Whether you missed the original livestream or want to watch it again, you’re in luck! Vocalmeet, the CPA (Canadian Psychological Association), and the CSAE (Canadian Society of Association Executives) partnered to bring you a fantastic discussion on growth strategies for associations in 2022 and beyond—a discussion you can catch online now!

Meanwhile, in this webinar recap, we’ll explore the 5 powerful growth strategies that were shared during the livestream conversation. Join us as we discover the strategies other association leaders use to maximize their ability to generate non-dues revenue for their organizations!

1. The Benefits of On-Demand CE Courses

Does your association hold live sessions? Do you livestream continuing education courses and workshops? Well, you’re in luck; you can record these streams and transform them into continuing education (CE) courses. Your association gets more courses to package and sell, and your members get access to new, premium content–everyone benefits!

That’s not all; you can also use previously recorded courses to create something fresh and new. By re-editing and updating your older courses, you can offer your members improved, modernized content. Consider packaging it with new courses for extra value!

2. Cost-Effective Marketing Tools and Promotion

When it comes to earning more revenue, your members and the public need to know about the benefits and programs your association offers. Thankfully, there are plenty of economical assets at your disposal. In our discussion, Anthony Campbell, Growth Manager at Vocalmeet shared a few cost-effective marketing and promotion tools that will help your association do more with less;

• Jasper AI (Artificial Intelligence Marketing): Jasper is an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered writing assistant that can automatically generate persuasive blog posts, marketing emails, landing pages, and more! If you find it difficult to generate this kind of content, you may find Jasper a great help. You can find Jasper AI here.
• Canva for Nonprofits: Canva is a website that offers pre-made graphic designs that you can take and tailor yourself. If you find yourself needing lots of custom graphics, check it out! You can find Canva for Nonprofits here.
• Hootsuite: Hootsuite is a social media management platform that allows you to schedule posts ahead of time, as well as keep track of your content streams, mentions, and more. If your association uses several social media channels, Hootsuite is the program for you. You can find Hootsuite here.
• Vidyard: Vidyard allows you to record your computer screen and webinar at the same time, making window-in-window a breeze. Use it to personalize your presentation content and more! You can find Vidyard here.
• Calendly: Calendly is a program used to book appointments online. You select the dates and times you’re available, and your members can book time with you in just a few clicks; what a time-saver! You can find Calendly here.

3. The Importance of the Strategic Plan

Having a clear strategic plan is important for any organization. Your strategic plan should outline the association’s priorities and how you plan to achieve them. This is essential in order for the organization to thrive and grow in a competitive environment. Will your staff be able to facilitate and manage your new priorities? Will your current budget allow you to build and support new programs? The key to successfully implementing your strategic plan is to avoid it from turning into your operational plan. Your strategic plan is designed to help you achieve your goals and mission. Your operational plan helps you carry out the tasks needed to achieve your strategic plan’s goals and mission.

4. Combined Dues and Non-Dues Revenue Initiatives

No one said dues and non-dues revenue streams had to be mutually exclusive! Try offering members free continuing education packages for early renewal. If you want to get even fancier, try creating membership packages based on what the member selects; you can run the gamut from low-cost, low benefits memberships all the way up to VIP premium memberships that include all the bells and whistles! The number of membership types and the perks they include is up to you.

5. Technology Consolidation

By consolidating your association’s technology, you can actually improve its ease-of-use and its value. Remember to KISS: Keep It Simple, Silly! Simplification will reduce both complexity and costs while improving the efficacy of your tools.

That’s not the only thing your association can condense, of course; consider having all of your technological needs filled by a single vendor! You’ll build a better partnership, and you won’t have to keep track of who covers what. One account, one vendor, one contact! Additionally, your vendor will become more invested in (and fond of!) your association–they may even be willing to go the extra mile for you as your business relationship develops. Better still, by sourcing all your technology from one vendor, you’ll have fewer compatibility issues when it comes to expanding your tools (they know what you have and what connects to it, after all). Streamline your processes; go for a vendor that offers all in one!

Has your interest been piqued? By offering on-demand CE courses, marketing with economic tools and promotions, directing in a plan-focussed manner, creating varied membership packages, and unifying technology and vendors, your association will be able to boost its growth and increase its non-dues revenue!

The post Webinar Recap: 5 Powerful Growth Strategies to Boost Non-Dues Revenue for Your Association in 2022 and Beyond appeared first on Online Learning Solutions | Association Management System | Vocalmeet.

From the online learning platform you select, to the way you market your continuing education courses, creating a successful online continuing education program is a continuous process.

To help you create a successful online continuing education (CE) program, we will highlight three key areas that most associations overlook when offering online CE courses:

• An Easy-to-Use Online Learning Platform
• The Importance of the Course Content and Pricing
• The Value of Marketing

It is not enough to just post your recorded CE courses online and then expect members to purchase your courses; you need to consider how user-friendly the platform is, the quality and cost of the courses, and the marketing strategies you’ll employ. 

Selecting an Easy-to-Use Online Learning Platform 

The success of your online continuing education program starts with your members’ online experience.

