BIG’s Blog: Are Professional Associations Relevant in the Age of the Internet?

What are professional Associations for?

I know . . . I know . . . every individual, every organization, and every corporate member organization that belongs to an Association has their own agenda and calculus for belonging to an Association.  Everyone understands that and we will come back to this point later in the blog post.

But when you peel the onion back to its core, isn't the mission of professional Associations really about advancing the industry, or, in the case of some faith-based Associations, helping their niche advance within a larger industry sector? Of course the ongoing concern is keeping the Association about their constituency and not just the largest members, or their corporate members who disproportionately support the Association, or worse, the Association organization itself.

It’s a tough line to walk especially as the Association ages. And, like any industry, how do you keep it relevant to the smallest members as well as the largest members?

And then comes the Internet; disruption writ large.

Do you think Associations are immune to the digital disruption that is roiling literally every sector of the economy? By now most organizations (fundraisers included) have figured out that the Internet will change the way they do business, but it is also putting huge pressure on their Associations as well.

In a time of great change driven by digital disruption, isn't the advancement of the industry about "the latest information... the newest information... the newest techniques or tactics" disseminated in the widest possible way to reach potentially every organization, no matter the size, to advance the industry?

So, back to my question: are professional Associations relevant in the age of the Internet? My sense is the answer should be a resounding "Yes," . . . but are they? Tech conferences are booming. There are conferences just on social networks, others just on big data, and still others focused narrowly around online content. These are topics that every marketing (and fundraising) organization needs to learn. How can any one Association compete with that?

So, then, how can a niche association remain relevant? Obviously, the greatest relevance comes from their greatest strength and asset, which is their trusted partner status. Then acting as a trusted curator and intermediary of all the new that affects their membership . . . a trusted expert partner . . . they deliver what their members need to succeed. That is what individuals and their organizations are desperately looking for. With so much changing, a key concern must be to have the expertise to shift through the new and actively position the future for their members. For the Association, this means taking a hard look at every aspect of their organization starting with their current staff.

This also means that the Association must lead with the new. It must embody the new by casting off the old ways of doing things and fully embracing the new Internet-based tools and techniques.

When a niche professional Association does this, they will reap the advantages of enhanced productivity, enhanced communications and, most of all a surge in new technology-based corporate members. But what about their old line corporate members, the old friends that have supported the association for many, many years? Well, these old friends need to figure out how they compete and remain relevant in the new digital world as well.

But failing to change and adapt . . . or, worse, merely playing around the edges is the beginning of the slide into irrelevance that leads eventually to bankruptcy.

So we return to the individual agendas of individual members, their organizations, and corporate members. As I said above, each has its own unique agenda and calculus for being a part of an Association. At the end of the day, however, all those individuals’ circles of interests intersect around the number of member organizations and more particularly, the numbers of people at an Association’s annual conference. And, insofar as Association conference numbers continue to climb . . . because, let's be very clear, cost is only a function of relevance . . . the issue of relevance is moot . . . but when the numbers fall and continue to fall the word "irrelevant" gets bandied about.

THAT is the time to wake up, because the slide to oblivion has begun.

Join us.

-Mike

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BIG’s Blog: Google is . . .

What do direct mail fundraising success and Website traffic have to do with each other in your fundraising organization?

They must be connected . . . right? Everyone knows that today our primary engine of generating donations is direct mail. But then, everybody also talks about how important Website traffic is. I mean, every Website provider offers analytics to measure traffic on your Website . . . so, they must be connected in the process of fundraising . . . right?

Now if you were to take down your Website, that action would definitely have a negative impact on direct mail donations, especially acquisition mailings . . . those people who are just hearing about you for the first time. What does everyone do when they hear of something for the first time? They Google it . . . right?  

But other than having a Website, is there a correlation between Website traffic and the success of your direct mail appeal, especially among current donors?

There is no correlation.

Why do I say that? Because direct marketing is, well, direct marketing. Your organization is spending big bucks to create and mail your direct mail appeals. Those direct mail appeals had better generate a return, regardless.

