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Associations Next: Attorney Check-In

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In this episode, we talk to Heidi Christianson, an attorney who works with associations. She tells us what we need to know about contracts with conference venues this year and what we should consider when planning an in-person event in 2021.

Takeaways:

  1. Don’t count on a force majeure term to get you out of your contract for COVID-related issues in 2021. Heidi explains that in order for force majeure to be invoked, venues must not have any way to host your event. Most venues will argue that there is some way to still hold your event, thus eliminating the possibility of force majeure.
  2. If you end up needing to cancel your contract, consider whether or not you would be willing to hold your event at the same venue the following year or within a few years. Many venues have been postponing contracts in order to hold on to revenue. This could save you cancellation fees if you are willing to be locked in early.
  3. Be in close communication with your board and your members. If you are moving forward with an in-person event, make sure you can count on in-person attendance.

Listen to the episode: Attorney Check-In

2021

Associations Next: New Year, New Approach to Events

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In our first episode of 2021, Jill Tichy, Amanda Maw, and Sarah Ewald from our events department come on the podcast to give us a look at what events might look like this year as vaccines emerge for the continuing pandemic.

Takeaways:

  1. Events may still be virtual. Even though vaccines are being distributed worldwide, associations found that virtual/hybrid conferences allow for greater accessibility than exclusively in-person conferences.
  2. Associations will need to be flexible. We are going into the year only knowing that we will not know what to expect. But after a year of constant change, we are much better positioned to take on this year.
  3. Consider spreading your content out throughout the year via webinars and summer sessions rather than having it all in one conference. The widespread use of virtual platforms now allows for easier distribution of content, so do not be afraid to take advantage.

Listen to the episode: New Year, New Approach to Events

Next

Associations Next: What’s Next? With David Ewald

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In this episode, we are joined by our President, David Ewald, who gives us the rundown on what happened in 2020 and what we can look forward to in 2021.

Takeaways:

  1. Associations have suffered alongside individuals and businesses all around the world during the pandemic. Without in-person events, there have been unprecedented challenges to membership and engagement.
  2. We need to learn from how we have adapted during the pandemic. Many of us are now pros at virtual communication. This is a skill that should not be lost once we can be in person again. Use your new skills to your advantage.
  3. Do not expect things to be the same as they were pre-pandemic. Many organizations undergone significant changes during the pandemic. Even once there is a widely distributed vaccine, the world will not look the same as it did before.

Listen to the episode: What’s Next?

reading about strategy

A Breakdown of Short- and Long-Term Marketing Strategies

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Constructing a marketing strategy is a crucial practice for any organization. It is important to keep a timeline in mind when creating your strategy, as some activities will help you achieve short-term goals and others will help you achieve long-term goals. The distinction is important for project organization and task delegation.

Short-term marketing strategies: They are used to temporarily increase sales or awareness. These plans are generally set for less than a year. If you have a new product or service, the activities surrounding its promotion would be in the short term. That would be a temporary boost. Short-term plans also include smaller details surrounding the promotion of those goods and services such as how social media is used, any outreach to media or email promotion.

  • Consider events that would warrant short-term marketing. Do you have a conference? Online professional development? A new e-book? Think about how you are going to get the word out about it.
  • Marketing automation tools can help with scheduling emails (and so many other tasks) in the short term while providing analytics to inform a longer-term strategy. Best-selling author Neil Patel offers a guide to help streamline marketing functions.
  • Social media is great for short-term marketing. It is free and relatively easy to reach people.

Long-term marketing strategies: These comprehensive plans are used to increase sales or awareness over a longer period of time. These strategies should be aimed toward organizational goals. Long-term marketing strategies include things such as branding, building a public relations team and maintaining a social media presence. Generally, anything that stretches over a year would count as long-term. While it’s possible for one person to create and implement a long-term marketing strategy, a team approach provides more varied talent and perspectives.

