6 Branding Tips for Canadian Associations
Did you know that there are 70, 000 associations registered in Canada, the vast majority formed within the past 10 years. Most Canadian associations are member-driven, with members paying an annual fee and or contributing their time on a volunteer basis to further the goals of the association.
Given the size of the association playing field in Canada and the growing challenges of member engagement, it is little wonder at the growing interest in brand building. At Brand Matters, a common theme we see among association clients is an acknowledged gap in their current market positioning, including service offerings, and a perceived lack of clarity in their value proposition. The result is low member engagement. Member engagement is necessary for an association to grow and thrive, and more challenging than employee engagement as members donate their time and membership isn’t always mandatory.
Most professional associations are founded on four pillars, which typically include advocacy, professional development (and often accreditation), promoting a strong, positive image of the represented profession, and tangible member benefits (e.g. member savings programs). An overarching benefit of belonging to the professional association is the potential for increased career opportunities. This last benefit is commonly offered through networking events and job exchange opportunities; similar to professional development but different in that it offers more of a direct connection to career advancement.
This provides a list with 6 branding tips for association management teams:
1. Confirm member relevance of your association’s offerings on an on-going basis
- Conduct regular member research
- Gain on-going input from employees on member needs
2. Understand the needs of your broader interest community or potential members
- When larger budgets are available proactively conduct research with your interest community to inform your member offerings and market positioning
- Keep tabs on similar interest groups to ensure your association’s offerings are unique and differentiated
3. Keep your website content fresh and relevant
- Ensure your association’s vision, advantages and member benefits are stated clearly
- Where there is a member only section, ensure it offers value-added support
- Make it easy to navigate and locate information
- Post success stories
4. Offer regular networking opportunities to your members and keep these events relevant.
5. Use email selectively with your members, for example, to update on key advances in advocacy.
6. Continually evolve your professional development offering, use the 80:20 rule.
You should continually refresh 20% of your offering and learning from your members through regular surveys and quality assurance measures.
We wish Canadian association management teams every success with their upcoming brand-building programs and please feel free to refer to brandmatters.ca for more branding tips and marketing resources.
Enjoy our recent blogs on related topics:
How to Build Brand Ambassadors in Your Organization
How to Develop a Better Marketing Plan
Leverage Market Research to Build Your Brand
To learn more about best branding practices leverage our group resources:
Visit us at https://www.brand-matters.com
Enjoy more of our blog https://www.brand-matters.com/brand-blog/
Follow us on https://twitter.com/brandmattersinc
Join our LinkedIn Brand Matters Group which we moderate http://linkd.in/1fCzPGT
