Collateral
A professional association sent out a notification to their members every day containing consulting opportunities they might like to apply for. A new staff member at the association thought sending an email out every day was excessive and changed it to a weekly email. The association was inundated with complaints from members who loved the daily business opportunities arriving in their inbox.
Continually sending out “one-size-fits all” communications will cause a decline in your readership and a disengagement that could then spread to other aspects of your membership.
Your goal is to make every communication so relevant to your members that when a communication from you arrives in their inbox or on their desk that they will read it right away. In this example the communication from the association was so valuable they would have been happy to receive it twice a day.
It is vital that you tailor your communications to the needs and interests of your readers – and where possible segment your communications so your readers receive a publication (whether electronic or hard copy) tailored to them. This includes prospective membership brochures, new member kits, magazines, email bulletins, event brochures and all other hard and soft copy collateral.
It is also important that you integrate social media channels, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter into your communication strategies to determine how they can best be used to deliver value to your members.