Imagine walking into a brick-and-mortar store where the aisles are so close together that it’s hard to find the product you’re looking for. When you attempt to ask for help, no one answers. Chances are, you would walk out upset and annoyed, vowing to warn anyone and everyone away from it! The same principle applies to your members’ online experience.

If your online learning platform is cumbersome and hard to navigate, your members will eventually stop using the platform.

If technical support isn’t prompt and professional, your members will be frustrated. If your members are unhappy with your platform, they’ll let each other know about it.

Consequently, when selecting an online learning platform, focus on usability and user-friendliness rather than features alone.

Go through the learning process yourself, all the way from purchasing an online course to completing it. Was it easy to find all the courses you wanted? Could you do it all on your first try? Did you need help at any time? If you were ever confused on where to go or what to click, chances are that your members will be, too. 

Remember, the entire purpose of offering online continuing education courses is to add value while increasing non-dues revenue.

If the process of completing your online courses is too complicated, not only are you losing out on non-dues revenue–you’re also creating a negative experience for your members!

Course Content is King, and the Price Must Be Right

In the last section, we talked about the importance of the online experience. In this section, we’ll focus on the product: your online courses.

By providing online education courses, your association has the opportunity to become a go-to source of timely and relevant information for your members. Make sure that your courses are up-to-date with the latest trends in your field, whether that means offering courses in newly developing areas or expanding on sectors that are already considered an industry backbone; whatever courses you create, they have to add value. 

Thus, by offering online continuing education courses that provide both prompt and thorough information, your association will have the opportunity to become the go-to source of high-quality information and online courses for your industry. This is the power and the importance of CE course content.

Your Online Courses Need Clearly Defined Learning Outcomes with Well-Written Descriptions

Your members need to know what specific, actionable insight they will earn by paying for and partaking in your course.

For example, will the contents of the course help them earn a certificate in a new skill? Will it teach them the current best practices in their field?

If your course descriptions are too vague, your members won’t understand the benefit of enrolling–meaning your association loses out on the non-dues revenue your programs could be producing! Instead, use clear, concise descriptions to demonstrate the value of each course to show your members why they should enroll. 

Value-Based Pricing: Your Association’s Ability to Maximize Non-dues Revenue From Continuing Education

Value-based pricing helps associations set prices of the courses they sell based on the value the course provides to their members.

If you understand the unique challenges that your members face, creating niche courses that cater to these issues is a worthwhile undertaking for your association. Your members will recognize the value of your courses and will be willing to pay more to access the tailored information–even more so when compared to a blanket course that covers a generic topic. 

Whether your courses are niche or expansive, remember to price them according to the value they offer your members.

Increasing Non-dues Revenue Means Online Marketing Matters More than Ever

Marketing online courses requires a different strategy than marketing in-person continuing education sessions.

To address this, you’ll need to create clear and persuasive marketing campaigns to let your members know about the convenience and ease of your online learning platform and its courses.

Though you may have already sent out an email campaign upon the release of your platform, it is necessary to keep up the communication and continue to inform your members of new, exciting course opportunities. After all, if your audience doesn’t know you offer a course, they won’t know to look for it!

Research has shown that in order to get a recipient to follow an email’s call to action, you need to send approximately 10 to 20 emails about it.

Because of this, we recommend you notify your members via email about your online learning platform and any new courses about 1 to 2 times a month.

Additionally, you’ll want to build a few marketing campaigns to promote your association’s new CE platform once it’s live.

Examples of possible campaigns you could use to promote your online learning platform and courses include:

• Monthly Association Speaker Advice
• Current Offers and Deals
• Course Recommendations and Endorsements from Members
• Featured New Courses

While the creation and maintenance of email campaigns may sound like a lot of work for your association, we must look to the retail world for advice. How many emails have you received from your favorite brands advertising new products and services?

You may work with an association, but the message is the same: messages are more effective when repeated!

Thus, while creating online marketing campaigns may be a laborious process, they aren’t without benefit–they’re a key tool when it comes to keeping your members up-to-date with what you offer!

Vocalmeet Offers Marketing to All of Our Clients as a Complimentary Service.

Let us help you inform your members about your association’s online continuing education options and help you increase your online sales. Learn more about our online learning platforms here!

In closing, increasing non-dues revenue for your online continuing education program is an ongoing process: you’ll need to research and employ the best learning management system platform; to constantly revise, review, and upgrade your content; and to create a string of marketing campaigns that promote your platform once it goes live.

There are lights at the end of the tunnel, however, and their names are “Non-dues Revenue” and “Member Satisfaction”– the best outcomes an association could have!

The post 3 Ways to Increase Non-dues Revenue for Your Association’s Online Continuing Education Program appeared first on Online Learning Solutions | Association Management System | Vocalmeet.

Every one of your recorded sessions represents an opportunity for your association to provide timely and educational information to your members, while also creating new streams of non-dues revenue! By extending the usefulness of your recorded Zoom sessions, your association’s return on investment increases.

This post will discuss what associations can do with their recorded Zoom sessions to add value to their memberships and increase non-dues revenue.

