Stay in touch with your members on a regular basis, not just when it’s renewal/invoice time.
Be consistent with your message and your brand. Don’t try and be all things to all people. Focus on what you do well.
The following list of ideas may be helpful as you set your plan.
Membership Recruitment Ideas
Show value of joining your organization:
- Advocacy
- Credibility
- Networking
- New business
- Knowledge source
- Solving problems
- Affinity programs
- Research
Identifying a prospect:
- Define your target segment
- Identify smaller more manageable market segments of membership prospects to tailor promotional messages
- Develop different recruitment strategies for different audiences i.e., direct mail, e-mail, website, face-to-face, trade shows, etc.
- Survey your members and non-members constantly to identify what your members and potential members want out of membership
- Use multi-media to reach your prospects
- Different pitches to different segments based on survey data (market research)
- Don’t be afraid to change your pitch
Membership Retention Ideas
- Show dollar value of each service for membership
- Show ROI
Create a formal retention program:
- New member kit
- Phone-a-thon to reach out to new members after 3 months of membership
- Weekly, monthly, quarterly communications (not a sales pitch)
- Office visits
- Mini surveys
- Personal note with invoice
- Congratulatory notes
- News releases
- Get new member to write an article in newsletter
- Get new member to be a panelist at one of your educational programs
- Get new member to volunteer in a leadership role
Engage members on a regular basis to determine their satisfaction of membership:
- Survey new members
- Survey same members after one-year
- Survey attendees at conferences, after a book purchase
For a great resource on membership marketing go to Marketing General, Inc. or HERE for their latest surveys and white papers.
