February 2014 - Rottman Creative

Two Ways to Make Direct Mail Work

Plan B: Case Studies Mailers

The alternate approach (and one we love) is to craft three direct mail pieces around three personal stories from members.

We call these “case study” mailers. You’re basically building a case study—based around member testimonials—for why the conference matters.

Timing: Start dropping the pieces one a month, about three months before the event. Tie the pieces to your specific offers, such as Early Bird, hotel deadlines, giveaways, webinars, or other special offers.

Content: The only way to build a successful case study is to mine your members (survey feedback is the logical place to start) and do a series of in-depth interviews with a handful of them to really get at WHY they come to the event and the difference it makes.

Choose three stories that build on each other: they’re not saying exactly the same thing, but they all tie into why the conference matters.

Include good quality headshots of each member. There are various stylistic choices you can make (first person versus third person), but the key is to make sure the pieces are written in the voice of the conference. And definitely use your email campaign to reiterate and retell the stories.

Design: As with the highlights mailer, this should be a top-notch piece. The design should match the voice, whether it’s playful, urgent, bold, or charming. Your design must get at the heart of why your event matters to people. When we design case study mailers, we take time to really brand them. For example, we did a series of case study mailers for the American Network of Community Options and Resources (ANCOR) where we focused on interviewing people at one member organization and telling their stories of why the conference mattered. We branded the case study mailers all around this idea of why the conference matters, and used the design to reinforce it. (And yes, they got their numbers.)

Segmentation: Different stories will resonate with different people. It’s not just about tracks. For example, stories from first-time attendees might be the exact thing that members who have never attended need to hear. On the other hand, members who are deciding whether to return to the event might make a stronger emotional connection with stories of members who have attended multiple conferences. Think carefully about the stories various segments of your audience will identify with.

Yes, many of your peers may have run away from direct mail. That only makes your opportunity that much stronger. Go back and take a look, and then ruminate on this: tangibility will set you apart. Tangibility will build connection. And tangibility will help you bring in the numbers.

We hope you find these tips inspiring for your next conference, and until next time keep a look out for clue #32!
The Lone Marketer

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Part One

Two Ways to Make Direct Mail Work

Plan A: Highlights Mailer + Registration Brochure

The first approach is to pair conference highlights with a well-designed registration brochure.

We’ve written quite a lot about the kind of registration brochure you need to be doing. So let’s focus on what this highlights mailer needs to be about.

Timing: Drop the conference highlights mailer when registration is open, and the registration brochure in the weeks before the Early Bird deadline.

Content: A highlights piece should be exactly that: the most captivating highlights of the event, based on what your members tell you they care about most. Networking is almost always the number one reason people cite for coming to conferences, followed by learning.

Your printed piece needs to have those things jump off the page, with bold design and high quality photography (not grainy images of people sitting around a table in a poorly lit ballroom).

The session highlights you feature should make an emotional connection with your members. You need to both show them why they should care, and also tell them.

Design: This is not simply a save-the-date postcard—or a postcard at all. This is a folded, smartly-designed piece, with graphic elements that tie not just to the event brandmark, but also to the overarching “WHY” behind what your association is about. For example, we did a highlights piece for our client, The American Specialty Toy Retailing Association (ASTRA) —whose “WHY” is around the idea of leading through play. We used fun images of kids playing and learning and wove in graphic elements like bubbles. We laid it out in such a way that all of the messages—even the “Schedule-at-a-Glance”—tied back to the kids and the overarching reason.

Segmentation: It’s possible that you need to create two (or more) different pieces, especially if you have two (or more) distinct audiences you’re reaching. You’re not re-inventing the design each time—just tweaking. For example, if your session events are grouped by track, you might create a mailer to highlight each track. The more directly you are talking to your members in this piece, the better. Forcing the highlights into a one-size-fits-all piece sometimes has the effect of not saying anything at all. Take the time to be strategic and segment.

We hope you find these tips inspiring for your next conference, and until next time keep a look out for clue #31!
The Lone Marketer

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Idea 6 of 6 for Improving Your Email Open Rates

6. Inspire confidence in your members that they can anticipate something better than the ordinary.

People will open your emails if they know they are good.

No matter what the data says about which day of the week or what time to send, if you craft really, really great emails, people will open them. If they know they can expect exciting offers and creative storytelling, they will open them.

