Closing the Gap Between Passionate Participants and Members of the Silent Majority
October 13, 2009 by Mary Ellen
I see it over and over in organizations. People/members/participatants profess to care passionately. Yet, the majority fail to participate.
For example: in one such organization, statistics show 30% open rates for emails. Email, due to low delivery costs, is the primary marketing channel for this group. The silent majority – the 70% that never opens a missive misses announcements, information, and special offers.
Because one marketing channel can’t serve everyone, I began to think about improving outreach efforts overall. How do you get the word out to a diverse following?
Here are some ideas. Feel free to add your own thoughts in comments below.
- Use collaborative efforts. In my example, the organization teamed up with a major vendor to offer a benefit to all members. As part of the plan, the vendor took a member list and made a commitment to contact everyone. In this case the vendor’s salespeople acted as outreach partners. Flyers approved in advance by the organization touted the partnership and its benefits.
- Focus on alliance partners. Many members of the organization have memberships of their own. A message about the promotion to their membership list might attract a different audience and thus increase exposure. The message could be a collaborative announcement in a newsletter, for example.
- Create messages for other channels. A blog post on the originating organization’s website augments its efforts. Like email, this web-based portion of communication may miss some members. In hindsight, my advice is for the organization to add different channels such as:
- Direct mail. An effective campaign involves a postcard mailing series using spaced repetition. Different postcards are mailed weekly to the targets.
- Telephone. One of the most effective outreach efforts for a small organization includes phone contact. Build a telephone tree where each member contacts one other member.
- Public service announcements. Local radio or television stations might collaborate to publicize a coordinated theme impacting the community.
- Public relations. With enough lead time, stories about the upcoming promotion could inspire membership and participation. Where are the juicy tidbits or the fun photos? Weekly newspapers or community-oriented magazines could be interested in these ideas.
- Social media. How about invitations from the Facebook fan page? Another effort involves postings from each member of the board of directors. Because of the diversity of the organization, each member of the board has a unique network and together everyone impacts different networks. With social media, follow up includes getting help from the masses so the message is retweeted, reposted, rebroadcast and forwarded again and again.
- Track your results. Follow the results for each of your channels. And remember, no ONE method gets to everyone. Multiple impressions ensure the reception of your message.
Ignite any campaign with one or more of these ideas. Warning: success isn’t automatic. It requires ongoing, focused efforts. So pause for just a minute and remind yourself of what you’re trying to accomplish. You’re trying to reach the silent majority, right? Good luck.
One of the great obstacles facing every organization these days is the time famine. In order to close the gap between the passionate 3o% of participants and the silent majority of 70%, you must cut through the clutter.
The right message paired with the right channel will carve out some additional participants from the silent 70% majority. I’m confident of it.
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