Archive for April, 2008
April 30, 2008
Fine Print Is for the Young
Posted by Kevin | (3) Comments | Print This Article
It’s official: I am getting old. I find myself changing designs on a regular basis now to increase the type size. In fact, I just changed the stylesheet for this blog to make the text bigger. (Edit: I wish Acronym would do the same.) No glasses yet, but they are coming. Sigh.
April 30, 2008
We Are Pleased to Announce a Major Initiative In Which You Might Be Vaguely Interested
Posted by Kevin | (3) Comments | Print This Article
Associations love to do “big” things. We love to launch “major initiatives.” I think it’s because we love making a big announcement. You know, sending out the press releases, maybe holding a big launch at an annual meeting, proudly announcing a major new program that is going to revolutionize our sphere. Associations love to do big things, because you can’t grow big by thinking small, right?
Wrong.
In fact, I think starting small is almost always preferable. The revolutions that really impact an association — the discovery of a new program, the development of a new tool that makes members’ lives easier, a sea change in the way programs are developed and made available, the growth of transparent conversations between members, finding new ways to make members feel heard and special — these are all things that can make a profound impact on the association’s bottom line, create new value for customers and members, and almost never get “announced”. They’re the things that make the association viable and successful, but tend to get pushed aside and ignored by folks eager for a shot in the spotlight with their “major, earth-shattering, world-colliding, paradigm-shifting, life-will-never-be-the-same initiative.”
We should all keep a scorecard of how many “major initiatives” turn into actual programs that make a real difference in the lives and businesses of members and how many just get thrown overboard next year for the “next big thing.” (If your new initiative involves “people sitting around and talking about something important,” then you can pretty much just assume that it made little difference. To the majority of your members, it was, at most, just background noise happening somewhere else.)
April 28, 2008
Another Completely Off-Topic Aside
Posted by Kevin | (2) Comments | Print This Article
Sam Phillips is a singer/songwriter of quiet intelligence and mystifying obscurity. Her next album, “Don’t Do Anything,” will finally be released on June 3 and I can’t wait. Here’s a video for one of the new songs. And, here’s an older song with an admittedly cheesy video from 1994 (this song somehow showed up on the soundtracks of a few ’90s romance movies and I can only imagine the producers never bothered to listen to the lyrics).
April 27, 2008
What Do Your Members Really DO?
Posted by Kevin | (3) Comments | Print This Article
I always talk a lot about knowing your market, serving your market, not trying to be too broad for fear of losing your market, etc. But Tony Rossell’s comment on my last post made me think that I want to make sure I’m not sending the wrong message here.
When I say you should know who your core market is, fundamental to that is that you should know what it is they REALLY “DO” … perhaps better than some of them even know it.
To use a silly example, if there had been a Horse & Buggy Association way back in the day, and if they’d paid close attention to what their market really DOES, then they’d still be around today … even though horse-and-buggys certainly aren’t.
Similarly, if railroads had believed that they were in the business of moving freight rather than in the business of running railroads, then the trucking industry would look very different today. (I know, I know, there are lots of intricacies involved in the history of interstate commerce and the regulation thereof, but allow me this one simplistic example.)
Anyway … believing fervently in your market and your ability to serve it requires that you understand what it really DOES. It’s key for the success of your association, but even more importantly, pretty darn key for the success of your members.
April 26, 2008
A Killer App for Mac?
Posted by Kevin | (3) Comments | Print This Article
If you work on writing projects that involve keeping track of research and shifting outlines around (whether it’s articles, reports, presentations, or whatever), then you should check out Scrivener. If you don’t have a Mac, it will make you want to switch. It may be the most useful little software program ever.
April 24, 2008
What’s Your Sweet Spot?
Posted by Kevin | (10) Comments | Print This Article
You’ve got a “sweet spot.” EVERYONE does.
I know, as associations, we represent a whole industry or a whole profession. But the fact is, trying to be equally pleasing and equally valuable to an entire large group can be a recipe for madness. You’ll waste precious moments and resources trying to make everybody happy so they’ll join or renew, and at the end of the day, only certain types of members will find you pleasing or valuable enough to not only “belong” but also participate in programs and invest in other services and products …. while you desperately try to get other types to do the same thing.
We finally figured out last year, through a variety of data mining projects, exactly what our sweet spot was. A type of company that provides the biggest return to the organization, both through participation in programs and purchasing of services and products. It is luckily a sweet spot with plenty of room for growth.
When you evaluate your members with a hard nose and solid data, it will become quite clear to you that not all members are created equal. When you stop looking at members as “people who pay dues” and start looking at them as “people who participate and engage and purchase other products and services,” you’ll find a remarkably clear path to new services, products and benefits that will make those members happier — and bring in more of the same.
To get there you must have the courage to say, “THESE are the members we want … and THOSE are the ones we don’t.” But first you have to figure out which is which.
UPDATE: Just want to make sure you read the comments to this post if you’re coming here from somewhere else, as several people have had some very interesting insights and clarifications on this topic.