5 Ways To Increase Sponsor Value

Companies get approached all the time to invest in various sponsorships.  Budgets do not allow them to participate in every opportunity that crosses their desk, and they have to pick and choose who they decide to partner with.  

Sponsors are constantly on the search for events that will showcase them in the best light:  providing exclusive access to participants, in unique ways, and are looking for partners who truly understand that ROI needs to be received on both sides of the relationship.

What could you do to better engage your potential sponsors?  Here are a few suggestions:  

1. Engage your members:  And then, advise your sponsors.  Get to know your members, how they want to be communicated with by your sponsors, and then share the information in advance.  Your sponsors will be better prepared to remain relevant.  In turn, they will obtain the respect of your membership base, and become more effective in their communication practices.
2. Tell your sponsors about the unique marketing opportunity:  Whether your potential sponsors are looking to partner with you for B2B or B2C purposes, demonstrate that you know your membership base (and their business) – via research, or testimonials. Sponsors want the details - are they an influencer/decision-maker, how they want to be communicated with, and what their buying cycles look like.  Just offering visibility or industry recognition no longer justifies spend. 
3. Become a Partner:  Do not just ask for a cheque.  That is not a partnership.  Associations with successful partnerships provide access to their members.  Sponsors are able to directly communicate with them (which is why your research is key).  By becoming a partner with the companies you are looking to have sponsor/exhibit, you should focus on their success.  This can easily be done by offering value – help them track their ROI with tracking tools, reporting and member feedback.
4. Become your sponsor’s voice:  Your members will listen to you.  Whether you are sending an e-newsletter, or through social media, you are in the unique position to be leveraging your sponsor’s ability to solve problems – whether through a product offering, time-enhancing solution, or through research that they have done that will benefit your membership.  Associations should be offering to share content through their various channels.
5. Help them build relationships:  Being present is very important to sponsors.  And it goes well beyond the conference.  Add value to your marketing plan by offering to introduce the sponsor to your chapters, join a committee, or attend local events.  

Working to engage and develop personal, meaningful relationships is time consuming...what else are you doing to increase value?

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net 

#PlanHybrid Sponsorship & Marketing Refresh FREE Webinar July 30

Do you wonder each year how to make your event dollar stretch just a little further? For many events, sponsorship is the lifeblood that allows the event to happen.  But the sponsorship landscape is changing dramatically and it’s no longer sufficient to have the usual “metals level” (gold-silver-bronze) sponsorship program.  Learn from our experts how they created rock star sponsorship programs for their clients and how you can do the same for your organization.


At the end of the session, attendees will be able to:

• How to attract potential sponsors when there are 2 audiences.
• Understand how sponsorship can grow your event.
• Design a sponsorship program that appeals to the new realities of the marketplace
• Gain new sponsorship ideas.
• Learn how to better recognize sponsors in this digital era.

Interested in attending?  Register here.

Webinar Speakers:

Justin Gonzales, Marketing Communications Manager, DoubleDutch

Justin Gonzalez manages marketing communications for DoubleDutch, the leading provider of mobile event apps. At DoubleDutch Justin creates disruptive communications strategies that drive business results by leveraging the power of marketing technologies. Utilizing social media, advertising, content and automation tools, he is passionate about creating engaging digital experiences that connect consumers to brands in ways that build strong relationships and loyalty.

Doreen Ashton Wagner, Greenfield Services Inc.

Doreen is the Chief Strategist and Co-Founder of Greenfield Services Inc., an association management and business development firm dedicated to the needs of membership-based organizations and the meetings industry.

Located in Alexandria, ON – half-way between Ottawa and Montreal – the company’s clients include the Association of Power Producers of Ontario, the Canadian Society of Professional Event Planners, the Hotel Association of Canada, and the Co-Operative Housing Federation of Canada.  Greenfield helps meeting and event professionals with Event Marketing, Exhibit & Sponsor Sales, and Engagement Programs.

In addition, Doreen and her team produce unique research and events exclusively for association executives.  For three consecutive years their Pulse Report benchmarked the membership marketing and engagement practices of Canadian Associations.  In July the company will be hosting its second annual Engaging Associations Forum, a thought-leadership conference designed to elevate the education level and facilitate conversations between association peers.

Fully bilingual, Doreen graduated Cum Laude from the University of Ottawa with a Bachelor of Business Administration. She has been President of two Chapters of Meeting Professionals International, in Toronto and Ottawa.  In 2013 Doreen was inducted into the M&IT Hall of Fame as Industry Innovator.  Before creating Greenfield Services Inc. 17 years ago, she was Vice President of Marketing for The Sutton Place Grande Hotels Group, and held varied sales positions with Inter-Continental Hotels, Four Seasons, Park Plaza, and the Château Laurier Hotel.

                                               
Mahoganey Leigh Jones, CMP, DES

Mahoganey Jones is a Certified Meeting Professional and Digital Event Strategist with proven success in planning meetings and events that boost revenues and increase brand awareness. She founded Event Specialists in 2004 to help associations, government departments, and private companies to become strategic in the production of their meetings and events. From program development and accreditation to the logistics and execution, Mahoganey is able to efficiently manage all aspects of various size events. Through research and creativity, she successfully began producing hybrid events in 2012 to meet the demands of her clients. Mahoganey currently sits on the PCMA Canada East     Chapter's Education Committee and the Canadian Innovation Conference powered by PCMA's Planning Committee.
                   

#Engageassn is around the corner - register NOW!

For the second consecutive year, the Engaging Associations Forum will create an environment where association executives have the opportunity for a true dialogue on the issues that keeps them up at night, foster learning and the exchange of ideas for the next generation of association, the association of the future.

Why?  Because things need to change.

If you have not yet registered, take a look at the program outline.  It will be an event not to be missed!