Create On-Demand Continuing Education Courses from Your Recorded Zoom Sessions

Your library of recorded Zoom sessions is composed of the perfect building blocks to generate new streams of non-dues revenue for your association. By offering the recorded sessions as on-demand courses, your association can extend the value of each one while also increasing member engagement. Members who were unable to attend your sessions will now be able to access the recorded version on-demand and even earn CE credits at the same time!

Additionally, providing convenient and easy-to-use online options for your members to access your recorded content and complete their CE requirements underscores and increases the value of membership with your association. From your members’ perspectives, having access to quality CE programs helps them stay up-to-date and allows them to remain competitive within their field.

Simply Uploading Recorded Sessions to Your Website or a Video-Sharing Platform Won’t Cut It.

Although uploading recorded sessions to your website may strike you as easier, offering quality online continuing education requires much more than just linking members to your recordings. You will need to track attendance, produce completion certificates, facilitate payment, and answer any questions your members may possess. Tracking these requirements manually will create substantial administrative work for your staff, leading to your team spending less time on your members.

An Online Learning Platform Makes It Easy for Associations to Offer Online Continuing Education

In order to generate non-dues revenue from your recorded Zoom sessions, you will need to use an e-commerce enabled online learning platform. 

These platforms make it easy for your association to offer on-demand continuing education courses while reducing administrative work for your staff and making payment simple and easy. 

Before selecting an online learning platform, ensure that the platform tracks user progress, restricts users from jumping to the end of the video, produces completion certificates automatically, facilitates payments, and navigates easily. The purpose of using an online learning platform is to make it easy for your members to access and pay for your courses online while simultaneously increasing non-dues revenue for your association. 

Marketing Your Online Continuing Education Courses is Key

Marketing your online courses is an essential element to the success of your online continuing education courses. Your association must create marketing campaigns that promote your online continuing education courses and remind members that completing their continuing education requirements with you online is easy. 

While creating marketing campaigns is something that your association staff will have to commit to and handle, the return-on-investment is well worth the time. 

Align Your Upcoming Zoom Sessions to Your Continuing Education Strategy

When planning your next webinar, virtual conference session, or continuing education course, always have your continuing education strategy in mind. If you arrange your plan correctly, taking everything into account, the educational sessions you create will be able to generate revenue for months (and even years!) after the original session ends. Think ahead, and be sure to structure all of your Zoom sessions so that they can easily be repurposed as on-demand continuing education courses.

Conclusion

With a little elbow grease and a bit of forethought, your library of Zoom recordings can become a valuable asset that could generate significant revenue for your association in the future. Offering your Zoom recordings as online continuing education courses is a worthwhile endeavor for all, creating better value for your members and higher non-dues revenue for your association.

The post What Can Associations Do with Their Recorded Zoom Sessions? appeared first on Online Learning Solutions | Association Management System | Vocalmeet.

In the past, organizations placed greater emphasis on establishing processes and tools, adhering rigidly to the plan, conducting frequent contract negotiations, and producing endless documentation. In recent times, however, there has been a shift towards constant communication, adaptive plans, customer collaboration, and greater individual ownership. This is often credited to both leaders and employees adopting an Agile mindset.

So, Just What is an Agile Mindset?

Encouraging continuous interaction, adapting quickly to changes, and increasing member engagement requires associations to think differently about how projects are implemented; it requires an Agile mindset. The Agile mindset must be flexible to changes in the plan, be open to differing opinions from teammates, be constantly learning, and be focused on delivering the highest value to members. With an Agile mindset, association employees are better equipped for collaboration and for managing the many challenges that can arise during a project.

You May Ask, “Does an Agile Mindset Benefit Association Employees Who Are Non-technical?”

There are some preconceived notions that an Agile mindset is not for the “non-technically inclined”–quite the contrary! Adopting an Agile mindset can be a game-changer for any project–after all, being able to swiftly adapt to change is an important skill for any association, project, or workplace!

Associations Are Ever-Changing; an Agile Mindset is Now Critical for Success

At times, employees can be buried under paperwork and fall victim to the multiple roadblocks that can result from poor communication, outsourced problem-solving, and unorganized task scheduling. However, associations and workplaces are evolving, and changing market demands and member behavior must be accounted for if one is to stay competitive. Consequently, associations need to keep pace with the shifting sands of market changes and business conditions. An Agile mindset will prepare them for anything the ever-changing business world presents them with.

Agile Teams Can Empower Each Other

The success of an association relies heavily on the confidence of its employees.

Find any poorly run association that stifles its employees, and the result will likely be a lack of motivation, underperformance, and minimal creativity amongst the staff. Business consultant and strategist Kaihan Krippedorff stated, “Arming employees with the tools, know-how, and mindset needed to successfully innovate on a continual basis will be paramount to organizational survival.” The key to achieving this lies in empowering team members with the freedom to operate under minimal limitations.

True Empowerment Involves Changing the Culture of an Association from One That Is Ruled by an Iron Fist to One That Inspires Innovation and Thought Leaders.

Empowering a non-technical team with the Agile self-direction mindset is crucial. It allows team members to be more independent, without the need for manager direction at every turn. With self-direction, the team is able to work together to execute each of their respective responsibilities and duties at a self-designated and optimized pace–without having to constantly look over their collective shoulder!
Self-direction emphasizes the abilities and experience of each team member and combines them into an outcome greater than the sum of their parts. This establishes trust among the team members, proving that each cog in the wheel is necessary and valued when working in tandem to complete a common goal.

