SBP Communication and Marketing Guidelines

AHTD’s Strategic Business Partner Program offers multiple opportunities for participating organizations to interact with both distribution and manufacturing member companies. Please see the Strategic Business Partner benefit sheet for a full listing of the benefits Strategic Business Partners can expect from their partnership with the association.

This association is run BY members FOR members - as such, the Board and Executive Committee make decisions that are in the best interest of the members. The Board believes that Strategic Business Partners have products and services that would benefit every member. 
 
In exchange for the right to claim membership in AHTD with our members, Strategic Business Partners have the responsibility to follow our communication and marketing guidelines.  Developed to aid Strategic Business Partners in having a great experience with AHTD, we aim to maximize the ROIs of participation without angering members. 
 
In-Person:
Our twice-annual meetings offer the Strategic Business Partner a table-top presentation booth in our Partnership Hall for the purpose of displaying product offerings, as well as facilitating in-person discussions while on location.
 
We ask that all Strategic Business Partners:

• Respect all attendees.
• Familiarize themselves with the Code of Conduct for Spring Meeting and Fall Meeting each year. 
• Take advantage of AHTD meetings to promote products and services.
• Utilize the scheduled breaks and other downtime during AHTD Meetings to schedule any one-on-ones or group activities with customers or potential leads.
• Contain any promotional materials within booth time and space to prevent its being collected and disposed of.
• Be respectful of other Strategic Business Partners’ booth space: stand in front of one’s own booth, and place any signage (or other materials) in a way that does not prevent access to another Strategic Business Partner booth. 
• Control the volume of video and audio playback so that it doesn’t prevent conversations for other attendees.

 
Email/Virtual:
Our members have provided the association with contact information for the purpose of networking with other members. The biggest single complaint that ASP and MAN members have about Strategic Business Partners is feeling as though they are getting spammed*(see below). 
 
We ask that all Strategic Business Partners:
 

• Take advantage of the opportunity to share the company story and the benefits of the company products and services for the AHTD membership in our monthly newsletter that reaches our database of 1300 emails!

  • Please send submissions to Heidi Wadzinski, by the 2nd Friday of the month.  Please include the following:

    • Headline
    • Short synopsis paragraph of the article/press release (1-3 sentences)
    • Story/press release (Suggested - 100 to 700 words)
    • Jpeg images as attachments
    • Web links to include
    • Name of the contact person and email and/or phone number if applicable

 

• Participate in AHTD’s LinkedIn community by following AHTD and member companies, tagging AHTD so that we may share with our networks all that can be done for  AHTD members, and consider following and using our community hashtags:
  • #doinghightechbetter
  • #AHTDrocks 
  • #AHTD

Be judicious when leveraging the AHTD connection to initiate an electronic conversation with a member. Broadcasting the same blanket message to multiple members of any target company can be construed as a misuse of partnership, regardless of the source for email addresses.

Make sure that every team member is aware of these guidelines, as Strategic Business Partnership can be revoked at any time for cause.

We have devoted a lot of space in this guideline document to the subject of spamming. The bottom line is, (and this is taken directly from the Strategic Business Partner agreement and eligibility requirements), if there is any evidence of a Strategic Business Partner company having been involved with spamming, this will automatically disqualify the offending company from participating in the Strategic Business Partner program, resulting in participation, fees, and benefits being immediately forfeited.
  
*AHTD’s Definition of Spam:
 
We consider spamming to be any activity whereby one directly or indirectly transmits email messages to any email address that has not solicited such email and does not consent to such transmission. 

Say What? 
Okay, here goes: Emails sent from one sender to many recipients are most likely SPAM. Any email that reads as though it was constructed as: “Dear (insert first name here)” is, guess what – SPAM.  While we applaud marketing’s new angle of creating an individual experience, repeated emails with no response are (even if sent from one individual to another), sadly, also considered SPAMMY!

If an email takes the recipient more time to read than the sender has invested in that single correspondence, then that is likely SPAMMITY SPAM SPAM SPAAAAAAM. 

Again, please join us in following the spirit of the no-spam policy. No weaseling to find the loophole.