Feeding Social: A Collaborative Effort

Companies everywhere are trying to harness the amplification and audience-building powers of social media. As social business gets more entrenched, companies are on the hot seat to consistently generate standout content that informs, engages and nurtures the learning (and buying) cycle. This has led to a dramatic rise in investments in content marketing.

To win the time and attention of its target audience, content must be informative and educational. To create great content, companies must build a culture of content and dismantle job role knowledge siloes in favor of collaboration to discover and build an arsenal of content that actually helps customers with their challenges.

According to the Content Marketing Institute’s B2B Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends 2015 report, B2B businesses are turning to the following social media channels to gain traction:

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Those surveyed reported the following rates of social network effectiveness for each channel:

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A Cluttered Content World 

Chase McMichael from Infinigraph shares what happens in a typical Internet minute now:

WhatHappenInAnInternetMinute

It can be overwhelming when you consider the amount of noise that your content will compete against to win the time and attention of your prospective customer. In this piece about essentials of successful content, KISSMetrics talks about how content must supply answers to customer questions. Content that answers the questions your prospects are typing into search engines is an important dimension, but you can also take this further based on internal company investigation.

You can start by asking your sales team, “What are the questions that prospects and customers ask you?” And, “Are there common, recurring challenges for the industries or types of businesses we serve?” Work within your company to find and articulate the patterns because they provide important clues to what kind of content will be worth curating and sharing, as well as creating. Once published and shared, content that educates, like a company blog post, can have a long digital life as it works to attract visitors and search engines to your site.

Harvesting the Knowledge Wealth Within

Experts exist in every part of your company and have much to contribute, but it’s often up to the content strategist to help them realize they are the keepers of such great information. John Bell talks about a number of great strategies you can use to encourage your internal experts to be part of the collaboration process. When developing and nurturing internal thought leadership, it’s important to find ways to motivate your internal voices. Empower them to share articles and information they would normally only share within their department or with a few potential customers.

Here are some questions you can ask colleagues to discover which forms of content your company should be investing in:
Sales

  • In your sales calls with customers or prospective customers, what are the most common topics of discussion? Sometimes you can find informative content on these hot topics on your company web site, but other times it will need to be created.
  • What resources or tools do you send to prospects to help educate them about how the company offering can help solve the challenges they face? Research from the Corporate Executive Board Company shows B2B buyers are 57% of the way through the purchase cycle before they actually pick up the phone to talk with sales. Sales tools can be repurposed into content for your web site.
  • Do you ever send 3rd party materials (like analyst reports or industry studies) to add context and information that helps customers navigate the solution marketplace? If the answer is yes, you should link to these and reference them in content you develop.
  • What sorts of materials do customers tell you are the most helpful? Are there specific formats they prefer or find easiest to digest (for example, white papers, short videos or infographics)? Where, why and how your customers spend their time and what they use to make decisions should guide your content strategy.

Product Management

  • Who are the experts in the industry whose work you follow? Why do you follow them? What is important and relevant about their work and ideas? What others find inspiring may also help your target customers.
  • Do these experts bring up topics that engage you to write a rebuttal or respond with a different or opposite perspective? What moves you to take part in a debate may also be important to your customers. This is a clue that you should use to keep a pulse on these industry hot buttons. The instincts of experienced professionals are invaluable!

Support

  • Are customer questions being recorded? Common questions may be turned into useful marketing content for the company—for example webinars, white papers or blog posts.

Good content begins with taking stock of the wealth of information you have within. Employees are a company’s most precious asset—value them and invite them in to collaborate, be recognized and share what they know. The content you create will demonstrate their value and keep interest in your company high because its value is readily available on social channels.

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Get More White Paper Downloads with a Great Title

The title is one of the most important determining factors in whether your white paper is downloaded for reading or passed by in search of better content. Unfortunately, the white paper title is often approached as an after thought. And this can have damaging results. A lackluster title can severely impair the performance of an otherwise well-written paper.