Does Empowering Agile Teams Render Management Obsolete? Absolutely Not!

A manager can still lead, but an empowered team means that their focus can be placed more on strategy and communication with the team than on routine duties, which leaves the door open for team input which, in turn, allows team members to feel helpful and appreciated–after all, it proves that management has faith in their abilities! An effective leader can provide mentorship using positive feedback for a good performance, as well as constructive criticism for a poor one.

Iterations and Continuous Improvement

Achieving success is one thing; sustaining it for the long term is another story. Adopting an Agile mindset can help associations improve policies and processes quickly and easily, thus maximizing their efficiency. It is important for associations to develop plans that work with existing policies and processes, while also brainstorming about how these practices can be enhanced further. The improvements can then be made to the existing policies and processes–just make sure to be prepared for unforeseen obstacles that require further development. Remember, Agile values adaptability–unexpected issues are just a stepping stone to improvement!

Once the changes have been made, make sure to thoroughly assess the new policies and processes and observe their performance. Are they better? Worse? On par? This will provide key information for further improvement.

Now that your investigation is complete, management can make the final call to officially confirm the proposed changes, or else suggest additional modifications before moving forward.

Agile Improvement Strategies

There are other improvement strategies that can elevate an association to the next level. An association can implement lean continuous improvement, where the objective is to identify and abolish all areas that fail to offer members additional benefits. This is a proactive approach that allows the association to concentrate more on the relevant benefits that their members want and accelerate towards the end goal with greater efficiency.

Value stream mapping is another vital asset to improving performance in your association; this strategy enables the association to perform a comprehensive assessment of a process in order to identify where adjustments can be made and what can be eliminated by using knowledge gained from experience to indicate what is working in a process and what is not.

Conclusion

So, fear not, the Agile mindset makes associations a better, more cohesive place for staff and members alike! Greater emphasis is placed on major priorities, while lesser priorities are shelved for later.

Interested in gaining a deep understanding of the principles and practices of Agile project management? Take this trusted Agile & Scrum Certification Course!

Agile prepares you to take on any challenge that threatens the success of your project by arming you with independence and flexibility. With an Agile mindset, association leaders and employees can be certain that greater success is just around the corner!

The post Can an Agile Mindset Benefit Association Leaders? appeared first on Online Learning Solutions | Association Management System | Vocalmeet.

While you may be fully aware of the benefits of offering continuing education programs online, in many cases, you may not have the final say in whether or not your association takes the leap. Chances are, you may need to convince board members (and even some senior decision-makers!) that the initial startup investment and time commitment will be worthwhile. 

For a detailed guide on how to increase revenue and memberships by setting up an online continuing education platform for your association, view our ebook here.

To win over the skeptics, you will need to have a firm grasp on all of the benefits an online continuing education platform can provide, as well as how the association can ensure that this initiative will be financially sustainable.

Here are five ways you can build a strong case and convince your board to invest in an online continuing education platform:

1. Be Prepared

Because you are trying to sell the benefits of online technology, you must first put your best foot forward. To do this, you must research online learning technologies and vendors so that you can collect all of the necessary data to support your case.

For research on online continuing education platforms, read our whitepaper entitled “9 Things to Consider before Offering Online Courses” here. 

It is important to know that there are many different types of learning platforms, each with its own priorities and formats. Some examples of online continuing education platforms include managed service platforms and self-service platforms. It is important to understand the differences and to outline why one approach may work better for your association than another.

In addition, board members like to hear about facts, statistics, and results. Therefore, it is good practice to do research on associations that have already invested in an online learning platform; you can use this to show how it has helped their association meet its objectives–objectives that may be similar to those of your own association! 

The best way to prove the worth of an online continuing education platform is to use real-life situations and specific case studies to demonstrate a platform’s usefulness. View our case studies here for insights into demonstrating the efficacy of online continuing education platforms.

2. Connect with Objectives

When presenting a proposal to anyone–especially a board or executive team–always remember that you are selling more than just an idea. 

Your presentation needs to demonstrate why investing in an online continuing education platform would align with the executive team’s objectives, would help achieve a better vision, or would aid in reaching their goals faster. Having a sound understanding of what is important to your association will help you connect your vendor of choice to your association’s strategy. 

Make sure to focus on the “why” instead of on the “what.”

If you spend most of your pitch talking about all of the fancy high-tech features of your online continuing education platform of choice, chances are, you may lose their attention! However, if you are able to prove to the decision-makers that these features work towards their specific objectives, they will be encouraged to view your pitch far more favorably. 

To make your presentation more visual and easy to understand, divide this information into different categories so that the decision-makers get a clear picture of the impact that learning technology will have on membership engagement, the attraction of new members, increased referrals, and the amount of positive feedback garnered.

3. Let the Numbers do the Talking

When you are building your case for the board, you need to consider how introducing a new online continuing education platform will affect the organization financially. 

