most revenue or the most strategically important meeting. To my surprise, 73% of attendees (65 voters) said their organization currently does curate content in some way following its major annual meeting.

With such a wealth of knowledge and experience to draw upon, you can imagine my delight when so many contributed to discussion in the attendee chat box throughout the program. So, I thought I’d conduct a bit of my own content curation and share with you highlights from the webinar chat transcript as yet another example of how organizations can curate content (and, subsequently, add value).

Organized by topic, following are lightly edited participant insights:

Blogs

  • We have individuals in each room provide input and then develop a blog post or update in a newsletter of what takes place.
  • We offered the 2-3 guest bloggers a comp registration to the conference and require at least 1 post a day. It seemed to work really well and we got a ton of interest for just 2-3 positions. The content that was provided was incredibly meaningful.

Handouts

  • Reframe the PowerPoint in other ways and post them in our knowledge center.
  • Sharing PowerPoints as PDFs after the conference and executive briefs from concurrent sessions.
  • We also offer speaker handouts for download to attendees (before and after the conference).
  • We send out an e-survey after the conference and offer materials on our website from the conference.

Online community

  • We ask presenters to upload their own session materials to our Connected Community.
  • Offering content from our conference in our e-prof development portal.
  • We are working on goals and measures for our online community.

Recordings

  • We offer for sale audio and video of conference sessions.
  • Podcasts, videos, meeting materials online.
  • We’re just starting plans to video.
  • We capture synched voice and PowerPoint presentations from sessions, but want to expand to the informal aspects of the conference.
  • We capture audio, video and presentations, and sell them to those who are unable to attend the conference.
  • We also share the videos from our plenary sessions with attendees and our members (when presenter contracts don’t prohibit it).
  • We have materials printed beforehand, and sell videos/materials after, but that is just the packaged product.

Twitter

  • We’ve been asked by members to begin archiving all tweets related to the convention.
  • We have experience using Twitter Fountain.
  • One conference displayed the Twitter feed during the plenary session.
  • We do live Twitter feeds on large LCD screens spread throughout the conference venue (screens also include housekeeping items like room changes and a general schedule for the day).
  • We add Twitter handles to badges.
  • Have a tweet up with special prizes.
  • We do have a good population that uses Twitter and our conference planning team specifically appoints members before the event to be active on Twitter.

Webinars

  • We currently offer sessions as webinars after our major events.
  • Have offered concurrent sessions as live webinars;  have the sessions archived for sale afterward.
  • We select key presenters from the conference and have them re-present as webinars post-conference. Our chapters will also ask presenters to come in and re-present.
  • Online learning, recordings of sessions, continuing education opportunities.
  • We’ve actually started working on the marketing campaign for our new on-demand product.

Other insights

  • Because many organizations are steering away from snail mail [see slide 18 in the PowerPoint presentation], your mailing piece is more likely to stand out a little more. It’s easier to delete an electronic piece.
  • Idea swaps would be a terrific idea for our association’s conference… and would lend well to post-conference learning.
  • We’ve been capturing content for some time. We have flyers ready and launch them the day of the seminar.
  • After one chapter event that featured speakers from the conference, we heard from several people they would make attending a conference a priority.
  • I am interested in capturing content that happened live at the event, whether it is during live presentations or conversations/interactions that happen during the live event.

Challenges

  • It’s always a challenge at my organization to capture takeaways and continue programming after the program ends.
  • We actually started capturing content last year. We did well with repackaging, but the number of sales was lower than we expected.  We’re trying it again this year.
  • We have recorded a session and then used it as a webinar for those who did not attend the conference. It didn’t work well, but it was our first attempt.
  • We plan to have some extra staff members at our conferences to capture content. We need extra people since the organizing staff member is often so busy administering the logistics of the conference!

Among the numerous ideas shared during this webinar, there were also a handful of questions that went unanswered during the Q&A portion of the program. Following are those questions and my responses:

  • How do you measure increase in engagement for events? What are you measuring? [The answer will be different for every organization, and is based upon the goals that you and your leadership team set. It may be higher attendance at the conference overall, it may be a higher percentage of attendees participating in a particular session/event onsite, it may be increased attendee satisfaction or it may be something altogether different – and less measurable or concrete.]
  • What type of feedback is received from non-participants when they get feed from the event? Are they more willing to participate the following year? [Whether they’re willing to participate the following year in-person or not is really of little consequence. If they’re participating at all – live or via the conference feed – they are engaging with your organization. This is a win-win all around. Remember, quality experiences yield loyalty and loyalty yields engagement. Once you've secured engagement, you can expect continued membership, as well as other subsequent purchasing decisions.]
  • How do you encourage attendees to participate in tweeting, posting to Facebook and writing a blog? [I think these are three separate questions – and should be handled differently based upon the characteristics of your target audience. If your audience isn’t active on Twitter, your conference incentives likely won’t be enough to get them engaged. Facebook, on the other hand, is a different story. Die-hard Facebook posters only need a bit of encouragement to share their favorite conference moments. With regard to blogging, see the ideas provided earlier in this post.]
  • Does he suggest having a dedicated person to execute some of these strategies? [If by “he” you are referring to me, then the answer is an emphatic “Yes!” No conference organizer has the time to dedicate to conference curation – at least not onsite. The right number will be different for each organization, though, depending on the breadth and depth of the curation you’d like to facilitate both onsite and post-conference. In addition to curation, you should also consider communication and marketing. It’s not just an “education” responsibility.]
  • We currently have paper evaluations – all electronic evaluations would be disastrous, but can you give me a few concrete actions to take to drive engagement and feedback? [Both the webinar and this blog post speak to concrete engagement examples, so I’ll tackle feedback here. Get testimonials from attendees while you’re at the conference. Record and share these testimonials following the event and when marketing the following year’s conference. Pictures and videos are especially effective. Following the event, hold a focus group to glean additional insights about the attendee experience. Above all else, be sure to actually do something with the information you gather.]

So, my question to you is this: Which of these ideas resonates most with you and your organization? How will you curate conference content during or after your next major annual meeting to promote member engagement? What challenges still exist in effectively sharing (e.g., communicating, marketing, leveraging) curated content with your members?

03
Jul
12

Return on learning (ROL): More than a boring statistic

By Aaron Wolowiec Leave a Comment
Categories: Learning, Marketing, Meetings and Professional Development
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Fireworks in Grand Rapids on July 4, 2011.

It’s Tuesday afternoon, the day before Selma’s favorite holiday: Independence Day. He claims to “love this holiday because it celebrates the journey of our country and there’s no commercial mandate for superfluous gifts. No running from one house to the other because of tradition. It’s shorts, t-shirts, beer, BBQ, friends and fireworks.”

For me, it means a much-needed couple of days off as conference season ramps up. Next week I have the pleasure of participating in the Michigan Society of Association Executives’ annual convention, colloquially known as OrgPro. I’m fortunate to have had the opportunity to develop a set of concurrent breakout sessions that everyone will participate in Wednesday morning called, “The Solution Room.”

I’m also very much looking forward to Ignite. It’s been many months in the making, but the day of reckoning is nearly here – and it’s go time for 11 very excited association and supplier professionals who are eager to hit that stage and share with the world (yes, we will be broadcasting live!) their personal and professional passions related to the theme of transformation.

The following week, I once again make friends with my mobile office. This time, it’s a road trip of epic proportions (for me, at least). I’m headed down to Muncie, Indiana. A simple check of Google Maps indicates that in relation to Grand Rapids, Muncie is nearly due south – though, of course, the route will be slightly less direct. When you factor in road construction, there’s no telling what to expect.

Nevertheless, I’ll be speaking at the Indiana Society of Association Executives’ (ISAE) annual convention Thursday afternoon. My closing keynote presentation – Return on Learning (ROL): More Than a Boring Statistic – is intended to be a highly interactive session explaining what exactly ROL is, how to calculate it and why it’s important.

I’ll start by defining return on investment (ROI) as a performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment. To calculate ROI, the benefit (return) of an investment is divided by the cost of the investment. (Hang in there!) ROL is simply a derivative of ROI that sheds a spotlight of laser-like proportions on an organization’s learning investments.

That’s great, but what does it mean in practice? For those who know me well, the concept of bridging theory with practice is one I often preach from my soap box as an essential conference deliverable. So, we’ll use the ISAE annual convention as a case study. This will allow participants the opportunity to experiment with ROL and begin to uncover innovative ways to calculate and market ROL for their own events.

The first step in calculating ROL (or ROI, for that matter), is examining the cost of training versus perceived/actual benefits. Training “costs” may include registration fees, training materials, transportation, lodging and meals, as well as time and lost productivity.  On the other hand, training “benefits” may include session content (e.g., tools, technologies and processes), association contacts, vendor contacts, best practices and skill development.

Obviously, placing a dollar value on benefits such as networking and knowledge acquisition can be tricky, particularly in the short-run. However, long-term value is a bit easier to calculate and generally manifests itself in terms of products and services that are then sold to association members and clients for a profit. In other words, this is where conference learning (unique for each attendee) intersects with his or her organization’s mission, vision and values to create a value-add.

With the volume of education programs available today, it’s clear to see how understanding and effectively sharing your meeting’s ROL with your target audience could impact not only program attendance, but ultimately perceived value and your organization’s bottom line.