Email marketing is one of your best tools for telling the story of your conference.

But you have to use it the right way. Otherwise, it will get eaten alive by the forgettability bug. But don’t panic yet—the antidote is readily available: Send better emails. Starting now.

We hope you find these tips inspiring for your next conference, and until next time keep a look out for clue #30!
The Lone Marketer

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Idea 5 of 6 for Improving Your Email Open Rates

5. Keep emails mobile friendly.

People tend to read about half of their emails.

And of the ones they do read, about 88 percent of them are read on mobile device (smart phone or tablet).

Your email template MUST be mobile-friendly.

We hope you find these tips inspiring for your next conference, and until next time keep a look out for clue #29!
The Lone Marketer

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Idea 4 of 6 for Improving Your Email Open Rates

4. Be deliberate in your timing.

People read more emails in the morning than the afternoon, and the earlier, the better.

The best open rate is actually between 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. Monday and Friday are terrible days to send emails (Monday is the highest “unsubscribe” day). Tuesday is slightly better; Wednesday and Thursday have shown to be best.

Do you have to be a slave to what the stats say? Of course not—especially if you know your members very well. But it’s definitely good to understand the trends.

We hope you find these tips inspiring for your next conference, and until next time keep a look out for clue #28!
The Lone Marketer

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Idea 3 of 6 for Improving Your Email Open Rates

3. Craft better subject lines.

We often suggest doing A/B testing (send out one subject line to one group and a different to another group—all things being equal—and then see which one gets a better response). But before you go to the trouble, try simply writing better subject lines. Preferably ones with a “what’s in it for me?” statement.

Ones that inspire, intrigue, and tell stories—versus simply informing.

The exception: the “registration is now open” email: this email usually gets the highest click-through rate and drives the most registrations. You don’t have to re-invent the wheel on this one.

We hope you find these tips inspiring for your next conference, and until next time keep a look out for clue #27!
The Lone Marketer

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Idea 2 of 6 for Improving Your Email Open Rates

2. Don’t be afraid to send more emails (if they are good emails).

Associations are sometimes leery of sending too many emails, feeling like they are “bothering” members.

We have two challenges to this notion. First, the data doesn’t support it. It shows that the rate of unsubscriptions is the same whether or not you only send one monthly email or two to three emails a week.

That’s why we recommend two branded conference emails a week.

And then, bundle all of your other association updates into one weekly digest.

The second reason we challenge this idea of “bothering” is that you are in the business of changing lives (as we talked about Conference Marketing in 2013: The Space You Don’t See). You can’t change people’s lives if you don’t communicate with them. But you also won’t change their lives with bad emails. Send smart, well-designed, inspiring emails about your conference on a regular basis, and lives will be changed.

We hope you find these tips inspiring for your next conference, and until next time keep a look out for clue #26!
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Idea 1 of 6 for Improving Your Email Open Rates

Get the frequency right.

You can structure your email marketing campaign one of two ways.

Either start marketing via email six months out, and send emails three times a month.

Or, start the emails three months out and send them twice a week.

Pick your strategy, and stay with it—throughout the entire campaign.

We hope you find these tips inspiring for your next conference, and until next time keep a look out for clue #25!
The Lone Marketer

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Idea 6 of 6 for Improving Your Email Content

6. Include calls to action.

In each email you send, you want to have a specific call to action.

Tell members exactly what you want them to do: “Register by April 15th to claim the special rate!”; “Don’t miss the chance to win a free iPad: Register in the next two days!”; “Claim your spot in this valuable webinar and register today!”

Make sure to include a call-to-action in the body of your email, and in your sidebar.

We hope you find these tips inspiring for your next conference, and until next time keep a look out for clue #24!
The Lone Marketer

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Idea 5 of 6 for Improving Your Email Content

5. Always remember to answer: “What’s in it for me?”

The most successful email campaigns are the ones that consistently make emotional connections with members.

For example, it’s not just about telling your members about who the keynote speaker is: it’s about showing them why they should care, and telling them the story of how it might change their life. A great strategy is to build your campaign around member testimonials. For example, for The American Network of Community Options and Resources (ANCOR) email campaign, we interviewed three senior staffers of a long-time member organization, and told their stories of why the conference mattered to them through a series of three emails.

