Canada Post Changes Could Affect Association and Event Mailings

Canada Post will be making some very important changes effective January 2012.  Association and meetings industry professionals should pay attention to these as they could affect the deliverability of membership renewal and event promotion material.

New guidelines were introduced regarding standardized mailing addresses.  This change was to come into effect January 2011, but due to overwhelming response from businesses, changes were postponed until January 2012, to give businesses more time to prepare.

They will be looking for more exact mailing information going forward; otherwise, mail will be returned.  Here are a few examples of what will no longer be an acceptable mailing address:

1234 Main Street, 10^th Floor
Toronto,ON M2M 2M4

Going forward, this address will need to be changed to reflect the exact suite number:

1001-1234 Main St
Toronto,ON M2M 2M4

OR

1234 Main St Suite 1001
Toronto,ON M2M 2M4

Another example is if you mail to a company headquartered in a building with multiple other companies.  Unless you indicate which suite number they are located at, your mail will be returned even though it was the right building and right postal code.

How will this affect you?
If you are a professional or trade association, you likely mail materials at least annually to all your members, exhibitors or sponsors.  If you are a meetings industry supplier – a hotel, event venue or DMO, you may use mail to distribute meeting promotions or destination planning guides.

With the new guidelines, some of your data may no longer be deliverable,  and it could affect first class and bulk mailing discounts. Please follow the link below for more information:

http://www.canadapost.ca/cpo/mc/assets/pdf/business/aa_qa_en.pdf

What can you do?

• Encourage your staff to update your database with the new standards.  Help them by posting what the new addresses should look like;
• If you have an annual mailing campaign at the end of this year, provide an incentive for recipients to update their information with the full address;
• If you use a mailing house for a mailing before the end of 2011, ask them to send you the “questionable” addresses report so you can have your staff call members, clients or other stakeholders, to update the information;
• Or give us a call at Greenfield.  We will be happy to scan your list and help you determine a strategy to update the information effectively and efficiently.

These changes will affect everyone, whether it is a small portion of your list, or a larger one.  To ensure that you get the biggest ROI on your mailings, take a look at your mailing list and implement changes now to increase your reach in 2012 and beyond.

Emailing to Professional Associations' Members - When is the Best Time?

Recently email marketing provider Informz issued its 2011 E-mail Marketing Benchmarking Report containing some very interesting statistics regarding the better times of the day to send an e-mail.

Two key statistics jumped out at me. First, email messages sent in the morning reportedly have the highest open rate.

Morning	Mid-Day	Afternoon	Night
41.49%	34.19%	32.62%	30.58%

In comparison, the report claims that emails sent in the afternoon have the highest click-through rates:

Morning	Mid-Day	Afternoon	Night
15.32%	19.15%	20.41%	18.89%

These statistics made me think about the time of day we are sending emails on behalf of our clients.  It may be that information-based emails (newsletters, etc) are best sent in the morning, when the contact is getting ready for the day (before all the meetings, calls, etc).  Emails that contain calls-to-actions (registration for events, etc) may have better results if sent in the afternoon.

But there are no “silver bullets” here.  The only way to know for sure is to test and monitor the results closely.  You could, for instance, split your test into two and send to list #1 in the morning, and the same e-mail to list #2 in the afternoon.  Randomize your lists and do this with at least 3-4 emails of a similar nature (e.g. your regular monthly E-newsletter).  Make sure you keep all other factors consistent.  This is the only way you will know with as much certainty as possible what works for your members!

Other things to test may also include:

• Subject lines:  should you use a directive subject line? (“Register by…”) or a provocative one (“Don’t be left out in the cold!”)?
• Day of the week: some reports say never send on a Monday or Friday.  But what is true for your audience?
• Length of message: are you better off giving snippets of the information with a link for members to “read more”, or are you better off having the entire text in the e-mail?

The goal of testing is learn about how members react to different elements of your messages so you can more effectively reach them.

Professional Associations - How many members are opening your emails?

Informz recently published a report on Benchmarking Association Email Marketing.

