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.

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.

Marketing online CLE courses requires a different strategy than marketing in-person CLE sessions. For example, it’s not enough to simply rebrand all in-person sessions as “virtual” or “on-demand” without any additional information. As some members may not be comfortable with taking online CLE, let them know that it’s easy to sign up, that there’s technical support if they need it, and if offered on-demand, that they can access the CLE courses at their own convenience. For that reason, marketing is a complimentary service Vocalmeet provides to all our legal clients to help them increase their online CLE sales.

Additionally, a concrete marketing plan must be accompanied with a solid website. How a website looks and functions is every bit as important as the content itself. Your website content could be relevant and meaningful, but your members may still ignore your message if it is not designed well.

Continue reading below for our top 10 website design best practices to help drive traffic to your site and increase your online course sales. Incorporate these tips as you see fit and make your association’s website the best resource it can be!

Top 10 Website Design Best Practices

1. Set a Goal and Follow Through

When designing a website, it’s important to make a list of goals that you want your website to accomplish. Do you want it to drive membership, teach viewers the benefits of joining your association, or convince them to purchase courses? Try thinking about these goals in terms of a “call to action” to better help formulate your goals. After ranking this list in order of priority and importance, identify and implement as many ways to achieve these goals as possible.

2. Audience-Driven Design

If you want your website to attract an audience, you need to know who they are and what they like. If you have this information, you can better direct your design, tone, and content to match your target audience. Identify them by demographic. For example, what kind of work do they do, and what interests them the most? What other products and services do they use?

3. Simplicity Over Everything

A simple and clean aesthetic is one of the most effective design decisions you can make for your website. An uncomplicated design and user-friendly interface allow for clean navigation and accessible options. In general, clutter can have a negative impact on viewership and engagement. Too many options or pages, regardless of how amazing their content may be, can lead to “paralysis by analysis” for viewers – a form of overthinking that can be counterproductive for a website. As a result, websites should limit the number of overall pages, as well as design each page with plenty of white (or “negative” space) in order to give each item of content or image the space to breathe and be experienced.

4. Responsive Design

Responsive design almost always refers to the ability of a website to automatically accommodate the screen size, viewing platform, and screen orientation of each visitor. All modern websites should take into consideration a diverse array of viewers and devices. In this case, however, responsive design also speaks to a design that reacts quickly and effectively to user decisions while browsing. This means that the images, videos, and playable media of a website should load quickly. It also means that users should receive responses to their requests in short order. Additionally, organizations should ensure that all contact is met with a confirmation immediately after processing any kinds of requests.

5. Helpful Color Schemes

The choice of website colors can make or break a website. Colors can invoke specific emotions in viewers. They can help people better identify with an organization, as well as instill stronger brand recognition among visitors. It’s also important to ensure that colors are used effectively with each other. Websites should be designed in a way that has the text popping off the background color without putting too much strain on the eye. This is usually done by using a dark font over a lighter background. Try avoiding using similar shades, hues, and saturation alongside each other as well, as this can lead to a distracting effect where the colors meet.

6. Strategic Design

While common sense and thoughtfulness usually go a long way, there are some strategic choices that organizations can make for their website design. Organizations may, for example, employ the rule of thirds, which breaks the screen into a grid of two evenly spaced horizontal lines and two evenly spaced vertical lines. The four resulting intersecting points on the screen are your thirds – the points on the screen to which the eye is naturally drawn. It is on these intersections that a website’s most important features should be placed, such as the call to actions. Another option is to connect components into thematic groupings by using similar shapes, colors, and fonts. This allows viewers to subtly associate different on-screen elements with each other.

7. Proper Structure

How a website is structured can help users navigate and browse more easily. One of the most important structure elements is the header. Headers should only be used sparingly and should accurately explain and contextualize the content below them; this aids visitors in interpreting and digesting the material. Websites should also include tools like “breadcrumbs” so users can retrace their steps when desired. If your website incorporates forms, they should be clearly labeled and easy to complete. Be sure to provide clear instructions and information – assume that everyone is unaware of the typical process and new to your webpage (and organization!) as a whole.

