Make Your Association Rock with Marketing that Pops

Your association rocks. You know it, your co-workers know it, and so do your existing members. The trick now, as ever, is to convince prospective members.

When it comes to creating new marketing materials, attention-grabbing is great, particularly in terms of clever packaging. But clutter-busting design without meaning often rings hollow.

To create marketing materials that pop, you need to have a seamless balance between strategy, message, and design. After all, your association did not begin with a cool logo. It began with an idea, which blossomed into a plan, which beget a strategy, which eventually evolved into that cool logo.

The brand that you’ve created should dictate the strategy and messaging behind your marketing efforts to land new members. Each marketing project, particularly those designed to recruit new members, have to reflect and reinforce your brand values and attributes.

From a simple mailer to a high-end TV spot, start with basic marketing questions:

• What are you hoping to accomplish?
• Who is your audience and how do you reach them?
• What is your marketing strategy and does it tie back to your overarching business plan?
• What is your messaging and how does it support, enhance and extend your brand?

Now put yourself in your prospects' place and imagine their day—the websites they visit, the phone calls they receive, the events they go to, and the publications they read. Imagine how many times a day they come into contact with people and groups wanting their attention, and how those contacts occur. Once you’ve addressed these steps, you’re ready for the design process. With the help of your design lead, explore various techniques to bring the vision of your marketing pieces to life.

Audit competing materials. Spread them out on a table. What would help you pop? White space? Clarity? A bold, solid color?

Determine a theme. For a campaign, run a common element throughout. Recognition enables materials to pop.

Personalize. Use imagery or even stock photos to enhance your brand’s distinctiveness.

Pay attention to detail. Devote significant swaths of real estate for imagery with contrasting colors.

Don’t be a square. Incorporate shapes other than squares for graphics and photos. Try cropping an image in an interesting way.

Read this now! Craft headlines that grab attention.

Doodle. Employ handwritten sketches.

Variety. Create patterns, mix fonts, and experiment with extreme letter spacing, size, and weight.

Knowing what you want to say, how you want to say it, and to whom you want to say it to is a starting point. The rest involves working with an experienced designer to challenge yourself and represent your brand in a way that not only makes sense, but gets your association noticed. Creative thinking and execution, tethered closely to a strong marketing strategy and business plan, will get your marketing to pop the right way.

Sharon Bending is the president/creative director of Bending Design, Inc., a strategic graphic design firm in East Dundee, Illinois. Email: sharon@bendingdesign.com.