Defining the title before you write can help give purpose and shape to the paper. For example, many tried and true attention-grabbing titles are based on formulas, such as “How to _______ in X easy steps” or “X Reasons Why ________ Fail.” These types of titles drive the structure of the paper.  When you write the paper first and title second, you limit your opportunity.

To improve the effectiveness of your next white paper, develop the title before you write the paper and use these tips to help you make the title great…

  • Focus on what’s in it for the reader. Your audience is out there looking for information because they have a problem that they need to solve. Tell people how you will solve the problem or give them a reason why they should listen to you.
  • Be specific. The needs of your potential customers vary greatly depending upon their industry, company, area of responsibility and current projects. Help your readers quickly identify what the paper is about and decide whether or not it’s applicable to them.
  • Balance creativity with relevance. Try to strike the right balance by giving the title enough personality to entice the reader, while still explaining what the paper is about. While a creative title may win you a chuckle, not many people will send their precious time downloading a paper just because it made them laugh.
  • Focus on Benefits, not Features. Benefits are the language of your customers. Features are the language of your engineers. Your customers don’t care if you have the fastest processor, strongest encryption or largest libraries. They care about the benefits those features will deliver, whether its cutting costs, supporting revenue growth or getting more done with less. So focus on what your product or services can do for your customers, not how it will do it.
  • Be succinct. Eliminate any unnecessary words and use the active voice to get your point across as quickly as possible (and avoid the awkwardness of the passive voice).
  • Be original. If you are syndicating your white paper, you will be competing with hundreds of other titles. After you have brainstormed and identified your short list of title favorites, do an Internet search for white papers on your chosen topic. If you find similar titles already available, cross them off your list. You cannot compete with a “me too” title.

There are hundreds of more tips available in books, blogs and articles. I’ve focused on the ones that I think are most important. If I’ve overlooked some, please feel free to weigh in with your suggestions.

P.S. Journalists that write for popular publications are masters of writing attention-grabbing and succinct titles. Perusing the headlines before you start your title brainstorming session can help get you in the right frame of mind and stimulate your creativity.

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Attain Wins “Awesome Campaign of the Year Award” from PR World

At Attain, developing winning PR campaigns is what we do.  We are especially proud of the team for its work on the Riding the Mobile Payments Wave campaign. Designed for the French security company, INSIDE Secure, the campaign netted the win of PR World’s Awesome Campaign of the Year.

The campaign included a comprehensive plan with a full arsenal of PR tactics deployed.

First, we targeted third party influencers leveraging analyst briefings with top payment security analysts, including Gartner heavyweight Avivah Litan, who gave our client two 1 hour briefings, which is very non-standard for non-clients of Gartner.

In tandem, we were busy getting the news out about INSIDE Secure by launching a rolling thunder campaign about the product, which included a momentum release about key wins with brand name customers.

Also during this time frame, we submitted the product for multiple industry awards.  The product line ended up claiming 4 major wins with information security and technology leading publications.

One of the successful components of the campaign was the use of both a short and long word article placement which had amazing success.  The longer piece was either placed verbatim or content was used in 8 different publications, all top payment trades.

Finally, we hired a survey firm and launched a holiday payments survey around a thought provoking trend and mobile payments.  The coverage for the associated press release with survey results netted almost 18 feature stories in a variety of popular trade and even business press publications.

As part of the survey, the graphics team developed an eye-candy infographic that was used in additional stories about holiday payments.

This comprehensive approach to PR campaigning is the most successful way to really make an impact across a vertical sector, gain credibility with industry influencers, produce insane coverage results and make a lasting impression with the target audiences you wish to reach.

We are honored to have received this recognition!

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Sales Collateral Success Tips: 4 Questions to Ask Before You Write

So you are finally ready to write that piece of marketing material that your sales department has been begging you to write for months. You know all the marketing mumbo jumbo about how your product or solution is better than any other thing out there. You know all the industry jargon and buzz words to include. You “know” because you read all the industry pubs and you keep tuned into the sales department – gathering feedback from the executive team and their people with feet on the street, who talk to sales prospects day in and day out.  And they’ve told you what to write… and what sales needs to close the deal easier, faster and for more dollars.

