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Archive for July, 2010
MGI Announces New List Client National Legal Aid & Defender Association.
The MGI List Division of Marketing General Incorporated (MGI), announces the availability of the postal mailing list masterfile for the National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA). Founded in 1911 as the National Alliance of Legal Aid Societies, NLADA is the national association for civil legal aid and public defense organizations and individuals who work to make “justice for all” a reality in America. NLADA has more than 3,500 member organizations and this highly selectable masterfile includes more than 25,000 individual contacts.
The NLADA mission is to help achieve equal justice by supporting quality legal representation for people who cannot afford legal counsel. NLADA monitors and promotes fairness in such areas as protection of civil liberties, parity of resources between defenders and prosecutors, manageable caseloads, student loan repayment assistance, and creation of a national defender training center. NLADA also operates as a clearinghouse for defenders to exchange information and receive training on the latest state legislative trends and legislative advocacy skills.
The NLADA Masterfile includes current and former members and non-member attendees of Certified Legal Education and other educational programs as well as the national conference. In addition to selecting by membership type and geography, mailers can select by NLADA sections including Appellate Defender Section, Death Penalty Litigation Section, Defender Trainers Section, or practitioners in the American Council of Chief Defenders (ACCD). The list is direct-response generated and constantly updated. It will be available March 2010; MGI includes the NCOA certificate with each list fulfillment.
For more information on this and other lists managed by the MGI List Division of Marketing General Inc., please contact list manager Elena Hawkins at 703-706-0325 or EHawkins@MGIlists.com.
MGI President Rick Whelan Receives Direct Marketing Association of Washington Distinguished Achievement Award.
Marketing General Incorporated (MGI) President Rick Whelan is the 2009 winner of the Direct Marketing Association of Washington’s (DMAW) Award for Distinguished Achievement (ADA).
The ADA is the highest honor DMAW bestows on an individual and recognizes professional achievement, involvement with DMAW, contributions to furthering industry knowledge, and promoting careers in direct marketing, association marketing, and membership marketing.
Whelan is a DMAW past president and currently serves on the DMAW Educational Foundation board of directors. He has 30 years of experience in marketing and advertising for both non-profit and for-profit organizations and businesses. He is a frequent speaker on association marketing for national associations and has written numerous articles in the field. During his tenure as DMAW president, he brought the Production Club of Washington under the association’s umbrella and led the adoption of The DMA Ethics Code of Behavior. In addition, he has also chaired the American Society of Association Executives’ Membership Section.
As president of Marketing General Inc., Whelan oversees a company of 60 marketing specialists who together have the day-to-day responsibility for the strategic marketing and creative needs of 45 organizations in 16 states and the District of Columbia.
Whelan’s professional expertise is in program development and creative strategies, membership acquisition, program operations, and organizational management. He has worked closely with dozens of associations in education, public service, and health care, and has served clients in trade, professional, and fundraising organizations.
Among his professional accomplishments, Whelan developed a membership acquisition program for a national educational association that netted over 7,000 new members in twelve months. He also managed a non-profit product sales division that increased gross sales of $1 million. Rick launched a first-ever association direct mail campaign that netted more than 1,000 new members during its first eight weeks. He also increased total annual inquiries for an insurance administrator by 51 percent.
MGI Announces New List Client American Medical Student Association.
The MGI List Division of Marketing General Incorporated (MGI), announces the availability of the postal mailing list and email Masterfile for the American Medical Student Association (AMSA). AMSA was founded in 1950 as the Student American Medical Association (SAMA), under the auspices of the American Medical Association (AMA), with the main purpose at that time of providing medical students a chance to participate in organized medicine.
AMSA has evolved into the largest independent association of physicians-in-training in the United states. AMSA is a student-governed national association of more than 62.000 medical students, premedical students, interns, residents, and practicing physicians.
AMSA is committed to improving health care and healthcare delivery to all people; to promoting active improvement in medical education; to involving its members in the social, moral, and ethical obligation of the profession of medicine; to assisting in the improvement and understanding of world health problems; to contributing to the welfare of medical students; and to advancing the profession of medicine.
The AMSA Masterfile includes both postal addresses and the option to send email blasts to AMSA members. The highly selectable list may be customized in a variety of ways, including by membership type (medical students, premed students, interns, residents, or practicing physicians),or by year of graduation. Interns, residents, and practicing physicians can be selected by medical specialty. The list is direct-response generated and constantly updated. It will be available in March 2010; MGI includes the NCOA certificate with each list fulfillment.
For more information on this and other lists managed by the MGI List Division of Marketing General Inc., please contact list manager Elena Hawkins at 703-706-0390 or SScrimenti@MGIlists.com.
Email Usage Up, but Effectiveness Rated Lower for Membership Recruitment.
One of the benefits of publishing research is that people read it and provide feedback. Your ideas plus my ideas equals better insight.
One of my colleagues just pointed out to me that there is some important data in our Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report on how associations are using email and how effective it is for them. When we look at several key membership marketing functions, our statistics show that email usage has grown from 2009 to 2010.
The following chart shows the percentage of associations using email for building awareness with prospective members, getting new members engaged with the organization, and renewing members all increased.
Interestingly, when asked to rate the effectiveness of using email to recruit new members, those who said that email was the “most” effective channel, dropped from 24 percent in 2009 to 10 percent in 2010.
Bottom line, associations are using email more, but there may be a drop off in productivity.
What is your organizations experience?
Practical Uses of Social Media for Association Marketing.
Last week I had the chance to facilitate a session at the ASAE and the Center’s Super Swap meeting.
Of course, the topic of social media came up for conversation. And my impression from those who shared made me feel that many associations are experimenting with various social media tools, but may not have a focused strategy in place on what they are trying to accomplish.
As I was thinking about it this week, I came across a post on the LeaderConnect blog that summed up many of my thoughts on the practical uses of social media really well. So I wanted to share the three points this blog made on practical social media strategies here.
• “In-bound marketing. You’re trying to “get found” in an age of media clutter and ever-more effective ways of blocking your marketing messages. Outbound marketing—advertising, direct mail, trade shows, PR—will always be necessary but our patience with that sort of messaging evaporated a long time ago. You want to be where your potential members are and position yourself as an organization with interesting, worthwhile things to offer. They come to you rather than you beating on their door begging to be let in.
• Lead generation. You’re trying to find them without renting a list or paying the trade magazine in your industry to do it or buying a booth at a trade show in order to collect business cards. If you are in the right social media groups and you’re paying attention and posting content that the group cares about, you will find potential members (and speakers and sponsors and contributors).
• The Deep Sell. We had a wonderful client at Pier 1 Imports years ago. He called content “the deep sell.” You are not selling Papa-san chairs. You are selling relationships, access to a network of smart people who share interests and want to have substantive, valuable exchanges of information. You can’t do that in a one-page ad. Social media enables you to explain yourself, to market yourself based on value rather than on price.”
The unifying strategy here is using social media to connect potential members and prospects with you. I describe it as an economical way to put a store on a major highway. Prospective members are driving by and social media can give them a place to pull over and connect with you. If you would like to read the entire post, here is the link.
Please let me know what you think.
MGI Tipster Volume 9, Issue 7
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