Finally, I intend to conclude with a brief discussion about staff learning investments, inherent benefits and tips for maximizing staff ROL. For example, learning organizations accept a set of attitudes, values and practices that support the process of continuous learning that could result in improved decision-making skills, future cost savings, increased productivity, higher quality work and better efficiency.

Conversely, organizations deficient in professional development competencies are unable to overcome poor quality, inefficiency, low staff morale, communication issues and turnover/high recruitment costs.

Ultimately, learning investments are the right thing to do and the effects of learning on business performance are cumulative over time. Organizations can expect a financial return on investment, as well as a multidimensional return on their commitment to learning (e.g., culture, reputation and productivity).

Following are three tips for maximizing staff ROL:

  1. Create individualized development plans for each employee focused on specific leadership competencies defined by the requirements of the position, team, organization and profession.
  2. Establish management champions and mentors that support employee learning.
  3. Blur the lines between classroom, workplace and relationships, ultimately promoting the immediate application of learning within your organization.

So, my question to you is this: How does your organization leverage ROL when marketing programs and events? How does the learning environment of your organization impact work performance? What would you add to this discussion about return on learning?

09
Jan
12

Member needs, wants and desires – and how they (should) impact your marketing efforts

By Aaron Wolowiec 2 Comments
Categories: Marketing

Full disclosure: I’m not a marketing professional. But that’s not to say I haven’t written plenty of interesting copy or designed plenty of successful print and web-based collateral in my time. (Once in a while, I’ve even had the occasion to impress myself!) And, over the years, I believe I’ve become savvier, more member-focused and more results-oriented when it comes to marketing a new program or signature event to a designated audience.

It starts with knowing your audience and framing a message that speaks to the shared needs, wants and desires of this target group (while at the same time remembering that this group comprises individuals with distinct attributes/demographics). Ultimately, it is these individuals who will approach your marketing materials with their own unique set of circumstances, experiences and lenses, thus informing their specific response to your promotional piece.

In my opinion, “good marketing” attempts to outline real deliverables that will be gained as a result of having participated in your next big program or event. These deliverables—either tangible or more theoretical—promise in some way to improve life for your members (and, ultimately, for those individuals who use their products or services). I feel strongly that it’s important to consider both constituent groups when developing a successful marketing strategy.

Now, to my point (and I’ve been stewing on this topic for a couple of months now). Like many of you (I’m sure), I receive a dozen or so e-mails a day from various clothing and accessory retailers trying their best to sell me the latest and greatest when it comes to suits, ties, jeans, jackets (but not jean jackets, please), watches and more. For you, the categories likely vary depending on where it is you frequent most.

One company, in particular, continues to puzzle me when it comes to their marketing efforts.

Fossil, founded in 1984, claims to be “the first American brand to bring value and style to the watch category.” And, over the years, I’ve definitely purchased my fair share of watches from this budget-friendly alternative to the more costly watch brands I can only afford in my dreams. Lately, however, I’ve noticed an important marketing flaw in this international brand: The weekly e-mails I receive feature only women’s products.

For the last couple of months, in particular, my in-box has been filled (by-and-large) with pictures of totes, cosmetic bags, handbags, women’s watches and more. Only on the very rare occasion have I actually been presented with a sleek men’s watch.

In an age of mass customization, this seems a bit behind the times (pedestrian, even). Surely my impression of the brand has been impacted by this messaging flaw. While I know I could—at any time—click on one simple, hyperlinked word—Men—and be transported back to Fossil’s website where I’d be free to scan and select from dozens if not hundreds of products, that’s not the point.

While I know the website will always be there—and I certainly don’t need an invitation or a weekly reminder to prompt a visit—I generally engage in “website shopping” when I’m looking for something specific for myself or for a gift. I would call this “active shopping.” More passive or “impulsive shopping” is best encouraged—at least for me—by these weekly e-mail messages. And if no products of interest are featured for me, the likelihood of me (and just about anyone else for that matter) impulsively shopping is significantly reduced (if not eliminated altogether).

Let’s consider what’s happening here for just a moment. For starters, I’ve not been presented with products that speak to my needs, wants or desires. This impacts not only my decision—in that moment—to read or delete that e-mail, but it—at least in some small way—impacts my long-term confidence in and loyalty to the organization’s brand. If they don’t know me or they don’t get me, then why should I shop with them? When it comes to the next message that dons my inbox, I might be a bit less likely to even open it.

This is true of our members, as well. Stop for a moment and consider the last marketing piece your organization disseminated. (A few rhetorical questions to get you thinking…) Did it speak to the needs, wants or desires of your members? Did it consider the need of their constituents? Did it assume that each individual member needed, wanted or desired exactly the same thing or did it leave some room for diversity of thought and opinion? What could have been changed to make this piece more effective?

