A leading mortgage industry publisher turned to BrightKey to consolidate and improve its customer service function, which had been dispersed across multiple departments. The vice president of sales, who had previously worked with BrightKey, knew that he could also count on his fully dedicated BrightKey team to support sales by processing orders and fielding calls from new prospects. The BrightKey team now supports a sales force that has more than doubled, with the addition of new divisions and significant increases in the products offered. Over the past three years, call volumes have increased 40% and orders processed more than 120%.

What started as data cleansing for a major environmental organization has since expanded to include data entry, call center services, on-site convention staffing, renewal mailings, email blasts, outbound telemarketing, publication fulfillment, and ebook conversion. The association took a methodical phased-in approach to outsourcing activities previously handled in house. In addition, BrightKey’s IT department provided consulting services to support the conversion from TIMSS 5.0 to Personify. Whenever this association has a new need, they turn to BrightKey to see if an outsourced solution is possible. Thanks to BrightKey, the client has turned the corner on profitability and points to BrightKey’s expertise and streamlined operations, stating “BrightKey accomplishes more with less staff then we required in-house.”

The small business owner has been called the backbone of the American economy, and BrightKey is the backbone of the association that represents their needs. With a dramatically different business climate, a large association of micro business owners realized they needed to focus energies on new mission and vision, while upgrading their delivery of member services. BrightKey successfully relocated their customer support, working very closely with the association’s executive operations team to provide call center services, membership kit and merchandise fulfillment, billing notice mailings, card personalization for new members, outbound telemarketing for new member touch points and to reinstate memberships, data cleansing programs, and marketing support. The BrightKey partnership has allowed the organization to regain management of the organization and focus on key advocacy efforts. All support is customized to ensure members receive optimal service and that the organization receives the feedback it needs to navigate new territory. The client stated, “Thank you for creating an atmosphere at BrightKey that shines through the phone lines on behalf of our association. Not a day has gone by that someone hasn’t given them kudos.”

An association serving nonprofit organizations wanted to update the member roster of each of its member companies prior to converting to a new version of its association management system (AMS). BrightKey’s Strategic Marketing and Turnkey Divisions joined forces to create an email campaign that pulled from the existing database to send members their current contact information and request corrections, additions, and deletions. The email put a marketing spin on an otherwise “housekeeping” request, members would benefit from streamlined and focused communications about many exciting new programs. With a series of three emails and a “thank you” gift incentive, the campaign exceeded projections and industry average response rates. BrightKey’s turnkey division entered the data directly into the AMS and successfully updated thousands of member records.

A major engineering association was experiencing a significant number of members dropping from the member roles. BrightKey proposed a Strategic Outreach campaign to recapture lapsed and expired members and gather valuable marketing information at the same time. In addition to renewing a good percentage of the expired members, the team has uncovered reasons why people make the decision to renew (or not). Some of the surprises have been the high number of members still in the process of deciding (although they’re 90 days lapsed) and the extent to which members view the calls as a courtesy. The marketing director said, “The marketing information is every bit as valuable as the revenue generated from the renewals—the program pays for itself many times over.”

When a leading academic association decided to focus attention on positioning and membership messaging, it turned to the Strategic Marketing team to develop strong benefit-driven creative to be implemented in a new acquisition package, advertising, and trade show booth design. The process began with a qualitative research process that involved internal and external interviews with stakeholders—from key executives and Board members, to the members themselves. In short, the MAA had allowed the members and their strong section affiliations to define the organization; the control acquisition package included no value proposition, merely the offer of a free book. The research findings reinforced the importance of powerful, relevant marketing messages. The result was a campaign that worked hard to build affiliation and loyalty and set the association on a new path to actively defining the association and its benefits.

Working with a national association whose members serve in the public health field, BrightKey built on the existing brand by developing a warm, inviting visual identity and messaging that clarifies and underscores member benefits. The Strategic Marketing team worked closely with the association’s senior membership director and brought to life her theme There's Value in Belonging, giving it life through images and messaging. The look and feel uses the association brand elements and extends them in a highly professional and benefit-oriented direction. Each of the components focuses on letting the members themselves speak about the value of the organization. The materials support a flexible member acquisition, welcome kit, and touch-point program.

When one of the world’s largest clinical research organizations wanted a brand for its yearlong 25th Anniversary celebration, it turned to BrightKey for a theme, logo, and an animated timeline and corporate history for its website. Working across multiple departments in this global giant, from corporate communications and marketing to the executive suite, the Strategic Marketing team got inter-departmental buy-in and successfully developed the celebration theme and logo. We then worked on the premium items and announcement vehicles that were distributed worldwide, even designing a military coin minted in honor of the anniversary year. Supporting materials included a range of employee gifts, screensavers, banners, and signage.