But if you take a step back for just a moment, you might just find out, what you don’t know is of the most critical importance. At times we all get so close to the products and services that we represent, that we are guilty of “drinking the company Kool-Aid.” Meaning we lose perspective of who we are marketing to and what our potential buyers actually think and need.

Understanding the answers to the following 4 questions and the impacts to your sales collateral strategy and messaging can make a huge difference to the effectiveness of your marketing materials. Ask these questions before you write any sales copy to arm yourself for success.

  1. Who is the intended audience? Consider whether your sales targets come from a business or technical orientation, and know the titles and job responsibilities of your prospective buyers. Understanding the persona of your perspective buyers (their goals, concerns, preferences and decision process) is critical to the development of engaging collateral. Avoid the “one piece will appeal to all” approach even if your buyers vary greatly from industry to industry or company to company. If necessary, write targeted collateral for each audience to maximize the effectiveness.
  2. What problem is your reader trying to solve? All too often sales collateral is written from the perspective of the vendor with little or no understanding of the business or technical issues the reader is trying to solve. If at all possible, talk to actual customers and ask them to explain the problem and how your product/service solves the problem. You may be surprised in the differences between your vocabulary and your customers’. Using their descriptions and terminology will make your collateral more impactful.
  3. When in the sales cycle will the collateral be used? The interests and attention span of your target buyer will vary greatly throughout the sales cycle. Let the stage define the depth of content and focus of the collateral. Early in the information gathering stage, keep the piece short and high-level with industry relevant and vendor neutral analysis of the topic. During the evaluation stage, supply your readers with more depth and useful product/service specific information that can help support the their decision process.
  4. Why should the reader spend his/her valuable time reading your collateral? Your prospective buyers are busy people, who suffer from complete information overload. To be worthy of their time, your collateral must offer something of value that cannot be easily accessed from other sources. Become familiar with content offered by competitors, analysts and media within the industry you serve. Strive to offer something with unique perspectives and value.
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Communicating Under Pressure

One of the fastest ways a company stands out from the crowd (for better or for worse) is how they communicate with the world when facing difficult circumstances. The tone that is set during these challenging times will resonate far and wide.

It is likely that your company will experience a delicate situation at some point in the future. (Perhaps you’ve already been through one.) What’s most important is how you communicate internally — with your executive team, other company leadership, and your employees. It is this tone that will then be conveyed outside your company, so you want to be sure to do a great job communicating internally before doing anything else.

Rumors of layoffs, potential buyouts, and pending lawsuits can spread like wildfire through your organization. Those rumors are often more frightening than the situation itself. Honest, clear communication from company leadership can put a halt to speculation and ease fears that may otherwise halt productivity and focus.

Yes, at times the details are classified or confidential. But if an information leak has occurred, it is better to devise a communications strategy before the news spirals out of your control. Rumors flying around internally soon make it outside of your company walls, and the media can disseminate the information — whether it is true or not — faster than you can contain it.

After communicating what you can with your teams, relaying a unified and thoughtful message to the rest of the world becomes priority. Your investor and public relations departments will be key in crafting and then communicating your message. Press releases, media alerts, television or radio interviews, blog posts, and social media, when used properly, can all relay your message quickly and clearly.

Honesty and transparency mixed with some tact and thoughtful compassion is a great formula for setting the tone of your message.

Accessibility, willingness to communicate, and reasonable response times can halt negative reactions and criticism.

Setting expectations appropriately and then meeting those expectations keeps trust in tact. (It’s always better to under-promise and over-deliver than over-promise and under-deliver!)

When a sensitive situation arises, balance out your speed of response with the time it takes to craft a thoughtful response. A hasty reaction without considering all of the potential impacts it may have is a mistake. The phrase, “slow is steady, steady is smooth, smooth is fast” is a good one to remember here!

Above all else, remember that you’re dealing with people and their lives. The situation you’re handling will have an impact on your employees and your customers. By being willing to put the people first, ahead of the company, you’ll gain loyalty and trust.

Let me give you an example.

