10 Ways to LOSE Members!

I recently attended a great session at ASAE's MMCC (a bit snarky) led by Andrea Pellegrino and Theresa Kramer-Burgess with their list of the top 10 reasons to lose a member.

Losing members because what you're doing not because what you're NOT doing!

Here's their list of 10 ways to lose members:

#1 Make it hard to find information - arrange your website the way they can find information in an easy intuitive way.

#2 Make it hard to give you money - do you have a one-click solution, think Amazon and their one click buy - your members expect that now!

#3 Make them wait - give them instant feedback or acknowledgement of joining, not on a weekly/monthly schedule.  Use auto respond emails to make that instant connection.

#4 Tell them what's good for them - it's important to continue to ask your members what they want, think annual needs assessment survey. Ask, listen, track, respond.  Do a focus group as qualitative research from time to time.

#5 Ask for more money, right away - let them get settled and take advantage of the membership before bombarding them with new ways to spend money with your chamber.  Think engagement first and help them solve a problem.  Communicate what you're doing for the community.

#6 Make discounts a main benefit - talk about the value of membership in your chamber (advocacy, economic development, community development) not a discount on a future purchase.  Make your interactions with people transformational, not just transactional.

#7 Don't personalize - there is no reason with today's technology that you can't personalize every communication with your members.  Always use their first name, don't ever use "Dear Member."

#8 Don't talk to them - if a member calls your chamber will they get a real person or will they get the phone voice mail tree that takes forever to leave a message.  We're in the relationship business and your members should be able to easily get in touch with you and get their question or problem fixed.

#9 Ignore the user experience - are you tracking how your members are accessing your information on your website.  Are you using Google analytics to track your members interaction with you and make it easier for them to get what they want. Don't waste their time trying to navigate your website, just fix it, no excuses.

#10 Ask for everything all at once - ease your new members or current members into the work of the chamber.  Have them make "one decision at a time."

Bonus #11: Fuhgettaboutem - don't do this!

Their final thought, engage with your members throughout the year in a piece meal kind of way and continue to listen to them and respond in an appropriate way.

Digital Marketing Essentials

At a recent breakout session I attended on digital marketing by Aidan Augustin and Jeff Bunkin of Feathr was focused on retargeting, geofencing and lookalikes.

Retargeting - someone visits a website and you get an ad later when you're on a different web pages (Facebook, papers, etc. - banner ads or a video ad).  This is all about getting you to purchase a product once you've left a site where you were browsing.

Retargeting is all about paying to reach a warm audience and you don't need their email.  They've just visited your website.

You can use segmentation to dig deeper in what they viewed on your website and then you can decide what ads they may get from you to make sure you're delivering relevant information to them - think an exhibitor versus an attendee and giving them the right information to sign-up.

Another example is the shopping cart abandonment, where you can retarget them with the registration process and get them to check-out and finish the process.

An ad exchange is an auction site to decide what ad is shown at the higher price on the webpage that is being loaded in real time.

Geofencing - showing ads show within a specific geographic area, think a 4 block radius.

For a great resource on the specifics of retargeting go HERE for an article by Social Media Examiner.

A Data Driven Approach to Member Recruitment Strategies

At a recent membership and marketing session I attended addressed membership recruitment strategies based on data.

It was conducted by Kerri McGovern and Joseph Cephas, both staff members of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID).

The main point I want to focus on from the session is identifying what to focus on and how you are communicating with members and prospective members.

Speak in your members terminology not yours.

Current issues that need to be addressed as you move to the future - aging members, value proposition, legacy members resistant to change

You must be mobile friendly!

Resources - they talked about how your website main page must be enticing to your members.

They also talked about the sales funnel, and oh by the way, the sales funnel is not dead as some may say, and depending on who you speak to or which article you read there is always a tweak in how you are using it.  By the way, it's a great way to organize your sales:

• Lead generation - prospects who have visited your website, list purchase or attended an event.
• Lead evaluation - prospects that took an action, clicked through your email, etc.
• Lead qualification - prospects that respond to direct membership outreach.
• Qualified lead outreach - ongoing dialogue of prospects who have expressed an interest.
• Closing qualified leads - point of sale.

