Your association’s brand is your organization’s identity. Here are three steps to build a stronger brand for your association.
Your associations’ brand is the identity of your organization. It tells people what your association is about, what value it provides, and why they should be a part of it.
Building a brand for your association can be complex, but it doesn’t have to be. There are some simple steps you can take to build a stronger and more distinctive brand that supports your membership marketing.
Three steps for building a brand identity for your association
1. Define your association’s brand.
Your association has a mission, provides value for your members and your industry or profession, and has a distinct personality. Because your association exists, you’ve already established some type of brand. But you might not have defined it, or it might not be as strong as you’d like.
To define a stronger brand for your association, start by writing a value proposition (also referred to as a positioning statement) for your association. This statement articulates why people should join or support your association, what’s in it for them as a member or sponsor, and why they should continue to renew their membership and support your organization.
In addition to your value proposition, define your association’s “personality”. Your association’s personality should align with your target audiences and the industry or profession your association serves. For example, your association’s personality might be casual and approachable, or it might be more formal and professional.
2. Develop brand elements, messaging, and guidelines for your association.
Once you’ve articulated your association’s value proposition and personality, it’s important to develop brand identity elements, guidelines, and messaging that you can use in your marketing communications. Here are some helpful tips:
- Build elements that support your brand.
Brand identity elements include things like your association’s logo, color palette, message tone/voice, and imagery. They’re the elements you use to communicate your association’s brand to your audiences. Developing these elements and using them consistently help to create a strong brand identity for your organization and build loyalty to your brand and your association.
You probably already have some or all of these brand elements. But, it’s worthwhile to review them on a regular basis to ensure they continue to support your association’s mission and goals as well as align with your association’s current value statement.
- Establish messaging for your association.
Your association’s value statement should be the core of your organization’s marketing messages. While it’s not possible to develop messaging for every possible marketing campaign and communication that your association will want to use, you can create messages and examples as a starting point for consistent messaging that supports your organization’s brand.
One helpful approach is to create personas. Personas are fictional characters that represent each key audience (such as prospective members and current members) that you will communicate with. Create personas for each of your audiences so that you can keep them in mind, just as you would think about a friend as you write a note to them, when you develop marketing communications and content.
Another helpful approach is to develop key messages for each persona you’ve established. For example, you might write a short paragraph, in your brand voice/tone, that explains why each audience should join, renew, or support your organization in other ways.
- Develop brand guidelines for your association.
Brand guidelines help everyone in your association know the details of your association’s brand elements. The guidelines don’t need to be complicated, but they should help your staff and volunteers to use your brand elements consistently.
Some things to include in your brand guidelines:
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- Your association’s mission and value proposition
- A description of your association’s personality
- Details about your association’s logo, including acceptable use of the logo and where to find logo files
- Information about your organization’s color palette
- A description of the message tone and voice that should be used in your association’s marketing and communications (these should reflect your association’s personality)
- Guidelines for what types of images should be used in your association’s marketing and communications (For example, should images be photos or illustrations? Should they represent some aspect of your industry or profession? Should they include at least one color from your organization’s color palette?). It can be helpful to include examples of types of images that fit within the guidelines.
3. Put your association’s brand to work.
Once you have developed clear and strong brand identity elements and messages, it’s time to put them to work. Review all of your marketing channels and communications to make sure your brand is strong and consistent. These might include:
- Your association’s website
- Your online member community
- Your association’s blog
- Social media accounts
- Microsites for events
- Email and text communications
- Digital and print publications
Also, be sure that your staff, volunteers, and anyone doing graphic design work for your association has access to your brand guidelines. Keep your brand guidelines updated, and periodically remind everyone to refer to them when developing new marketing communications and content.