Email Blasts that Deliver

Whether it be newsletters, announcements, or meeting invitations, your organization is sending out email blasts. No matter how many people you have on your list, however, you might find the results to be disappointing. Design and compatibility for email blasts are often lacking from membership management websites. Luckily, we have found two great alternatives.

Constant Contact

We often use Constant Contact for clients that are willing to invest a small amount of money into their email platform. It allows for simple yet visually appealing designs, email tracking, and contact information management. Constant Contact costs $45 a month and has proven to be worth it for our team.

MailChimp

MailChimp is another platform we often use at Impact. It is free up until you reach 2,000 subscribers. This can be a treat for smaller organizations hoping to grow through their email campaigns. MailChimp is easy to use, allows for contact lists to be imported, and has a responsive customer support staff.

The platform you use for email blasts can make a difference in the look, quality, and reach. If you are taking the time to reach out to your members, do it well.

Sprucing Up Your Monthly Newsletter

Associations are always looking for different ways to reach their members. Social media posts, emails, and meetings are great ways to do so. If you are looking for another point of communication, consider email newsletters. Newsletters are a way to provide useful information and resources, as well a way to keep members up to date on upcoming events and more. Coming up with content for a monthly newsletter can be daunting at times, but we are here to help! Try using these ideas to get your newsletter up and going. 

1. Information. Make the newsletter a worthwhile read by providing important information about upcoming events, reasons to attend those events, and any costs associated.  

1. Blogs. Link to blogs you have done in the last month. Members might have missed your post about them and should be exposed more than once. If you don’t have a blog, you can always link to another blog in your industry. 

1. Get to know the board. Include a section highlighting a different board member every month. Give a little insight into who that person is and how they got involved in the association. You should also inform members when the board turnover occurs and include a picture of their new board.  

1. Review Benefits. Reminding members of why they joined is important in member retention. Review how a benefit can be utilized or introduce any new benefits. 

1. Visuals. With all of this content, make sure to include photos from events or photos that relate to the topic being discussed. This will keep readers more engaged. 

If you are looking to start a newsletter, we encourage you to check out Constant Contact. This platform is professional, yet easy to use! If you want a taste of how to put these elements together, sign up for our e-newsletter!  

Lisa Demmi’s “How To Be a Bad A$$ at Social Media” Review

Impact’s team member, Kristen, attended MPI Wisconsin’s event on social media. Kristen has a strong interest in marketing and social media and thought this would be an informative session. She was right. Lisa Demmi is a Professional Speaker and Social Media Expert. She started the session off with lively stories, jokes, and a magic trick. After the crowd was engaged, Lisa delivered a presentation that left guests with a breakdown on how to improve their organization’s social media by explaining what your audience wants to see, explaining how social media should be used as a tool, and pointing out where you can find your content.

Lisa defined content as anything you share that explains your company. She then asked the audience what they did not like to see on social media. She was answered with shouts of politics, ads, negativity, too many posts, and repetitive content. Lisa emphasized the importance of keeping in mind what you do not like to see on social media when posting for your organization. This will keep your audience happier and show your organization in a better light. It will also prevent your followers from quickly scrolling past your posts.

The importance of using your social media outlets as a relationship tool versus a sales tool was also discussed. It is often easy to fall into the habit of posting your organization’s services, however, this is not what your audience wants to see. It is important to show your personality, educate, and entertain your followers.

The speech also covered where to find your content. No matter what industry you are in, you will find yourself answering the same 10 questions repeatedly. Lisa suggested that you should take those questions and create content out of them. If your association finds themselves answering questions about upcoming meetings every month, provide the answers ahead of time. This ensures you are providing your audience with useful information. To further engage your followers, announce ahead of time that you will be giving this information out. This will give you multiple posts and will keep your audience of the lookout for the information.

Overall, the event was incredibly helpful. Kristen came away knowing how to better add to the conversation on social media, creating relationships and engaging the audience. We suggest you take some of these tips and apply it to your organization. One change might make all the difference.

Content Calendars: Your New Best Friend

We all know that social media and being present online is crucial. It is recommended to post 2-3 times a week or more. Some days, however, you might find your self struggling for new content or repeating past content. Content calendars can be a life saver on days where your inspiration is lacking. Whether you use Hootsuite, Google Calendars, or a plain Jane paper calendar, you will thank yourself in the long run.

Using a content calendar, allows you to spread out your material. Say that you have 5-6 topics you want to cover on social media: membership benefits, upcoming events, industry related news, website content, and member spotlights. Once you decide on these topics, you can look at a calendar and easily space them out to ensure content will not be redundant. You can post about one membership benefit every Monday. Dive into how that benefit can change the viewer’s experience. Tuesdays could be to update members on upcoming meetings or conferences, and so on. Having it organized will create a better flow for your content and keep your audience coming back for more.

Content calendars also keep you prepared. If there is a day you are lacking creativity, you will be appreciative that you planned ahead. It is best to sit down towards the end of the month and plan out the content you want to use in the next month. The amount of detail is up to your own preference. Maybe you want to write out exactly what you will say in each post or perhaps you prefer writing a topic in the calendar to give you something to work with later. Either way, the preparedness you will have from planning out your content will reduce your stress and make your significantly easier.

Of course when it comes to planning anything, there is always the possibility that things will change. A new event might pop up, something major might have occurred in your industry that you should cover, a transition in the Board of Directors might take place. These are all things that can be improvised into the calendar. It is not something you have to follow faithfully, simply there to ease the process of marketing your organization!