Whereas your Website, your Facebook page, even your e-newsletter are neat and all, but are they paying the bills?

So why is Madison Avenue and the world of advertising being decimated? Why is Google (a 16-year-old company) generating 50 billion (with a “B”) dollars a year in gross revenue? In fact, where does all that Google revenue come from?

Do you really get Google?

Do you get that Google is the new marketing? Google is sucking up marketing dollars that used to go into all forms of traditional media. Direct mail is traditional media. Traditional media declines as Google booms!

Huge companies down to small companies are now spending more and more of their advertising and marketing budget with Google. That’s where the $50 billion comes from.

How much do you spend with Google?

Exactly!

That is probably why your donor database represents only the oldest 15% of the population, and that’s why you can’t exactly answer my original question regarding the correlation between direct mail success and Website traffic.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Join us.

-Mike

Welcome to BIG's Blog!  Please feel free to forward this post to your friends and coworkers...and email me a comment at: mike@big-db.com

BIG’s Blog: Integrated Marketing is a Bridge to . . .

Mass-marketing communications, of which direct mail is a part, is in decline. Direct mail is not dead anymore than network television or local broadcast radio are dead. But, direct mail’s best days are in the past.

We all know that.

Today’s buzzword is “Integrated Marketing.”

Integrated marketing as a concept predates the Internet, but it has taken on new meaning and significance as all the new digital tools and social media have arrived on the scene.

For fundraisers today, it is unthinkable to just send out their direct mail appeal by itself . . . so to speak. Today you create a campaign around the direct mail effort. You precede (or follow or both) your direct mail drop with an email to your prospects (if you have their email address). You also create a graphic banner on your Website that features the creative form of your mailing package. And, of course, you hype your campaign graphics and theme in social media.  

Results from all this effort?

Some are reporting that these integrated efforts give a bump when compared to mailing just the direct mail by itself. That’s good.

But for all the effort, are you really moving the needle or changing the game? Are you getting younger donors? And what does Website traffic have to do with all this?

More and more fundraisers are coming to the conclusion that, for all their efforts at integrating their direct mail fundraising package theme across multiple digital tools and media, there isn’t a measurable difference in their donor base. And though online donations coming in through their Website are going up, it probably has more to do with convenience (as people quit using written checks) than a dramatic shift in the demographic composition of their audience or donors.

So is there value to integrated marketing?

My answer is yes.

Huh?

Integrated marketing was always going to be the natural and logical “next step” for direct mail marketers. Professional direct mail marketers look at the new digital tools and technologies as merely “digital” forms of their current analogue media. And, insofar as these new digital tools don’t add dramatically to their fundraising organization’s cost structure or, in the case of social media, are free, why not cross-utilize to potentially lift a direct mail campaign?

But if the direct mail efficacy is in decline and direct mail is the heart of your fundraising media, then how is integrating other Internet-based digital tools and media really going to change the direction of your fundraising future?

The answer . . . its’ not.

The Internet is a different thing.

Integrated marketing was just the natural next step that your organization had to pass through to figure out that coupling digital tools to your long-term workhorse of direct mail wasn’t the answer to the digital disruption caused by the Internet.

The Internet is a different thing. The Internet operates by new rules; not your old direct marketing rules.

Join us.

-Mike

Welcome to BIG's Blog!  Please feel free to forward this post to your friends and coworkers...and email me a comment at: mike@big-db.com

BIG’s Blog: Don’t Make THIS Mistake!

Apple was once the “gotta have” in every consumer’s mind. Not only were they creating products we hadn’t even thought of (iPhone and iPad), but also their visionary and fearless leader was charismatic and more idolized than living Presidents.

But then the competition caught up . . . and worse, they not only lost their charismatic leader, but their vision as well. Apple invented the iTunes store where, for 99 cents, you could download your favorite song onto your Apple device.

But now people are streaming music from Web-based companies like Pandora or Spotify. Do you think free music is having a negative effect on the iTunes music downloads?

