ACEP: An Intimate Approach to Membership Marketing

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October 12, 2010

In the great health care debate, it is easy to think that all emergency physicians are concerned about the same issues:  ER overcrowding and health care reform legislation, in addition to their ultimate concern, the best way to care for their patients.  But like many associations, the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) has varying expectations from members who have divergent needs.  In comparison to established physicians, new members have different education and information needs, and keeping current members engaged is a different type of challenge than obtaining new members.  Combine that with the complexity of supporting strong local chapters under one umbrella and you have one heck of a member communications challenge.

How do you speak personally and relevantly to more than 28,000 members nationwide? The American College of Emergency Physicians relies on innovative thinking and advanced variable data printing.

Adding Value on an Individual Basis

Providing value at all stages of an emergency physicians’ career is an area where ACEP shines. In addition to having great resources available to their membership, they are exceptional at timely, relevant communications that are matched to the needs of the individual.  When you analyze the ACEP marketing department it is obvious that they spend a significant amount of time on the best strategy to communicate the value that ACEP provides to their members.

Individual Communications for 28,000 Members

We recently had the opportunity to help ACEP automate and improve the quality of a complex variable data membership booklet that is personalized to each physician according to their interests and local chapter.  It also contains a highly personalized membership card.  No doubt, we did the easy part.

ACEP’s complex communication tactics speak to each of their 28,000 members so that they feel they are an intimate part of the association. Here are some examples of how ACEP speaks relevantly to their membership:

1) The cover begins by highlighting that the information is personalized, and by branding the cover with the physicians name and credentials. (CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE)

2) Inside, the pages are personalized to the member’s interests and specialty.  This is an excellent example of several text versions with variables within the text versions. (CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE)


To see more and read about the results of ACEP’s personalized membership program with NextPage, you can download the ACEP Case Study here.

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