Associations looking to connect with current or prospective members more effectively face two specific challenges: Finding ways to engage differing demographics that communicate in very different ways, and quickly explaining to audiences the value of your group. Deciding which exact communication channels to use isn’t particularly difficult if you understand where your audience lives online. The real challenge is mastering the common thread—effective storytelling—that ties everything together.
Luckily, a slight shift in perspective is all it takes to perfect your message and create more positive takeaways. The following tips will help your association grab the attention of its audiences and paint a clear and compelling picture of the benefits of membership.
Focus on solutions. Give your association an instant boost in credibility by helping members meet the business challenges they face on a day-to-day basis. Articles, videos, webinars, white papers, postmortems, case studies and other result-focused content save members time, money and effort—and consistently remind them of the return on investment your group provides. The more you become a go-to resource, and the faster you help audiences move from problem to solution, the easier you’ll find it to demonstrate your ongoing value and relevance.
Promote thought leadership. Don’t just be the leading source for news and happenings. Be the leading source for insight, the first place members turn when they’re determining how to best adapt to current or evolving trends. The faster and more readily you can equip partners to greet change, the sooner you’ll see the word spread about how forward-thinking your association is.
Get members talking. Ask thought-provoking questions and invite audiences to weigh in; then use their feedback to craft more engaging programs and content. Polls, surveys and questionnaires can also help you glean deeper insight into what moves current or prospective members, simultaneously obtaining original insights or data that your association can use for future programs.
Celebrate your community. Provide members with a platform on which they can offer their own insights, reactions and feedback. When tackling new issues within your industry (or relevant news), consider crowdsourcing advice, input and even user-generated content. Get your public involved and you will bring far more people and resources to address any given problem or topic, boosting the results of these efforts exponentially.
Be judicious with your time online. Social networks and online forums are like cocktail parties: While everyone’s got something to say, no one wants to hear someone hog the entire conversation. So, when engaging in or promoting online dialogue, the news website Business Insider suggests that you follow the 60/20/20 rule: 60 percent of the time you should be engaging your audience, 20 percent should be spent sharing content, and the remaining 20 percent should be devoted to talking about your organization.
Help others picture your benefits. Associations often have no shortage of data, but often members go unaware, or struggle to understand, the upsides of certain data, let alone know how to make use of it. Using simple charts and graphics can help you bridge this gap, while infographics, video clips, diagrams and other visual communication tools can help you communicate complex information faster and in such a way that current or prospective members can instantly recognize the value of the information being provided.
Leverage your group’s collective knowledge. Make content shorter: Break lengthy speeches, reports or event recaps into brief articles, newsletter updates or blog or social network posts. Conversely, you might make content longer: Anthologize blog posts and articles into ebooks; group video clips into online training programs; or build presentations based on the best tips and insights that members have shared. Finding ways to repackage and represent material will help in the design of promotional materials and, in doing so, offer new contexts for all that culled information.