Marketing & Communications for Associations

The goal of any association management company (AMC) is to help their clients develop and execute their strategies and programs to serve their membership. By bringing together a team of professionals from various specialties– including non-profit management, event planning, communications, accounting, and operations management– each team member understands the role that marketing and communications plays on association outcomes.

In today’s world, your marketing and communication strategies must vary in style and channel, meeting the needs of differing members or audiences. Continue reading to learn about three ways to boost your marketing and communication strategies.

1. Define Your Goals and Your Target Audience

The foundation of any successful marketing or communications campaign lies in your ability to clearly define your goals and audience. Are you looking to increase membership in the new year? Promote registration for an upcoming event? Or are you notifying your audience of an approaching deadline? Whatever the case may be, identifying your goals and audience will determine factors such as the length, language, or timing of your marketing initiatives.

2. Create and Execute Your Strategies

How will you inform, engage, and inspire action? Your communications should drive specific outcomes– whether notifying your members about events, membership updates, or navigating their experience. Will your older members be reached best through social media or a letter in the mail? Do lifetime donors need the same message as new members? When selecting communication channels, consider the values and preferences of each group.

3. Analyze Your Results

By dedicating time to review analytics such as your content engagement, post impressions, or follower growth, your communications team will be able to identify which strategies are working and which should be replaced. By doing this, you help answer the question of “How can my social media strategies better align with our business objectives?”. When you take a moment to pause, reflect and adapt, you are maximizing your social media presence and creating a more meaningful connection with your audience.