Tools You Can Use—Building Your Marketing Toolkit
Presented by Jodie Slaughter and Bill Cramer
Associations should keep in mind a handful of simple, effective, low-cost tools to help improve marketing effectiveness. A marketing “toolkit” can help your association ensure marketing consistency. Following are the highlights from a presentation, from the ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership’s Marketing & Membership Conference April 30–May 1, 2009.
There are simple, inexpensive tools to achieve marketing consistency
An important part of association marketing is consistency. Several tools exist to help achieve consistent marketing, including:
1. Using the association’s full name in email signatures.
Everyone affiliated with the association should see their normal day-to-day emails as a no-cost marketing opportunity. To achieve consistency, as part of their email signature, everyone affiliated with the association should use the association’s full name and any tagline. This has no cost and high value.
2. Generating word of mouth from electronic communications.
Create short, tailored electronic messages with the intent that they will be forwarded. The content should be interesting to members and something they would immediately think about sharing with others. This can be something that is amusing and fun.
3. Having standardized descriptions.
The association should develop and then use short, medium, and long standardized blurbs that describe the association and its key offerings. To achieve consistency, everyone affiliated with the association should use these descriptors. This information can be use on the organization’s website and presented as part of the hiring process.
4. Answering the telephone in a consistent way.
How the phone is answered makes an important impression on callers. Associations should consider having a simple script for how the phone is answered, and should have people answer the phone who have a great attitude.
5. Creating a shared marketing directory.
This directory can include approved logos, templates, and an image library. The directory can be available to anyone in the association who needs these items. Its presence will help ensure consistency.
Low- and no-cost tools can help your association achieve marketing consistency and reinforce the brand.
Associations should review and organize their communication toolkit.
This is a simple process of defining each channel that the association uses (such as a newsletter), defining the target audience (such as members), and then determine the precise communication vehicle (which could be articles). Going through this process entails listing all of the channels and communication vehicles that are used. This process will help associations to identify opportunities, voids, and redundancies.
REVIEW: 5 LOW/NO-COST TOOLS TO ACHIEVE MARKETING CONSISTENCY 1. Email signatures, be sure to use the full name not just the acronym, along with any tagline |
Presented at the ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership’s Marketing & Membership Conference by Jodie Slaughter, President and Founding Partner, McKinley Marketing, Inc. and Bill Cramer, Marketing Director, National Association of Counties.