The Five Essential Elements of an Amazing Association Publication
An association publication is the perfect place to inform, inspire, and invite your members to get involved in the organization. It can also be an opportunity to boost growth, build relationships with readers, and shine a spotlight on your association as a thought leader in the industry.
To achieve these loft goals, your publication needs to stand out among the vast amount of media that your members receive on a daily basis. One way to do so is to account for all of the key components of an amazing, effective, and page-turning publication. Here are the top five to consider:
1. Engaging and Informative Content
Always keep your readers’ interests in mind when choosing topics and developing content for your publication. Ask yourself: Is this something that members will eagerly anticipate reading every week? Does it contain the relevant, helpful, and valuable information they signed up for?
A few important things to include in your publication would be events, upcoming webinars, industry trends, special member benefits, career tips, and other association announcements.
2. Human Touch and Personal Connection
Small changes, like writing in a conversational tone, storytelling your content, and using the word “you,” can make a big difference in making your publications feel warm and welcoming.
Adding a human touch to your message will create a sense of personal connection with your readers. It’s as if they’re having a friendly conversation and not just reading words on a page.
3. Clean and Attractive Design
Even the most exciting, well-researched, and high-quality content can end up being ignored if it’s presented in a dull, messy, or confusing layout. Steer clear of this issue by ensuring that your publication is visually pleasing, and using colors, fonts, photos, and text tastefully.
Creating a template for new releases will help you save time in designing your publication. This will also help keep your aesthetic and color scheme consistent and familiar to your readers.
4. Readability and User-Friendliness
You have to meet your audience where they are at! People will read your publication on their phones, tablets, laptops, and (hopefully) print! So, check to see if your work looks good and is easy to read across all screens and devices.
To make browsing your publication more smooth and enjoyable, divide large walls of text with clear, attention-grabbing headlines and add an interesting image or two for variety. Keep your sentences short and simple, but make them witty, meaningful, and full of value.
5. A Clear Call to Action
No publication will be complete without a clear and compelling call to action! This will guide your readers towards the next step that your association wants them to take. It can be anything from signing up for a webinar to sharing the message with a friend or subscribing to your channel.
As with most messages, it’s better to keep your CTA short, catchy, and memorable. Position it in a spot that’s highly visible to your readers and make them an offer that’s hard to resist!
Final Thoughts
Your association publication can be an extremely beneficial tool in achieving your organization’s goals—but only if it brings your readers true value and quality content. If you follow all these best practices and keep the key components always present in your upcoming releases, you can be sure that your members will keep reading for more!