With any major decision executives make, they always factor in how it will impact the organization’s bottom line. This means that it is key to make a point of saying how the learning platform will positively impact the financial goals of the organization.Include financial numbers and statistics in the eLearning industry during your presentation to show the potential increase in revenue that can be achieved when switching to a new online continuing education platform. 

If the board is focused on the cost of the platform, show how automation through an online continuing education platform can decrease manual operations. For example, automating certificate generation for online courses can decrease manual efforts and save time for staff!  Additionally, choosing a managed service vendor means association staff can focus on member engagement more while administering the learning platform less.

4. Avoiding Stagnancy

As you pitch all of the reasons why investing in the learning platform will greatly improve your association, you should also describe what could happen if they choose not to invest in this opportunity.

Explain to the board that there are risks involved when an association does not evolve and change with the times. 

By choosing not to invest in online learning technology, younger members may not be as engaged in the association’s events. In addition, staff may not be as productive and may fall short of expectations. This could lead to frustrated members since they don’t have easy access to the information they need to succeed.

Building your case in this way can help to show the board that continued stagnancy could cause the organization to be left behind by competitors. Instead, by switching to a new learning platform, they could inspire innovation rather than complacency.

5. Transparency is the Key

As you build your case and prepare your presentation to the board, it can be easy to get caught up in the sales pitch and wow-factor of flowery words. But while there is nothing wrong with highlighting all of the great reasons to invest in learning technology, make sure to always stay grounded–after all, honesty is always the best policy!.

It is important to always be transparent. 

If your presentation does not mention any potential issues with transitioning to an online learning platform, and instead only focuses on the positive aspects, it could raise red flags with the board. They may start thinking you are keeping something from them, which will hurt your credibility and could turn them off of your pitch.

Your case will be more airtight and impressive if you are thorough and state all of the pros and the cons of investing in a learning platform. You want to make sure that the board is aware of all aspects of the switch and understands what to expect. While no one likes to discuss potential challenges during a presentation, this will give you an opportunity to present solutions and alleviate your fears. This type of honesty and confidence will go a long way to impress the board and put their concerns at ease!

Remember, when it comes to convincing others of the power of online continuing education platforms, you have to focus on preparation, targets, finances, improvement, and transparency. With all of this in mind, you should be ready to face your association’s board and dazzle them with your knowledge. Go forth and make your case–your members will thank you!

The post Five Ways to Build an Airtight Business Case for an Online Learning Platform appeared first on Online Learning Solutions | Association Management System | Vocalmeet.

Even if your organization’s products or services don’t play as well on social media as Netflix’s, it’s still possible that you, too, can make use of memes for marketing purposes. The effectiveness of this strategy depends on your audience; however, it is possible to succeed if you observe and follow some of the cardinal meme-sharing rules! Before integrating memes into your marketing strategy, here are a few tips you should be mindful of:

Designed for Social Media

Memes and social media are perfect for each other. Memes allow for quick consumption of engaging, comedic bite-sized content, while social media provides the perfect sharing vehicle through which they can spread. For marketing purposes, the sharing of memes on social media sidesteps hard marketing in favor of brand awareness. After all, the most effective marketing memes rarely focus on brand marketing at all. If they did, the genre-savvy audience would catch the intention and the meme would fall flat.

Bring the Community Together

One of the main reasons memes are so effective for marketing purposes is that they are truly community-based content. Specifically designed to be shareable, funny, and engaging, memes unite members of a community by leveraging a shared knowledge. Typically, the greater the number of people that understand the meme’s material, the greater the number of interactions on a post. People thrive on being aware of trends and bringing others into the mix, and memes accommodate this compulsion like no other. Because of this, memes have dazzlingly high engagement levels, one of the most important factors for an organization’s social media channels. However, make no mistake: memes must be used carefully to be effective!

Stay on Brand

Memes can absolutely be used to build brand relevance and brand awareness, but organizations should be wary; make sure you’re sending the right message when using them! In other words, make sure the meme matches the tone, energy, and values of your brand. If this is done right, memes can help showcase and spread brand identity quickly and easily. If no current memes share the spirit of your organization, you can try your hand at creating your own. While this is typically more challenging, the rewards on success are much greater. The rules for creating are the same as sharing: keep them on-brand and aligned with your audience.

Make Sure There’s an Appetite for It

The environment for memes can sometimes be turbulent. In general, audiences love memes and seek them out, but be warned— people can relate to them very differently. Before you begin sending out memes, be sure you understand your audience and what their appetite for memes truly is. This knowledge will allow you to cater your content to your viewers. The way to do this is simple: observe your audience closely. Take note of the content that resonates with them. What type of memes do they like to share? Now, it’s unlikely that everyone will agree on just one theme or type of content, but you can use this information to find a middle ground. When you first set out, start by sending memes sparingly to test the waters before going all-in.

Use Them Properly

One of the most important things to consider when creating and sharing memes is how to use them properly. Depending on your organization, the language and tone of a certain meme may not be a good fit. Memes often leverage a very specific lingo, one that might feel forced or unnatural coming from the wrong source. To avoid this, you’ll first want to understand the meme, how it originated, and how it has evolved. Make sure that the spirit of the meme doesn’t clash with your organization or marketing goals. You also need to ensure that you use all lingo properly – people will spot an outsider right away. If you need help to accomplish this, it may be worthwhile to have a digital native create the meme for you.

