Associations With Integrated Communications Tend to Outperform
From social to mobile to online, print and live events, it’s not easy integrate all of your organization’s communications channels. But research shows it’s worth the effort. Based on responses from leaders of more than 1,000 North American associations across nearly 100 industries who take part in our annual Association Communication Benchmarking Study, associations with integrated communications are outperforming other associations in a wide variety of measures. For instance, those with integrated communications are:
- More than three times as likely as other organizations to say that they’re utilizing content effectively across all of their communication channels,
- Far more likely to say members consider their communication programs “best-in-class,”
- More likely to believe members are reading at least half of all communications efforts sent to them,
- More likely to be generating NDR successfully,
- More likely to be measuring their communications consistently
- Less likely than other associations to say they need to create more relevant content
- Less like to say they need to do a better job of understanding reader/advertiser needs
- Less likely to say they need to engage with new or younger members of their profession
Our definition of “communications integration” has three key components:
- Each communication vehicle has a well-defined frequency/message/audience/purpose.
- Content is cross-purposed and cross-promoted as appropriate.
- Advertisers have the ability to coordinate their buys across all channels.
When we asked respondents what they would do with an unexpected 50 percent budget windfall, content integration often came up. We would “Implement a website content strategy and train all content creators,” said one. Another said “we would go back to printing certain key pieces rather than being nearly 100 percent digital.” Yet another respondent hoped to “hire a measurement/analytics expert and improve collaboration between the content team and the programming team because disconnects cause problems.”
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