In the hallways and around meeting tables, I’ve heard a lot of colleagues admit that Great Ideas is fast becoming their “go to” ASAE conference. Overwhelmed by the size of the Annual Conference or just wanting to have a more intimate and creative meeting, many association professionals are choosing Great Ideas as their exclusive education and networking event. I can appreciate this shift in thinking; Great Ideas has always been one of my favorite conferences, and 2012 was no exception.

This year, I had a chance to present on the very idea of community – in this case, the frequent topic of online community. As Amanda Adolph, former Vice President at the Association of Governing Boards (AGB) and a long-time McKinley client described it, “building a social networking community is easy; creating a community can be challenging.” Amanda and I shared the story of how AGB created an online networking community that grew 20% in one month and talked about the three pivotal events that led to the community’s rapid expansion and success. You can see more by reading through our slides. Or please be in touch if you’d like to talk more about the AGB community.

~ Post by Shelley Sanner, Managing Consultant

All good things – including association products
– must come to an end.

Anyone who has been in the market for a smart phone in the last few years knows that the life of such a product can be measured in months, if not weeks. Rarely does a phone stay on the market for the length of a purchaser’s contract. As technology improves, new versions take the place of older phones, rendering the old device virtually obsolete.

By comparison, how many products or services does your association offer that are more than 10 years old? How many are more than 20 years old?

The cell phone universe is an extreme example of the product life cycle, but it’s clear that for-profit companies judge their products based on what they offer to the customer, what competitors are offering and whether the product is meeting revenue targets. If it’s no longer accomplishing clearly set goals, a product is pulled from the shelves in favor of a faster or better replacement.

McKinley recently hosted a breakfast with association executives, and we had a chance to explore this topic in more depth. The common feeling among those in attendance was that associations trail the for-profit world not in terms of product development, but in terms of product retirement. For whatever reason – be it the demands of a vocal subset of members, the emotional attachment of a Board member or a perceived market monopoly – an association product or service can often remain available well past its useful life.

The result can be a drain on association resources. Instead of spending time and money innovating and developing a new product that meets the evolving needs of members, an organization could spin its wheels offering a product that has lost its primary value.

So how can an association break this cycle? By collecting and using data. Emotional attachment can be a dangerous thing when it comes to product evaluation, and absent hard facts about a product’s performance, it can be an organization’s only fallback option. Sales data, member and customer usage information and knowledge of customer demand and satisfaction all can help an organization to make informed choices about its product portfolio. By sunsetting products that are no longer sought after by a majority of members and customers, an association can free up resources to develop new offerings that appeal to a wider audience and make the organization even more valuable.

~ Post by Mike Norbut, Managing Consultant

I was fortunate to attend ASAE’s Great Ideas conference at the lovely Broadmoor March 25th to 27th. I heard some great sessions, including one by John Kao on the connection between jazz composition and business innovation and thanks to Reggie Henry, better ways to use my iPad. I saw many friends and met some new contacts. One of my favorite encounters was with a colleague who had his toy terrier, Doc, in tow. I wish my dog were that portable. I also really loved the opportunity to speak on one of my favorite topics, organizational culture. It was fun leading a large room of 60 or so in an exercise to determine their cultures then strategize on enacting culture change.

To read more about the Idea Lab session, check out Julie Shoop’s post, Can you change your association’s culture? on the Acronym blog.

Below is a copy of my presentation. If you want to find out more about your organizational culture, click on these links for handouts and tools to help you. Let me know, if your association’s culture is in fact eating your strategy for breakfast.

~ Post by Jodie Slaughter, FASAE, President and Founding Partner

In a previous blog post, I wrote about the work that we did with the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) around membership recruitment and retention. The primary audience for our efforts was one that associations can easily overlook: former members. While there likely was a reason why members decided not to renew their membership, there also was a reason that compelled them to join in the first place. Because of that, reaching out to these former members and asking them to return to the organization can have a stronger impact than simply making a pitch to a new list of prospects.

