Earlier this year, AH opened a second office in Alexandria, Virginia, right outside of Washington, DC. Denise Jackson, Vice President of Business Development, is the managing director of this new office and has been meeting with prospects and attending events in the area over the last six months.
In addition to Denise’s presence, the Red Chair Communications team has been busy reaching out to associations and non-profits in the area through email, social media and direct mail. Below is a timeline of our efforts and how they are progressing.
March 2016
In late March, we chose a select list of organizations from the AH prospect list and sent a “Peggy Pelosi” cookie with a “we’re your new neighbors” message printed on the icing along with a letter from Denise introducing ourselves.
Later in the month, Denise and Kim Karagosian attended an AssociationTRENDS Salute to Association Excellence Luncheon, meeting some great contacts in the association industry. These contacts have now been added to our prospect list and receive our content-focused marketing emails including the AH Advance newsletter.
In an effort to inform our current client partner board presidents of our new office location, we sent a letter from Bob and a gourmet chocolate in the shape of the Capitol building via direct mail. This was a fun way to let our board presidents know that they now have a presence in DC just by being an AH client partner.
Finally, we followed up our “new neighbors” cookie mailing with an email to the same list of recipients plus a list of more than 1,400 individuals in the DC area who work in the association industry. This email messaging was similar to the direct mail, introducing AH as “new neighbors” and linking to some of our digital collateral.
April 2016
In mid-April, we sent a direct mail piece to the list of 1,400+ individuals in the DC area that included a letter from Denise as well as our AH Divisions brochure, which explains with text and visuals what each AH division can do to advance an organization. From this mailing, we set a meeting with a prospect about branding for their organization using the “AH way,” as he noted that he was impressed with our division branding and wanted something like it for his own organization.
May 2016
In the beginning of May, we sent an email blast to the list of 1,400+ association professionals and volunteer leaders in the DC area. This email focused on the 2015 Growth Case Study that was published earlier in the year. This case study featured four client partners and how they kept their growth and retention rates high. The email contained an animated GIF and a simple message with a clear call to action to download the case study. This email performed well and as a result, 18 people downloaded the case study from the AH website.
June 2016
In early June, we sent another animated GIF email that also contained a simple message and a clear call to action to download the AH Guide to Building a Brand. This email resulted in 11 downloads of the content piece.
Denise has been invited to numerous events in the area as both a speaker and an attendee, which really helps to solidify AH’s industry expertise.
Results
Throughout these marketing efforts, personal outreach and social media messaging is consistent. We have been using content marketing as a way to help educate the DC association industry with information that they can actually apply to their strategies as well as to help keep AH top of mind when it comes to remembering who the experts in the industry are.
As we continue to talk to our new prospects, create proposals and attend events, more new business opportunities arise, which is helping to keep the AH pipeline full.