Technology: How are you keeping up with the technological advancements that impact your association?  Have you joined the #mobilesocial revolution? Or do you find that you’re barely able to keep pace?  Join former association exec and self-described geek Jim Spellos as he reviews what’s new and way cool in technology – from websites to critical augmented reality tools.

Sponsorship: Association business models are shifting and some see membership dues as an obsolete practice.  Where does this leave sponsorship?  Beyond the traditional "metal levels" what do sponsors want before they open their wallets? Hear directly from sponsors such as Porter Airlines’ Lori Wagner, Travel Alberta’s Jenn Holly and Sponsorship Consultant Ted Wagstaff; ask questions and see how your sponsorship program measures up!

Ubers of Associations: In less than three years, Uber – the car-hailing start-up – went from 0 to 160,000+ drivers and a valuation of $41 billion. Regardless of whether we view it a threat or an opportunity, this company is a disruptor. So what are the Ubers of the association world? It’s a question that Dr. Susan Phillips of Carleton University has asked in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. Get ready for a lively discussion!

Meetings & Events: Associations view meetings and events as prime opportunities to engage members, sponsors and other stakeholders. How can an association build anticipation and grow their event attendance all while harnessing the power of face-to-face engagement once onsite in order to enhance and prolong the event experience year-round? Rachel Stephan of sensov / event marketing shares proven engagement techniques from her work with national meetings like CIM Convention and international congresses such as the World Congress of Biomaterials and World Congress of Food Science and Technology.

The Association of the Future: The world is changing so quickly, who can predict the future anymore?  Success in the future may be less about prediction and more about sharing and capitalizing on information now to be clear on what the future may hold. Mark Thompson of McKinley Solutions leads us through an innovative group exercise: edgecrafting, where the power of what we know now collectively can help us prepare individually for the future.

Join us July 23-24 at the Ottawa Marriott!

Why not raise your dues? Some strong - and weak - reasons to keep them frozen

It’s not at all uncommon for an ED or CEO of an association to tell me that they’re raising dues for the first time in a decade or so.

We all know that some products have been dropping in price, where there’s intense innovation in design or production (data storage; low-quality t-shirts). But for most goods and services, we expect them to increase somewhat, don’t we? Do you pay the same for a haircut or an accountant or a movie ticket as you did 10 years ago?

So why are associations so shy to raise dues regularly? They’re often concerned that this will seem like a massive change to their board and their membership. They are often right about the board, but not always about the membership – there’s not usually any kind of significant response at all.

There are indeed some good reasons to avoid raising dues – but there are also some weak ones, which are worth challenging if you hear them.

Six pretty good reasons to keep dues where they are:

1. The bottom has really fallen out of your profession or your industry. If the economics are very challenged, e.g. if members are losing their jobs or going out of business, perhaps this is not the time for an increase in dues. (That said, it may be that this signals a structural change in your industry which may lead the way to a higher-dues association with fewer members, made up of the industry survivors – or the need to connect with other elements of the industry to sustain the organization.)
2. You’re really struggling to prove any sort of significant value for members. Maybe significant parts of your membership value proposition have disappeared (e.g. a member benefit that used to be unique to you is now available from a competitor), or you have had some kind of noticeable and significant drop off in service levels. This is clearly a crisis that has all sorts of ramifications, but perhaps this is the time to focus on the fix, rather than a dues increase that you won’t be seen as having earned quite yet.
3. There’s cheaper competition. This should lead the association to look at its cost structure and fundamental assumptions about operations, because if there are alternatives that are structurally able to offer the same services more cheaply, in the medium to long term that spells doom. 
4. Your costs have gone down. If there’s been some kind of structural, permanent change to bring down the costs of your provision of services, maybe it makes sense to pass some of the benefits to the members in the form of frozen (or maybe even reduced?) dues. 
5. Dues were set very high and you need to spend a few years normalizing. The question I would ask here is, how do you know they’re really high? By what benchmark?  
6. You’ve got a revolt on your hands. If the organization is in some kind of existential political crisis that goes way beyond business as usual, this is probably not the time to focus on dues. 

4 reasons that aren’t so strong:

1. Sheer inertia. I would suggest evaluating dues every year. They should be a part of your budgeting process, and absolutely part of strategic planning. Inflation alone means prices of your goods and services (rent, salaries, insurance, contracts, etc.) are going to be up around 2% per year - over a decade that means your revenue and your costs are mismatched by over 20%. And if inflation goes up (despite a long period of low inflation, some of us remember different times), this drive gets more intense. 
2. You think you provide good value to members, but you aren’t telling that story well, so you are hesitant to ask for higher dues. The solution to that is to tell the story – communicate the value provided to members, in members’ terms. And then, look at raising your dues! 
3. The Board isn’t functional enough to have that conversation rationally. Or the board and staff relationships are acrimonious and there isn’t the time or opportunity to initiate these discussions. These are obviously significant and broad problems. Perhaps the need to do increasingly urgent things like raise dues will provide some of the impetus to actually address those underlying organizational dysfunctions. 
4. Non-dues revenue is often spoken of as a panacea for many things that ail associations, including the hesitance to raise dues. There is an expectation that non-dues revenue could make raising dues unnecessary. Now, this may be a good point. Some organizations can keep dues low through non-dues revenue, and that may be a sensible trade-off to make. But in many other organizations, increasing or even sustaining non-dues revenues isn’t all that practical. Don’t avoid raising dues before you’ve got the non-dues revenue actually flowing in.

Not raising rates handicaps your ability to throw money at any of your problems. Good organizations can wind up starved for the funds they need to do what they need to do. Raising rates is a completely viable option if you need to raise funds for the strategic options you want to pursue.