For a resource go to Wikipedia's site HERE.

Messaging is key when putting together a membership campaign.  You must have a consistent message weather it's a direct mail piece, website, or your social media presence.  Their organization tapped into the theme of "belong" as their messaging - "You Belong Here!"

Are you leading with a similar theme?  Your Community: Be a part of a better future!  When discussing membership with a prospect lead with your advocacy work, economic development, and community development initiatives versus leading with a list of benefits of membership.  That should be on the backend of your communications.

If you've not read the study by ACCE titled Horizon Initiative: Chambers 2025 you should and it can be found HERE.

3 Ways to Make Mobile Interactions Count

At a recent seminar I attended, the speaker, Adam Hostetter, NotchPoint Consultants, talked about how organizations can use mobile interactions to engage your members.

He started off by talking about "Micro Moments" - a term Google pegged in 2015

Your members have micro moments all the time - little things that can make a difference for your members - think of them as experiences your members have with your chambers over a period of time.

He stressed that these experiences should be consistent whether you're on a phone, iPad or computer - since our members are switching between the three 91% of the time.

He went on to say exclusivity and urgency are key in getting members to take action when marketing - think early bird pricing that ends at midnight not 30 days away.  Time kills deals - get them to take an action now!

Is your next program plugged into Amazon Echo so when your members ask when is the next (your Chamber) event, Alexa will respond?  I must admit, I hadn't thought of that one before.

Are you worth it?  Make sure you continue to deliver the goods during these micro moments.

His final three comments in this fast paced 30 minute discussion discussion, you need to:

• Seamless experience - online and offline.

• Bring it - deliver fast, relevant, assistive experiences.

• Use your data - enable personalization.

His final comment worth noting, if you remember nothing else - "delight and be useful."

For more information on "Micro Moments" go to Google's webpage found HERE.

Board Relations and Leadership

I recently attended a session on the title of this blog presented by Steven Worth with Worth Consulting.

He started off by asking the question, do we have a problem?

He referenced a Stanford study that 69% of the people surveyed identified a challenge over the past 10 years mainly in: fundraising; financial stability; the executive director leaves unexpectedly; and attracting new board members.

He broke the session down into four areas and I took away the following comments or best practices in each of the areas discussed.

Governance

Remember the duties of board members:

• Duty of Care;
• Duty of Loyalty; and
• Duty of Obedience.

For an entire blog post on the subject matter go HERE.  And don’t forget the fiduciary responsibility when it comes to your finances.

Board Leadership Development Needs

Boards can be representative vs strategic.  While both can be productive it’s key to get the right board members involved in your organization.

There are a number of challenges that can be counterproductive which include, a board member pushing their own agenda, not knowledgable, the naysayer, etc.

It's critical that you continue to asses your current board for skill sets and position your organization to elect new board members where you may be lacking (i.e. knowledge in finance, marketing, education, leadership).

Membership and Financial Challenges

We are membership organizations.  Stay focused on your mission!

Markets change and the board needs to stay focused on that market otherwise the board and members will become obsolete if they don’t stay in tune on their market sector.

Don’t become a social party for your members, stay focused on the mission and serve the market whichever direction it goes.

Suggestions on how to stay focused:

Through surveys, discover the facts (quantitative vs qualitative) and do some benchmarking.  Constantly re-examine your strategy (annual strategic planning session) and always be recruiting new and keep getting new members, the bell curve 25-55 is the main working age and should be represented in your membership numbers.

Confusion Over the Board's Role

Create a job description for prospective board members so they know what they are getting into and what the expectation is if selected.  For a sample job description go HERE.

Do you continue to ask your board members on how they're doing and if they understand their role on the board?

