YGM Total Resource Campaigns

Strategic Thinking: Networking

February 10 2021 admin Blog, Chambers, TRC, YGM 0 comments Tags: networking, sponsorships, YGM

In these early months in 2021, we are focusing on strategic thinking. That’s right – strategic thinking, not just strategic planning – though they go hand in hand. You have to be thinking strategically in order to do the important work of the planning for your chamber or organization. All strategic thinking involves questions. We encourage you to grab a notepad and do some thinking with us.

In our last blog post, we went into detail on why strategic thinking is important and how you can utilize it. Today, we are thinking about how we network with our members, especially now during these unusual COVID-19 times.

Networking is built into chamber life – into the life of any organization, really. Members of any organization attend networking events to expand their business contacts, to be seen as a vital component of the organization, and to build their own business. Networking is about building.

What are you building with your networking events? What do you want to build? Do the two answers come together with the actual attendance numbers and engagement of your members or clients?

Networking

What is the one event/program that most chambers have? AfterHours or a similar networking program. It doesn’t matter how your chamber does it. Are you thinking about it? Really thinking about it? Think about your networking programs and ask yourself these questions.

What is the real reason your chamber does networking in general?
Are you penetrating the percentage of your membership that you desire with this program?
Is your networking program segmented?

What is the real reason your chamber does networking in general? Are you penetrating the percentage of your membership that you desire for this program?

Are you trying to engage your members in your programming? Think about the results you want from your networking events. When you do a wrap-up evaluation after an event (you do those, right?), do you look to see if the results are in line with your goals?

If you do networking events to engage your members, are they attending? Whether virtually or in-person? Are you providing what you think is best or have you gotten input from your members?

Whether you recognize it or not, you are getting input from your members. If you have a monthly networking event and the same 20 people attend each month, you are not engaging your members unless your definition of and goal for engagement is to create a small club for certain members.

If you hold in-person events during the middle of the day, and your small business owners aren’t attending even if the programming and educational opportunities are geared toward them, they are telling you the timing isn’t right for them.

During Covid, we have seen many chambers having more engagement from a wider group of members because they are able to connect virtually and not leave the office. Even if your in-person event was only an hour, adding drive time to that could leave a member away from the office for an hour and a half to two hours. Virtual events have streamlined that process, allowing them to engage while also being available to answer a call or email or to respond to a client. These are things that should be included in our planning when it is possible for our events to be primarily in-person again.

Is your networking programming segmented?

Other than your Leadership or Young Professionals programming, do you have segmented events? Or do you simply have one AfterHours and assume it will fit the needs and desires of everyone in your membership.

If you aren’t presenting segmented programming, you are missing opportunities, both to engage your members, to attract a broader range of sponsors, and to charge for some events (we are seeing people willing to pay for viable content). As we have seen with more members engaging in virtual events, we are also seeing that they are specific about what content they engage with on a consistent basis.

Now, while it’s so easy to set up Zoom networking events, begin to think about how you can segment your offerings to best reach the greatest number of your members. Now is the time to experiment and see what works. Look at your membership and see how you could divide it into various networking events, provide those events, and watch who attends. Continue to carve away and hone the events until you are seeing growth in them – growth that mirrors your mission for the program and your goals.

Have you considered:

A book club
Entrepreneur groups
Sweat work groups

Remember that if you hold an event and the outcome doesn’t mirror your objectives, you need to look at the program and see what might have caused the disconnect. Was there a breaking news event in town that affected the group you were targeting? Try again next month and see if your engagement changes. Did people simply not attend? Did they begin the virtual event and then log out early? Reach out to a few members and ask why. Your members are constantly refining their business practices. They will appreciate that you are doing the same.

How Do I Get Rid of AfterHours

This is one of the questions we hear most. AfterHours is a traditional sacred cow of the chamber world. The best way to let AfterHours go is to create other networking opportunities that benefit both your members and the chamber more.

Cash Mobs are a great example of an event that provides both networking and a chance to support local businesses.

A little strategic thinking can help you navigate this process. Putting in the effort in the planning stages and watching how your members respond will allow you to create networking programs that are vibrant, engaging, and well-attended.

When you have programs like that, you will be able to monetize the events – get sponsorships and charge a fee for some of the events. There is no limit to what is possible.