8. Consistency

A good website is an extension of an organization. The tone and feel of the website should be consistent with the overall brand. There should also be a consistency between the pages on the site, a natural flow that is present throughout. However, the website should be consistent not only with itself, but with the conventions of the rest of the web as well. While it can be tempting to be unique and artsy, being too adventurous and unconventional can lead to miscommunication. When using call to actions, for example, users should be able to easily identify and understand them. You may wish to follow some of the language and conventions used by major online brands, like Amazon, Facebook, or Google.

9. Avoid Automatic Media

While more of a faux pas than a rule, automatic media has quickly become a major no-no in the design community. Things like scrolling text, auto-playing sounds or videos, carousels, and sliders are more distracting and harmful to a viewing experience than anything else. Additionally, organizations should consider allowing users to alter the text and layout of a website. Locking down the text size can be very limiting for some viewers, especially those with poor vision.

10. Track, Report, and Adjust

If your goal is constant website improvement, you should use every tool in your belt. Don’t be shy about testing something new, but be sure to track and analyze how effective it was. Make sure to take advantage of website analytics; organizations can now identify how viewers find their page, where they go first, and where they stay longest. They can measure how people scroll and how they interact with the site. If an organization finds that certain elements are underperforming, they should be moved or replaced altogether. Use the available data to optimize every component of your website, and your organization will enjoy more satisfied viewers and higher conversion rates.

By taking all of the above into account, your association will have a sleek new website in no time!

The post Why Legal Associations Should Care About Their Website to Increase Online CLE Sales appeared first on Online Learning Solutions | Association Management System | Vocalmeet.

It is no surprise that in-person events and conferences require a lot of time due to the meticulous planning and execution needed for a successful event. In addition, extensive advertising and promotions are a must in order for associations to maximize their return on investment. Hosting virtual events is no different, with one additional caveat. For associations whose attendees may not be as familiar with attending virtual events, keeping the user experience in mind is even more critical.

With virtual events, the typical presentation-in-a-room style disappears and the attendee is interacting with the speaker and other attendees in different ways. Although virtual events give attendees the opportunity to attend from anywhere, they come with their own challenges and obstacles if presenters and event organizers are not prepared. Acknowledging and preparing well for an online event will allow associations to avoid any unpleasant surprises.

By following these ten tips, associations will be able to overcome common online obstacles and host virtual events that are engaging and valuable for members.

1. Ensure you have a full plan in place just as you would for in-person events

Virtual events can require even more planning and coordination prior to the event, as face-to-face communication is limited or even non-existent on the day of the event. This includes setting expectations for your presenters (i.e. when it’s time for them to speak and for how long, if there are other presenters within the same session, etc.), as well as for your team. Each team member must be aware of their responsibilities for the virtual event, such as who is doing the introduction, managing online attendance, moderating questions, and handling technical support to name a few.

2. Conduct platform training for presenters and team members, including technology checks for audio, webcam and screen share functionalities

To ensure a seamless virtual experience for attendees, presenters and team members must be comfortable with how the platform works. Train your presenters well in-advance of the event so team members can focus on helping attendees on the day of the event. Conduct several technology tests prior to and have a plan in place for when technical glitches do occur, such as setting up a support line or an FAQ section with potential common issues.

3. Have clear and structured PowerPoint slides (if you are using PowerPoint slides)

With virtual events, attendees may be required to focus on their screens for a potentially long period of time. It is important to ensure presenter’s slides are clear and easy to follow. One key suggestion is to use limited texts and instead use suitable graphics. Other things to consider are using large enough fonts and high contrast colors. All these factors will help attendees be more attentive to the presenters while having effective visuals that reinforce the speech.

