Three Steps to Engage Volunteers in Membership Marketing

Volunteers can make a significant impact in helping you reach out to others and grow your membership.

In fact, once again word-of-mouth marketing has the top spot as the most effective method of new member recruitment in our 2016 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report.  So getting volunteers' help is not just a good idea, but an essential part of membership development.

Here are three steps to get volunteers plugged in your membership marketing efforts.

1. Motivate them with “why” membership is important.

Someone once said, “Anything in life is too difficult without an adequate answer to the question ‘why’.” To get a volunteer motivated to help in membership we need to help them answer their question, "why?”

I would postulate that there are at least two aspects to answering this question for the volunteer. The first is helping them to understand your organization's story. This is the vision, values, and mission of your organization and how they are changing society, your profession, and your members’ lives. We all want to be a part of making the world a better place.

The second aspect of motivating a volunteer is helping them get in touch with their own story of how membership has influenced their life and success. I can speak from a personal example here. I am a long term member of ASAE. Through my membership, I have had the opportunity to publish over twenty articles in ASAE periodicals, contribute chapters to two ASAE membership books, stay on top of important issues through their social network, and meet hundreds of colleagues who I have learned from with almost every interaction. This past year I have spoken at ASAE sponsored events and completed a term as the chair of the ASAE Membership Section Council. Keeping in touch with my membership story motivates me to share ASAE with others.

2. Tell them “how” they can be involved.

Here is another reason why knowing and using the membership lifecycle can be so important. One size does not fit every volunteer when it comes membership marketing. Some volunteers will be great at cold calling potential members, but calling people you do not know may be outside the comfort zone of others. But when you look at the membership lifecycle -- awareness, recruitment, engagement, renewal, and reinstatement -- many volunteers can find a place that is right for them to be involved in the membership program.

Some members may be more than happy to focus on engagement – helping new members get involved in the association. Other members might be great at following up with their friends and colleagues to get them to renew. Keep in mind that our benchmarking report highlighted that personal contact appears to be a key ingredient for increasing renewals. Associations with renewal rates over 80% are significantly more likely to use peer to peer member contacts to help with renewal efforts.

Volunteers also might be perfect to follow up with lapsed members to gain important insights and understanding of why the member did not continue with the association.

3. Help them establish a plan of “what” to do.

Motivation by the organization’s story and the member’s own story and matching volunteer’s strengths with a specific role or job is a great start. But we all know that the best intentions without clear plans and goals do not work.

So an additional step is working with volunteers to establish a written plan of action and specific goals. In a fully developed volunteer structure, an accountability system with a regular check-in with other volunteers could be put in place. But a simple first step might be having the volunteer write out their membership goals, put them in a self addressed envelope, and having staff mail them to the member a month after setting the plan as a reminder.


For any organization, relationships and referrals are critical.  This may be even more important for membership groups.  Your membership marketing success can be enhanced by engaging your volunteers in this effort.