Avoid Major Mistakes

Every meme has an expiration date, though unfortunately, not one displayed for all to see. Some memes gradually fade away, while others disappear overnight. It’s important to get the timing right. If you’re too early, your audience will miss the joke. If you’re too late, you could become the joke. Furthermore, before repurposing a meme or creating your own, you should check the rights of the images used to ensure that there’s no copyright infringement or unfair usage. If you do use an owned image, be sure to ask permission or credit the creator in the method they choose. It’s also a good idea to avoid any images or content that could imply endorsement of another organization or brand, especially if that brand doesn’t share similar values!

When running your organization’s social media, it’s important to stay equipped, making use of every item in your arsenal. After all, it’s dangerous to go alone —so why not take a meme?

The post What if I Told You Associations Can Use Memes to Grow Membership and Drive Member Engagement? appeared first on Online Learning Solutions | Association Management System | Vocalmeet.

As more events are being cancelled, many associations are opting to ramp up their online continuing education sessions and conferences in order to soften the negative financial impact. Some are pre-recording their sessions and making them available on-demand, while others are choosing to live-stream on the scheduled date.

So, how does the shift towards virtual events impact sponsors and exhibitors?

Many associations rely on sponsorships to fund their in-person events and conferences. In return, sponsors and exhibitors are looking for marketing exposure and opportunities for attendees to better connect with their brand. As a result, being able to show sponsors and exhibitors the value of sponsoring virtual events is key.

Here are some of the online initiatives that you can do to continue to offer sponsors and exhibitors the benefit of exposure to members and attendees.

1. With paid on-demand events and courses, consider offering discount codes for members with the sponsor/exhibitor name.
2. Place sponsor/exhibitor logos and links to their website on the event webpage or on the online learning platform for a period of time.
3. Encourage sponsors and exhibitors to sponsor individual sessions or courses.
4. Sponsors and exhibitors can create short promotional videos to be placed on the event webpage or on the online learning platform
5. Sponsor/exhibitor videos and links can even be embedded directly into on-demand videos.
6. Consider promoting the “sponsor/exhibitor” of the week through the event webpage, social media, email campaigns, etc.
7. Ask speakers to mention the sponsors and/or exhibitors before or after their online presentation.
8. For live online events, sponsors and/or exhibitors can join for opening or closing remarks.
9. Promote sponsors and exhibitors, while enticing attendees, with sponsored raffles for gift cards and other virtual giveaways.
10. If your association has a community platform for members to communicate and network online, consider utilizing the platform to provide more exposure for sponsors and exhibitors.

There are many initiatives that are easy to implement for sponsors and exhibitors to reap the benefit of exposure online. As critical as it is for associations to engage their members virtually, it is equally important for associations to ensure sponsors and exhibitors are incentivized to continue to provide funding for virtual events.

The event delivery method may be different, but the goal remains the same. In today’s digital world, associations need to think outside the box and find new and creative ways to continue to engage members, attendees, speakers, sponsors, and exhibitors.

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Social media can yield many benefits for an association. In the marketing world, social media represents one of the strongest tools available. Utilizing this avenue can create more brand awareness than traditional advertising, increase traffic to your website, and help improve conversion rates for visitors and consumers. Yet there’s more to social media than just blindly posting in the hopes of being seen. With a little thought and strategy, every association can turn social media from a mystery into a strength.

Create Meaningful Interactions

In order to get the most out of social media, associations need to do more than simply broadcast information. In fact, Facebook announced that its algorithms are moving toward promoting meaningful interactions ahead of all other posts. Now, this includes “engagement bait” posts as well. These are posts that ask for likes to create the illusion of meaningful interactions. Therefore, associations need to drive discussions that encourage thoughtful responses and queries from viewers in a more natural way.

Try using hashtags to create a more focused discussion, and don’t be afraid to be conversational. Social media users are well-versed in marketing speak, so try to use regular language to break through. In addition to increased brand awareness and interest, the results of these interactions can be enormous. Though social media interactions don’t directly increase search engine rankings, they can help influence them. Meaningful interactions also help to build relationships and create more involved members.

Be Present and Active

Social media allows people to connect with organizations better than ever before, but visibility isn’t enough. To make social media work for you, your association must be present and active, responding quickly to queries and joining conversations. In fact, many people now use social media for customer service inquiries the moment they need them. Although you can schedule your content submission to ensure that you’re posting regularly, try to communicate with your audience at different times.

In addition to being a space for basic customer service, social media allows for personalization. Use the platform to provide information to inquiring minds. Don’t be afraid to jump into relevant conversations and help people asking general questions about the industry. A continued social media presence can help with brand awareness and generate interest in the association without requiring much in the way of advertising dollars.

Learn from the Experience

While social media offers excellent opportunities for providing information to current and potential members, it is also home to a large congregation of professionals from every industry. Use this as a source of information and insight into what professionals are looking for, what industry trends are popping up, and what topics are generating the most interest. By incorporating these topics and trends in various ways, the association demonstrates it’s tapped in and paying attention.

