I’m not sure how you found out about the article you’re reading right now, but there’s a good chance that it was through an email. That’s a sign of the medium’s power—and also its problem.

Of course, associations understand the value of using a variety of communications tools, from social media posts to video and beyond. But quite often, those activities are siloed, with particular messages segregated to particular formats. For instance, according to Marketing General International’s latest Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report, less than half of associations use tools beyond email for renewal marketing.

“Associations are going to kill themselves if they don’t move to a multichannel strategy instead of just relying on email,” Tony Rossell, senior vice president at Marketing General International, told me in a recent Associations Now Deep Dive on communications. As he explained, the email-heavy approach means members are more likely to miss your important message in the midst of all the clutter in their inbox.

The approach also assumes that your members privilege email as much as your association does. Of course, that’s not true, especially when it comes to messages that merit immediate attention—which for many means their text messages or Instagram feed. 

For association leaders, change means recognizing that it’s an error to consider that some media are a better fit for “important” messages than others. Rather, importance is conveyed in different ways across different media. 

Case in point: The association fly-in. Writing recently at the ASAE website, Gather Voices CEO Michael Hoffman noted that too often associations have a too-narrow concept of what an advocacy event like a fly-in can do. It can be more than just a one-day event for handshakes with legislators’ aides and arguments on behalf of your mission. But only if you let it: “Within a few days, the stories that made those meetings powerful fade away,” he writes. “The insights shared on Capitol Hill rarely reach the broader membership or continue fueling the advocacy effort.”

Better, Hoffman suggests, associations should look at events like fly-ins as opportunities to deliver year-long messaging to different audiences. He points to the example of the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs, whose volunteers recorded more than 20 short videos discussing their experiences and their goals around advocacy. Those videos can be used in a variety of contexts—email newsletters, sure, but also social media, texts, and more.

And those messages can serve different audiences. Just as the fly-in itself targets legislators, resharing those messages can connect with members you know are engaged in your PAC, to potential members who want a glimpse of how engaged members can be, to members who need a reminder of the work the association is doing on their behalf.

Of course the messages don’t all have to be around advocacy. And email is still a valuable communications tool. But associations serve a variety of audiences, who consume information in a host of contexts. They deserve a marketing plan that acknowledges that diversity, and works to serve it.