4. On the day of the virtual event, start by setting clear objectives and expectations for attendees

In a virtual setting, the initial instructions will set the standard for the entire event. Be mindful that many of your attendees may have never attended virtual events previously, and are unaware of online protocols. For example, provide clear directions on when attendees should unmute audio, use public chat and private chat, ask questions, etc. The recommendation is for attendees to unmute audio only when they need to speak, use the public chat for question & answer and private chat to speak directly to moderators or other attendees. Also, be clear on when presenters will address questions, when breaks are happening, etc. Of course, you can modify these instructions throughout the event as you see fit, but it is important to establish accurate expectations from the very beginning.

5. Foster an active virtual environment

Fostering an active virtual environment begins with the presenter. Presenters should enter the virtual room a minimum of 15 minutes in advance, always have their webcam on, welcome each attendee as they join as much as possible, and start by giving attendees a little background on themselves. This will help reduce the feeling of anonymity during virtual events. Encourage presenters to take the time to get to know their participants better in the beginning. In larger sessions, this can be done by doing a quick poll. This will help presenters deliver content that is more tailored to their virtual audience. Presenters can also take advantage of other features like shared notes and whiteboard collaboration to foster engagement.

6. Offer a combination of live and on-demand virtual sessions to better accommodate the schedule of attendees

With virtual events, it is important to recognize that your attendees may not be able to attend a virtual event for 2-3 days at a time. Participation in virtual events may be pushed down the priority list as attendees juggle other competing tasks at home or at work. Consider pre-recording certain sessions to be offered on-demand on the scheduled day, as well as offering a few live virtual sessions. This will not only give your attendees some flexibility and improve their virtual experience, while also giving you more control over the quality of the virtual sessions.

7. Provide opportunities to network virtually

With in-person events, attendees find a lot of value in being able to engage and network with speakers, sponsors, and other attendees. With virtual events, networking opportunities are also important. This can be done by setting up smaller breakout rooms to allow attendees to better engage with one another, or by having sponsored breaks and allowing sponsors to interact with the group. Read our article for more information on how to engage sponsors online.

Additionally, ensure that you have open lines of communication throughout the virtual event via social media or discussion forums on your conference site. All these channels will help attendees feel a sense of community regardless of where they are joining in from.

8. Choose a user-friendly and easy-to-navigate platform

Just like how choosing the right venue is key for in-person events, choosing a virtual platform that is user-friendly that meets your needs is also crucial. The end-to-end virtual experience includes the registration and e-commerce processes, as well as event log-in. The most seamless experience occurs when attendees do not need to download software in order to join your online event. They must also be able to access the virtual event via any device (i.e. computer, phone, tablet, etc.). When it comes to event completion, consider if attendees receive certificates for continuing education sessions and if they need to complete an evaluation form. These processes must also be straightforward.

Additionally, on top of having an intuitive platform, it is important to provide an appropriate level of technical support and resources throughout the end-to-end virtual experience as some attendees may not be tech-savvy.

9. Add feedback and evaluate mechanisms

The best way to improve is to build feedback into your event. With virtual events, feedback can be taken during the sessions via polls, or at the end of the event with a full evaluation survey. In-session feedback is valuable as responses can be gathered with advance reporting in real-time to show how attendees are feeling throughout the event and gauge their engagement level, which can all be used immediately to improve subsequent sessions.

Furthermore, if you have a dedicated digital marketing team, leverage any real-time feedback gathered to create more personalized and directed messages to individual attendees throughout the event in order to increase their engagement and participation levels.

10. Have a post-event marketing strategy in place

Continue to engage attendees and other target audiences after the virtual event is over. Let attendees know where and how they can access recorded sessions. The best way to do this is to host the recorded sessions on your conference site that attendees are already familiar with. Additionally, promote the recorded sessions to other members of your association and non-members who could not attend the live virtual event.

Ongoing marketing and promotions will ensure that future virtual events are well-attended. Promote what was great about the event by sharing images on your website and social media channels, as your association would after an in-person event. Use email marketing to reach your members who did not participate in the live virtual event, and let them know how they can access top relevant content from the event. Having a post-event marketing strategy in place allows associations to get a longer-lived value from the investment of time and money.

The post 10 Tips for Hosting Engaging Virtual Events for Associations appeared first on Online Learning Solutions | Association Management System | Vocalmeet.