You do have to demonstrate value if you want to raise rates – and that’s the best way to sustain your organization anyhow. But if you do in fact deliver that value, don’t be shy to get paid for it.

Meredith Low provided this guest post.  She is a management consultant, focusing on helping organizations and companies understand how, when and where to grow in the context of fast-changing environments.  Her work with associations includes leading strategic and tactical planning, performing assessments to position conferences and meetings for growth and durability, and assessing the needs of members and other stakeholders.

Image courtesy of renjith krishnan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Beyond Logo Soup: Time to Reimagine Trade Shows and Sponsorships

For a decade or more, meeting and trade show organizers have been looking for ways to get beyond logo soup.

You’ve seen it before, possibly even at your own event: programs and signage with branding from two or three dozen sponsors or lead exhibitors, all competing for the very limited time, attention, and interest participants can devote to what amounts to highly-paid advertising.

Which means your definition of short-term financial success almost guarantees your sponsors that their messages and branding will be lost in the crowd. Not exactly the way to express your commitment to a long-term partnership, or to spur their interest in a multi-year deal.

Jeff Hurt, Executive Vice President, Education and Engagement at Velvet Chainsaw Consulting, described the problem in a recent blog post.

“Logos hanging from the ceiling at the trade show.  Ads covering windows, elevator doors, and escalator ramps. Symbols, signs, and emblems stuck to the floor, carpet, and wrapping columns. Logos on lanyards, room keys, and conference bags."

“All of these are the traditional ways conferences approach sponsorship,” he wrote. “And the majority of them have little value or ROI. Most of them are the wrong way to approach conference sponsorship today.”
In a special presentation during the Engaging Associations Summit in July, Hurt will discuss strategies for pushing beyond logo soup. In his post, he suggests that “smart, savvy sponsors” are most interested in:

• Making participant engagement easier
• Creating a better experience onsite
• Delivering lasting value for participants.

“It’s not just about logo placement anymore,” he writes. “In the end, successful conference sponsorship developers are working with potential sponsors to create customized packages that improve the attendee experience, add something that the attendee values, and results in real ROI for the sponsor.”

Click here for more on the Engaging Associations Summit, July 24-25, 2014 in Ottawa.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Want Association Revenue Growth in 2014?

This post was provided by Dan Varroney, President & CEO at Washington, D.C. area based Potomac Core Consulting, a leading Association revenue growth management firm specializing in Growth Strategy, Executive Coaching & Sales Training, and Competitive Strategy. 

Want Association Revenue Growth in 2014?  Association CEO’s and the senior management teams are looking ahead. Budget discussions are underway and board leadership wants to see an Association revenue growth budget. Corporate profitability is rebounding and the expectation is that Associations too will achieve the same level of robust growth. What can Associations do to improve their competitive edge and grow in 2014?

Stiffening Competition

Renewals remain challenging and while organizations are seeing increases in new member growth they wonder how long it continues. It’s not just the economy anymore, Association Executives for the most part are experiencing increased competition. For profit companies continue to enter markets once owned exclusively by Associations. In addition, new solutions including Not for Profit organizations, coalitions and consulting companies are offering competing products and services.

Sharpen Your Competitive Edge

Thanks to new technologies, data is more accessible than ever before. Associations who capture, interpret and apply data driven strategies can dramatically improve their competitive positioning. In a real time world data provides Associations with speed to market.

These 3 Steps Work

• Competitive Analysis. Hard knuckle comparison to other Associations and solutions.   What are the gaps and opportunities?
• Impact Survey. Engage your members. For example, products, services and advocacy.   Are they impactful? What can your Association do to best connect to member business needs and objectives?
• Business model. Utilize the competitive analysis and the impact survey data to adjust shape a business model that accelerates your Association’s impact.

Buy In

Share the data with your executive committee; seek their input on accelerating your Association’s impact. Engage your senior management team. Work with them to build a vision in that closely reflects the data and the executive committee’s perspectives. They will see the staff efforts as prudent and timely.

Want Association Revenue Growth in 2014?

A number of Associations are experiencing membership growth and increased participation. Recognizing heightened competition they utilized data driven strategies to improve their competitive position. In some instances Associations doubled revenue. How? Better differentiated value and accelerated member participation.

The path to Association revenue growth next year and beyond is paved with a data driven competitive edge.


What strategies did your Association employ to engage members and grow revenue?

Tourism Richmond (BC) Presents 2013 Pulse Report Highlight Session

Greenfield Services is thrilled to announce a very special collaboration with Tourism Richmond, BC.

On November 14th, Greenfield's Chief Strategist, Doreen Ashton Wagner, and Director of Client Solutions, Meagan Rockett, will be co-presenting a session on the six essential strategies that successful associations implement to maximize stakeholder engagement and revenues from meetings and conferences.

This session is based upon the findings of Greenfield's 2013 Pulse Report, which surveyed 173 Canadian Associations to assess their membership marketing and engagement practices.

Taking place over lunch at Sassafraz in Toronto's Yorkville district, we look forward to sharing research results and imparting best practices to help association executives improve their engagement levels with meeting attendees, exhibitors and sponsors. And improving their revenue in the process.  We thank Tourism Richmond for sponsoring this thought-leadership session.

Attendance is by invitation only.  If you are interested in attending, please click here to indicate your availability, and we will be in touch with you.  For questions on the event or The Pulse Report, please email Meagan Rockett.

About Tourism Richmond

Richmond, BC is the perfect place to host your next meeting or event with 24 brand-name hotels and offers diverse, multi-functional, multi-purpose meeting and event space. This 2010 Olympic Venue City is home to Vancouver International Airport (YVR), and the Canada Line rapid transit line

Want to learn more about Richmond, BC, Canada as a meeting location? Click to watch a video on Vimeo of their meeting facility experience.