We’ve said it many times before: your conference is about people.

So, channel people. Not facts.

We hope you find these tips inspiring for your next conference, and until next time keep a look out for clue #23!
The Lone Marketer

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Idea 4 of 6 for Improving Your Email Content

4. Build unique offers into the campaign.

Offers include things like Early Bird specials, webinars, hotel discounts, giveaways (from iPads to free hotel stays), ebooks, and other special promotional things.

And definitely use videos to entice people to click on your offers. Videos should be short (one or two minutes, tops). You can take two approaches: motion-graphic based videos (highly graphic and fun), or testimonial videos (where members or speakers talk about the benefits of the conference).

Videos not only break up text-heavy emails, people also love to watch and share them.

As for how to present your offers: craft at least one specific email for each offer, and then keep them in front of your members for the duration of the offer using graphic icons in the sidebar.

We hope you find these tips inspiring for your next conference, and until next time keep a look out for clue #22!
The Lone Marketer

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Idea 3 of 6 for Improving Your Email Content

3. Speak in a voice that will make members listen.

One of the things we specialize in is helping associations hone in on the voice they need to use to inspire their members to register.

Discerning your archetype is a key stepping stone in your marketing plan—and it’s what you’ll use to create the branded voice.

For example, we determined The American Specialty Toy Retailer’s Association (ASTRA) member archetype is that of a caregiver. Their members believe that nurturing a child’s love of play can change kids’ lives. It’s what drives them at their core. So, we created a voice that is nurturing, caring, cheerful, optimistic, and playful. We used the conference theme, “From Ordinary to Extraordinary” to develop the stories. And we worked with ASTRA to keep the voice consistent across all conference email communication.

When you talk to your members in a voice designed specifically for them, it forges an emotional connection.

We hope you find these tips inspiring for your next conference, and until next time keep a look out for clue #21!
The Lone Marketer

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Idea 2 of 6 for Improving Your Email Content

2. Segment your storytelling.

The same stories don’t appeal to everyone, because not everyone cares about the same thing.

For example, in a campaign we built for The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS), we realized that the headmasters of boarding schools came to the conference for different reasons than the faculty and staff—so, we created a segmented email campaign.

We also segmented based on members who had never attended and members who had attended. This allowed us to help TABS tweak the messages in very specific ways.

We hope you find these tips inspiring for your next conference, and until next time keep a look out for clue #20!
The Lone Marketer

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Idea 1 of 6 for Improving Your Email Content

1. Use a customized, well-designed email template that incorporates your brandmark.

Text-based emails inform: they do not inspire. Your email template is your chance to paint a captivating visual of what the conference is about.

It MUST incorporate the brandmark and theme

(that’s part of that stand-alone branded look we outlined in The Golden Rule).

You also need a smartly-designed sidebar, with calls-to-action designed as graphic icons. Choosing (and then customizing) the right template is perhaps the single-most important design decision your association will make regarding the conference email marketing.

We hope you find these tips inspiring for your next conference, and until next time keep a look out for clue #19!
The Lone Marketer

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Principle 6 of 6:

Follow the Golden Rules for golden results

We should recognize that doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results is foolish. We will not engage thinking that supports ineffective habits. We will transform our habits and works based on research, the audience’s needs, and our vision. We will test our efforts to ensure that we are putting energy into projects that produce quantitative results.

Look around, do you see companies using the same marketing tactics with the launch of every product? No, its different. Apple is a great example. Their marketing evolves with cultural shifts, but also with the product they are promoting. The marketing for an iPod, iPhone and Apple computers are completely different from each other, yet, each one captures the essence of what the product has to offer the target audience.

Your marketing must evolve. If you are doing it the same way every year, that is why you are seeing the drastic drops in attendance and retention rates. Yes, the economy has affected things, but your inability to adapt is the real reason why attendance and retention rates are dropping.

So, what can you do?

Tell a story through testimonials. A simple testimonial about how the content of the event affected an attendee’s work can add freshness to the marketing campaign. An interview with an attendee about what they took from the conference and how they implemented it in their work will go a long ways in promoting the value of your event and organization.

Tip:

Follow an individual (through a blog, Facebook page, Twitter, etc) while at the conference. And, then go “home” with them to show how they implemented the new information, tools and resources they picked up at the event.

