Membership Marketing

JANUARY 2, 2019

When we asked association staff what are the most significant data challenges that they face, 48% of respondents told us that “Inadequate membership dashboard and reporting tools” represented a top problem. Yet, perhaps there is no more important step that you can take to improve your membership program this year than establishing a clear and consistent dashboard to keep track of your association’s recruitment, new member conversion, and renewal efforts.

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Association Success

JANUARY 3, 2019

Are Your Learning Programs Transformational? Learning is transformational: that means change should happen as a result of it. Is the learning you are providing engaging brains to change, or is it learning by name only? Associations have so much power to strengthen the workforce pipelines of their industries and develop mastery for individuals by better leveraging their educational portfolio to offer transformation.

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Associations Now

JANUARY 2, 2019

When organizations don’t focus on wellbeing, they’ll often see that their employees are exhibiting signs of burnout. Here are few tips for preventing it. Employee burnout is like an ebbing fire, according to Jodi Whiteman, codirector of professional development and workforce innovations at Zero to Three. “We all come usually to our jobs with this intense feeling of excitement,” she said.

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Reid All About it

JANUARY 4, 2019

The weekly list of free educational events and resources for the association community… If your association has chapters or geographic components (sections, affiliates, local networking groups), please participate in the Chapter Benchmarking Study. If you haven’t already received an invitation to participate from Mariner Management, you can opt in by providing your information here.

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Here’s Your Blueprint for Year-Round Member Engagement. Are you ready to transform your association into a thriving, 365-day community? Download GrowthZone’s ebook, How to Create a Community Your Members Can’t Get Enough Of , and learn strategies for leveling out the peaks and valleys of member engagement. This guide provides actionable strategies to create consistent networking opportunities, deliver value-packed content, and foster connections that your members won’t want to miss.

Member Engagement

Wild Apricot

JANUARY 3, 2019

These tips will help any organization save time and make their members' lives easier with the members location mapping gadget.

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Jamie Notter

DECEMBER 31, 2018

Since today is the last day of the year, I’m going to boil everything down for you. If I had to give ONE piece of advice to leaders who want to: get the most out of their organizations. attract and retain the best talent. beat the competition, or even make them irrelevant…. …it would be this: find and fix the patterns inside your culture that get in the way of your people being successful.

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Association Adviser

JANUARY 2, 2019

Starting or growing a career management site doesn’t have to be intimidating. If associations are the primary resource for industry professionals to develop their skills in their chosen profession, then it’s only logical that the association should be the first place they think of for career management and new opportunities. However, many associations are hesitant to commit the needed resources and staff time to begin or enhance an online career center because doing so always seems to be a large

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Associations Now

JANUARY 3, 2019

As expenses rise, particularly for cultural organizations, membership programs become more important than ever to maximize support. Also: Before AI hits marketing full force, here’s how you should approach personalization. It might be a new year, but this is old news: Membership matters. And in 2019, membership programs might matter more than ever before.

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Velvet Chainsaw

JANUARY 3, 2019

Change is hard. Foresight—looking forward—is hard. Why? Because we prefer certainty and concreteness to ambiguity and abstraction. Becoming a new normal leader requires shifting your perspective. It means becoming biased towards consistent, persistent evolution, not inclined to keep things the way they are which results in stagnant-status-quo-sameness.

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Speaker: Jessica Bonney from VICA and Jeff Horne from Wicket

What does delivering an exceptional member experience mean in today's world? With the right insights, tools, and strategies, you can identify what truly matters to your members, drive meaningful engagement at scale, and continue to meet the ever-evolving needs of your members. Join association experts Jessica Bonney from VICA and Jeff Horne from Wicket who will share practical insights on how to build an exceptional member-driven experience by gaining a deeper understanding of your members and d

Member Experience

Eric Lanke

DECEMBER 31, 2018

As we end another year, here's a look back at the five posts on this blog that received the most page views in 2018. 1. Stop Calling It Strategic Planning This has been on every year-end list since it was originally posted in January 2012, and keeps getting a ton of traffic, including as the page through which the highest number of people enter my site.

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GrowthZone

JANUARY 4, 2019

Kick off the new year right with these tips for quickly organizing your workspace. Remove distractions. Ask yourself what actually needs to be on your desk. Ditch the knick-knacks (when was the last time you actually used the stress-ball you got free from a trade show 3 years ago?). Your colleagues don’t care about your pictures. Chances are you’ve got hundreds of photos on your phone that are way more current than anything sitting in a frame.

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Associations Now

JANUARY 1, 2019

At the start of a new year, you’re probably making a resolution or two. We asked a few association professionals what their 2019 membership resolutions will be. Here’s what they said. Ah, the new year—if one thing’s true, you’re probably going to make a new year’s resolution. Maybe it’s a personal goal—to work out more, eat better, or spend less time staring at a glowing screen.

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Velvet Chainsaw

JANUARY 4, 2019

Have you ever attended a conference education session because of the presenter and not the content? (I think most of us have.). Have you ever been surprised when a full day workshop ended? You were so engaged that time flew by without you realizing it. If you’ve had these types of experiences, you’ve witnessed firsthand skilled facilitation. A great facilitator moves back and forth between content and process engaging participants in their own learning journeys.

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Education

Smooth The Path

JANUARY 3, 2019

What do members think we sell to them? We sell membership, conferences, research, and books. Yes but, there is more. Members tell us they join for professional development and networking. . Yes but, there is more. They get knowledge and connections through the association. Yes, but there is more. How about strategies to think about and tactics to try?