In-person events such as seminars, conferences and conventions, have long been the staple of associations’ non-dues revenue streams. In fact, as much as 41% consider it their most valuable source of ancillary earnings, according to Association Adviser. Organized properly, they can certainly help diversify revenue, create necessary brand recognition and member loyalty. However, in-person events can also require massive time and resource investments, meticulous planning and execution, as well as relentless advertising in order to be successful and profitable. A clever way to increase the return on investment is to boost revenue from in-person events by selling merchandise, offering sponsorship packages, and so on. Nevertheless, the financial benefits of these add-ons are singular and often marginal, as in-person events cannot be recreated once completed. If ticket sales are less than expected, the association may even end up in a deficit situation.

There is, however, a more effective and simple way to tackle the issue: offering blended events, where in-person sessions are complemented with online offerings. This is exactly what the organization we discuss below did; they were able to increase conference revenue from $250,000 in 2017 to $300,000 in 2018. How did they get an additional $50,000? Keep reading to find out!

NOTE: It is important to point out that there are times when in-person events may not at all be possible. Having full on-demand events or blended on-demand events (live online and on-demand) can have similar results.

The WHY of Online Events

Offering online events that can be viewed on-demand allows for a level of versatility and increases in revenue that cannot be achieved with onsite-only events. It gives members unabridged access to content, and provides more opportunities to monetize in-person events. Once digitized, event sessions have many uses. For example, conference sessions can be sold as individual online presentations, grouped into thematic sections or sold as a package. Whatever you decide to do with the content, the key is to figure out what works best for your association.

A CASE IN POINT: How an association added 20% to their revenue by recording a single conference session and offering it online

Let’s consider the following scenario. Imagine an organization, let’s call it Association of Professionals or AP for short. AP is an association with a voluntary membership of roughly 10,000 members, offering professional services and events, along with an annual conference. The conference is used as a revenue stream, as well as an effort to engage members through networking and the sharing of ideas and industry insights. Like many associations, to entice members and increase attendance, AP offers professional development (PD) or continuing education (CE) credits as part of their conference. This type of incentive is especially pertinent to industries with mandatory continuing education or training requirements.

Every year the AP board sits down to discuss the upcoming event and review the previous ones for reference and improvement. This time around the procedure was no different, two of the past conferences—2017 and 2018—were compared and analyzed. There was just one caveat: one of the 2018 conference sessions had been recorded and available on-demand, so the revenues were no longer similar to revenues in the past. In fact, there was a significant difference in revenue between the two events.

Consider this: only 1,000 people or 10% of AP’s membership participated in both conferences. It was a two-day event with 20 sessions per day. The total revenue earned in the 2017 conference came up to $250,000 from all tickets sold, and the total for the 2018 conference rose to $300,000 with the additional revenue from the one recorded session.

The HOW of Online Events

AP was able to generate additional revenue in a one-year period after the conference. They achieved this by recording one session from the 2018 conference, and making it available on-demand for $50 using an online learning platform accessible through their website. In this case, only 1,000 of AP’s 10,000 members bought the video. Imagine what could be achieved with more than one session recorded and a good marketing strategy!

Now that you’re sold on offering a combination of in-person and online sessions for your conference, let’s discuss the different things that an association can do to take their in-person events online and broaden their member reach to increase conference revenue.

Some speakers are comfortable being recorded live, while others are not. Regardless, always consider pre-recording their presentations. Speakers can record their own presentations using the camera on a mobile device or a webinar platform. Ensure that the association conference team checks the recordings for best quality.

• Develop a conference site for online conference registrations: keep it simple, and offer all-access passes that allow attendees to access all on-demand sessions.
• On the day of the conference, launch the on-demand pre-recorded sessions on your conference site.
• For live webinars or live-streamed sessions on the day of the conference, plan well with the speakers and have an online moderator. Remember to record these sessions and add to your on-demand conference platform.
• Limit the number of live-streamed events on the day of the conference, especially if you have limited staff.
• You may consider offering online access for an extended period of time to encourage exposure to your entire membership (for more on this, see our article on offering benefits to sponsors online).
• Offer cost-efficient pricing online for broad attendance and consider matching with discount codes for membership renewal. For example, if a member purchases on-demand conference access, then they get a certain percentage off of their membership.
• If you have a community platform, include this channel as a form of communication for the day of the conference and post-conference questions.