We hope you find these tips inspiring for your next conference, and until next time keep a look out for clue #18!
The Lone Marketer

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Principle 5 of 6:

Follow the Golden Rules for golden results

We believe that a marketing plan is a schedule of strategic activities that will guide behavior.

We will achieve conference marketing success by following a road map that leads to a desired destination. We affirm that a marketing plan is a well-researched strategic map that addresses the role, appearance and tracking of all marketing efforts.

You have reached a fork in the road as the path you are on divides into two roads. The road on the left forgoes the use of data and surveys. It leads you to brochures and emails with pretty pictures of the conference location. It is easier and familiar. It involves some Googling and chatting with the nice lady at the tourism office.

The road on the left worked in attracting some people – not as many as last year, but what do you expect with the economy. The road to the right takes you the way of using survey results and data to create a marketing plan designed to guide behavior.

It is a more challenging and a longer journey, but along the way you meet new members, hear stories of how attendees implement what they learned at previous conferences, and find out why some members did not attend last year’s event.

The road to the right results in the birth of new ideas for promoting the event, more member engagement during the marketing campaign and an increase in conference attendance. As an added bonus, membership retention numbers are also on the climb!

You must adhere to this principle or you’ll be marketing venue over value with pretty pictures instead of real, valuable content. Ultimately whatever crowd that does draw, is not one that will stick around – they will just as easily leave your nice venues for another. CRASH! There goes your retention rates, too.

So, what do you do?

Survey previous attendees about past conferences. Then use this data to help formulate a plan that will help the unaware, inspire the interested and reassure the intent.

Tips:

Learn something new by surveying members other than the ones you see at every event.
Talk to members who received marketing materials, but did not attend.

We hope you find these tips inspiring for your conference, and until next time keep a look out for clue # 17!
The Lone Marketer

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Principle 4 of 6:

Follow the Golden Rules for golden results

We perceive that conference marketing is one arm of an organization’s holistic messaging for fulfilling their mission. We embrace conference marketing efforts that will enhance an organization’s strategic messaging and fit within the organization’s overall goals.

Most organizations have some sort of strategic plan that guides them towards specific goals and fulfilling their mission. However, conference marketing must give association executives amnesia because they completely forget about the organization’s strategic plan when promoting their largest event of the year.

¨The huge disconnect between the powerful strategic plan and an association’s branding guidelines. Just like the strategic plan, branding guidelines should be a living document that ties back to the organization’s goals and purpose.”

It is a complete failure if the plan for marketing the annual event is list of rules on font and logo usage. Let’s get this straight, branding guidelines are not a list of rules about fonts, pictures and colors, no more than parenting is a list of house rules about curfews and putting away toys. Branding guidelines must capture the essence of the association, which in turn affects the event. They are pillars of how the largest in-person meeting of the year fulfills the organization’s mission.

We see poorly defined branding guidelines all the time…and the failures that come from it. If brand guidelines are really just a list of rules, then of course the only thing to rely on is the venue. Thus begins the transformation from association guru to travel agent, and the abundance of marketing materials with pretty pictures of D.C., Nashville or whatever city has been picked for the venue.

So, what do you do?

Grab a copy of your organization’s strategic plan and get ready to examine your navel….your branding guidelines. How does the conference help fulfill the mission? Why is the event important when you look at the big picture?

Immediately you’ll realize the value of the conference. A story will form that will give potential attendees a “gut feeling” about what you’re all about.

Tips:

Promote the new sections/sessions as being up-to-date and relevant content for your members.
Use testimonials from previous years to help tell the story.
Create brand guidelines that connect the organization’s strategic plan to conference marketing efforts. (i.e. our goal to be the place professionals come for the latest in industry trends means our email marketing campaign must promote breakout sessions that are lead by industry leaders)

We hope you find these tips inspiring for your next conference, and until next time keep a look out for clue #16!
The Lone Marketer

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Principle 3 of 6:

Follow the Golden Rules for golden results

We should promote value over venue when developing a conference marketing plan.

We will position ourselves as experts with valuable resources and information to share with like-minded professionals, instead of positioning ourselves as tour guides. Through multi-media and strategic communication we will educate potential attendees on why they should attend.