Furthermore, like any customer service experience, social media interactions provide a great source of feedback and constructive criticism. Associations that use this information and build from it illustrate how they are willing to adapt and grow. On social media, this happens in real time and in front of many eyes, which provides plenty of great opportunities to provide excellent customer service.

Track your Results

After posting on social media for an extended period of time, it’s time to start learning from your experience and perfecting the artform. From the beginning, track your results to get the most from each post in the future. Measure what hashtags perform the best, and see what comments get the most likes. Ask yourself, what times do posts get the most interactions? Do posts with images do better than those without? While tracking can be done manually, various software and applications make this job easier and more automatic. Before long, your social media work will be more efficient and effective.

Mix Things Up

A little mixture goes a long way on social media, so it’s important to vary the type of content you post. You want to avoid strictly posting at people. Join in conversations, post about things outside your direct lane, and most importantly, avoid always self-promoting. Not only will constant self-promotion hurt your visibility on social media, but people may react negatively to your posts. Do all these things, but don’t stray too far off topic or relevance. People want their associations to be involved in industry- or professional-specific conversations. Last but not least, avoid posting the same thing on different social media channels as people will see posts as ads and not meaningful content.

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A Learning Management System (LMS) can work wonders for an association offering continuing education to members. These powerful systems can host courses, lectures, and certifications, allowing for intuitive management on both the front and back ends. They can provide huge time- and cost-saving benefits, offer extensive details on academic progress, and run thorough user reports. Yet, a quality LMS can offer much more than that.

While the main use of an LMS is education, these robust systems have many more capabilities that some associations may not understand. In fact, when used to its full potential, an LMS can add great value to an association in a variety of ways. Below, we’ll look at just some of the ways associations can get more from their LMS and make use of the tools that are ready and waiting at their fingertips.

Host All Your Content

Many associations use their LMS for continuing education courses and nothing more, but these systems can host more than just that. Consider putting up a large collection of information and resources. This might include best practices, industry tips, policy information, eBooks, and helpful articles. It’s important to diversify the type and delivery of content as well, like offering live webinars, interactive lessons, and videos. This mixture will attract and reach all different types of learners and ensure everyone can get something of worth.

Another effect this diversification may have is that it can help position the LMS and the association as a one-stop-shop for industry information and resources. By hosting a large library, members and non-members alike will visit the association when seeking information. Over time, they may even come to rely on the association as the go-to for all career and industry information. For that reason, associations should consider making some information accessible for non-members. Give them a taste of what they might receive as members and allow the LMS to do some marketing for your association as well.

Get Everyone Onboard

The onboarding process for new members can be time-consuming and lengthy. The sheer amount of information and assistance needed to get new members up to speed can be overwhelming. So, let your LMS take on some of that work. Use the system to hold all the information necessary. Host new member videos, mission statements, and membership details. Allow the system to slowly introduce new materials and new permissions over time.

Using an LMS to deliver and manage an extensive learning initiative can also help with new members and stakeholders as well. These onboarding plans can be thoughtfully strategized and laid out in the LMS to really streamline these processes in the long run. With a thorough and engaging onboarding process, associations can create more productive beneficiaries and increase loyalty in staff, members, and stakeholders.

Compliance Training

Many industries feature legal and regulatory changes that professionals need to keep up with regularly. Mandatory compliance training starts from the very beginning with health and safety training and may continue throughout one’s career to adjust and adapt to any changes. It may be necessary to begin a profession as well as to maintain a license and certification. By running compliance training via an LMS, associations can improve access, convenience, results, and their bottom line.

Firstly, an LMS allows for easy delivery and easy access. Training can be uploaded quickly and members can take the training any time, day or night. Existing content can be uploaded and changed just as easily. The content can be customized for specific learners and offerings can be personalized so members see only what they need. The automated system also allows for easy grading and evaluations, along with producing detailed reports on compliance rates. This not only saves the association time and money, but it provides additional value for current and prospective members.

Social Platform

After turning its LMS into a multi-function resource library for members, an association can encourage even more activity and involvement by integrating a forum for users to communicate with each other. Associations can take several different approaches with this social platform. They can allow participating members to communicate about specific courses or programs or they can create more of an open forum for members to discuss general industry materials.

Associations can stimulate discussion in these forums by introducing industry-specific news or developments or by creating opinion pieces and inviting responses. If done right, a healthy and active social platform can become a landing spot for members and users. It can lead to much more website traffic and more participation from members in general. Allow members to share discussions on other social media channels to encourage more traffic.

Add Something Extra

Aside from the ideas above, associations can think outside of the box when it comes to things that an LMS can offer. Try giving members and visitors anything that they might find value in. Post some instructional videos or training guides for hobbyists. Provide self-help resources or offer positive think pieces that visitors and members might find interesting. Consider posting industry or skill quizzes for members to test themselves with or give them fun and interactive activities to try.

While continuing education and training will almost always be the main reason people access their LMS, associations can add plenty of additional value by using the system to its full potential. The opportunities are endless and can generate some very positive results for the associations that find the right content. If unsure of what to offer, reach out to members and ask for suggestions.

