Promotion Methods
for Association Events
A detailed list of promotional tools appears in Chapter 2. Virtually
all these campaign methods may be considered for association
meetings and events, but certain ones will be rejected because of
the nature and marketing needs of the event, the cost effectiveness
of the promotional approach, the range of the markets to be
reached, and the political/psychographic preferences of manage-
ment. However, the following are classic tools for membership or-
ganizations to use in their event marketing campaigns.
DIRECT MAIL
The mail campaign will be effective and affordable only if the list
management is efficient. Associations normally rely on staff for
list management. List maintenance (updating and verifying the ac-
curacy of mailing lists) may be performed internally or may be
outsourced to a list maintenance contractor.
List management involves the surveys, analyses, and tracking
of members, associate members, elected leadership, sponsors,
exhibitors, and all others who would like to remain—or be-
come—stakeholders in the event. This involves continuous
research:
■Change-of-address reminders on membership renewals and
as inserts in other mailings
■Return change-of-address postcards in association periodicals
■Monitoring of industry publications for news about employee
movement and additional prospects
■Change-of-membership data forms for association chapters
and allied organizations
■Mailings to “dropped-member” archival lists, to solicit in-
formation on the potential new member or his or her most
recent location
■Telemarketing campaign to the most recent stakeholder con-
tact location to update information
■Records-update forms conveniently located with a drop box
at registration desks at all organizational events, meetings,
and expositions, as well as at chapter eventsPromotion Methods for Association Events 105