CONCLUSION: The sky’s the limit for revenue increase from on-demand events and conferences

Remember that only 10% of AP’s members took part in the conference. This means a huge chunk of 9,000 people or 90% of AP’s audience and its potential revenue remained untapped. Some of those members might have not been interested in traveling and paying for food and accommodation, others might have not wanted to take valuable time off work. Regardless of the reason, the costs of such inaction could be far too high, especially for associations with small non-dues revenue streams.

Moreover, let’s not forget about the non-members. Having a quality mandatory lecture or highly sought-after speaker at your conference could surely drive up traffic from outside of the member perimeter. In turn, this would create additional revenue as non-member fees are often higher. Having an online conference site also serves as a means to promote your events to both members and non-members.

Since scalability is truly limitless, such an investment can yield solid returns rain or shine. In fact, it’s a gift that keeps on giving as your conference, speakers and sponsors are constantly being promoted through the online sessions. With potential returns like what we described with AP, the benefits of offering event and conference content online are boundless, and the sky’s truly the limit.

In today’s dynamic environment, doing what was done yesterday is no longer a formula for success. The sooner associations adapt new technologies, the better off they are to respond to any external challenges and thrive in this new environment.

The post The Why and The How of Online Events and Conferences 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.

The post 10 Ways for Associations to Offer Benefits for Sponsors and Exhibitors Online appeared first on Online Learning Solutions | Association Management System | Vocalmeet.

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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Not everyone feels the same about technology, so associations shouldn’t expect every member to welcome technological changes with open arms. Each generation and each individual relies on technology in considerably different ways. While some use it in nearly every aspect of their lives and can adopt new innovations easily, others use it more sparingly and may find it challenging to learn new technologies.

For those members who interact with technology infrequently, innovative changes can be met with resistance, which can be the result of discomfort, insecurity, and fear. That doesn’t mean that these members will never adopt new technology, it just that technology changes need to be implemented carefully and with intention. The following information highlights just some of the steps that associations can take to ensure every member, irrespective of their level of technological comfort, is prepared for a technology update.

Understand the Fear of Change

To properly address member’s feelings toward change, associations must first understand them. Psychologically, the fear of change is connected to the fear of the unknown. In regards to adopting a new technology, this fear comes from the uncertainty of success while using it. Older members or those more unfamiliar with technology are likely comfortable completing tasks in more traditional ways.

To help overcome these fears, associations can provide some clarity to members. This might include clearly explaining what the technology is, how it works, and how it benefits each member. Ensure that hesitant members feel assured and confident that their concerns are heard and supported. Keep the communication lines open and the messages clear to help ease the transition along as best as possible.

Show Them the Value

When presenting the prospect of change to an unsure party, a powerful way to get buy-in is to demonstrate the value the change will bring. Rather than provide a list of features offered by the new technology, show users how this change will result in time or cost savings. Show them how tasks will be made simpler and easier to manage.

How value is communicated is also important. Focus on the intuitiveness of the technology. Keep the messages themselves simple, using analogies and relatable examples. Avoid any jargon or tech-speak to ensure all members get the message. This should not be limiting either. Instead, it should help keep the communications clear and concise, as well as understandable for a diverse member demographic.

Know Your Audience

In order to present ideal communications and create an effective technology roll-out plan, associations need to know their members and what they need and want from their membership. When addressing the value new technology can bring, for example, consider what value means to the different demographics. Highlight various elements of the technology that might speak to the different subsets.