For more information about Richmond, please contact Deidre DeVico, National Sales Manager, at 604-821-5480.

Effective Associations: Making Your Conference a Powerhouse

Imagine an association that has built its conference or conference series into an annual powerhouse. 

Members count on strong educational programs and intensive professional networking to keep them up to date on the latest trends and topics. Employers willingly pay registration fees and travel costs because they see the events as an essential investment, not an optional cost. Exhibitors and sponsors step up year after year because they understand the benefit of supporting such a dynamic community. Everyone gains, so the conference is largely insulated from the ups and downs of a shaky economy.

We know several associations and conferences that fit the description, and they’re a glorious sight (often meeting at glorious sites) to behold. 

But for many other organizations, the tough question is how to get from here to there.

Getting Participants to the Table

Conferences work best when three key ingredients - audience, content, and funding - come together in a complete, integrated package. But the audience has to be the first step. If you can get participants to the table and keep them there, you have a far better chance of putting all the other elements in place.

The most effective associations treat audience promotion as a permanent campaign. Gone are the days - if there ever was a day - when organizations could promote their conferences for two or three months, then bask in the glow of a well-attended event. 

Today’s participants plan their calendars and budgets far in advance, and many of them may want to attend virtually rather than going onsite. So the two to four weeks after an annual conference are not too soon to send out a Save the Date announcement for next year: Ideally, you should have announced next year’s dates and location while this year’s participants were onsite.

Giving Participants What Matters Most

Conferences are all about conversations and relationships, but they boil down to a basic transaction: Participants commit their time, money, and days away from home when they get what they need in return.

But how will you know what your participants need and want if you don’t ask?

We’ve talked about the value of regular membership surveys, but it’s especially important to probe the strengths and weaknesses of your conference. Meeting organizers are gradually moving beyond generic “smile sheets” that ask deep, probing questions about whether the room was cold enough or the coffee hot enough, but some associations are still learning how to gather the right information to keep on improving and delivering outstanding results.

The Investment to Match the Return

Regular contact - before, during, and after a conference - is also the gateway to strong, long-lasting relationships with exhibitors and sponsors. If you want funders to treat your organization as a strategic partner, you have to demonstrate that you appreciate them as a member of your community—not just as a source of cash. That means nurturing the partnership all year round, so that both parties get the breakthrough value they need and want.

Building the Powerhouse

It takes all three of the key ingredients to build a conference powerhouse. But the most effective associations are living proof that it can be done. By bringing the right tone to all your relationships, you can turn your conference or conference series into a huge source of value for your members, sponsors, and exhibitors.

Smart and Steady Wins the Race

“If we pull this off, we’ll eat like kings.”

It’s the tagline from a Far Side cartoon by Gary Larson, going back to the mid-1980s. The artwork showed two spiders that had spun a web across the bottom of a playground slide. I’m sure I remember a child at the top of the slide, that the child was far too big to be caught in the web…and that the spiders were about to learn a harsh lesson about solving a problem by counting on a silver bullet.

Unfortunately, it’s a message that some association executives are still having trouble receiving.

In the fourth of her five-part series on associations in peril, Association Subculture blogger Shelly Alcorn captures the moment when an organization slides into crisis mode. “Ah, if we could just find that one endorsed program, that one member benefit, that one social media solution, then all of our problems would be over,” she writes. When times get very tough, “thinking centres on a dramatic and desperate search for the key that will unlock the one door that holds all the answers…

“The trouble is—there is no such thing.”

This story is all too familiar because it’s happening right across Canada. Associations are losing government support they may have depended on for years or decades, and even if they had advance warning, they may not have been able to line up new funding sources. Member needs and expectations are shifting, community demographics are changing, communication and outreach tools are transforming…and with core funding in doubt, it feels impossible to keep up.

But pinning everything on a silver bullet will only make the problem worse. Shelly Alcorn warns that “a single-minded, laser focus on ginning up one magical solution can often cause staff and volunteers to neglect everything else, allowing the entire enterprise to deteriorate that much faster.” And if that magical solution evaporates, an organization with no alternatives might have to close its doors.

The smart and steady alternative (since nothing these days is slow and steady) is to build a more nimble, resilient organization by:

• Understanding what your members need and want, and how they expect their association to deliver it
• Building a solid foundation of reliable revenue—whether it consists mainly of membership dues, certification fees, or some other predictable income source—that will stay with you in good times and bad
• Adding secondary revenue streams by demonstrating the enduring strength of your primary programming.

The sad irony for associations at risk is that a resilience strategy is also the best way to capture the silver bullets—precisely because the organization’s survival no longer depends on them.

I've talked to my share of executives who face declining membership and lost revenue, and have a year or two to turn their associations around before funds run out. Some of them are looking for major sponsorship to fill the gap—but from the sponsors’ point of view, the risk may outweigh the reward. If the organization looks shaky, it’s hard to see why a donor or patron would agree to a major investment.

Which really means there are no short cuts. The associations that survive and thrive will be the ones that understand their communities and deliver the value their members need—steadily, reliably, relentlessly. And those spiders on the playground slide? They may be in for a cold, hungry winter.

3 Secrets of Associations That Generate Substantial Revenue from Their Private Online Member Community

This post is by Joshua Paul, Director of Strategy for Socious, a leading provider of online community software for mid-sized and large associations. He blogs at the Online Community Blog (blog.socious.com).

The best kept secret in the non-dues revenue world is the potential for online revenue generation. Typically, association executives only think of online advertising when it comes to using their web properties to generate revenue. To most membership organizations, advertising looks like a “river of nickels” when compared to revenue from events, dues, and educational program. This paradigm sends online revenue programs to the backburner of organizations that have limited resources to pursue non-dues revenue.