Promoting the venue over the value of the conference is a cop-out. It’s not in the best interest of the association or members, and its definitely failing at your job because you are not talking about the value of the event. There has to be something more members can gain from attending your event other than visiting a great city.

So, what do you do?

For anyone who may disagree, we are not suggesting that you omit the conference location from all marketing pieces. Yes, please tell them where the conference is occurring and a few area attractions that may make their trip enjoyable.

We’re simply saying that the venue should not be promoted as the primary benefit for attending your event. Value first.

Tip:

A picture is worth a thousand words. Use imagery that captures the value of the event, not just the venue’s most popular sites.

We hope you find these tips inspiring for your next conference, and until next time keep a look out for clue #15!
The Lone Marketer

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Principle 2 of 6:

Follow the Golden Rules for golden results

We accept that late registration is a fact, not a trend. We will not ignore cultural shifts. Instead we will work with them to make our marketing plan even stronger and more effective. Adding new means of communication and changing the schedule of communication are musts.

You have to embrace it. Don’t freak out.

Late registration is a side effect of making it easy for people to register.

And, with the economic challenges we face today – they are more likely to wait until the last minute to register.

This isn’t true for everyone. Your hardcore attendees and the very involved members will sign up every year. But, will they alone support the growth necessary to increase attendance and membership retention? Likely not. You need to get the other members more engaged. These are the ones you are after to make the conference a greater success.

So, what can you do?

You have two sources of power to influence potential attendees to register early. Money and availability.

The traditional early bird discount is how you can use money to influence. As for influencing through your power of availability. You can limit certain sessions to people who register early. This will add urgency to the process and communicated how much you value the content of the event.

A more radical option is to replace the early bird kick-off with a late registration push. Yes, that will make your job a little tougher. But, what’s more important to you – an easy work day or giving potential attendees what they need in order to boost attendance?

Tip:

Reach out to the needs of all segments of your target audience.

We hope you find these tips inspiring for your next conference, and until next time keep a look out for clue #14!
The Lone Marketer

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Principle 1 of 6:

Follow the Golden Rules for golden results

We should use social networking to reach out to attendees. We will learn new ways of communicating through social networking to engage in meaningful, effective conversations with individuals before, during and after the conference.

Everyone is jumping on the social media bandwagon. That’s fine – it’s popular, it’s fun and it’s a great way to communicate with attendees….well, at least that is what we believed until we looked at how associations are using social media.

Page after page of uninspiring content and no engagement from followers. It comes as no surprise that these associations are not getting anyone to register for their events from Facebook or Twitter.

So, what can you do?

Look at the demographics of your target audience. Then do a little research to discover which social media platforms they are using and how they are engaging on social media. It may be that members in your association love using Facebook – but only for keeping up with friends and family. If that’s true, then investing in Facebook will be a waste of time.

Tips:

Ask the highly engaged members and regular attendees how they use social media, personally and professionally.
Brainstorm with members to get an idea of the content they’d like to receive from the organization via social media and which discussions they would help kick-start online.

We hope you find these tips inspiring for your next conference, and until next time keep a look out for clue #13!
The Lone Marketer

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6 steps to Inspiring your base to act.

Step 6 of 6: Work with the timing

Knowing when and how to make your offers is an art to itself. Registration occurs along a bell curve, peaking around the early bird deadline. Increasingly, we’re seeing higher rates of late registration, and we believe that early bird registration numbers will begin to drop off. The next generation moves faster, and often decides last minute. You have to know their patterns, and what will move them at any given time.

You also need to understand how to integrate all of your marketing, so that one is reinforcing the other: social media posts highlighting the key points of emails, emails reinforcing the direct mail pieces, and direct mail pieces dropping at strategic times.

In fact, your marketing plan should be a comprehensive picture of how Email Marketing, Direct Mail Marketing, and Social Media Marketing will work together to tell the same story. Fear not, those are the topics for our next three newsletters. But it’s no use moving forward until you’ve walked the path along your stepping stones: belief that you change lives, diagnostics, archetypes, voice, offers, and timing.

You can think of this focus on stepping stones as stepping back. Or stepping up. We think of it as stepping in-between, to see what you do and how you do it in a totally new way.

Because the space in between is rich. You just have to start looking.

We hope you find these tips inspiring for your next conference, and until next time keep a look out for clue # 12!
The Lone Marketer

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