Playbooks for membership growth
MANY associations are seeing a significant hit to membership this year due to the Covid-19 crisis. yet some associations are growing.
What can we learn from these associations and other historically fastgrowth associations? What can you do during these tough times and how can you prepare for faster membership growth ahead?
These lingering questions were answered in a webinar organized by the Australasian Society of Association Executives (AUSAE). Entitled “your Membership Marketing Playbook: Game Changers for Driving Membership Growth,” the webinar featured Elisa Joseph Anders, senior account director at Marketing General Inc. (MGI) in Alexandria, Virginia, United States of America.
The three game changers and corresponding playbooks your association can use to drive membership growth are as follows:
1. Getting everyone on board to invest in membership recruitment.
Three playbooks were mentioned: (a) link your association’s mission and growth; (b) project your future membership; and, (c) demonstrate the economic power of membership.
On (a), Elisa cited the example of the American Nurses Association (ANA) whose mantra is “standing together to fight Covid-19,” uniting nurses across the US by informing and supporting them during the pandemic. This resulted in membership growth.
On (b), membership equilibrium (steady state) involves balancing new members added and lapsed members who leave, with this formula: number of new members per year divided by the lapse rate (which is one minus the renewal rate).
On (c), Elisa covered four values: customer value (members are better customers); lifetime value (the economic value produced by a typical member); stability value (balanced membership numbers); and, mission value (the rallying point).
2. Building a best practices recruitment program.
Four playbooks were presented: (a) identify the who and the why; (b) conduct multi-channel, multi-touch campaigns; (c) conduct testing; and, (d) evaluate your results.
On (a), the key questions to ask are: who are your target audiences and why should they join? Those most likely to join, ranked from highest to lowest, are former members, customers, inquirers, members of like associations, subscribers and directories. It is also about reaching the right people with the right messages, in the right places, at the right times.
On (b), current multi-channel, multitouch campaigns that tend to work best are digital marketing, telemarketing, and direct mail.
On (c), recruitment testing approaches include A/B test (please refer to my column on July 26, 2019, https:// businessmirror.com.ph/2019/07/26/a-btesting-for-associations/), landing test and format/layout test.
On (d), Elisa said measure everything. If you don’t know what is and isn’t working, you’re making bad decisions.
3. Innovating to drive membership recruitment.
Two playbooks were given: (a) develop new membership markets, and (b) deploy new membership models.
On (a) and (b), the example given was that of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD).
Since adopting the “whole child” development approach, the ASCD has increased its membership from mostly teachers to now include principals, supervisors and district administrators. The ASCD has also changed its membership model to a tiered one: executive membership, executive membershipplus and leadership circle with corresponding benefits.
So, what’s your association’s playbook now?
The column contributor, Octavio “Bobby” Peralta, is concurrently the secretary-general of the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific and the Founder & CEO of the Philippine Council of Associations and Association Executives. PCAAE is holding the Associations Summit 8 on November 25 and 26, 2020 with the theme, “Leading with Agility.” The two-day virtual event is supported by Adfiap, the Tourism Promotions Board and the PICC. E-mail inquiries@adfiap.org for more details on AS8.