Get ready, get set, go strategic think.

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Improve Your TRC Communications

July 01 2020 admin Blog, Chambers, TRC, YGM 0 comments Tags: communications, sponsorships, total resource campaign, TRC

Are you planning your fall Total Resource Campaign (TRC) now? One of the first things on your timeline is most assuredly to promote it to your members and community.

In the YGM TRC world, you know that all communications and promotions should be centered around your members. If the focus is put on how involvement in the TRC through sponsorships benefits the members and their businesses, that communication will be more successful than if it is focused on how the TRC helps the chamber.

Now, we know TRCs help chambers. They give you a deep dive into strategic planning. They give you funds for your budget for an entire year. They bring in new volunteers and new members.

But Total Resource Campaigns – if done well – are also really beneficial to your members because they allow them avenues of contact with their target audiences that they might not have otherwise had. Let your pre-TRC marketing reflect that.

How do you do that?

Don’t simply announce in your newsletter/e-news that your TRC starts on whatever date. That’s boring and not informative.
Tell the story of your TRC by telling the story of your members. And let them tell their own stories, either in print or video.
Ask successful volunteers for the names of businesses they worked with that saw significant growth as a result of their sponsorships. Ask that volunteer to do a 60 second video interview with the business owner about how the sponsorship helped them reach their target market.
Include information in your communications pieces regarding the different sectors that were reached in your last TRC and how your sponsorships helped your member businesses reach those sectors.

Above all, you cannot overemphasize in your communications leading up to the campaign that the TRC is about finding ways to best assist member businesses in furthering their unique missions. Find new and different ways to say that. Even if you grow tired of saying it, your members won’t grow tired of hearing it. Because for them, the chamber should always be about how you can be of service to them.

Do your communications pieces communicate the right messages? If not, now is the right time to discover that and make any changes necessary.

If you need any help with a communications review, let us know. We are here to help you.

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Why a TRC Changes the Way Chambers View Sponsorships

November 30 2015 admin TRC 0 comments Tags: sponsorships, TRC, volunteers

If you were to jot down the number of sponsors your chamber currently has, what percentage of your members would be on that list? For most chambers, that number would most likely be less than 50 investors.

Do chambers want additional sponsors? Do they want more members as event partners? Of course.

Current Model?
Consider the following scenario. Is it familiar in your chamber?

The Annual Meeting has arrived, and the event is a little shy of meeting budget. Chamber staff members place calls to a few board members or existing sponsors to secure the needed funds. Once the allotted amount is met, everyone moves on to the execution of the planning the event. Then, it seems, the event is barely concluded before the attention is redirected to the golf tournament and raising funds for it. And thus, the cycle continues.

In that scenario, a select few businesses – often, those who appear closest to the organization – continue to monetarily undergird the needs of the chamber, while the majority of members never contribute beyond paying their dues. That majority of members miss out on sponsorship and publicity opportunities, often because they weren’t aware that those opportunities existed.

Do those members feel that they cannot sponsor Chamber events? In our experience, yes, businesses often feel that way. They want to sponsor, but they feel like they can’t access the opportunities or are simply unaware of them.

Try a New Approach
A Total Resource Campaign works to break this cycle and to increase a chamber’s sponsorships and member engagement.

A Total Resource Campaign – or TRC, as we call it – will open up a wealth of opportunities for chambers to increase non-dues revenue. In a first year TRC, 80% of the businesses who sponsor have never sponsored a chamber program previously.

Why do such a large number of new sponsors come forward in a TRC? The answer is simple. They have never before been asked to participate in chamber life at this level.

Volunteers Make a Difference
Simply conducting a campaign will not change the engagement. A large portion of the dynamic change is due the utilization of a larger volunteer base than in the past.

When volunteers take the business development opportunities offered to them through a TRC and discuss with members (and potential members) the sponsorship opportunities available, members begin to see sponsorships as marketing and advertising opportunities available through the chamber – not as philanthropic donations to the chamber.

Move Forward
Total Resource Campaigns are amazing ways to promote the chamber in the community and within the chamber membership itself. TRCs increase exposure in terms of membership, sponsorship and volunteer involvement.

Done well, a TRC can show local businesses in a very specific way why sponsoring the chamber is good for business – both for an individual business and for business as a whole for the community.

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