ASA’s recruitment success was featured in a March 2012 story that appeared in FORUM Magazine. To read the story, click here.

~ Post by Mike Norbut, Managing Consultant

At McKinley, we often talk about the tremendous value of longitudinal research. Indeed, we try to continually remind ourselves (and our clients) that while taking a one-time snapshot of member perception is certainly valuable, expanding the research discipline to track key data over time opens up a whole new window on market intelligence and strategic decision making.

Nowhere can we see this more clearly than in our recently released 2012 Economic Impact on Associations (EIA) Study. Marking the fifth installment in our ongoing benchmarking series, the 2012 EIA study provides a glimpse at the current perceptions within our sector as well as clear illustrations of the type of trend data that becomes so valuable in looking at the impact of changes over time.

The good news we saw emerging in last year’s study is evident again, with an even more optimistic viewpoint for the year ahead. While the overall 5-year net membership trends have dipped due to the impact of the recession, retention remains strong with most associations maintaining or improving their retention rates. Respondents are also looking forward to ramping up new investments and hiring in the near term and, overall, 83% of respondents are very or somewhat optimistic about the year ahead. How is 2012 looking for your association?

~ Post by Jay Younger, FASAE, Managing Partner and Chief Consultant

The following is a guest post from Peter Turner, Senior Advisor, Global Development Strategy of MCI Group SA re-posted with permission from their blog GrowGlobally.org.

Global Content Dissemination –
Opening New Markets for Existing Education Products

In the new book “The End of Membership As We Know It,” the author contends that the era when associations could count on members joining and renewing with a relatively unchanging menu of membership benefits has passed.

To support this notion we’ve seen a couple US association industry trend surveys from last year suggesting that associations will need to ramp up their product development capacity if they hope to keep their existing members or secure new ones.  Today, it is all about “product first strategy” as the lead value driver rather than simply selling membership.  At MCI, this has been a key recommendation we have made to clients who seek to expand outside the US market, but now the need to provide value for money is relevant everywhere.

• 97% of large association respondents needed to make their event brands more exciting, informative, innovative, learning experiences
• 73% of associations of all sizes experienced rising member and customer expectations corresponding to increased pressure to deliver immediate results
• 56% of associations planned to find new pricing models or revenue streams from their meetings
• 54% of associations were determined to find ways to repackage and resell their content to new audiences

To help association executives understand their options for those seeking to find new markets outside the United States, MCI Group and Bluesky Broadcast have formed a strategic partnership to offer an “end to end” solution from content capture, digitization, e-commerce, marketing, and sales.  The opportunities for associations is to offer new ways to add revenue from existing content WITH COST to associations with proven product development and sales pipeline development capability across 47 cities and 23 countries on 5 continents. 

Phil Forte, President of Blue Sky Broadcast, and Peter Turner, Senior Advisor, Global Development Strategy for MCI-Group, presented a LIVE webinar on January 18th to 50 associations to outline the importance and benefits of global dissemination of captured presentation content for associations.   They explained how Western education and meeting products have and will continue to play a critical role in helping emerging and developed markets meet the opportunities and challenges of the future. The presentation discussed leveraging content value and the ways to extend and expand that content.

To view this 30 minute webinar on demand at your convenience, we invite you to view this session here.

Association execs need register for access to the session which can be viewed at your convenience and saved or replayed as you like.   If you have questions, please contact Peter Turner at 571.275.1516 or by email at peter.turner@mci-group.com.

Global Content Dissemination Webinar 1 18 12
View more presentations from Peter Turner

About the author

Peter Turner

As MCI’s Senior Advisor, Global Development Strategy, I help associations build and execute global growth strategies. Over the past 30 years I have served three associations (ASAE, MPI and IEEE Computer Society) as a leader of business, product and partnership development.

In my previous post on membership communications, we looked at the challenges associations face in breaking through “the clutter” to get the attention of their members. While professionals are inundated with messages from every corner of their lives, successful associations have developed ways to increase the likelihood that their communications will be noticed. In my experience, it starts with a disciplined methodology.