It was based on users located in Canada, US, and abroad that use Informz as their solution to send email communication to their respective members. One of the first metrics that I found interesting was the results on the Types of Emails sent. It displays the following information:

	Survey	Event	Appeal	Newsletter
% of contacts opened	35.22%	40.73%	26.66%	28.84%
% of contacts clicked through	34.36%	15.46%	16.56%	22.75%

I found these metrics very interesting.  As these metrics were generated based on 500 associations sending 400 million emails, it does not get into detail regarding the surrounding action plan by each association (it just focuses on the email component).  With all the e-mail campaigns we have handled in the past, I have seen the results with the following:

• Surveys:  Reach out to your membership base in various ways to advise them that a survey is coming before it is deployed.  The simplest way to do so is to advertise it in an upcoming newsletter, explaining why it is important as a member to participate, and what you will be doing with the results.  Another option is to gain permission first to send them the survey.  Reaching out to them by phone will show that as an association, you care about your membership, and you will also be gaining explicit permission to participate.
• Events:  This metric seemed pretty straight-forward.  Many members are interested in upcoming events, and will actively open emails to see what educational and networking opportunities are coming up.  Based on Greenfield’s experience with event promotion, the numbers pertaining to click through and registrations seem to be in line.  It can take several emails spaced appropriately to encourage someone to register.  Also, it does not factor in any other promotional activity you are doing for your event – mailings, advertising in your newsletter, follow-up calls, etc.  Ensure that you have a well thought out marketing plan to boost attendee registration.
• Appeal:  This is really an area that your database will come in handy, if set up properly.  While appeals can and should be made to all members – targeted messaging should apply depending on the job-level of your member.  Do not plead for sponsorship/monetary funds that are out of reach to coordinators, when that type of message should reach Directors/Presidents.  Planning your appeals based on job-levels, or member-levels, will start to increase the open & click rates on your emails – as the message will be relevant to whom it is being delivered to.
• Newsletter:  While this metric surprised me, further thought about it made sense – associations that are sending the newsletter at the same day/time every month will have their members more actively ignoring what it is inside the message.  Same goes if the subject line is static.  Change it up a bit – it will raise interest with your membership database.

The final thing is to ensure that you are not sending too much to your member base at any time – I have heard members of associations indicate that they receive up to 5 emails a week from their association, and are just deleting the message without opening them now, because it is way too much communication in their busy lives.

The 2011 Association Email Marketing Benchmark Report contains many more interesting statistics and best practices – and as I delve into it more I will post more thoughts – but you can see for yourself by downloading a copy now.

Association Member Retention - Are You as Member-Driven as You Think?

Even though the recession is behind us, we see that association members and their employers are increasingly looking at the ROI of their annual dues.

Some memberships are mandatory, based on industry requirements – but if it is not a requirement (and, even if it is), do you really know why your members joined your association?  Is it networking opportunities, access to education relevant to your industry, or because it helps them show influence in their day-to-day role?

Ensure that each member feels as valued as the next by capturing what is relevant to them.  Your membership database should house member contact information, but does it allow you to pull reports based on demographics? Could you communicate with your a sub-set of members based on specific interests, or motivations?

In many cases, a main reason for membership is the opportunity to network with like-minded professionals in their given industry. But check to be sure.  In your next membership renewal campaign, take the time to find out why – and create a simply drop-down list in your database to capture this information.  It may help you in the future when promoting a new service, educational program, or event.

Recently we worked on an association membership renewal campaign with one of our clients, and one of the members who renewed had absolutely nothing to do with the industry.  To settle our own curiosity, we asked him why he enjoyed being a member of this particular association – he literally said that he pays the membership fees each year because he enjoys getting the magazine!  While this I must admit is an extreme case, it would make sense to know this so that dollars are not spent on something the member is clearly not interest in.

For another association client, we promote conferences and courses to prospective members with a call campaign following a mailing.  During these calls, we come across many contacts who are interested in what the association offers at a very general level, but they do not want to continue to receive all their mailings until they are ready to commit as a member. This particular association spends a lot of money per mailing.  If preferences about mailings was kept in their CRM, it would not only respect contacts’ wishes, but it would save the association a lot of money on their mailings.

Find out what you could be doing to enhance a member's  experience.  Do you have an area online that is “members only” where they have the chance to ask and answer questions with their peers?  Would this be of interest to them?

Newer members are most certainly from a different generation from your long-time members.  They search for information differently.  Is there a blog on your website?  Are you tweeting?  This may help enhance the member experience with younger members.  However, do not keep the others out of the loop – keep your other methods of communication too, in order to cover all of your bases.

Is there anything else that you think may enhance your member’s experience?

Blogging for Association Managers: Be Patient, It Works!

I was just "tickled-pink" today when I received an email from Laura Andre of the Alberta Ready-Mixed Concrete Association saying:

Good morning, Doreen,

I am writing to ask your permission to publish an article found on the internet and dated April 19, 2010, "Why Belong to an Association?" I would like very much to include this in our next edition of the ARMCA newsletter.  The information is valuable to us and very well written.

