It's that time again . . . time to get the ball rolling on your new membership recruitment campaign, or your seasonal ad campaign, or your annual meeting promotion. You need an idea, a direction, an inspiration to guide your creative mind to a result that will be executable, will reach and resonate with the intended audience, and come in within budget.

If you want to boost sales, increase membership, enhance volunteer participation, increase market share or find new profit niches, the best methods start with knowing your target audience. One of the most effective ways to do that is to listen to them. How you listen, and how you organize and collate the results of that listening is the determining factor in the usefulness of the data, and the accuracy and actionability of your analysis.

You know you really don't need that copy of the newest book "How To Survive The Real Estate Downturn And Become A Millionaire In The Process," but you subscribe to Money magazine anyway. You know you don't need that die-cast, genuine certified Commemorative Medal of Freedom, but you subscribe to Reader's Digest anyway. Such is the power of the premium in publication sales - even smart, savvy, educated professionals react emotionally when they stand to gain something for "FREE.

It is human nature to try and improve upon the conditions around us, and as humans we are hardwired to be curious and to strive to improve our lot in life in ways large and small. For organizations, there have been many theories expounded over the years about quality improvement, continuous improvement, conscious improvement and a slew of others - clearly getting better at what you do as an organization is a key component to success.

It is human nature to try and improve upon the conditions around us. For organizations, there have been many theories expounded over the years about quality improvement, continuous improvement, conscious improvement and a slew of others - clearly getting better at what you do as an organization is a key component to success.

If you think of your outreach marketing program as the volume control for the information, it would be a simple impulse to turn up that switch when you needed more members, or wanted to launch a new program - one simple motion.

Despite postal increases, paper price increases, regulations tightening for security and machineability reasons, direct mail is still the most effective way to reach a defined large scale audience, build sales and brand awareness, and move units. It is direct, it's accountable, it's relatively predictable and efficient, and it can be tested and refined to maximize results.

Despite postal increases, paper price increases, regulations tightening for security and machineability reasons, direct mail is still the most effective way to reach a defined large scale audience, build sales and brand awareness, and move units. It is direct, it's accountable, it's relatively predictable and efficient, and it can be tested and refined to maximize results.

Direct marketing is often called a game of dollars - getting the basics down and understanding where to put in the time, money and effort where it will do the most good and return the results you need. Success is often a matter of a fraction of a percent response, which can represent thousands of dollars in sales.

Properly aligned priorities and careful execution will yield profit, misplaced effort and sloppiness in execution can cost you.

In Part One, we discussed using in-depth member survey work to boost the visibility, awareness and effectiveness of your organization's brand, and how it can directly impact your ability to recruit and retain members. If your organization isn't the first thing member prospects think of when they turn to industry issues, there's work to be done.

Your survey may provide mixed results that don't show a clear direction.

The visibility, awareness and effectiveness of your organization's brand directly impact your ability to recruit and retain members. If your organization isn't the first thing member prospects think of when they turn to industry issues, there's work to be done.

But where to start?

As popular wisdom has it, knowing and admitting you have a problem puts you half way to solving it.

The term "Branding" has been in use in American marketing vernacular since the 1800s, first being used for cattle in the west to identify members of the herd belonging to a single owner, but branching out to consumer goods shortly thereafter, one of the first of which was used to identify beer served at certain pubs, with a small symbol on the door that was also used on the beer's label.