by Kim Karagosian, Senior Director of Marketing & Communications

Audiences digest information differently. Some people are more visual learners, while others need to hear the content. Needless to say, with all the non-profits AH works with, there are different digesters. For me, I’m a visual learner, I’d choose watching a video over reading a story, and I love statistics, so I thought I would get on the video train and share some interesting things with you.

Today there are two things people look at when they see a company. The first, their products or services and the second, their voice. With social media becoming a staple for most businesses, your company’s voice is even more important than ever before. Personally, when I see a company supporting a non-profit, they are instantly more relatable to me as a consumer. That is where cause marketing comes into play.

Content marketing has swept the world by storm (at least the marketing world).

Take a quick look around your favorite websites and pick out the offers they’re pushing to site visitors:

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Watch this video!

…But first, how about a little of your contact information? We swear, no SPAM!

Do you know your members and prospective members? I mean, really know them? Know their deep wants and desires for your association? Know how they want to communicate?

Here are five reasons why market research and knowing your member is critical to the success of your association.

Most of us celebrate the birth of ‘MURICA (that’s how us, millennials refer to the United States of America) with family, sun, and ice-cold beverages. We’ve earned it, right? People love to share photos of all the exciting stuff they do during the holiday on their social media pages for their friends to see and it makes for entertainment while you’re waiting for the fireworks to start.

We live in a very noisy world. Each day there are 4.75 billion pieces of content shared, 55 million Facebook posts, 500 million tweets, and 700 million snapchats. It is in this context in which associations are attempting to break through the clutter, get noticed, engage with members, and build relationships. It is a crowded, noisy landscape, which is only getting noisier. How can your association stand out in this complex and loud world?

By Craig Broadbent, Director of Web Solutions and Client Engagement

How many videos have you watched on YouTube in the past week? A couple of years ago GfK’s syndicated MultiMedia Mentor™ service found that the average person (i.e, those aged between 18 and 64 years old) spent around 23 minutes per day watching Internet video.

Buyer personas are a useful tool for intimately understanding the needs of your members and prospective members. Personas help you laser-focus your marketing efforts.

Marketers have been using buyer personas for years, but the concept can easily apply to your member-based association or non-profit in what we’re calling member personas.

By Laura Pearce, MarCom Coordinator

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By Mike Lenz, Associate Digital Marcom Manager

Membership growth is the lifeblood of any association. New members lead to new interactions at meetings and events, new perspectives to share, new leaders to contribute to the organization, and, most importantly, increased revenue and possibilities for the future.

But many association leaders are often left scratching their heads at just how to achieve the ambitious, target membership growth that their board sets.

SUMMARY