Are you promoting your board members?  Recognition is very important in what you give back to board members for their service.

Have you created a scorecard matrix that has the board self evaluate their performance and which also identifies their skill set.  This is a simple exercise that will give you the information you need to build a strong board.

In the last part of the session we discussed how finding friends or partners with other organizations, think your chamber and other entities within the community to:

• Share resources
• Expand your network
• Do well by doing good
• Develop new ways of working
• Gain additional credibility

Final quote on leaders – they inspire others to do more than they thought they ever could do.

Something to think about!

Using Content Marketing to Recruit Members

Are you trading content for contacts?

This is what content marketing is all about.  You provide a white paper, epub, etc. but they must give you their contact info (opt in) to your reaching out in the future.

Don't forget to use referrals from current members as a way to gain additional prospects and hopefully members.

Are you using online advertising on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to reach lapsed members who may still be following you?

There are tools out there that will tag a person who has visited your website and then they can get an ad on your organization when they visit Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn on their next visit.  This is what sponsored ads are all about.

Or what about Lightbox Popups to capture more emails?  Learn more about that HERE from the folks at optinmonster.com.

I've heard many people talk about the copywriting SOS's.  Keep it:

• Short - conversational
• Organized - clear and compelling with a call to action
• Skimmable - use white space, bullets or think digestible

At the end of the day, what's the offer?  That is the key for you to define and communicate using the above SOS copywriting strategy.

Never forget, it's all about the offer (call to action)!  And never forget to offer multiple ways to join.

Do you use deadlines as a tool for your prospective members to take action?  I've heard it before, time is a killer.

Test, test, test what channel works best for you and then focus on that channel to recruit and retain your small business members.

A final piece of advice from the experts in the field, you've got to get away from one message fits all.

For a great resource on one of my content marketing favorite websites go HERE.

Good luck!

Growing Membership in the Digital Age

I recently participated in a webinar by my friend Rick Whelan with Marketing General Incorporated.

I've written about their annual membership benchmarking survey before and the latest survey can be found HERE.

He talked about how this new digital age offers you the opportunity to reach out to many folks that you may not even know about.

The Direct Marketing Association recently stated that each person gets 2,500 impressions each day.  Wow!  That's a lot of clutter.

Communication channels are clogged with messages.  You must be able to target by demographics - profession, jobs, experience, age, specialties, certifications.

You must define what your prospective member pressing needs or challenges are and have the tools to fix it for them.

Value Proposition: What's in it for me (WIIFM).  Your members are thinking - how can I be smarter, save time, save money, and solve a problem.

So what messages are you using to attract new members?  Do any of these ring true:

• We're the place to get info you can't get anywhere else;
• We can solve your problems; and
• Here's how you will benefit from membership (not what they'll receive but how they will benefit).

For a previous blog post on that subject go HERE.

He talked about how you need to identify the right people, at the right time, and the right benefits/solutions to make the "membership sale."

He also went on to talk about the membership lifecycle.  And there has been much written about this, but this was his definition:

• Awareness - tell your target audiences who you are and what your value is, invite them to engage with you.

• Recruitment - find your target audience, invite them to join you.

• Engagement - Give them something for their money, deliver value, encourage usage of your resources.

• Renewal - invite them to renew, early and often.

• Reinstatement - invite them back, new and improved products and services if they happen to lapse.  A large number of our members will lapse at some point in time.

While there are many marketing channels to fill the funnel of prospects: events, telemarketing, database marketing, direct mail, social media, webcasts, app, online advertising, and email marketing.  Decide on what channel works best for you to be successful?

Find out what is working for your chamber, in your community, because it might be different than another chambers success in another community. Track and measure everything you do!

A great resource on membership trends by Marketing General can be found HERE.

What I took away from this webinar is that all ages join organizations but for different reasons - check out MGI benchmarking study to learn more HERE.

And don't forget what Seth Godin has said in the past, "Everyone is not your customer."

Until next time!