The popular investment show Shark Tank recently featured a small home-grown business run by a young couple. They literally ran their business out of their garage, had no employees, and made many of their products by hand. They received a rather large investment from one of the “Sharks” and the moment their episode aired on TV, they sold out of every bit of product they had in stock.

Even factoring in the show’s estimated increase in business based off of past companies’ experiences, they surpassed those estimates by over 100%. They had to scale, and quickly! The holiday season was approaching, they had tens of thousands of new customers, and they simply could not keep up with demand.

What did they do? They communicated! They communicated often. It was with honesty, integrity, and compassion. They did their very best to ramp up production, hire a team, set up multiple manufacturing and fulfillment partnerships, train an entire customer service department, and handle the overwhelming response to their product.

Were they perfect at this process? Absolutely not. Some of the promises they made still weren’t met, they still had a large amount of unhappy customers, and it took them a number of months to get on their feet. But through it all they communicated with grace. When they were all caught up, they sent out an apology email with a large discount coupon for a future purchase. I’m certain they retained most of their new customers.

No company knows exactly what is coming around the next corner. No team or individual will always make the right decision in how to communicate during a crisis. However, making wise communication a priority during the tough times will strengthen your relationship with your employees and your customers. It is absolutely essential to success.

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Communicating Effectively with YOUR Audience

In a prior blog post, I discussed the fine line between keeping your company communications professional, yet personal.  I suggested that high-quality communications are a positive representation of your company, and a personal touch can really help to draw in your audience so that they make a connection with your company.  This balance is extremely important to maintain and can make a big difference in your marketing efforts.

Today, I’d like to take this a step further and talk about how to communicate effectively with your target audience.  All too often, companies miss the mark when talking about their products and services by not realizing that their audience may not have enough background knowledge to understand their technical terminology.  Even though your engineers and scientists may be able to explain company concepts most accurately, it’s important to “translate” this information into common, everyday language.

Here are a few keys to keep in mind:

  • Acronyms can be exhausting.  Even though the employees of your company may have them down pat, you cannot expect your customers to remember all of your acronyms.  If you are going to use them, be sure to define them clearly and often.  Limit the number of different acronyms you use.  Focus on the most important ones, and build recognition by repetition.
  • Internal company lingo or made-up words are cool, but they can also be confusing!  If you’re trying to get a new word to pick up traction with your target market, be sure to introduce it in a clever way and use repetition to make the word stick.  Eventually, it will hold some value – if you position it correctly.
  • Use examples, especially ones that give your audience a mental picture of what you’re talking about.  Some people learn best by visualizing.  Photographs, diagrams, and videos do a great job of saying a lot in a short amount of time.  A picture is worth a thousand words!
  • Step outside the box.  Or rather, step outside of your company’s four walls – and into the shoes of your audience!  A marketing or sales pitch that makes perfect sense during an internal planning meeting may not make a lot of sense to a stranger on the street.  (Have you ever seen a commercial that just made absolutely no sense to you, or was so off-the-wall that it actually made you not want to buy the product or service?  That’s the kind of thing I’m talking about.)  Do your research, test out your pitches on your target audience, and listen to their feedback.  It can be very valuable.
  • Ask for help.  Find someone on your team who is really good at taking technical, difficult-to-understand concepts, products, and terms, and have them help write the “everyday language” version of the information.  This person should be involved with your marketing and public relations team as well.  Then, leave it to the experts!  Your marketing team (whether internal or external) will be able to communicate your information even more clearly.  Often times it helps to have someone not associated with the company do the majority of your writing.  Because they have to first understand and grasp your concepts in order to write about them, they do a great job of putting it in a way that anyone will understand.

If you keep these tips in mind when preparing your sales and marketing communications, you will certainly notice a better response from your audience which will translate into more success for your company.  Not only do we want to keep our communications personal enough to be engaging and professional enough to garner respect, but we also want to speak appropriately and effectively to our audience.  Stay tuned for more communication tips in the future!

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What is Communication?

com·mu·ni·ca·tion [kuh-myoo-ni-key-shuh n] noun

  1. the act or process of communicating
  2. the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs
  3. a connecting route, passage, or link; a joining or connecting

Communication is one of the single most vital aspects of running a successful business. Great communication draws people in, informs them, and helps them engage in what you’re trying to accomplish. Poor communication drives rifts (often times irreparable) between companies and customers.