• Set communications objectives/goals to help define the desired outcome of a specific communication or marketing campaign. This will inform decisions about defining the target audience(s), messaging, and tactics, and it will help establish clear expectations for an association’s efforts.

• Develop integrated marketing communications plans to translate objectives into
  a “game plan” that allows you to be proactive in executing stand-alone communications or campaigns. Defining audiences, messages, channels, and timing helps increase the probability for success and ensures that different tactics can complement each other. It also establishes “owners” for the different marketing activities.

• Assign a “gatekeeper” to oversee the timing of distributing communications to members. This staff member or department can also review communications content from various program areas to provide the association guidance on reducing redundancy and increasing cross-promotion opportunities. Having this filter is particularly critical for managing email and social media and avoiding communication overload.

• Segment audiences and tailor messages to improve the likelihood that communications will resonate with the intended recipients. You want your members and non-members to associate communications from your association with being relevant and value-adding. There is a positive correlation between segmenting and tailoring messaging accordingly with open and click-through rates.

• Test and control groups provide the opportunity to measure the effectiveness of subject lines, content, links, timing of emails/postings, etc, in electronic and direct mail communications. Avoid the trap of doing the same thing over and over, even when you have had a successful campaign.

• Analysis and reporting is critical for measuring the success of communications goals. This will help determine what is /is not working and inform making adjustments to campaigns. Most associations’ databases and email systems have reporting capabilities that the IT team can tap into and capture data for campaigns. Website tools, such as Google analytics, are also available. It is critical to establish expectations with departments to capture, translate and report out on this data – or, assign this responsibility to a designated staff member to support all departments.

Keep in mind that including all of these elements versus picking and choosing is what makes a disciplined approach effective. What is your association doing that works? Tell us about your successes with communication and the approach that has worked for you.

~ Post by Tania Galarza, Managing Consultant

In my last post, Make Your Volunteers’ Experience Truly Rewarding, I wrote about common motivators for volunteers and why it’s important to understand why volunteers dedicate their time to the association. The next step in effective volunteer management is recognizing their service and rewarding their commitment in a way that aligns with those unique motivators.

Just as volunteers’ motivations are different, so are the ways they will value being recognized and appreciated for their efforts. Rewards can vary from a certificate of recognition, a gift card, a free webinar or a discount on a publication or conference registration. Here are five ways to create a motivational rewards system for your volunteers:

• Design a points system around the mission or goal of the committee (e.g. new members recruited for a membership committee) and offer rewards for different numbers of points earned.  For those who are naturally competitive or seeking a new challenge, points-based structures for rewards provide motivation.
• Longevity-based rewards, which recognize volunteers for various lengths of service to the association (5, 10, 15 years, etc.). Recognizing volunteers for many years of service emphasizes their commitment to the association and is especially valuable to those seeking to give back to the profession.
• Consider public recognition at an association conference or event for those who are seeking opportunities to meet and work with other professionals in the field. Recognizing their achievements will highlight their skills and abilities and give other professionals reason to approach them.
• A short article in your member newsletter describing the special contribution of a volunteer can go a long way. This allows individuals who are pursuing personal interests or seeking to learn new skills through their volunteer work to have their unique contributions recognized.
• And of course, never underestimate the value of a sincere and thoughtful thank you!

Recognizing a volunteer’s commitment to your association with a reward will reinforce your appreciation for his or her service and commitment. It also will increase the likelihood that your volunteers will remain engaged long-term. Whatever the motivation, making sure your volunteers feel valued and appreciated will make the experience more rewarding for them and for your organization.

~ Post by Liz Williamson, Project Consultant

As promised, McKinley would like to share with you the results of our 2011 Holiday Survey. Your hard work has allowed us to understand complex seasonal metrics and supplement our association expertise with valuable holiday spirit.

