Competing in the Digital Age – Association Hustle Podcast – Episode 214

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12/18/2019


Associations are thinking about their competition more than ever, however, their biggest competition is now the internet. And it’s not going away. You don’t have to do it all when it comes to competing in the digital age but you have to do it. And you have to do it at scale. Listen in as JP Moery provides insights into how The Moery Company has been able to scale content and the effort’s impact on the bottom line.

 

Transcript:
Hello and welcome to JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. President of the Moery Company, JP’s mission is to arm today’s associations with insight and strategy to thrive in a progressively complex and competitive business landscape. Twenty-first century associations must move forward with a little bit of hustle and revenue development at their core. Here’s JP.
I’m going to talk about competition. Oh, baby, I love to compete. And I know your associations are thinking about competition more than ever before.
Let’s talk about competing in a digital world, especially in the area of communications. I got news for you: this internet thing is not going away.  It’s the biggest deal since the printing press. The iPhone is the new television. You can broadcast live right now, if you want to. Associations need to capture that kind of feel.
This new digital age of communication is set up for organic, new, fast-moving, and authentic communications. It means you have no choice but to do it. And you have to do it at scale; that’s the challenge that many of our organizations run into. We’re used to controlled, stay-on-message, respond, chain of command, and it’s almost like those characteristics are the antithesis of communicating in today’s digital world. So, that’s the challenge for our associations.
People are on their phone all the time; they can broadcast immediately. Think about the power of going to Capitol Hill with your members and doing Facebook Live about their experiences. Are you willing to do that? Are you willing to hear a member say something a little bit different than what you might expect? Yeah? But the upside is you’re showing value in real time. That’s what’s really important. So, my challenge to you is, loosen the rope. Give yourself some bandwidth to innovate, to experiment, to try some new things, to do some live videos, to start a podcast. Launch it this year. Launch it now!
I’ve got so many association clients that are wringing their hands about email open rates, wringing their hands about a newsletter, wringing their hands about a magazine and the business model behind it. Yet they have no live video, they don’t have a YouTube channel, they don’t have a podcast. Man, they’re looking backwards! The ability to look forward is really what the opportunity is of embracing this new methodology.
By the way, here’s the other part of this: we’re talking about reaching the member of the future, reaching the members of our association that may be coming up the management ranks right now. They’re not thinking about, “Man, the magazine’s late!” They’re thinking, “Oh my gosh, what are they doing on all these new platforms?!” That’s what they’re looking for. If you want to get new demographics, if you want to get new members, if you want to meet the up-and-coming folks that are in your industry… Believe me, they’re on mobile. Believe me, they’re on digital. Believe me they’re on audio. That’s where they are and if you want to reach them, that’s where you need to put your content. That’s my simple perspective.
Let me give you a story about our company. About two to three years ago we started live video, we started podcasting, we started blogging at scale. Go to our website and there’s all sorts of resources on how we do it. And, by the way, we’re a small company. We’re smaller than most of your associations and their staffs are. We were able to do this, and do all of these things in a scalable way, and here’s what it’s done to our business: 34% top-line revenue growth and more inbound requests for our services than ever before. And, oh by the way, I’m not selling anything, I’m just telling you about our experiences. People are asking about what we do and the services we provide more than ever before. And, the beauty of it as well is, our pipeline not only has grown but the time to close a deal has decreased almost 25%. Why? Because they’re aware. They’re familiar with what we do and we’ve been able to build brand in a very positive way by giving away content as much as possible on as many platforms as we can get our hands on.
So, that’s how to compete. Take it from a small business person that services associations, and also joins associations, that’s the way to win in this digital world. I wish you the very best. Thanks for listening, bye bye!
We hope you enjoyed this edition of JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. We’d love to connect with you! Check out our blog at moerycompany.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter. You can also connect with JP on LinkedIn and Twitter @JPMoery as well as the Moery Company’s Instagram and Facebook page. To purchase a copy of JP’s book, Association Hustle: Top Strategies for Association Growth, go to JPMoery.com.

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