As an education professional that is extremely passionate about professional development, I urge you to build print and web-based collateral that focuses on learning and community. Identify how your members will grow and develop as a result of your learning/networking opportunity, and how that change will positively ripple into the community (think: pay it forward, especially as it relates to those individuals benefiting from the products and services your members provide). And maybe then will you see more results (e.g., higher open rates, increased registration) from your marketing efforts.

So, my question to you is this: What other marketing “rules” or “recommendations” would you add to my list? What strategies have you found most effective when it comes to marketing a new program or signature event to your members? What strategies have you found less effective? What new or innovative social media strategies are you employing this year to breathe new life into your marketing “experience”?

21
Nov
11

What’s your “defining statement”?

By Aaron Wolowiec 5 Comments
Categories: Leadership and Marketing

On recommendation from the talented Cynthia D’Amour, I recently picked up and read Growing Your Business! by Mark LeBlanc. It’s a whole $7.95 and has fewer than 80 pages. And yet, it packs a remarkable punch. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in building their career through enhanced focus, productivity and proactivity. Following is my favorite concept from the book:

A defining statement

According to LeBlanc, “The easiest way to position yourself by concept [as opposed to by title or by products/services] is to create a great defining statement. A defining statement is a simple answer to a simple question, ‘What do you do?’”

He goes on to ask, “How many times do you answer this question differently? Do your customers or even your family and friends really understand what you do? What if everyone knew? What if your employees [or colleagues, allies, friends and family] could repeat your defining statement?”

In theory, “When you can answer this simple question in a succinct and concise way that attracts more prospects, [LeBlanc believes] you will have reached a deeper level of connection with your prospects and customers.”

Although LeBlanc is writing to business owners and professionals who want to sell more products and services, I think the concept is equally applicable to association professionals and industry partners of all experience levels regardless of position.

Only when we truly understand the goals and objectives of our work, can articulate the benefits and limitations of our own personal gifts and talents, and can easily and clearly communicate this “What do you do?” vision with both current and prospective members/clients, does the ambiguity and frustration begin to subside. The resulting void is then filled with confidence, joy and passion. Identifying and nurturing that sweet spot is sure to make us more productive employees and much more pleasant in our personal lives, too.

So, my question to you is this: What’s your defining statement? How do you know? How do you share this defining statement with others? How has your defining statement changed your life? How do you resolve conflicts between your defining statement and your organization’s defining statement?

31
Aug
10

Marketing in the information age

By Aaron Wolowiec 3 Comments
Categories: Marketing

In my experience, the information age—characterized by the ability of individuals to transfer information freely and to have instant access to knowledge—is making it increasingly more difficult to market education programs to my association’s core clientele (a laundry list of individuals, both members and non-members, with a variety of professional interests—all related to the long-term care industry).

Ultimately, I’ve identified two problems:

  1. Information overload. Professionals today are literally bombarded by dozens of e-mails each and every day. They are having difficulty discerning which e-mails to read, which to respond to, which to forward and which to discard. Important association messages, including marketing materials and call to action pieces, which may at one time have been given a high priority are now receiving less and less attention. With the sheer volume of messages delivered each day, principles like the Rule of Three seem unrealistic, outdated and ineffective.
  2. Accessible knowledge. At least in my field, professionals are more connected now than ever before. If they seek training or professional development opportunities for their staffs, these individuals have the means to personally secure a knowledgeable consultant who will customize a curriculum to meet their unique needs. This was not necessarily the case even 10 years ago. (Although this does not hold true when it comes to large-scale conferences featuring nationally-recognized speakers and dozens of local content experts, it is certainly having an impact on smaller one-day events.)

Additionally, I believe my target audience is particularly unique in the following ways (further compounding these problems):

  • Generally speaking, they are not technologically savvy. It’s not unusual for e-mail to be checked once a day or once every other day. Furthermore, it’s highly unlikely these individuals will carry smart phones or access e-mail from home.
  • When asked earlier this year their preferred communication method, YouTube videos landed high on their list of recommendations. Added to our regular e-mail, fax and hard copy promotions, we’ve only generated marginal interest from this new (read: innovative) marketing channel.
  • For the most part, they also do not open their own mail or remove their own faxes from the fax machine. Much of these messages are therefore filtered by paraprofessional staff members who have little knowledge of our association or how we benefit their employer.

Finally, there seems to be a disconnect between what is most effective (personal contact by way of phone calls or site visits) and what our limited resources (including staff time and budgetary constraints) will allow.

So, my question to you is this:  How are you overcoming these challenges? In your experience, what’s been most effective for marketing education programs (or other core association products/services) to your members/clients this year? What does/should marketing look like in the information age?

meet aaron

Meetings innovator & professional development trailblazer. Founder & president of Event Garde. Passionate about The Food Network, hot yoga, blogging, old homes & unclehood.

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