In all seriousness, thank you for helping us spread some holiday cheer.
We hope you had as much fun taking the survey as we had in creating it!

Download or view a pdf of the Holiday Survey 2011 Results

“My passion has been to build an enduring company where people were motivated to make great products. Everything else was secondary. Sure, it was great to make a profit, because that was what allowed you to make great products, but the products, not the profits, were the motivation.”

-Steve Jobs, in Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs

Over the holiday break, I had the pleasure of finishing Walter Isaacson’s biography on Steve Jobs. While reading it, I couldn’t help but consider our clients, where I work and how McKinley’s leaders have shaped our company. Our growth over the last few years has been outstanding, yet we all feel it is not as much about profit as it is about our ability to help shape the association community. Association staff members are passionate and driven to serve their members and their organization’s mission, which in turn makes our work at McKinley incredibly meaningful. And I am thankful that Jodie and Jay are nothing like Jobs! (Click here to see Jodie’s acceptance speech for the Academy of Leaders award—it might make you cry.)

As I kept pondering this unlikely comparison, I realized Apple and associations have some intrinsic similarities, but their approaches are just different. Let me explain.

Passionate People. Associations are unique places to work. Many have a mix of employees who come from the industry the association serves, and others who have backgrounds in areas such as marketing, research or advocacy. Working for any non-profit usually means that you have altruistic motives and find fulfillment in the work you do rather than in your salary. Therefore, passion for what your organization does and those it serves is the primary driver for most association staff to create great products and services.

Associations are lucky in that they attract passionate people. In contrast, Jobs struggled for a good portion of his career to find the right mix of people and to motivate them appropriately. He seemed to finally find the right balance during his last years at Apple. One thing is clear: anyone working for Jobs had to be passionate about the product, which is not so unlike how an association’s staff must be passionate to create great resources for members.

Market-Oriented. Throughout his career, Jobs made it clear that he thought people could not envision or know what they want, so he did not believe in market research, such as surveys or focus groups. Jobs and his teams created products that they thought the world should own and ensured that these products integrated together beautifully.

Anyone familiar with McKinley knows this is the opposite of how we operate—most of our engagements begin with market research. Most association executives understand that research gives members a voice and yields valuable insights to help organizations make effective decisions to enhance the member experience. Without truly understanding members, their needs and their perceptions of the organization, it would be difficult for an association to effectively make decisions. Therefore, associations are market-oriented because they take the time to understand their market and then do what they can to fulfill their members’ needs.

Integrated Experience. Associations do not have the integrated end-to-end user experience that comes with owning an Apple product. But like Apple, an association’s services can certainly integrate beautifully together or be very effective on their own. For example, a member or potential member could just go to a conference, but if they fully embrace the association and all it has to offer, they will receive a lot more. The member who enrolls in continuing education webinars, participates in the online community and reads publications is likely to have a better, more fulfilling experience. This end result is not unlike what heavy-duty users and Mac fans say about Apple.

Apple doesn’t thrive on people who just have an iTunes account, they want people to buy in, “drink the Kool-Aid,” and invest in more Apple products. iTunes was developed as a gateway—a method of introducing people to the Apple experience. Also, Apple is genius when it comes to repurposing and remerchandising. Who really needs an iPod, an iPhone, an iPad and a Mac laptop? How many people have most or all of these items? Apple has created excitement over enhancements in their products and the unveiling of the latest version of a product. I constantly wonder how I manage to live without Siri on my iPhone. Apple has repurposed its products and content in such a way that encourages people to buy more. Associations can definitely learn something from Apple when engaging members and repurposing educational content. Conferences or online resources could be seen as gateways, like iTunes, to everything the association has to offer.

In addition to being reasons why associations produce meaningful, high-quality work, these are also the very same reasons I love working at McKinley. By being passionate about our work and helping associations, McKinley is an enduring company where people are motivated to do their best and create meaningful experiences for our association clientele.

~ Post by Rachel Friedmann, Marketing Manager