Published by Arj Devadas, VP of Sales & Marketing, ACGI Software
Cluck, cluck, cluck… Before you start thinking that I’ve lost my mind or have been overly influenced by monster movies made in the early 1960’s, let me explain.
Changing demographics in the United States have made chicken thighs and other dark meat increasingly popular. Demand is so high, chicken producers can hardly keep up — if they could breed a bird with three legs, they would (If you don’t believe me, check out this story from the NY Times business section)!
There are several things that got me thinking about three-legged chickens and associations. All of them have to do with how we make the most of our relationships with members – or maybe I should say “stakeholders.” Nah, it’s your “market.”
Like every business, your association’s success depends on how well you grow and serve the needs of your market. Having the right mix of products and services, promoted and delivered appropriately, priced right – it all matters.
In fact, getting a handle on your market and its needs is super important for any association interested in growing non-dues revenue. When it comes to growing non-dues revenue, we can look to our friends at CESSE for ideas.
Associations that participate in CESSE commonly deliver big-time events, have peer-reviewed publications, produce industry standards and provide certification, training or CE programs. Each of these activities represents a potentially significant source of revenue. And, like every other business, for CESSE associations, the key to success is market growth coupled with high levels of efficiency, quality of service and productivity.
In this blog last week, we explored the challenge of managing event-related submissions. This would commonly involve managing abstracts, award nominations and other similar submittals. If you run events and have to capture, evaluate, share and manage submittals, it can be an expensive, time-consuming process.
This week, let’s take a look at publications.
Now, I know lots of associations provide publications as a “member benefit.” Many, if not all of the operational advantages available to organizations running publications as a profit center, still apply. These include:
• Automating subscription management, fulfillment, billing and auditing.
• Packaging and productizing on- and off-line publications based on customer interest, events, special offers, etc.
• Managing ad sales and production.
• Reporting and analysis of all publication-related data, subscribers and advertisers.
The American Physical Society (APS), a member of CESSE and ACGI customer produces a dozen or so individual journals. Over 40,000 members and others interested in the organization’s content can subscribe online to more than 100 journal packages, with multiple levels of pricing (including free). To advance its mission and spread knowledge of physics, APS strives to make its content affordable and widely available. It accomplishes this by streamlining all facets of subscription management and production.
As you may have guessed, APS makes effective use of the Association Anywhere Publication Management modules for optimizing subscription management. This includes pricing, ordering, billing and fulfillment. In addition to improving organizational efficiency, the Publication Modules enhance member (customer) service, by providing an online interface for managing all aspects of a subscriber’s account. This is especially useful for institutional customers.
Let’s return to the revenue generation side of publications for a minute. Expanding options for print and online advertising can increase the overall complexity of managing, tracking and reporting on ad sales. Having a single system for configuring and managing the entire process, inclusive of tracking customers and prospects, sales data, pricing models and even sales commission data, is a huge benefit for sales managers and association execs. Why? A single, integrated system for managing all publication, advertising, advertiser and customer/member data ensures billing and reporting accuracy, enables online ordering, reduces costs and simplifies publication operations – all of which help drive up program-related profits.
When it comes to growing your association, chances are you won’t need three-legged chickens to satisfy market demand. Providing members and customers – your market – with the targeted, vital goods and services they need, that you can best provide, is your key to future success.
To learn more about how your association can turn its publication operations and other non-dues programs into profit centers, we’d love to hear from you.
If you’re attending CESSE, stop by and say hello to the ACGI team: Myron Spence and Paul Burke. Otherwise give us a call or send us an email.
Photo Credit: Flickr (Chris Bartow)