It is time to change all of that. The truth is that membership organizations that make their online community strategy central to their organization’s membership management operations are already seeing revenue streams that are significantly impacting their financials.

I have previously written about how an online member community’s vendor program can be structure to maximize revenue. The basic idea is that your online community software features combined with the built-in partner management tools enable your organization to offer sponsorship packages that provide much more value to vendors and your membership than anything they have seen before. Members will get more value from their membership and your sponsors will pay more to be closer to their target audience.
Here are three under-the-radar tips for how to create measurable non-dues revenue from your private online member community and its built-in vendor programs:

Think Beyond Advertising
Display advertising has always been, and will always be, part of an association’s non-dues revenue mix. However, in the past 10 years the options that associations have available to them have grown significantly.

Here are some of the other revenue options built-into online community platforms for associations to offer their partners:
• Dedicated Blogs
• Guest Posts on Main Blogs
• Controlled access to discussion forums and listservs
• Dedicated vendor discussions
• Dedicated email sends
• Email newsletter or other message sponsorship
• Listserv email sponsorships
• Market research surveys
• Online community and event mobile app advertising

Along with providing more value to your members and partners, thinking beyond website advertising also give you flexibility in attracting a wider array of sponsors through various combinations of the opportunities above.

Win/Win Sponsorships
Members don’t care about or want to see advertising. Your sponsors, like many businesses, see very little return on their investment from display advertising on the web.

What if there was a way to make you private social network, and consequently membership in organization, more valuable to your members, while at the same time, making a sponsorship result in more awareness and sales for your partner vendors. This is the mindset and strategy of associations that generate hefty amounts of non-dues revenue from their online vendors program.

When you set up your online community in a way where vendors can engagement members by helping them, everybody wins. Your members get more support, your sponsors get more meaningful access to serve your membership, and your association can charge more for this type of sponsorship value.

Bundle Into Tiers or Provide a Custom Menu
All sponsors don’t come to you with the same strategy, budget, and interest in getting in front of your member community. By having so many ways to provide value to your sponsors, your association has a lot of flexibility to sell more sponsorships at a higher price.

Your partnership team can choose to either publish standard vendor program packages – think platinum, gold, silver, etc. Or they can consult with each vendor to come up with a custom package for a specific vendor that touches on all of the main areas that would cause them to pay a premium for access to your membership. I have seen both approaches done successfully.

You can also combine your online community vendor program with event sponsorships. For instance, with the platinum sponsorship of your annual conference, your partners can get a 3 month pass to participate in your online vendor program. This gives you good reason to raise your sponsorship prices and the real value to explain that decisions to your partners.

Non-Dues Revenue Take Away
Revenue from private online member communities is real. Socious has membership organization customers that deliver hundreds of thousands of dollars in non-dues revenue to their organizations using their online vendor program.

Associations have a responsibility to take online revenue programs seriously. If you implement the right online community platform and the strategy, you can hit the trifecta – significant benefits to your members, value to your sponsors, and revenue to your organization.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Five Ways for Small Associations to Reach Critical Mass

The last few years have been challenging for most non-profit organizations. But in many ways, the smallest associations have had the toughest road.

These are the organizations that lack the staff and resources to mount the consistent, relentless membership programs that will bring them the next wave of resources to build and maintain critical mass. It’s a Catch-22 that is familiar to too many of the associations that participated in Greenfield Services’ 2012 Pulse Report.
A large proportion of survey participants were scrambling to cope with serious limitations in financial and human resources.

• More than two in five respondents (42.2%) identified limited funding as one of their top three concerns, and one-third (32%) listed limited staffing.
• Associations with annual budgets under $1.0 million accounted for 56.5% of survey respondents, but 72.5% of the group that listed limited funding as a top concern.  
• Associations with five or fewer staff constituted 47.6% of the survey group, but 59.7% of the respondents with funding concerns.
• Nearly half of survey respondents (47.1%) reported that their organizations had no membership marketing plans in place.

It’s a well-worn platitude that you have to spend money to make money—and the platitude is cold comfort when money is limited. But now the good news: targeted membership strategies that build communities and relationships can be a good deal more affordable than an all-out advertising blitz. And by generating fierce loyalty among new recruits and established members alike, they can boost retention rates and build a foundation for a more stable organization.

Here are five tips to get started:

1. Identify, understand, and micro-target the specific audiences that have the most to gain by joining your association. You might need a different set of facts and arguments to catch each group’s attention, sign them up, and keep them engaged.
2. Get your audience’s permission to communicate. The law may require it, but even if it doesn’t, why would you waste resources and generate ill will by sending repeat messages to people who don’t want to hear from you?
3. Keep the messages flowing, before and after they sign up. Marketing theory says it takes eight to 10 touchpoints to reach a target audience with a message that requires a decision and action, but the 2012 Pulse Report found that only 8.5% of associations followed up seven to 10 times as members’ renewal deadlines approached.
4. Vary the format and sourcing of your membership messages. A single touchpoint might be an email, a phone call, a text message, a direct mail letter or post card, a survey, a contest, a magazine ad, or social media messages, and you can alternate the contact members receive from staff, board members, volunteers, or other opinion leaders.
5. Maximize your use of social media to build communities, establish your organization as a thought leader, and keep tabs on the issues that are most important to different audience segments.

These community-based strategies take more thought and planning than a single, one-size-fits-all marketing campaign. But they can be surprisingly affordable—and, more important in the long run, they work. If you haven’t been building critical mass with the same old approach to membership development and retention, maybe it’s time to shift gears.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Six Ways to Guarantee Your Event Sponsorship Program Fails

In the last few months I have received solicitation emails and calls from various organizations wanting our company sponsor their conference. In each case their approach was such a turn off that it prompted me to write this post.

