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Suzanne Carawan

By: Suzanne Carawan on June 13th, 2016

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recognition is everything for a mmc professional

Association Industry Commentary | association marketing

mailto:demo@example.com?Subject=HighRoad Solutions - interesting article

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Today kicks off ASAE's Marketing, Membership & Communications Conference at the DC Convention Center. From the association technology vendor viewpoint, this has long been thought of as a low investment show. One where you have to show up, but you minimize your spend and don't make a big splash because it doesn't usually draw the technology people whom have long been the traditional buyers of software. Due to lack of big budgets and being seen as an influencer of technology purchases, but not a decision-maker, MMC professionals traditionally have not been seen as power players in the association industry. This observation is backed up by our research which found that a small margin of associations have a MMCer at the VP level and an even smaller percentage of the already small percentage have an MMCer with a title that begins with the word "Chief". 

If you're an MMCer, you are well aware that you are often misunderstood, your skillset is seen as everything from knowing how to throw an event to write a press release and you are responsible for revenue, but not in a way that actually gives you the ability to decide the pricing, positioning and go-to-market strategy. Your job description may or may not accurately reflect what you normally do and you might be working in a capacity that is so mind-numbing that you want to kick yourself for wanting to speed through college to graduate.

Your job has indeed been hard, but as an MMCer, you've got the work ethic because you have to double duty all the time. What's new is that hard work can turn to joy when you receive recognition for your contributions and the labor of love that you put into each and every deliverable is acknowledged.

From my perspective as a for-profit MMCer (where my membership is called our client base), I'm seeing a radical shift in budgets, influence, authority and vision. Every day we're hearing MMC departments looking to develop their own marketing technology stack that is going to work for them and is based around delivering end user experiences. Every day we're seeing people change jobs, new roles being created and more MMCers being elevated into Chief-type roles where they need to not only correctly organize the labor of their department,but also equip them with the technology to do their jobs in the most efficient way possible. ROI is starting to dominate the conversation more and more---how do I ensure my marketing coordinator is the most productive? how do I measure cost of new member acquisition if I'm advertising on LinkedIn?

New thinking and new approaches are energizing the MMC professionals whom have long been seen as supporting roles to program-led departments. I'm so excited for association MMC profs out there that I want to yell THIS IS OUR HOUSE and get us to embrace our natural roles as leaders to go move markets and influence people. To support this effort, we at HighRoad are doing everything we can to advocate for MMCers to get the recognition and respect that they deserve.  We are proud sponsors of this year's Gold Circle Awards which recognizes excellence in MMC programs and I can't wait to get to the champagne reception to congratulate each and every award winner in person.  

If you weren't aware of these awards, take note and write down the submission deadlines because it's our time, MMCers. Congratulations to all of us who have an MMC element in their title. Let's go do good work together!