It might even be beneficial to create different value presentations and communications. Separate members into different groups and use targeted mailing or advertising campaigns, like Mailchimp or Facebook, to send personalized communications to them. Each group will see only the information, features, and the value that speaks directly to them. For the roll-out itself, offer different options for different members. Make training optional or provide different training courses so as to not alienate more tech-savvy members.

Provide an Orientation

Since members are on different levels when it comes to technology familiarity and comfort, what appears simple for one user might be quite complex for another. For that reason, no matter how basic or easy to use a newly introduced technology might seem, it’s important to provide usage instructions and support. This ensures that no member gets stuck or locked out of a technology based on their experience level.

Associations can post a recorded visual demonstration highlighting the primary controls of the technology. A written or visual walkthrough can be linked for additional support. Users should also get access to a glossary to help them identify any terms they may be unfamiliar with. Any training or support documents should be written clearly and headlines and sections should be plainly marked. For the more complex technology additions, associations may look at offering training courses. This can be a useful way to ensure users know enough to use the technology successfully.

Take Baby Steps

While some users can handle a full roll-out without any problem, others need a slower and more deliberate introduction. If any resistance is in place, a new technology can prove overwhelming for some users. Associations should take time with these roll-outs. Give users a chance to learn different elements of the technology, taking in small pieces at a time, before giving them the entire system. Offer small trial runs of a basic version of the technology to give users a running start.

Providing a slow roll-out can be done through communications or through training. With a paced-out introduction to technology, users can build some familiarity and comfort in one aspect before moving on. Problems can be addressed in sections and solved before they become too large and discouraging. This approach also demonstrates to users that the association is considerate of their feelings, taking the time to assist all members make the most of the new technology.

Ask for Input

The final step, and arguably the most important, for closing the technological gap is to ask members and potential users of the technology for their input. After introducing or proposing the technology, reach out to members for feedback. Ask them to voice their questions and concerns about the roll-out. What is missing? What looks most challenging? After they participate in training or demonstrations or they use the technology for a short period of time, ask members where they struggled or where the technology missed the mark.

Associations will still want to try and preempt these concerns in communications and training materials, but this input can highlight things that were not considered. It will also prove to members that their feelings are considered and valued, especially when the association follows through and addresses this feedback.

The post Taking the Fear Out of Updating Your Association’s Technology appeared first on Online Learning Solutions | Association Management System | Vocalmeet.

Most Associations strive to bring in more new members and keep existing members, but many don’t know how to accomplish this.

By observing the trends in The 2017 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report, I created a best practices list based on the actions of the highest-performing associations with over 80% member retention yearly. The following list highlights what the most successful associations are doing to keep members interested and provides a helpful map of what others can do to follow.

1. Have a Strategic Engagement Plan

The most basic and perhaps the most important principle to increasing member retention is to have a plan in place. Of the associations with more than 80% retention rates, 68% have a strategic engagement plan laid out. The best of these plans start from the very first contact. Once a member joins, call them personally or send them a welcome kit.

2. Provide Benefits Right Away

A significant number of successful associations offer members a free trial membership to start. This helps build member loyalty right away. From there, many associations in the highest category offer membership discounts for the remainder of the year. Many even discount membership dues for the second year, keeping in mind that securing member commitments for first and second years are the most challenging obstacles.

3. Utilize Continuing Education Online

Associations reporting renewal rates of 80% or higher indicate that specialized information, continuing education (online) and advocacy are significant member drivers. This is compared to associations with less than 60% renewal rates that consider publications and supporting the mission of the association to be the reasons members join the association.

4. Embrace Mobility and Social Media

Associations in the top retention bracket also have the largest membership base of millennials. This could be because these associations put a substantially larger emphasis on connecting with members through social networking websites, such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Mobile access and ease of connectivity is also a major contributor to these associations improving their digital footprint and increasing the number of millennial members. It should also be noted that those that use digital marketing techniques for recruitment and retention, see more members retained year after year.

5. Provide More Membership Incentives

According to the Marketing Benchmark Report, associations with greater than 80% renewal rates find that granting members access to specialized content is a powerful driver for retention. For example, of these associations, 41% offer certifications as part of the membership package. Some simply package content or offer multiple years of membership at discounted rates.