Your prompt response would be very much appreciated.

What a wonderful request this was!  After blogging for a year, this was my very first request to be re-published, and I quickly responded a resounding "YES!"

My staff and I enjoy writing about association business development strategies and other topics of interest to professional and trade association executives.  But when anyone ventures into new territory like we did with blogging a year ago, it's difficult to gauge whether we're hitting the right note with our audience.  It was very nice to have our material validated by a professional association executive in such a personable way!

In case you want to check out ARMCA's spring 2011 newsletter, here it is: http://www.armca.net/Mixer%20Spring%202011.pdf.
Thank you, Ms. Andre!

Gratitude, Making a Difference and Facebook

At Greenfield Services, we are truly grateful for the relationship we have enjoyed with our clients, partners and employees again this past year.

For the last three years we have expressed our gratitude and helped those less fortunate by donating a portion of profits to a charity whose mission it is to combat famine and promote economic development around the world.

This year we wanted to do something a little different.  While World Vision is still a highly deserving NGO, they are nevertheless a very large organization, with lots of support.

The idea came to my partner Heinz and me when we attended an event in our little town of Alexandria this past fall to benefit a much smaller and equally deserving cause: Child Haven International.  Inspired by the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi, Child Haven “assists children and women in developing countries, who are in need of food, education, health care, shelter and clothing, emotional and moral support.”

Their founders are Fred and Bonnie Cappuccino, a couple who have made their home in nearby Maxville since the early 70s.  Locals will tell you lots of stories about this remarkable duo, not the least of which is that, over the years, they have adopted 19 children in addition to raising their own two biological children.  In 1985, they started Child Haven to help more.  I heard Fred joke that this was the only way he could prevent Bonnie from adopting more kids!

Now in their 80s, Fred and Bonnie are assisted by family and volunteers in the running of their eight homes: five in India, one in Nepal, one in Tibet and one in Bangladesh. Child Haven is a registered charity in Canada, the United States and India.  It operates on a shoestring (about $1,000,000 annually) and receives no government subsidy.

To help this worthy cause, we had thought of donating $5 for each new “Like” on our Facebook Page.  Truth be known, if our idea went “viral” we wouldn’t have an unlimited budget.  Instead we will donate $1,500, regardless of what happens with our Facebook page.  Still, we think we can help by spreading their story.  Will you please help us by clicking that you “Like” us on Greenfield's Facebook Page, letting your network know about Child Haven?

To make a donation yourself, please click here.

Whatever holiday you celebrate, we wish you the gift of time to enjoy this holiday season with those you love.  And may 2011 bring you health, happiness and fulfillment!

Greenfield Services Collaborates with Queen's University

(L to R) Queen's University students Harish Gopal, Ashtad Pouredehi, Borce Gjorgjievski, Roshan Kalra, Doreen Ashton Wagner (Greenfield Services), Nathania Go, Meagan Rockett (Greenfield Services), and Ted Hincks.

Last September I agreed to participate in a student project, part of the Queen's University MBA program.  At the time I did not know the precise nature of our collaboration.  I was contacted on November 24 and asked if we could meet with the students one week later!
According to team leader Roshan Kalra, the purpose of the visit was to "provide a look into a company with a direct and observable operating process."

The students chose Greenfield as the subject of an assignment for their MBA course “Operations Management”.  Their task is to map Greenfield's existing process and recommend a redesign of the process.

As an entrepreneur, I have always believed in having "fresh eyes" look at our operation, to help us improve the way we do things.

Up until now, this has been mostly through new employees and various trainers and consultants we had hired for various programs.  While I had said yes a few months back, I thought the project would not take place because I had heard nothing since.  In addition, there was the question of "observable process"; since our work focuses entirely on data, I assumed our process was just a little too abstract.

While I have yet to see their report, I was pleasantly surprised by the calibre of questions from this multi-disciplined team.  These students are not just business students.  They come from an impressive variety of cultural and educational backgrounds:

My main contact, Roshan Kalra is a law & economics grad.  Ted Hincks has an environmental engineering background.  Electronics & communications engineering are Harish Gopal's specialties.  Ashtad Pouredehi has management consulting & accounting credentials.  Nathania Go studied in management engineering, marketing and graphic design, while Borce Gjorgjievski majored in computer science.

Their work is due December 15.  We look forward to reading their "process re-engineering" report!