If you’re not familiar with ASAE, the American Society of Association Executives, the best way I can describe it is that they are the association for associations. They advocate for the value of associations and support association leaders.

ASAE held its annual Marketing, Membership & Communications (MM&C) Conference in Washington, DC, June 6-7, 2019, and it was a who’s who of alphabet soup nonprofits. Leaders from organizations ranging from the National Potato Council to large nurse’s organizations, to the more specialized Academy of Model Aeronautics gathered together to learn about the latest trends and to stay up-to-date on all things marketing and communications.

Here are four key takeaways from this year’s conference:

1. Deliver Great Customer Experiences

The #MMCCon’s opening keynote speaker was Johnny Earle, the founder of Johnny Cupcakes. Johnny’s promo video below is worth a watch, but some of the key takeaways you may want to think about for your business include:

  • Make a list of 12 things that separate you from your competition
  • Use testimonials – they sell
  • Videos are key to storytelling
  • Events will foster real relationships
  • When you marry a digital experience with a real-life experience, something magical happens
  • Don’t just sell merchandise, sell nostalgia and memories

2. Should We Start a Podcast?

If you’re wondering the answer, for most everyone at MMCCon, it was an overwhelmingly “yes.” Podcasts may or may not be wise for your business or organization given your budget, time, and potential audience, but a lot of marketers are starting to get very serious about podcasting.

According to Scott Lynch, President & CEO of the American Boiler Manufacturers Association (yes, they seriously have a podcast), 62 million Americans listen to podcasts weekly.

Podcasts are a great way to highlight an organization’s leaders, customers, and experts, but take into account the ROI before making a commitment (something we can help with).

3. Listen to Your Customers

A common theme through several of the conference’s learning labs is that failing to listen to your customers/members is a death wish for future growth. This would appear to be a no brainer, but organizations still struggle to accept this basic concept.

Isabelle Bart, the marketing & communications director for the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses gave a great presentation on implementing customer journey maps and how they lead to a stronger marketing strategy. According to Bart the key factors for a successful map include:

Creating a cross‐functional collaborative approach

  • Agree on common objectives for the outcomes
  • Involve colleagues for input and review
    • Define team model, i.e. core team accountable for advancing work and proposing solution while large team provides inputs and reviews recommendations
  • Setting expectations is key
  • Leverage expertise from various areas of the organization

However, be careful when using customer research data. In our experience, what your customers say they want doesn’t align with what they ended up doing.

4. Exhibitors are Implementing Creative Ways to Engage Conference Attendees

This is the second conference I’ve attended this year where service dogs were deployed as a cuddly tactic to lure attendees into an exhibit booth. It looks like it was a huge success, not only for the exhibitor, but for these very good bois who got tons of well-deserved scritches.

https://twitter.com/alexis_gabriela/status/1137110383326572544

Interested in more ways you can engage attendees at your conference? Read six ways to engage conference attendees in 2019.