I know . . . I know . . . you’re thinking, “I don’t operate in the fast track of consumer technology like Apple; I’m just a nonprofit fundraiser. What does this have to do with my organization?”

Here is where your world is just like Apple, et al.

Ever hear of Clayton Christensen and his book, The Innovator’s Dilemma? Christensen is a professor at the Harvard Business School, and the theme of his book (which, by the way, was first published in 1996) is that you prepare for disruption by creating your own competitor. Don’t wait for a new technology to make what you are doing obsolete. Take the new technology and open an office down the hall or across the street and start going after new donors that you are not getting now with the old technology.

Of course, the new won’t replace the old overnight, or even next year. Apple is starting a free music streaming service even as they are still making money selling songs through their iTunes store. But where is the music market going?

Where is your market going?

Is Apple too late with their competitive streaming music business? Maybe, or maybe not, since streaming is still building. But at least give them kudos for moving.

But for the vast majority of nonprofit fundraisers, their core new donor development is still via direct mail. Isn’t it time to learn how to develop new donors 100% through online?

What’s keeping you from moving?

Join us.

-Mike

Welcome to BIG's Blog!  Please feel free to forward this post to your friends and coworkers...and email me a comment at: mike@big-db.com

BIG’s Blog: My Message isn't for Everyone

My message isn't for everyone . . . not that it can't or shouldn't be. The truth is, every single fundraising organization will have to shift the way they think about and practice fundraising. The Internet-led disruption of communications and the generational shifts in societal attitudes towards philanthropy, beginning with the Baby Boomer generation, will overwhelm and bury the present practices and tactical methods of how fundraising has been done for the last eighty years.

Join us.

-Mike

Welcome to BIG's Blog!  Please feel free to forward this post to your friends and coworkers...and email me a comment at: mike@big-db.com

BIG’s Blog: Can you imagine selling signage or naming rights on the inside of your church?

Don't laugh; that is where some in fundraising are headed . . . at least in their imaginations.

Why? Because they can't see beyond the current model of fundraising.

Can't you just imagine some of the conversations? "Come on Father, I know that selling advertising space around the statue of the Virgin Mary sounds different, but our direct mail appeals aren't working like they used to, and our current donors are getting old. We need new ideas for donations. Look, corporate sponsorship is huge."

Seriously? Do you really want to go there?

Over the top? Hyperbole? Maybe, but also, maybe not.

It's called our “paradigm.” Paradigm is defined broadly as “a philosophical or theoretical framework of any kind.”

Or, in more common parlance, our paradigm is the way we look at the world and believe it operates.

In the Development world of fundraising, especially if this has been your chosen profession for most of your life, you have a set of beliefs driven by experience that guides you.

And then, the very ground underneath your feet gives way. You find the old models that you have learned and perfected your whole life are suddenly not working anymore. They are failing. So your logical progression of thinking is that "I am failing." This leads to experimentation within the confines of how you think your world still works. THAT is what leads to outlandish ideas that could cross all kinds of lines.

What's the alternative? How about taking a breath, sitting back, listening to, and learning what is changing, and why it is changing. Look at how others are already learning and implementing a different direction based on the NEW paradigm of the way your world is really operating today . . . not the way you remember it.

Or . . . just keep doing the same thing and believing that it will change.

But don't be surprised if the idea of naming rights on the statue of the Virgin Mary comes up.

Join us.

-Mike

Welcome to BIG's Blog!  Please feel free to forward this post to your friends and coworkers...and email me a comment at: mike@big-db.com

BIG’s Blog: The Possibilities of Change

We read in the press or see on television news stories about companies bringing a new technology to market and beating the competition. We hear this new technology will change the way we work or live.

But real change comes from a deeper place. It comes from our desire to make a difference in the lives of others. This change takes two forms: the change in helping someone in their physical or emotional life, or helping someone change their spiritual life.

We get so hung up on the technological change without recognizing that the core person . . . the human being . . . hasn't changed at all. Technologies come and go or keep evolving.

