What Lessons Did You Learn From the 2020 Elections? – Ask JP #041

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11/10/2020


The question today is, “What did you learn from the election and how do those lessons apply to associations?”
That’s a loaded question, however, I’m not going to say anything controversial. Here’s what I’ve observed that I think association leaders should learn from this election. And, at the time that I’m recording this video, we don’t know who’s going to be the next president.
It’s clear that there’s something to gain from the 2020 elections as far as strategy goes. If you rely on one way to engage your members – or one part of your value proposition as your primary focus – in the end you probably won’t win. In other words, let’s compare it to election day. You may miss opportunities if you rely on all the votes that came in on election day, however, if you look strategically at the playing field, and say, “We need people to vote absentee by mailing in their ballots, we need people to show up the day of to vote in person, and we need folks to register on the day of and vote that day – if your state allows that.” If you take care all of those options then you may be able to get more over time – you may be able to gauge more of your members in a certain time frame. This is critical for associations to learn.
For some, the legacy model maybe one focused on membership where the only thing that talked about in terms of value proposition is advocacy. If that’s the case, we may only get a limited number of members to work with us and they may not renew if our advocacy program is not doing well.
On the other hand, if we’ve got a meeting or event that we rely on – and it’s only available in an in-person format – we only reach a certain number of people. However, if we deliver the event virtually – as a podcast or video – and we archive all the information and drip it out later to different audiences, we are able to engage and reach more people.
In fact, that’s what we’re starting to see.
Marketing General reported in person in their economic outlook that 70% of associations said that their members are more engaged with them during a time when in-person meetings are not possible. Incredible, isn’t it? It’s because associations are delivering information and value in a variety of ways and that is the way to get the most people to participate – and to vote for – your association.
That’s what I learned from this election, and so much. Talk to you soon.
 
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