Fernald Business Association

©2004 Jeffrey Dobkin

If you’re in direct marketing, you’re continually looking for new list  sources — everybody’s tired of mailing to the same lists. If you’re not in  direct marketing and thinking about putting a mailing together, here’s something a little different: take a look at marketing through  associations.

Why would anyone ever market to associations?

They’re great targets: try sending a press release to an association’s publication – whether it’s  a newsletter or a magazine. Why, you can alert an entire industry of your  products or services with one or two well-placed news releases.

Since the magazines and newsletters of associations are not the  mainstream prospecting tools of most marketers who market through  more traditional channels association publications receive just a fraction  of the press releases and promotional articles that go to major  publishers. Yet the comprehensive lists of over 23,000 associations go astonishingly deep in most major and minor markets. In addition, association publications are usually well regarded and lend excellent credibility to the firms that get ink in their house publications.

Why else would you market through associations? Maybe you’re an affinity marketer – and you’d like to have the 96,000 members of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association apply for the special trial rate of your new credit card. Or, maybe you’d like the National Electrical Contractors Association – with 80 people on staff, and a budget of $10 to $25 million to support their 4,000 member firms that
comprise 118 local chapters (along with the entire personnel of each member firm) – to apply for your new phone service. Associations can deliver thousands of their members – new customers for you – with a just a few contacts and a modest budget.

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