But . . .

You can’t be effective at doing your job, whether feeding people, educating people, healing, or helping them spiritually, without the best tools. That’s where technology comes in. Technology is just tools.

When you change the way you are doing something using technology, you do more than simply change something. You change the possibilities for people.

Join us.

-Mike

Welcome to BIG's Blog!  Please feel free to forward this post to your friends and coworkers...and email me a comment at: mike@big-db.com

BIG’s Blog: Do you understand what this means for you?

The article was entitled; “Is Yahoo’s Mayer Turning Into a Media Mogul With Katie Couric Web Video Deal?”

The whole thrust of the article was about Yahoo’s new CEO, Mellissa Mayer, focusing on landing high-profile television talent to Yahoo so they can create broadcast-quality programming right on Yahoo’s Home Page.

Yes, that Yahoo! What do you think Yahoo is today? It’s a Web portal, right? They offer news, weather, and information of all kinds, plus tools like email (yourname@yahoo.com), photo sharing via Flickr, and, of course, their own online shopping site, travel site, dating site, and job search site . . . all in one Web portal called Yahoo.

And now they are going to create original programming shows with personalities like Katie Couric et al!

So, what does this mean for your organization?

Well, how do you see your Website? Is it just information about your organization? What else does it offer? Maybe if you host events there is an area to sign up and pay for the event, right? What else? If you have a bookstore or catalogue online, then people can shop online on your Website? What else? Oh, they can donate online? Well, that’s convenient.

Those who have read my blog for awhile know that I have been comparing the breakdown of television networks and traditional television viewing to the decline in response to direct mail appeals. Both are being disrupted by the Internet.

And now online-based Web portals like Yahoo, AOL, Google, YouTube, Hulu, and MSN and many more will be competing directly with traditional television networks for viewership.

How is this possible? Because more and more older people are getting televisions with built-in Internet connections and younger people are watching programming as much on tablets and computers as on actual TVs.

And why? Because it is more convenient. You don’t have to watch a show at a particular time; you can watch it whenever.

SO WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH YOUR FUNDRAISING ORGANIZATION???

CBS, NBC, ABC, ESPN, or even EWTN have nothing on you if you create programming (messaging/content) that people need and want to see.

That’s the “Dirty Little Secret” that scares big media and even online portals like Yahoo, and they don’t want you to know. You don’t need Katie Couric if you have a great message to share and can really touch people. Yes, it is different from creating direct mail, but creating consistent programming (video and audio) and posting on your Website shares your message far and wide, and unlike traditional analogue media, online media is made to be shared via the Internet.

How do you think of Yahoo today? How are you going to think of them five years from now when you will get original programming at their Website?

When are you going to start creating original programming on your Website that tells your story and mission?

Join us!

-Mike

Welcome to BIG's Blog!  Please feel free to forward this post to your friends and coworkers...and email me a comment at: mike@big-db.com

BIG’s Blog: Spare me!

The title of my blog today is the reaction that many readers have shared with me if they perceive that I am writing . . . yet again . . . about how they must shift their Development. “Spare me!”

Today is the end of the workweek; you are probably in the mood for my typical end-of-the-week short and pithy blog. But, unfortunately for you, this one is longer and has real meat and substance. A real “think” piece. In fact, I didn’t write it.

So if your head is already in the weekend . . . do this: Forward this email to yourself to be read at your leisure Saturday or Sunday.

Or, if you are up for it today, by all means, read it now!

The piece is a post by Seth Godin entitled An end of books. But it is NOT negative. Rather, it is one of the most thoughtful and real pieces I have read in awhile that ends with hopefulness and even the prediction of a new golden age in books.

But … I DO WANT you to read it as a metaphor for what fundraising is also going through. I, too, predict that as Development moves to the digital, online world, we are going to enter a new golden age of fundraising.

Enjoy!

-Mike

Welcome to BIG's Blog!  Please feel free to forward this post to your friends and coworkers...and email me a comment at: mike@big-db.com