How to Attract, Nurture, and Retain Members with Strategic Communications

The NAADAC Story - How One Association Increased Membership by 48%

Meet your Presenters

Misti Storie

Director of Training and Professional Development

NAADAC, the Association for Addiction Professionals

Vivian Swertinski

Sr. Digital Marketing Strategist

Informz

NAADAC Success Story

48% increase in membership

72% increase in audience…in 12 months!

Challenges Faced

Free Falling Membership

Aging/Shifting Profession

Recession

Devaluing of Benefits Package

Outdated Communication

Methods

Stale data

The Informz Partnership

Database

Phone

Emails

Website

Upgraded and customized IMPak

Redesigned website and logo

Integrated the new website with

IMPAK

Switched from Mailchimp to

Informz which was integrated with

IMPak

Easy-to-use, advanced features

IMPak Integration – merge fields,

unsubscribes, bad addresses

Reports

Responsive Design

Customer Service

Template Design

Easy-to-use, advanced features

The Results

Membership highest in 7 years

New funding opportunities

New partnership opportunities

High customer satisfaction

More revenue overall

Non Members

Members

What’s Next? Keep the momentum going!

Make meaningful first impressions with

non member audience

Cultivate those relationships: turn non

members into members

Improve our relevancy and send more

targeted communications to all audiences

Before we strategize….we need to analyze

Core Goal – Increase and Improve communications

Detailed Examination of our Audience

Do we truly know who makes up the current member base?

What are the primary job functions?

How long have they worked in the addiction field?

Do they have similar work settings?

What motivates them to work in this field?

What educational requirements do they have?

Profile of NAADAC Members

Counselor

Wide variety of primary job functions

Different work settings

Wide range of Academic degrees

Years employed in addiction field

Primary Job Function

Good Information but….

Is it enough?

Create our Counselor Persona

What are they entrusted to do every day?

What is the work environment like?

Why do they choose to do this job?

What keeps them going?

What are their challenges/pain points?

Why do they become a member, what do they need?

Cathy Counselor

Cathy is an Addiction Professional working alternately in private

practice as well as at a treatment facility. She comes into contact

with patients that may exhibit addiction symptoms. She needs to be

able to recognize the signs of substance abuse and be equipped to

lead the diagnosis, recommend a treatment plan, as well as provide

clinical services.

She has personal experience with addiction and feels strongly about

helping others. The work can be very fast paced and stressful. Her

job requires continuous education certificates in order to maintain

her credentials and continue working in the field. Without employer

education assistance she must find free or low cost educational resources to make ends meet.

Personas help us make relevant connections

Subject Lines that resonate:

We help you help others

We love your work!

You make a difference, we’re here for you!

Content that makes a connection

Testimony of a NAADAC member’s journey from addiction

to recovery

Opportunity to increase relevancy with non members

Can we recognize Personas within our non member audience?

Not today…but we can change that!

Recommendation: Add Primary Job Function to the registration

forms. (standardized list of job titles)

Register

Weekly News

Decide

Opportunity to create great first impressions

Our next best opportunity is a new communication strategy

Register

Welcome

Weekly News

Nurture

Decide

Welcome and Nurture Campaign

New Contact

Welcome to the

NAADAC

community

Join the organization

Education

Certification

Advocacy

Workforce

Development

Conferences

Benefits of Membership

Non Members

Members

Automate and Measure Results

Automate welcome series to be a daily

recurring email

Personalize communications with knowledge

of Personas

Automate nurture communications based on

non member status and acquisition date

Measure results, make modifications as

needed

Summary – Keep moving forward!

Before we strategize…let’s analyze

Build Personas to understand target

audience

Identify data capture opportunities

Define the path the audience takes to

become a member

Identify gaps/opportunities to enhance

communications

The Informz Way - Don’t just send an email

Create an experience…

DevelopPersonas

Define the

Lifecycle

MapContent

AutomateCampaigns

MeasureEffectiveness

Thank you! Please stay in Touch…

Vivian Swertinski

Senior Digital Marketing Strategist

Swertinski@informz.com

1.888.371.1842 x 151