Invigorate Revenue

I was recently speaking with an association publisher who told me that she was considering replacing the advertising representative firm she had been using with another. As we got into more detail, she revealed that the firm had been successful in building and maintaining her organization’s print advertising business, but had not been successful in building […]

“I know what I need, and it isn’t a salesperson.”* According to recent research from Wake Forest University, B2B decision making is increasingly being informed by customer reviews. In this customer-driven purchasing environment, in which 92% of B2B buyers are more likely to commit to a sale if they have read a reliable review, it […]

The Education and Career Services department at The Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) has always been strategically focused on monitoring current and future trends to ensure that we are meeting the needs and learning preferences of our members. In early 2015, we conducted research and determined that micro-learning was not only becoming a popular trend, but […]

In 2012 my association was confronting member disengagement and depletion. We knew that less than 50% of our members attended our events (for multiple reasons). 15% of the membership consisted of international members and the relevance of associations had waned somewhat through the 00’s. Membership was on a slow downward slide and finances were tracking […]

New leadership can be a pivotal moment for an association. The initial focus of a new leader sets a precedent for the era ahead and can be a great opportunity to add new life to anything that has become stagnant, including the association’s brand. One of the reasons the Specialty Advertising Association of California (SAAC) Board […]

A decade ago, NCARB (National Council of Architectural Registration Boards) set out on a mission to modernize their whole organization through technology. The goal was to have a single source of truth that would support every internal process and provide the right information to the right person at the right time. This involved going deep into every […]

Rebranding an association is not a task to be taken lightly. There are so many elements to consider: funding, leadership buy-in, visual identity, and member reception. Before diving into a full rebrand, consider taking it step-by-step and conducting a partial rebrand first. You’d be surprised at how much impact small changes can have on member rates […]

Solving the membership challenge can be a tough nut to crack.Associations must blend together the three-part formula: attract new members with a cutting-edge value proposition; retain existing members through reinforcing your value proposition; and maintain, improve and enhance the value proposition as an organization in the marketplace. This difficulty compounds at the local level or […]

So you are planning a free educational event. You’ve developed top notch education, opened registration and before you know it, the event is sold out. Work over, right? Not exactly. There are things you can do now to reduce the number of empty seats on the day of the event. Why should you care about empty […]

In my last article, I introduced Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Realities and the roles they can play in our lives. This is a trendy topic these days because these technologies are increasingly accessible in the market. Most major companies have been working on these mediums, not just for the entertainment field. Education, food, medical, corporate, government, and […]