Communication is “the act or process of communicating.”

It is an “act” or a “process” – it requires deliberate action. Communication doesn’t just happen on its own. It requires careful planning and preparation, such as developing key messaging and a story that can be told, or putting together an elevator speech for that perfect once-in-a-lifetime moment you have to pitch your big idea. It includes crafting honest and genuine responses to questions, complaints, and criticisms that may come your way, and planning ways to say “thank you” to those loyal fans and followers who support you no matter what. Communication is deliberate.

Communication is “the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information…”

Communication is freely giving information to others. It requires anticipating those questions or concerns that you may receive, and providing answers before the question is even asked. It is sharing the details that go into why a decision is made or how you developed your idea. It is letting people in and trusting them with the details. And it is being brave enough to accept the flow of thoughts and opinions back to you, and then addressing that information.

Communication happens “…by speech, writing, or signs.”

I’d like to add that it also happens with behavior patterns, facial expressions, and what is not said. Companies communicate with press releases and press conferences, with magazine articles and televised interviews, with corporate filings and radio shows. They also communicate with blog posts, public forum responses, and Twitter and Facebook updates. Company spokespeople communicate with their body language, similes or sighs, and savvy avoidance of certain questions, too. They even communicate certain things by their style of dress, or the company culture that is portrayed on a website or in photos.

Finally, communication is “a connecting route, passage, or link; a joining or connecting.”

Communication is the way in which we reach our audience. It is how we relate to them, connect with them, and draw them in. It’s how we gain a team of loyal customers and followers who turn into spokespeople and brand ambassadors. Communication connects the business world to our personal lives, and makes others feel a part of the solution to the problem, or part of the team accomplishing the mission.

The way in which company leadership communicates with their Board of Directors, their executive team and managers, their employees, their shareholders, their customers, and their prospective customers sets the tone. Is there clear, open, two-way communication between leadership and workers at the company? Is there clear, open, two-way communication between the company and its customers?

If the answer to those two questions is not a resounding YES, then a communications check-up may be in order. Some people are fantastic at leading, motivating, rallying, and steering a company in the right direction. Others are fantastic at planning, structuring, engineering, and developing the products to sell. And other people are truly fantastic at planning and implementing that “connecting route” of communication that allows a company to gather loyal employees and loyal customers. Make sure you have those communicators on your team! They can help you set the tone that is appropriate for your company and then convey that tone to the world.

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Increasing the Quality of Company Communications (Without Losing Your Personal Touch)

In this blog post, Carrie Brooks, a nationally recognized Merit Scholar and communications professional with a bachelor degree from University of Central Florida, Rosen College, highlights keys to keeping business messaging both interesting and professional.  Carrie has recently joined the Attain Marketing team and will be providing public relations program support as well as uncovering new strategic opportunities for our clients.  Welcome to the team, Carrie!

There is a fine line that must be walked when attempting to produce written communications or give verbal presentations that are both professional and personal.  It is far too easy to stray too far in one direction or the other – professional to the point of being dull and “boring” or so personal to the point of… well… missing the point entirely.  Let’s consider some things to keep in mind while developing company communications that can both catch your audience’s attention AND convey a professional message.

“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.”

-Vince Lombardi

Years ago I worked for a small investor and public relations firm.  It was the most unique and demanding work experience I’ve ever had.  One of the rules in our firm was that the CEO of the company must be copied on every email (yes, every single email) that left the confines of our office walls.  In addition, our CEO demanded absolute perfection – in spelling, grammar, and (most importantly) how we said what we needed to say.  The first time I was summoned to her office to explain (defend) why I wrote a particular email, I quickly came to the realization that she actually did find time to read every message.

You can certainly imagine that this rule made us think long and hard about everything we wrote and usually made us sweat a little before we clicked the “Send” button.  If we had to communicate something particularly sensitive to a client, it was much easier for us to pick up the phone and make a call than to stand up to our CEO’s scrutiny over how we wrote our message.  In the moment, it was very intimidating.  Looking back – it was brilliant!