Here are six surefire ways that will ensure your sponsorship solicitation gets you nowhere:

1.  Know nothing about my business:

In two of the sponsoring offerings I received, it was very clear that the person soliciting my dollars had never even looked into what Greenfield Services does, and what kinds of audiences we might want exposure with.

[For the record, our focus includes the supply side of the meetings industry -- hotels, CVB's, and convention centers, and professional or trade associations].

Why would I want to fork over $10,000 to sponsor an opening reception for group of business people that doesn't even have a need for our services?  The proposal was so preposterous that a diminished my view of the Association, and of the executive initiating the communication. But you could improve your chances of attracting my attention if you build a case for your events, and your audience, and how it relates to my business and my goals.

2.  Send an email into the ether and don't follow up:

Assuming I even read your email (and that in itself is a gamble), if you don't follow up with me there is a near-zero chance I will pick up the phone or email you saying, "I'm in!"  Make that a 100% chance that I will not respond if I've never heard of your organization before, never attended one of your events or seen any connection between your audience and mine.

The remedy is simple: follow-up to make sure I received the information, and engage me in a conversation about what my business goals are, so we can see if there is a fit.

3.  Send a generic email or letter:

With all the tools available today that allow you to personalize communication, it is inexcusable to send a "dear marketer" email or letter. If it isn't accurately personalized I'll press “delete”.

Incidentally, if you are going to personalize, make sure your software addresses me properly.  A “Dear Doreen Ashton Wagner” opening won’t do.  You must know whether you should say “Dear Doreen” or a “Dear Ms. Ashton Wagner”.

4.  Contact me just once or give up easily:

Let's say your event draws my target audience and I'm somewhat interested, unless you court business I'm not likely to buy. It's not because I have a big ego, it’s that I get busy. Too many things/people are vying for my attention, and yes, I get sidetracked.

Most executives do. It's a documented trends that new business-to-business sales relationships require the seller (in this case the event sponsorship marketer) to reach out anywhere from 7 to 11 times for the prospect respond. Yet most sales reps give up by the third attempt.

5.  Don't build your case:

If you are just asking me to sponsor, and you don't articulate your event attendees’ purchasing power, or show me who else is sponsoring, I will not be interested.

Show me you are worth my hard earned cash. That means you need to know your attendees inside and out, including age, gender, position, purchasing power, decision-making process, etc. and show me testimonials of other sponsors and what they got out of your event.

6.  Contact me just a few months or weeks before the event:

This shows me your sponsorship program is just a cash grab. My budget is set a year in advance and while I try to plan for bit of extra money for unexpected opportunities, I rarely can divert big bucks unless I know it's coming. This means letting me know well in advance about your opportunity so I can make an educated decision.

For many organizations, event sponsorship revenues can make the difference between an "oh-hum" conference and a GREAT conference.

Selling sponsorship for your event requires advanced planning in a well thought out process. Ignore the basics and your efforts will be in vain.  Conversely, follow these best practices to attract and secure the highest quality relationships possible.

Real Friends and Virtual Strangers: Building a Testimonial Strategy

We’ve been talking about testimonials as a crucial piece of the promotional puzzle that that can help your message stand out in a crowded field. Whether you’re planning a membership renewal drive or looking for new conference audiences, your campaign will be stronger with a great group of opinion leaders.

A few months ago, our hospitality blog encouraged clients to take a look at Testimonial Director, a company that offers a simple, templated process for collecting testimonials and making sure they contain the right information. Testimonial Director has come up with a seven-step “return on trust” strategy that rests on a crucial piece of data from the Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey: In Nielsen’s words, consumers (which means your members, sponsors, exhibitors, and participants) “trust real friends and virtual strangers the most.”

The 2009 survey of more than 25,000 Internet consumers in 50 countries found that 90% pay attention to recommendations from people they know, while 70% rely on consumer opinions posted online. Compare those figures with confidence levels of 37% for online video ads, 33% for online banners, and 24% for text ads on mobile phones.

Testimonial Director’s seven strategies [sign-up required] map out a coherent path to getting word of mouth working in your favour:

1. Make testimonials pervasive by featuring them throughout your website, not on a single page. Just make sure the content on each page relates to the actual testimonial.
2. Deliver the message in multiple ways, using a variety of presentation types to appeal to the widest range of tastes and interests among your website visitors.
3. Don’t overlook the power of written testimonials in the rush to add video to your site. Use both formats to maximum effect.
4. Make your video productions affordable. Testimonial Director comes down in favour of in-house production to get “good quality results for the web with relatively inexpensive equipment.”
5. Use social media to build social proof. “The real power behind social media is how it can help transform you from being a complete stranger into a known quantity, even among groups of people you’ve not even met yet.”
6. Reach out and ask. Asking members, participants, exhibitors, and sponsors for testimonials should be a standard step in your communications and outreach cycle.
7. Take stock. Then take action. Testimonial Director offers an implementation worksheet to help you develop and execute a coherent strategy.

In Nielsen’s terms, do you know who your “real friends” are? By finding out and inviting them to tell their stories, you can kick-start a cycle that will bring you to the next tier of new and repeat revenue—and, from there, to your next group of new best friends.

The Power of Testimonials: Who Are You Going to Believe?

It’s 5:40 PM. You’re 75 minutes into an urgent search request. Your director just followed up for the second time, reminding you again that she needs the information for an early meeting tomorrow morning. The request is in an area you know fairly well, but all you can find is online sales brochures.

You’re just about to cancel your evening plans when, suddenly, it appears: A promotional piece that combines product information with clear, succinct, specific testimonials. They come from several satisfied customers, and the customers are identified by name and organization. They tell a compelling story. Best of all, one of the testimonials comes from an association executive you saw (and liked) on a conference panel last month.

