By Katherine M. Finley, PhD, CAE, Executive Director, Organization to American Historians

Here we are again nearing the end of the year and once again asking, ‘what can we do in the office to “spice up” the holidays and create some holiday cheer?’ The ISAE Digital Marketing Committee members put their heads together to share some fun ideas for work holiday parties and activities. Given that not everyone celebrates the holidays, none of these activities or parties should be made mandatory.

By: Caroline Hoy, Boardable Content Manager

Recruiting volunteers is something that many nonprofits and associations see as a low priority. Unpaid, temporary, non-professional, why bother investing much time and effort? Unfortunately, being shortsighted in this way can do lasting damage to your organization.

By Alyssa Gibson, American Alliance of Orthopaedic Executives (AAOE)

Over the summer, my association, AAOE, embarked on the journey of selecting a new Learning Management System (LMS) – a road often fraught with seemingly-endless calls and demos (where you come to discover that the Request for Proposal you so carefully crafted may or may not have been reviewed or understood), proposals that test the limits of your budget (especially for a small staff like ours), and the ultimate, nail-biting decision that can feel like a giant leap of faith. Four months later, we are now in the process of onboarding and launching our new LMS, and while I can’t claim to be an LMS selection expert, I am sharing some of my lessons learned along the way.

According to learning evangelist and Event Garde CEO Aaron Wolowiec, “Finding a speaker for an event can sometimes be a daunting challenge. How do you really know if the selected individual will bring the right mix of knowledge, enthusiasm and engagement to the room?”

The demand and price for event speakers isn’t expected to drop in 2020.  The MPI Meeting Outlook Report predicted live event and virtual attendance over the next year to grow 2.7 percent over this year.  According to the report respondents, live attendance predictions are the greatest seen in this survey since 2016.   According to a survey of education, meeting, and professional development activities by Whorton Marketing & Research with Event Garde,  22 percent of respondents spend $25,000 or more on speakers per year and at least 30 percent ask speakers to engage in other elements of a meeting.

The ASAE Annual Meeting & Exposition was held from August 10-13 in Columbus, Ohio, and neither the convention nor the city disappointed. The conference opened with a keynote by bestselling authors Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms in which they discussed the “new power” dynamics in today’s society. Their talk was based on their bestselling book, New Power: How Anyone Can Persuade in Our Chaotic, Connected Age. Until recently, the world was defined by “old power” which was held by only a few and was jealously guarded. “New power” is transparent and participatory. New power can help us run more dynamic associations especially in an era where the public is demanding more openness and input into their associations and many individuals’ engagement with associations is declining. The challenge is to channel this “new power” to make it work for you and your association and to develop a leadership pipeline for the future. The book is a fairly easy read and relatively inexpensive (available through ASAE or Amazon for less than $17).

There were plenty of educational sessions at ASAE this year. A few sessions of note that I attended focused on rebranding, membership marketing, and mentoring The re-branding session entitled “Ten Steps to a Successful Rebranding” was presented by Brad Gillum of Indianapolis’ own Willow Marketing. It was a case study of how one association – Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing – successfully rebranded their association. As Gillum noted, rebranding begins with a decision as to whether to rebrand or refresh your brand. If a brand does not evoke positive emotions and it’s been the same for many years, it may be time to rebrand since most brands are updated every 7-10 years.  However, no rebranding effort should be undertaken without thorough research followed by an openness to listen to what the research revealed (even if it goes against what you believe about your association and its members). It is also important to involve the board and staff in the process from the beginning. It is equally as important to know the vision of the organization and make sure “it is bold” and succinct. And remember rebranding takes time and money. Gillum noted that participants spend about 60 hours each on the rebranding process. These were only a few of the ten steps that Gillum outlined in a successful rebranding effort. These steps helped make the rebranding of the Board of Certification of Emergency Nurses a success.

By: ISAE Digital Marketing Committee

At this year’s ISAE Annual Convention, held in South Bend, fun and learning were in abundance. Topics ranged from facing change, to best practices, to what young professionals want out of their association career and more. 

By Callie Walker, Senior Inbound Marketing Specialist, MemberClicks

You’ve heard the saying, “What you say is not as important as how you say it.” Well, what you say is certainly important, but when it comes to marketing - and particularly, marketing to young professionals - how you say things is key.