What did this teach us?  Quite a few things:

  • Quality – The quality of our written communications had to be at its very best, all the time, without exception.  This included our grammar and spelling, use of language, and consistency with formatting and messaging.
  • Necessity – This method kept us from reacting too quickly as situations arose.  We had to really think it through before we sent off an email, and we stayed very clear and to the point when we did.  Unnecessary messages were not sent.  Ever.
  • Permanence – We were reminded that anything we put in writing could always be used against us, or at least could always be referenced again in the future.  Therefore, we had to stand behind what we wrote – 100%.  Written communication that travels across the Internet is permanent.

In later years, I was able to apply these same principles to verbal communications as well, specifically when giving presentations to a live audience.  The bottom line: content for print and verbal distribution really can be entertaining and interesting while still maintaining a high degree of quality and excellence.

Specific Keys for Written Communications

  • Keep the quality high.  Attention to detail in writing is extremely important.  First impressions come across in writing just as much as they do in person.
  • Have a trusted colleague look over your work.  Make good use of track changes, comments, and other collaboration features in your software.  Sometimes a hard copy with a red pen and a highlighter is the best method!
  • Don’t be afraid to use punctuation to your advantage when trying to add a personal touch.  There’s nothing wrong with adding in (a few) unique punctuation marks that compliment your personal communication style… you’ve already seen quite a few in this blog post.
  • There are many ways to break up a whole page full of text to make it more interesting to read, such as quote boxes, bulleted lists, and unique page formatting.  Use them!

Specific Keys for Verbal Presentations

  • Be clear.  Clear messaging coupled with clear diction will help your audience follow along attentively and stay engaged.  Audience engagement, such as a show of hands or a response to a question, can be extremely valuable.
  • Open up with an attention-getter – a story, an incident, or something else that your audience can relate to.  At times, even a joke may be appropriate.  (Consider your audience carefully when deciding how to open.)
  • Remember, in most cases, it’s not about “you” or “your story” as much as it is about the company you represent – so you must find a way to tell the company’s story in a personal way without making it about you.
  • Many times a verbal presentation is supported by a slide show presentation.  There are various opinions on how simple or complex slides should be, but something to always remember is that you don’t want your audience so distracted by your slides that they tune out what you’re saying.  Slides are there to enhance your message.  When in doubt, keep it simple!

Clear, quality communications are a representation of your company and your people.  Taking care to think through what you write or say is a valuable tool in putting your best foot forward and representing your company well.  Perfection in this category is certainly impossible to attain, but excellence is something we can all strive for.  Adding a personal touch helps your audience connect with your business, so keep that balance in mind – professional communications with a personal touch is always a win for your company!

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Test Your Value Proposition in 3 Simple Steps

A surefire approach to increasing sales!

Prospective customers all want the answer to the same exact question; what do you do and how do you do it better than your competitors?  Every sales representative or distribution channel for your business needs to clearly articulate the value proposition to each target market.

Marketers spend hours, days and weeks in workshops and meetings to carefully develop the perfect elevator pitch.  Then, the company prepares messaging, presentations, campaigns and more to test their theories.  This process is not only time consuming but typically yields at best “hit or miss” results.

Isn’t there a simpler, surefire way to get it right?  Yes, with these 3 simple steps:

1. Create a competitive matrix for each target market.

  • Company profiles, i.e. revenue, locations, # employees, # customers, target markets, sales distribution channels, partner strategies, service and support.
  • Company offerings, i.e. key features, functionality, ease of use, ease of deployment, delivery mechanism, security, pricing.

2. Develop a customer satisfaction survey with open-end and closed questions.

OPEN:  What problem do you solve for them?  How do they use your offering?  Why did they select you versus your competitors?   What do they like about your offering, what don’t they like?  What improvements would they like to see?   What do they like or not like about your company, support, and service?

CLOSED: Can you stack rank certain features/ functionality of the offering?  Do you see certain features or functionality as unique?  Can you rank your overall customer experience?  Can you grade specific service or support calls?