Who are you going to believe? Which potential vendor or information source earned your attention, your respect and, most likely, your business?

Testimonials are among the most powerful forms of promotional content, powerful enough that it’s astonishing to see associations that don’t use them, frequently and effectively. Testimonials work because they have the power of “social proof”: rather than relying on what you say about your own organization or service, a testimonial tells the story from the recipient’s point of view. That shift in perspective is often what it takes to cut through the clutter of competing messages—including your own, if it isn’t interspersed with independent voices.

Working through trusted intermediaries to deliver an effective message isn’t a new idea. Researchers first came up with the two-step flow theory of communication in a study of the 1944 federal election in the United States when they found that “opinion leaders,” not media messages, were most likely to influence voting behaviour.

What is new is the information overload—the overload on top of overload—that we all experience, at work and at home, every waking minute of the day. In 2008, one television blog reported that the average U.S. consumer is exposed to 5,000 brand messages per day. Last year, an Internet application provider proudly (but perversely?) reported that it had distributed a billion text messages in a single day. No wonder we all think we need to scramble for visibility and audience share!

A short testimonial will help you catch a reader’s eye, whether they see it on your website or blog or in a promotional email. If the message is credible, it might hold their attention long enough to set you apart from the competition (even if the competition is between working with your association or doing nothing at all).

That means a testimonial program could give you an edge that makes all the difference for your next membership, conference, or trade show promotion.


Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

High, Wide, and Deep: Creating a Sponsorship Success Story

In a previous blog, we looked at three definitions of data cleansing and talked about why your marketing program should include them all.

The same rules apply when you reach out to sponsors, current and potential. To build relationships that bring you significant investments from committed partners, you need the right information. That means doing the right kind of research.

If you think of sponsorship development as a sales process, a couple of things become clear. You need an accurate, up-to-date contact list, and you want to make sure everyone on that list feels appreciated. But going back to the three definitions of data cleansing, you also want to make sure the right contacts are on the list. Here’s what you can do to fully align your organization with every sponsor and prospect:

• Go High: You may have identified your lead contact for a specific sponsorship opportunity, but what will you do if they suddenly change jobs? Entrench yourself in the company by developing a relationship with that person’s colleagues or supervisor.

• Go Wide: If you’ve built a relationship with one department in the company, chances are there are conversations you could be having with other departments. Your main contact might help you figure out who else to approach.

• Go Deep: If your contact is a director or a vice-president, they probably don’t handle the administrative side of the sponsorship, and they may not be onsite at your conference or trade show. The partnership will work best, for your organization and theirs, if you can build relationships with everyone involved.

It takes time and effort to build and maintain a healthy sponsor relationship. But as that relationship grows, you and the sponsor will both get more out of it…which makes it that much more likely to continue year after year. Count that benefit against the effort of replacing a sponsor who steps away, then start investing time in your most promising sponsorship success stories.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Canadian Pharmacists Association Executives Visit Greenfield Services Inc.

On Thursday, August 16^th, the Greenfield Team welcomed Susan Clarke & Patrick Tessier of the Canadian Pharmacists Association. 

This meeting was to further solidify the member retention and renewal program that Greenfield will be executing for CPhA. 

Greenfield Member Care Specialists have been tasked with contacting CPhA members whose membership is up for renewal.  The proactive outreach ensures that members are aware of new products and services, and facilitates the membership payment process.  They work towards reaching members at a time where they can have a conversation, and the renewal process is taken care of in one conversation, versus the member having to do research on their own time.

We look forward to the continued success of the partnership, and welcoming the CPhA team back to visit again soon!

What is Data Cleansing?

Data cleansing is becoming a household term for association managers, online marketers, and database managers. But it can mean different things, depending on who you talk to or which website you visit.

• Data cleansing software can help you standardize and correct your mailing list, to make sure your message reaches your target list.

• De-duplicating (or “de-duping”) software flags possible matches in your database or spreadsheet, based on criteria that you set, to help you combine two or more lists and eliminate duplicate records (“merge and purge”).

• Data cleansing is also about knowing who within an organization should be in your database, and whether they’re the direct sales contact, the ultimate decision-maker, or a supporting contact.

These three definitions support and complete each other. By standardizing and correcting your data and eliminating duplicates, data cleansing software makes you more effective and saves you money.  But how much more impact could you have if you knew your list contained precisely the right contacts for every organization?

In a previous blog, I wrote about the mailings I receive from a company that was right to treat me as a business prospect…until things changed. Their programs and services focus on project management, and for a long time, that was my role at Greenfield. But times change, and I’ve moved on. If they had reached out to cleanse their list, the company would have learned that someone else had been in that role for more than a year—and that she should be on their list.

Their subject matter is valuable and relevant. My replacement would probably attend the occasional program, course, or seminar. But I hate to admit it—there are only 28 hours in every day, eight days in every week (I know…it’s a calendar thing), so I discard the mailings when I receive them, rather than passing them on. Data cleansing software won’t catch the problem, because the mailing address is correct. But the information isn’t reaching the person who needs to see it.

If you want to stretch your marketing dollars, maximize the impact of your next mailing, and eliminate the cost of duplicate distribution, you should make direct outreach a regular part of your data cleansing program. With business information stale-dating at a rate of at least 30% per year, it’s a lot harder to boost conference attendance, raise exhibit or sponsor revenue, or recruit new members with lists that aren’t quite all they can be.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Dodging Ground Zero: Are You Visible Enough with Your Sponsors?

The moment will come eventually, whether you’re ready or not: You reach out to one of your major sponsors, only to find out that your usual contact has left the organization.