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Beth Kanter

JANUARY 3, 2019

Flickr photo by Geoff Livingston. I wish you a very happy and healthy 2019! I had a great holiday break, although unfortunately I got sick. And while illness isn’t the most energizing start of a new year, I kept replaying the words from the ballon song in the new Mary Poppins movie, “ there is no place to go but up.” Rituals are intentional small, tangible acts done routinely and carry meaning.

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Associations Now

JANUARY 2, 2019

Two recent studies on succession plans for the C-suite’s finance head found that many organizations didn’t have one—especially when it comes to smaller workforces. If your chief financial officer was to win the lottery tomorrow and quit his or her job, would your organization be able to get by? Short answer: maybe not. A recent survey from Robert Half Management Resources found that at many organizations, especially those with fewer than 250 employees, there was no set successor for the key fina

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Idea Architects

JANUARY 2, 2019

I t is easy to f orget abo u t the importance of feedback in the moment. Perhaps nowhere is this as useful as when you have made a tentative decision and are seeking confirmation that it is the right one … as I was once while driving to a retreat center outside of New Orleans. Even for a seasoned traveler like myself, driving to new destinations is a bit unsettling, particularly ones located somewhat off the beaten path.

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Revenue

Velvet Chainsaw

JANUARY 2, 2019

It’s a common, well-accepted, well-worn and overused term: the New Normal. It’s also stealthily deceptive and destructive. It’s critical that successful leaders understand that linear thinking is just an exit ramp in a world of exponential change. Many of today’s leaders, especially association board of directors and CEOs, think that the new normal will eventually stabilize.

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Effective Database

JANUARY 3, 2019

The new year brings new resolutions. May I suggest that one of your New Year’s resolutions be the creation of one new data management habit within your organization? Here are some suggestions: Develop and use data integrity reports. Establish an internal users group that meets at least monthly. Conduct internal “data awareness” training sessions , so that all staff can understand what is in your database.

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Associations Now

JANUARY 2, 2019

A classroom-style lecture limits meeting engagement. Instead, make events more social. Also: four types of emails to send in 2019. Many people go to meetings to learn, and many event agendas are heavy on expert-led lectures. It’s a tried-and-true learning format, sure, but speakers talking at guests doesn’t allow attendees to engage with your meeting content.

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SBI

JANUARY 2, 2019

To celebrate the beginning of a new year, we’re reflecting on what we accomplished in 2018. What a year 2018 was for SBI! We took strides toward adopting new technology, honing best practices, and exploring new innovations to improve our clients’ member experiences – and had fun while doing it! Together with our team of staff, client partners, association volunteers, vendors and business partners, we continued to grow, tackle new challenges, and set the bar high for what we will do in 2019

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Ever wonder why brands like Apple, LEGO, and Sephora are going all-in on branded communities? It’s because online community building is the secret sauce to connecting with audiences in ways that ads and emails simply can’t. But here's the best part—it’s not just for big corporations. Associations can create thriving online communities too. GrowthZone’s eBook, "The Power of Community," breaks down exactly why a branded online community can be a game-changer for your association.

eBook

Robert Skrob

JANUARY 2, 2019

Happy New Year! We have the blessing of a fresh start — a new set of months to create magic, connection and joy. Thank you for inviting me to be a small part of your day. Thousands of books have been written about having a great marriage, and there are certainly hundreds of books that purport to reveal the secrets of employer-employee relationship success.

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Associations Now

JANUARY 4, 2019

A monthly email that asks a single question about membership can boost engagement and give a glimpse at long-term member trends. How to hack it? Many associations continuously fine-tune their email messages to members, too often throwing in everything but the kitchen sink. But Scott Douglas, senior director of membership and business development at the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), has found that simplicity has a surprising power to engage.

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Associations Now

JANUARY 3, 2019

The American Meteorological Society’s 2019 Annual Meeting starts in Phoenix this weekend. But thanks to the government shutdown, at least 500 fewer attendees are expected. AMS is preparing for the worst, while hoping for the best. Imagine if little more than two weeks out from your organization’s annual meeting, a partial government shutdown meant that more than 10 percent of your expected 4,000 attendees—many of whom are government employees, researchers, and contractors—could likely no longer

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Associations Now

JANUARY 3, 2019

If your longtime employees are leaving your organization and you’re struggling to find new talent with the right expertise in a tough job market, you’re likely suffering from brain drain. Consider these strategies to ease the pain. Feeling drained? Considering the tight job market, odds are good that your association’s staff might be, as team members with specific expertise and institutional knowledge move on, move away, or reach retirement age.

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Speaker: Radhika Samant and Todd Wuestenberg

Employee recognition has often been deemed a "feel-good" initiative, tied closely to rewards. While we understand its importance, we tend to associate recognition with intangible outcomes like engagement and sentiment, rather than direct impacts on retention and high performance. In today’s workplace, the true ROI of recognition lies in its ability to regenerate tangible, business-driven results.

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Associations Now

JANUARY 3, 2019

The Global Speedrun Association, which manages online events for those who try to beat video games at breakneck speeds, is preparing its first live event—a gaming tournament complete with prizes and fan panels. An association devoted to a niche part of gaming culture is seeing some major growth at the moment—and that growth is coming in the form of events.

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Associations Now

JANUARY 1, 2019

Create meaningful professional development opportunities by introducing attendees to local businesses that could benefit from their knowledge. The number one reason attendees go to meetings and conferences is for education, reports The Experience Institute. Ninety-two percent of attendees rank it as their top reason to go a meeting, making it the deciding factor in whether they attend or not.

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Associations Now

JANUARY 4, 2019

In order for your organization to achieve greater success this year, you have to avoid the activities that held you back in 2018. Also: developing a physical security strategy at events. Come the beginning of a new year, many resolutions are made to be better and achieve greater success. But it’s hard to do that without looking back to the strategies, activities, and behaviors that didn’t work the year prior.

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