Yesterday, Day Three of NAIFA’s Online Blueprint Leadership Training, began with an overview of the new NAIFA Brand Book by Suzanne Carawan, NAIFA’s Vice President of Marketing & Communications.

This session was followed by presentations by other high-profile speakers, including Corey Mathews, VP, Member and Chapter Services, NAIFA, Nate McGrath, AVP of Strategy and Product at Life Happens, Ken Leibow, CEO of Insure Tech Express, and Sheryl Brown, CEO of Females and Finance. At the end of the meeting, the attendees were armed with lots of actionable ideas designed to help them grow their associations.

During her presentation, Carawan told the participants that NAIFA has accomplished a lot during the past months. It was able to pivot successfully to offering programs that addressed the challenges of a changing business environment, and because of COVID-19, it was able to digitally transform itself at warped speed.

In spite of these and other accomplishments, NAIFA needs to do more to achieve an even higher level of success--and Carawan offered a few steps the association must do to achieve more growth now—and in the years ahead:

1. Standardize our visual identity. Make sure everything is designed using a standardized template, including logos, images, etc. “Using standardized templates saves a lot of time and effort and sends a clear and unified message,” Carawan said.
2. Standardize our vision. NAIFA’s tagline is: Together, we can take on anything.
3. Standardize our value proposition.
4. Empower and elevate our states. We need to shine the spotlight on advocacy and other NAIFA programs, and elevate the role of our state presidents.
5. Create demand for our brand.
6. Eliminate geographic boundaries for education. Good examples of these are our Virtual Performance + Purpose Conference, which was made available to all, as well as NAIFA Live.
7. Position NAIFA as a thought leader in the industry.
8. Utilize the power of our advocacy, corporate, marketing and supporting partners.
9. Harness our political power.
10. Make sure that everyone knows that we are the heartbeat of Main Street USA.
11. Standardize our membership processes, including our Welcome Emails, and Member Orientation and Member Onboarding Programs.