Headlines:

•  E-marketing: A Double Edged Sword
• Data from the William E. Smith Institute for Association Research published in USA Today
• Strategic Conversations: Don't Miss "Can We Talk?" in the latest issue of Associations NOW

E-marketing—a double-edged sword

Used wisely, the Internet can be an incredibly effective marketing and sales tool. Used foolishly, you risk suffering the label of "spam-meister."

By Georgia Patrick, The Communicators

Using the Internet as a sales and marketing tool, also known as "e-marketing," is, to paraphrase Charles Dickens, the best of ideas, the worst of ideas. True, it's a very cost-efficient way for certification organizations to raise awareness, or even revenue, with regards to thousands of potential customers. It's also the ultimate communication tool because it can go to work anywhere, at any time of day. And yet, there is a dark side to e-marketing too.

Bye, Bye Hollywood
As discussed from the start of our writing and coaching in 2003 for NOCA members, specifically, in the article Build it and They Will Come is Only True in Hollywood, the days of an organization focusing all their resources on building the perfect certification are behind us. Those intimidating words "marketing," and scarier yet, "sales" are now important business functions of any certification organization that plans to be successful in these days of social media and personalized messaging.

Today, savvy certification organizations are still focusing a large percentage of their resources creating solid, defensible certifications. This will always be a wise business strategy. However, forward-thinking organizations are also giving due attention to designing and implementing programs for the sales and marketing of these certifications. These programs focus on building connections with their various audiences, which include certification customers, corporate sponsors, association members, potential certificants, the media, the government and other vested groups. 

Hello, Connections
These connections are the foundation for business and customer relationships that will carry organizations to higher revenues in the future. Additionally, their funding levels will be more stable. These two major benefits—cash flows that are not only growing, but reliably so—are worth a lot to any certification organization, especially at budget time. 

There are many ways to build sales and marketing connections with your various "customers" but this article will focus on using e-marketing. The good news is the Internet, used properly, can be a tremendous tool for finding, building, strengthening and leveraging these connections. That's four results from one tool. Wow! Further, some organizations are leveraging this technology to strengthen the connections between these groups. That provides an ever higher level of connection and payoff for all involved.

All Phases
The beauty of e-marketing is that it can be helpful in all phases of marketing and sales: to announce new services or certifications, to market a certification program, to sell certifications, to register the candidate, to take the test, to deliver results, to keep the certificants in touch with the certification organization, to keep the member in touch with other certificants, to renew or upgrade their certification, to provide on-going education and dialogue, to buy a logo'd t-shirt or mug, to induce certificants and members to refer their friends and associates, to sell them something else and to generally stay connected to your organization. Wow! That's a bucket of benefits.

Another key benefit of using the Internet to market your services and programs is the immediacy of response. About 80% of your responses will come in the first four to six hours, according to Roy Harry of marketing-communications outfit Media II. If your plans are on target, that gets money in the door faster. If they're off a bit, that gives organizations time to respond and adapt their strategies. Ultimately, e-marketing provides the opportunity for better service to your customers and more revenues. Wow again!

One-to-one
The world of marketing and selling anything is changing. In the old days, that is, a  decade or so ago, organizations could afford to send mass mailings to wide audiences and some people would respond and buy something or sign up for a class or a certification program. 

Sadly, the days of sending the same message to thousands of people and getting a good return on your investment are gone. With the low cost of e-marketing, however, organizations can get back in this ball game. It's cost-effective again to send the same message to the masses. In marketing, we call this "one-to-many" because it is one message sent to many recipients.

But wait! The power of computers and the Internet now offers something much better - mass customization. Instead of sending the same message to everyone, organizations can now a customized message to their targeted audience. We call this one-to-one marketing and as you can guess, it is very powerful. You can now insert the recipient's name in the body, and perhaps insert some personal information. The benefits are much like those of direct mail but you don't have to spend the big bucks on printing and postage. Software-as-service companies have grown rapidly to provide the tools for this.  But wait—if your strategy for using these powerful tools is still grounded in old ways of mass marketing, now called “mass irritation,” then you could do more harm to your credibility and your certification than good.

The Dark Side
If e-marketing is so great, why isn't it used every time by every organization? In a word, spam. Organizations that make a faux pas, like they don't properly target their audience, use an unreliable list or don't have copy or design appropriate for the Web, risk a backfire, the marketing equivalent of a black eye - or worse. You can do more damage to your brand in one bad mass e-marketing drive in 30 days than you could in 30 years using traditional marketing methods.

 If you're new to e-marketing, we recommend you invest significant forethought and strategic planning before embarking. Author Steven Covey puts it this way, "Technology is a good servant but a bad master." So just because technology makes e-marketing possible, that doesn't mean it's always the appropriate tool.

E-marketing is like fire. Used appropriately, it can produce tremendous, life-changing benefits for certification organizations. The benefits of this cost-effective, targeted, customizable, and immediate tool for connecting your sales and marketing messages to all your "customers" cannot be overlooked or overstated. Sure, there are dangers, but like shoals in a harbor, they have been well marked and can be steered around. The rewards are worth it. 

Georgia Patrick is the certification marketing leader and president of The Communicators, Inc., www.communicators.com. Contact her at Georgia@communicators.com. This article is part of a series written exclusively for NOCA, which started with the November 2003 NOCA Conference special feature, “Build it and They Will Come is Only True in Hollywood.” 

Data from the William E. Smith Institute for Association Research published in the March 6th issue of USA Today

Data published in the most recent study from the William E. Smith Institute for Association Research, Where the Winners Meet: Why Happier, More Successful People Gravitate to Associations was published as one of the USA TODAY Snapshots® in the March 6th edition of USA TODAY.

The report, published in January, reveals that on average, association members earn higher salaries, like their jobs more and are happier people than those who do not join associations. Rather than suggesting that association membership itself leads to success, the report concludes that success in one’s profession increases the likelihood of joining an association.