From conferences to certification to career development, associations provide many services. Yet we can’t forget that at their core, associations exist to serve their members. Without a robust, vibrant, growing membership acquisition and retention program, they risk getting outpaced by one or more of their many competitors waiting in the wings.
Membership outreach is marketing and we can employ many of the same established direct marketing strategies from the retail, commercial and even non-profit worlds. This includes targeted emails, online techniques including SEM/SEO, social and display advertising, high-touch telemarketing and yes, even old-fashioned direct mail.
Direct marketing is the best way to speak directly to your members and prospects with a specific “call-to-action.” There must also be a way for the target to speak back to the sender or to respond. That response and the responses of everyone who was contacted must be trackable and measurable.
There is an expense to direct marketing and some channels are more expensive than others, but it is the most effective way to find new constituents, the best way to build a broad coalition and is where your members with the highest retention will be found. So understanding the complicated economics underlying direct marketing for membership is key.
In brief, acquisition is any method by which new members are found. For many organizations, acquisition campaigns have a negative net revenue (a nice way of saying they lose money). But the purpose of acquisition isn’t to make money or even break even. Acquisition is an investment in new members, and they will have long term value as they renew, register for events, purchase publications and transact financially with your organization. So, organizations have to decide how much they can invest in each new member.
The other major component of membership marketing is retention. In fact, it may be more important than acquisition. You’ve invested in members so you should try to do everything you can to keep them with you. Depending on the size of your membership and your annual dues, a slight increase in your retention rate could mean a significant increase in dues revenue.
In two of my recent roles, at the Society for Corporate Governance and the Academy of Management, I’ve been able to introduce more discipline and routinization of marketing efforts and campaigns as really the first long-term marketing professional on staff. And in both cases, it led to significant growth and return on investment.
This barely scratches the surface of direct response membership marketing. This doesn’t address lapsed members (a huge asset), creative, design and personalization and how to best use all the different types of media available to you (although I have done some deep thinking on the subject).