6. Improve Engagement Opportunities

The more a member is engaged with an association the more likely they are to renew their membership. Therefore, the most effective associations focus on improving associational engagement opportunities. Associations that see increases in event and webinar attendance and/or growth in member website visits and service purchases are the associations that see the best retention rates.

7. Increase Non-Dues Revenues From Members

Members that rely on their associations for things like industry training, certifications, products, networking events, and subscriptions are much more likely to renew their memberships. This is fairly straightforward. To engage members in associational initiatives, the most successful associations find new ways of offering value to members and this often results in non-dues revenues increasing.

8. Offer Members a Sliding Membership Scale and More

For the associations that offer many different levels of services, the most successful see extremely positive responses to offering a sliding membership scale, giving members the choice of what benefits they wish to pay for and receive. Find out what members truly want through member research. Try different things and gauge the response.

9. Start Renewing Members Months in Advance

One of the things that most of the best-performing associations have in common is they almost all start the renewal process months before the membership expiration date. Most begin the process within two to three months before the membership is up, allowing members time to consider their options without going past the deadline.

10. Don’t Be Afraid To Call Members When It Comes Time to Renew

The vast majority of the most successful associations find between three and four contact attempts is the sweet spot when trying to get members to renew. They use different types of contact as well. This blend is important. While email is the most common starting point and the most successful touch point, only 15% of the associations with over 80% retention do NOT use the phone. In other words, 85% find that a phone call is a very useful, personal and necessary renewal tool for retention.

11. Call Your Members More Often For Improvements All Over

While 49% of the most successful associations feel that the phone is best renewal tool, the phone is also useful in other ways. Phone calls are the best way to create brand awareness in members as well. It adds a personal element to the association. The phone is also a powerful resource when trying to call members to action for a new association initiative, such as a conference, a webinar, or for a networking event.

12. Improve Your Email Touch Points

Though this may seem obvious, associations looking to improve retention rates should place a larger focus on the content and quality of emails. This is because the associations with great retention rates see much better open rates for emails than the others. It is integral that associations find a way to ensure members see a benefit to each email touch point and have a desire to open them.

13. Offer Renewal Payment Plans in Installments

Within the most successful group of associations, grace and flexibility are extremely common. The majority of these associations offer members the chance to pay dues as part of an installment plan (a percentage almost twice as high as those that require a lump sum).

14. Allow a Grace Period After Memberships Expire

One of the largest majorities within the successful associations in the Benchmark Report is witnessed in the grace period allowed after a membership expires. An astounding 83% of these associations allow members to receive member benefits for a significant period of time after their membership has run its course. Of that group, 70% give three months of grace. This is important because it allows members more time to reconsider letting their membership expire.

15. Don’t Give Up On Expired Memberships

Many successful associations find calling former members six months after the membership expired is a good time to attempt to recover former members. Offering these expired memberships discounts on the next year’s dues proves to be an effective strategy to inspire members to renew their membership.

Conclusion

Even though the focus of this best practices list is on member retention, there is a far-reaching and significant ripple effect demonstrated within the report. For instance, the associations that reported more than 80% renewals also experienced the greatest growth in both new memberships and overall five-year memberships. Interestingly, their growth isn’t the result of higher operating budgets, as the 80%+ group actually had a lower median operating than the associations with 60% retention or less. Another positive is that most of these successful associations found that raising member dues year over year (typically 10% or less) was completely acceptable for members.

Sources: The 2017 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report

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Today’s online consumers report that ads are more pervasive, more plentiful, and more intrusive than ever before. As a result of years of being bombarded with ads, online users have developed banner blindness, the subconscious ability to ignore banner ads. While many believe this is only relevant to certain ad placement, it goes much further than that. According to a survey administered by Goo Technologies, 82% of Americans ignore all online ads, regardless of location. For online marketers, that’s a troubling statistic.