3. Interview your existing customer base

Your best source of feedback, validation or refinement of your competitive advantage/value proposition is right at your feet: your existing customers.  They have already been through the sales process with your company and your competitors, and they selected you!  They are typically friendly, knowledgeable and willing to share the information you need most.  Ask for just 15 minutes and mention that you will be using the feedback to make improvements for them.  Evaluate your results carefully, because existing customers will teach you exactly how to market and sell to new customers, and we all seek the best approach to acquire new customers.

The good news here is that the existing customer base is the lowest cost and most effective way for marketing leaders to corroborate or better articulate competitive differentiators and value propositions.  In fact, listening to existing customers, prospects and targets, keeping your ear to the ground continuously, is the very best way to achieve your goals.

So, what if you don’t have an existing customer base?  Obviously there is the focus group approach, on-line or in person.  Choose a group that is currently using a competitor and ask why.  Ask them the same feature/functionality questions, pricing questions that you would ask an existing customer.  The more narrow and focused your approach, the better the results.

Good luck and good selling!

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Industry Association Success: 5 Steps to a Winning Value Proposition

This week’s Persuasive Marketing Blog Post features marketing veteran, Susan Lowe, who has a rich background in helping start-ups and big-league companies, like Microsoft, HP, Toshiba, Juniper Networks and Logitech, establish and maintain effective industry alliances and associations.  In this article, Susan shares great tips that will help alliances develop a meaningful value proposition — which is a key foundation for marketing success.

There are few things more critical to the success of an association (profit or non-profit) than a well-defined value proposition.  Before any messaging or marketing communications plans are created, the value proposition must be developed and tested.  While there is much written about the importance of value propositions, defining one is not always an easy exercise — and for that reason this step in the strategic marketing processes is typically poorly executed or worse skipped completely. Don’t shy away from the task.  Your ability to articulate a clear and resonating value proposition will ultimately define your level of success (or failure).

The importance of a well-defined industry association value proposition

Whether the association is in the planning stages, growth phase or is an on going organization, it is important to define the value proposition for both the retention and recruitment of members.  Remember that the cost of membership is not only annual dues it also includes commitment of company resources (may be business, engineering or marketing), investment of time and potentially the company’s brand image.  For such investment, the value proposition must convey to a potential member that by joining they are ensured greater success and will be a part of something material then if they had not joined at all.

5 Steps to defining your association’s value proposition

A good value proposition can be articulated in a sentence or two, no more than ten words.  Most important, it should be specific, clear and concise. 

  1. Form a Committee.  The committee should include key board members, advisory council members, and functional VPs.  Don’t make it too large, 5-8 is a good number.  Have someone from marketing participate on the committee which should help with writing the value proposition.
  2. Schedule Committee Meetings.   These meetings should focus only on defining the Value Proposition.  Don’t try to cover other business at the same meeting.  Limit distractions.Plan that the entire process will most likely take several meetings and set aside 3 hours for the first meeting.  After the first meeting, you will have a good idea of the time needed for subsequent meetings.
  3. Prepare in Advance.  Before the first meeting, have committee members do some up front work and prepare responses to the following questions.  It will help make your meeting more productive and make better use of the time.
    • What is your association good at doing?  What is your specialty?
    • Clearly define the target membership and their needs and wants.  You may have different targets that should align with different membership levels.  Each target should be defined and may have unique value propositions.
    • What need is the organization filling in the industry?  What problem is it trying to solve?
    • Are there other organizations that are in the same space?  Who are the competitors and what are they good at?  What sets your association apart from them and what is distinctive about what you offer members and the industry?
    • If you have a Value Proposition, does it still hold true?  And is there a perceived value at each membership level?
    • Will a member or potential member company be at a disadvantage if they do not join your association?  Will they be able to influence more and succeed quicker if a member?
  4. Test.  This is a key step. On-line questionnaires, surveys and interviews and are good ways to see if the value proposition resonates with your members.
  5. Communicate.  Once the Value Proposition is defined and tested, marketing can create launch plans, develop messages, key benefits statements, communications and member retention and recruitment programs.
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