Mistakes were made, as we say in Washington.
Speaking
in Baltimore at the Membership and Marketing Conference, I defined my
goals for the session at the outset, but failed to provide sufficient
context for my large and varied audience. (Only a handful identified
themselves as marketing professionals.)
So
what disclaimers can I make next time to get us all on the same page?
Imposing the rigor of Twitter's 140 character limit, I distilled my point
of view about the practice of association marketing, organized like
course prerequisites in a college catalog. Is this sufficient warning?
Association Marketing 101: It's about their lawn, not your grass seed. Discounts and a directory are features, not benefits. Promise possibilities. Find out who cares.
Association Marketing 201: Members are your products. Differentiate them from their competitors. Build trust. Grow leaders. Reduce time needed to master practice.
Association Marketing 301: Marketing is a
perspective, not a title. Get the right
people in the room, united by one mission, yet free to design their own experience.
Post-Doc: Put it all into play on a larger stage. Advocate SR--shared responsibility. Start where you are. Engage members and those members serve.
Maybe speaker introductions should capture the speaker's POV--point of view--not their bios.