Finding their replacement may be as simple as asking who’s taken their place. Engaging the new contact might also be easy, if you’re the only association they deal with for a particular purpose. But if you’re not their only sponsorship option, or if the new contact doesn’t see the value you bring to the table, the relationship has to restart from ground zero, and that part of your non-dues revenue may be in jeopardy.

Could you have avoided the problem? Probably. With many organizations facing high staff turnover, you’re in danger if your relationship with a company depends on a single contact. Without stepping on toes, there are ways to stretch your relationship within the organization and entrench yourself as an irreplaceable partner.

• Step One: Ask your current contact. They may not be the only person involved in deciding on sponsorship investments.

• Step Two: Resilience is a two-way street. You may not stay in your current job forever, so invite your contact to meet your executive director, your marketing and communications manager, or some other key contact, in person or via conference call.

• Step Three: Make it an occasion. Suggest a larger group (from your organization as well as theirs) to review the value you both get out of the partnership and explore any new opportunities on the horizon.

If you aren’t sure your contact will share the information you need, do your homework. Most associations list their staff teams online, and LinkedIn is the ultimate network—you can see what a company says about itself, find out who works there, and usually view your contact’s online connections. That way, you’ll be prepared for a bit of name-dropping (“Should I include Ms. Smith in the communication, as well?”), in case you need it. Even if your research turns up the wrong name, your contact will be more likely to give you the right information.

Everyone needs internal champions—in that sense, you represent your association’s value to its sponsors, just as your corporate contacts are the front-line face of your non-dues revenue. You need each other to succeed. And your organization’s funding is at higher risk if you don't know whom to call when—not if—your main contact eventually leaves the company.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Stakeholder Engagement: Changing Your Sponsorship Affinity Program Offerings

Associations today offer current and potential sponsors the opportunity to showcase themselves to a niche market of contacts.  These members (or, potential buyers in your sponsor’s view) are highly targeted and qualified contacts – sponsors can demonstrate products, offer special packages, and be “front and center” by communicating with them in the manner that they choose in an environment that they are comfortable in.

Associations should consider this an advantage, however; more often than not sponsor packages are put together in a “boxed lunch” fashion, and consideration for the sponsor and what they are looking to get out of this opportunity (their ROI) is not taken into account.

With budget cutbacks everywhere and many more organizations competing for the same amount of sponsor dollars, an association offering customized solutions would really stand out from the crowd.  Those within the marketing department of their association will have to be creative going forward in putting together a strategic plan for retaining and engaging new sponsors.

What steps can your organization take to attract and retain relevant sponsors for your members?

Assess the Profession:  As an organization that is considered an industry expert, review the profession and the needs of those in the profession - determine which companies and what product(s) would make the lives of your member base more efficient daily.

Get feedback:  What is it that your members need (or, are looking for that would make their lives easier)?  Ask them.  Prepare a quick membership survey, asking them for feedback on current sponsors (and their product offerings) to determine if what you currently have is the best match.  Then ask them what would make their lives (professional or personal) easier and find like-minded organizations to come on as sponsors.


Review at your current sponsors/affinity partners:  Once your feedback is compiled and has been assessed, have a look at your current sponsors – are they still a fit?

Ask your sponsors what they need:  Is there anything that your association could be doing to showcase your sponsors better to your members?  Determine the reason(s) they are partnering with you, and find out how this could be enhanced.  Come up with the solution that makes sense for them.


Seek out the right partners:  Determine who would be the best fit for your association and your members.  Source out a list and create a stakeholder engagement program to draw attention to your organization, and provide them with material that backs up this claim.  Keep nurturing them, as they may not sign up right away, but keeping your organization in the spotlight could make the difference in their decision to partner with you in the future.

Have a success story to share?  Tell us why your sponsors partner with you, and what you do to keep them engaged with your membership and your association!

Have You Decided to Re-Visit and Re-Vitalize Your Sponsorship Offers?

“We need to stay on top of the needs of our members and our sponsors.”

“Lately, we have been competing with many more organizations for sponsorship dollars.”

Sound familiar?

When creating and providing marketing material to assist in the engagement and nurturing process, consider the following:

Tangible vs. Intangible:

Companies have several opportunities annually to advertise (in print and online), appear at industry events, and other exposure opportunities. In many cases, there are more opportunities than there is money to spend.  In order to stand out from your competitors, distinguish yourself by:

• When presenting a company with a sponsorship opportunity, talk about your members – more than just the statistics of your member base.  Discuss the amount of member activity and the level of their engagement, and how that can impact your sponsor’s business.
• Offer them to test the waters:  invite them to an upcoming event so that they can see the benefits for themselves.

Devise and Showcase a Support Program:

You want your sponsors to get as much as they can out of the dollars they spend with your association.  To help them through the process, a simple support program can be created:

• Find ways to grow your sponsors’ buy-in to your organization (other than events, advertising and social media opportunities).  This can be done by conducting an intake interview of sorts.  By finding out what their strategic goals are, how involved they want to be, and other specialties that they have to offer can significantly increase the trust between the sponsor and the association.  You can demonstrate that you have their interests in mind.

Get Creative:

And get them as involved as possible:

• Did you want to start a research project (or program)?  Instead of just asking the sponsor to pay for it, ask them to also provide additional support.  One easy way is to request that they become part of the committee(s) involved. It will not only show your membership base that they are committed to the specific cause, it provides them with yet another opportunity to be present and face-to-face with your members, providing added value at the same time.
• Make sure your offerings are customizable:  How does the company conduct business?  How many staff/sales people do they have?  What is their sales process?  How does your association fit in with their strategic goals?  Prepare unique cover material (letters, emails, etc) that will showcase where and how you fit into their process.

If you can demonstrate additional value, corporations should be more willing to spend the time and the money to bring your organization to the next level.  What else are you doing to increase your corporate buy-in?