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Members are the lifeblood of every association. While maintaining a solid membership represents the central mission, acquiring new members remains a yearly challenge. According to the Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report, less than half of all associations increased their new member acquisitions in 2018 and nearly 25% of associations saw a decrease in renewals. To keep the fresh faces rolling in and the familiar faces smiling, associations must continue finding new methods of increasing and maintaining their membership. The following tips might just do the trick.

INTEGRATE SPONSORSHIP

Perhaps the most effective method for attracting new members and driving renewals is by improving membership value.  Although this can be done a number of ways, increasing sponsorship dollars and involvement can go a long way to achieving this goal. To increase sponsorship dollars, associations need to find more sponsors or find more innovative means of sponsor involvement. The key for the latter option is integration.

By better integrating sponsors in its initiatives, an association can provide sponsors with more valuable opportunities and offer higher sponsorship levels (and prices). This could mean giving sponsors direct access to an event audience as a guest speaker or allowing them to host a focus group. These opportunities can prove mutually beneficial if done right, ensuring sponsors want to maintain and further develop this relationship.

 PROVIDE VALUE IN VALUABLE LOCATIONS

Both new and established members look for value in their memberships. An effective method for an association to demonstrate value is to establish itself as an authority in the industry. This can be done online by starting or joining meaningful conversations. Try hosting informative discussions and providing actionable insights that potential members can join in on or, at the very least, notice.

To accomplish this effectively, associations need to identify where their potential members congregate and what interests them the most. This may require the association to divide potential members into demographic groups. It might start a LinkedIn discussion on specific industry topics or share relevant stories and news via Facebook or Twitter.

HOST MUST-ATTEND EVENTS

While it may sound easier than it is, hosting events that sponsors want to participate in and members want to attend is a powerful way to drive both renewals and new members. Associations can come up with a variety of ways to create a must-attend event, but demonstrating value is paramount. A great way to create value is to make the event unique, offer something members and potential attendees can’t find anywhere else.

This might involve taking some risks. Try discussing cutting-edge topics or projected industry trends. Recruit new speakers who haven’t done the industry event speaker circuit and those who bring with them new ideas. Integrate sponsors with similar interests to improve event workshops, focus groups, and discussions. Finally, invite or incentivize members to bring a guest and a potential new member.

 LISTEN TO CURRENT MEMBERS

One of the best sources of information for an association is their current members. This is a group that knows what they want and what they need from their association. Conduct a member survey to generate a list of improvements and share the results with members. Most importantly, make sure to address the feedback. Follow through on promises and prove to members that their input is important and highly valued.

TAP INTO PREVIOUS MEMBERS

According to the 2018 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report, 16% of members choose not to renew their memberships on average. While these former members have a variety of reasons for not renewing, this group represents a very valuable source for both referrals and renewals. Equipped with these former member’s contact information, associations can use targeted advertising and offer special member discounts for best results. Facebook’s target audience feature can help streamline this process.

KEEP MEMBERS ENGAGED

Engaged members are often loyal members, and proper engagement starts at the very beginning. As soon as new members join, personally thank them and provide them with an orientation. Familiarize them with the association. Show them how to access member benefits and encourage them to participate in the community. If possible, connect new members with a mentor or a more experienced member to accommodate this process.

From there, keep your members informed. Notify them of current discussions, upcoming events, and professional development opportunities. Be sure to ask members what level of communication with the association they want and honor that feedback.

UNDERSTAND THE MEMBER LIFE CYCLE

Members want different things at different stages of their careers. While offering a one-size-fits-all benefit system might be easiest, it’s more effective to offer something for each of the various groups. If done properly, members will continue finding benefits in their association and continue their engagement over the course of many years.

The first here is to understand the member life cycle. Identify what the member career stages are and what professionals need at each stage. For example, new professionals might seek out events to attend or mentoring opportunities. More experienced professionals may look for continuing education courses or professional development workshops. Meanwhile, industry veterans may find value in more hands-on opportunities, such as volunteering with the association, delivering event speeches, or contributing content for training.

GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT

While paid advertising is a great way to get new members, there are other, more inexpensive methods. Natural advertising, for example, that which comes from members simply because they wish to share an association’s value with those around them, can cost nothing. For this to happen, however, members need a reason to discuss the association and they need to do so on a public channel.

Try starting a conversation on the channels your potential members use, like Facebook or LinkedIn. Encourage members to share stories or accomplishments, post pictures or give out event and workshop invitations. Even if this advertising doesn’t directly result in new members, it will generate a buzz and familiarity within the industry.

RUN A SUCCESSFUL MEMBERSHIP DRIVE

Membership drives represent one of the best ways to create an influx of new members. These concerted efforts to market an association and generate interest in joining can take on a variety of forms, but the results can prove very beneficial. To get the most out of a drive, develop a strategy, make a budget, and utilize all the resources available.

Membership drives might be as simple as an advertising campaign, email or phone campaign, incentivized referrals, or a resource giveaway. Some associations host small events, like luncheons, business spotlights, or speaker events, or larger events, such as networking events, charity drives, or conferences.

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