By Alyssa Gibson

Regularly feeding your association’s blog, newsletter, and social media channels with new content keeps members coming back to get the latest industry information straight from your association. But that’s easier said than done when you’re facing a limited budget or staff resources. That’s where repurposing comes in. If you take the time to create a strong piece of content, you can reuse it in multiple ways to keep it fresh, timely, and relevant – all while taking less time than developing an entirely new piece and better ensuring that content gets maximum impact.

By: Caroline Hoy, Boardable Content Manager

Associations are vulnerable to many of the same thorny issues that for-profit businesses face. In an environment that values relationships and status to some degree, it is no wonder that there’s a risk of nepotism and cronyism in associations and nonprofits. Let’s look at why this is a dangerous problem, how it happens, and what to do about it.

By Dawn Sparks

Summer is a great time to get to work on those “parking lot projects” that get squeezed out of your calendar by annual conference planning and membership renewal campaigns. It’s also an excellent time to reconnect with members without asking for anything but engagement in return.  

By Ashley Roy

As a marketing professional one of the key responsibilities of my job is to ensure my client has a strong brand that promotes the mission of the association and its members.  This past week an ASAE discussion thread about rebranding an association was shared with me, around some potential brand conversations.

By Kim B. Stoneking, CAE, CBC, Senior Associate, Springboard International, LLC

New York Times bestselling author Cy Wakeman’s book, “No Ego,” has grabbed the attention of the corporate world since its release. The book makes a compelling case for the epidemic of workplace drama and its costly impact on an organization, and serves as a tutorial for how leaders can cut the cost of these ego-driven events. I believe all of us would agree that the association world is by no means exempt from workplace drama. If you have living, breathing people working with you in the association and serving on the board of directors… drama can exist. (No joke, right?)

Katherine Mandusic Finley, Executive Director, Organization of American Historians
Rachel Daeger, Executive Director, Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior

Ever wonder why the ad for those Zappos shoes that you really wanted to buy now show up on every website you visit? Or why that book that you were going to order but left in the Amazon cart also shows up on the sidebar next to your email and other websites. All these ads are part of digital remarketing. What exactly is digital remarketing? Basically, it is a tool that allows you to put a tag on a webpage that a person visits and that tag follows the user’s computer IP address to other sites they visit and places an ad on those sites. This blog will not delve into the technicalities of digital remarketing but instead explore the advantages and disadvantages of using a digital remarketing tool, share some results from two associations that have used this tool to their advantage, and pose some questions to ask providers of digital remarketing tools.

By Callie Walker, MemberClicks

Are webinars a part of your organization’s offerings? If so, how successful would you say they currently are? Are registrations and attendance high?

By Alyssa Gibson

If you’re a small-staff or small-budget association, the idea of adding video to your content marketing plan might feel far-fetched. The cost of video equipment alone can be a deal-breaker. But it’s worth re-considering. There are easy, low-budget ways of incorporating video to engage members and prospective members that you can begin incorporating right away.

By Ashley Roy

We love to multitask. We talk on the phone while writing an email, or jump from task to task rapidly, fully believing that we are delivering our best work. “I’m great at multitasking”, is a phrase we love to say in both our professional and personal lives.

March 1, 2019
By Caroline Hoy, Content Marketing Specialist, Boardable

There is no doubt about it, this is a challenging time for corporate and board culture. Changing demographics mean that the two largest age groups in the workforce are the Baby Boomers and Millennials, who have different approaches to almost everything. The political climate of the past several years is increasingly tense. Changing racial dynamics in the country provide a wealth of opportunity and advantages, but also challenges. How does a board of directors maintain a productive and civil culture with so many complicating factors?

By Callie Walker, MemberClicks

Renewal season is in FULL FORCE. But even though you knew it was coming, that doesn’t exactly make it easier. How can you bump up the chances that your members will actually renew?

By Kim Howard, CAE

Technological advancements have radically change how we live our lives. With unprecedented advancements, we face continued rapid change in how we work and play. Organizations who look at outdated ideas and modes of learning are falling behind. The days where organizations can solely rely on a few large, lengthy (and often expensive) in-person training events as their professional development program are rapidly disappearing.  According to the Center for Association Leadership, associations would be best served by focusing on learning that is specific, competency-based, and interactive. Technology allows for a wide range of possibilities in these focus areas and can offer education paths that are tailored to the learners individual needs.