Online marketing changes all the time, but there are rarely philosophical shifts in regards to how ads are created. Sure, ads have become more intelligent and personalized, but the vast majority are still one-off advertisements hoping to catch consumers at the right place and the right time. Well, multi-channel marketing or omnichannel marketing is looking to move beyond hope. This new wave of online marketing looks to create multiple advertising touch-points spread across various channels, all connected in one cohesive campaign. The results from these multi-channel campaigns have been incredible, but, surprisingly, few organizations are taking advantage of the advertising strategy.

Here are the main reasons Why Associations Should Consider Multi-Channel Marketing Campaigns.

1. Avoid Being Avoided

As consumers are becoming more blind to online ads, marketers need to find new ways of capturing interest. Each online channel, whether it is through Facebook, Twitter, video, or on a mobile device, demands a different type of interaction and engagement. Multi-channel marketing is much more than simply increasing the number of touch points. It is about customizing each touch point based on the channel it is on. By itself, this customization captures and challenges the consumer’s eye more than the standard ad. Together, as part of a larger cohesive campaign, the ad elevates.

When a multi-channel marketing campaign starts with a strong central idea, the individual ads all benefit from it. Each ad contributes to stronger brand recognition, but each ad also contributes to a larger message. Some associations may use a common color theme or slogan, whereas others may use a different device to connect the campaign. If the ads are consistent and connected, they can become an effective and memorable platform. In a small way, these interconnected touchpoints demand a level of problem-solving from the consumer which has a lasting and impressionable effect.

2. Spend Marketing Dollars More Wisely

Online marketers understand and accept that most ads are ignored and forgotten. The goal of multi-channel marketing is to create several standalone ads that are integrated into a larger common theme. This integration creates a cohesive, unified message. According to Kantar Millward Brown, these integrated campaigns are up to 31% more effective at building brands than the alternative. This is because, even though they may seem more complex, integrated campaigns use various visual and audio cues to trigger consumer recognition. The more recognizable an ad is the more memorable and effective it is.

There is another level to multi-channel marketing that makes it even more impressionable: customization. As discussed, the most effective multi-channel marketing campaigns are also customized to the different channels. As a whole, an integrated and customized marketing campaign catches the consumers interest in specific ways depending on the channel it is viewed on. Kantar Millward Brown’s study on multi-channel marketing suggests that campaigns that are both integrated and customized perform up to 57% more effectively than those that are not. This is because each touchpoint is not only performing at the optimal levels of effectiveness as a channel-specific ad, but they are also part of a larger campaign.

3. The Time is Right

Multi-channel marketing online is right on time. For one of these campaigns to be most effective, the customization on each channel must be optimized and the entire strategy must be integrated. Well, we know that consumers are no longer one channel users. In fact, millennials are often considered challenging targets for marketers because they utilize so many different channels. By targeting each channel and customizing ads based on how users interact with that channel, multi-channel marketing will become associated with this modern channel-surfing behavior.

Additionally, we know how users interact within each channel, meaning true and proper personalization and customization can be created. We know our consumers and how they consume, and we understand the technology. Finally, many of the different channels are being used more than ever before or ever again. It’s time that knowledge was put to use. This is the time to jump in and create a multi-channel marketing strategy.

4. More Accurate Data

For online marketers, multi-channel marketing has one major advantage over traditional marketing that might be the most beneficial: more accurate response data. Currently, simple push marketing provides associations with information about the consumer’s actions that is more about the channel than it is about the ad or the user. Since ads are not customized or varied between channels, marketers expect consumers to react and respond to each ad within each channel the same across the board. But we have the consumption data about each channel and know that isn’t the case.

Multi-channel marketing provides data that tells marketers exactly how an ad on that specific channel is performing. If one ad in the campaign is struggling, marketers can fix it or eliminate it based on the data provided. As consumer data becomes more effective, so too does multi-channel marketing. Furthermore, the current targeted ad technology in combination with multi-channel marketing allows marketers to create ads that are so customized and personalized that the consumer’s actions will be about as detailed and accurate as it gets. In advertising, knowing exactly where your possible consumers stand is half the battle.

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