  • Search engine optimization is a powerful tool to have as part of your long-term marketing strategy. It can help you determine keywords to include on your website and give insight into what your competitors are doing.
  • Generating quality content on a regular basis is another building block in a long-term strategy. Blogs, e-books, printed or online magazines, podcasts and recorded webinars can all be used to show thought leadership and expertise. The Content Marketing Institute has excellent resources to help with ideation and implementation.
  • Qualitative research is another tool to consider in building a long-term strategy. This kind of research helps you discover more in-depth insights like the strengths and weaknesses of your organization or how your organization is seen. QRCA (Qualitative Research Consultants Association) has wonderful resources to teach you about and help you conduct qualitative research.

It is important to have a balance between both short- and long-term marketing strategies. Short-term strategies are great for individual projects and smaller goals while long-term strategies ensure that the organization as a whole is working toward larger goals.

Plan

Essential Items in a Marketing Plan

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Marian Burk Wood, author of The Marketing Plan Handbook, defines marketing plans as “comprehensive documents that summarize marketplace knowledge and the strategies and steps to be taken in achieving the objectives set by marketing managers for a particular period.”
According to the Content Marketing Institute, it is important to remember that marketing plans are not editorial calendars or a to-do list full of marketing-related tasks. It should outline a clear strategy to achieve a goal.

Here are some key elements to consider adding to your association’s marketing plan (or reviewing with fresh eyes if your plan has been in place for a while):

  1. Your target customer
    According to Forbes, you should think through and research who your typical customers are. Come up with personas for your typical customers and even give them names. Think of these customers when you are making decisions. It is crucial to understand who would use your product or service in order to market to them. Consider current, lapsed and prospective members as you develop your segments.
  2. Positioning
    According to Inc., you should research your organization’s position in the market. This will help you get a feel for how customers view you compared to your competitors. Consider not just other associations that may vie for your members/customers, but for-profit companies that may provide educational offerings that compete with yours. When you pinpoint your current position in the market, set a goal for where you would like to be positioned in the future.
  3. A unique selling proposition
    Forbes also explains that a marketing plan should include a statement about why your organization is different from other similar ones. For example, Jimmy John’s uses their slogan “Freaky Fast” to show that they deliver faster than any of their competitors.
  4. Competitor analysis
    Take the time to research your competitors. Inc. explains that you should have a solid understanding of their market, pricing and how their services are different than yours. Including this in your plan will help you determine how you stand out and help you find ways to market those strengths.
  5. Marketing strategy
    Inc. suggests adding in the resources you have for marketing. Does this include comprehensive social media? Websites? Webinars? Conferences? Emails? How will these resources be utilized? And how often? Consider these items when creating your marketing plan.
  6. Conversion strategy
    Forbes explains that you should include how you take interested people and turn them into customers. Do you offer any free content to draw customers in? Do you advertise to people in a certain industry or profession? Lay out how you draw people into your organization.
  7. Budget
    Think through what you can spend on marketing and how the money will be spent. Inc. says this is a crucial element as you will be able to see your return on investment after the plan has been implemented.

The Content Marketing Institute stresses the importance of taking the time to create this plan:
“Many marketers and firms will claim they have the marketing plans in their head, or within the tribal knowledge of the organization. This is simply not good enough. Many firms will have several disparate pieces of a marketing plan spread throughout the organization (i.e., with the sales department, product managers, marketing department, executive leadership team, strategic business planners). But in order for marketing to be successful, your organization must create and own a proper marketing plan, first and foremost.”

Technological Coding

2020 Technology Trends

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As we wrap up 2019 and begin planning for 2020, here are some technology trends for 2020, according to Gartner analyst and VP Rita Sallam:

  1. Augmented analytics – enables more people to gain insights from data;
  2. Augmented data management – by 2022, data management manual tasks will be reduced 45% with machine learning and automated-service-level management;
  3. NLP (natural language processing)/conversational analytics – by 2020, 50% of analytical queries will be automatically generated by search, NLP or voice;
  4. Graph – the application of graph processing and graph databases will grow 100% annually through 2022, enabling more complex and adaptive data science;
  5. Commercial AI/ML will dominate – there will be more commercial platforms rather than open source to manage artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques;
  6. Data storytelling and visualization – creating meaning from numbers to take action, by understanding the story that data are telling us.

For more insights and trends from Gartner: https://www.informationweek.com/big-data/ai-machine-learning/10-data-and-analytics-trends-for-2020/d/d-id/1336310

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