Speaking Engagements

Helpful Membership Marketing and Management Resources

Today, I thought that I would share two web sites that I think you will find of help.

The first is a web site offered by Tom Peters. He has distilled down thousands of slides from over 2,500 presentations that he has done on organizational and personal excellence into 23 separate presentations that you can download. Peters say, “Use this material as you wish and please 'steal' all you want.”

I especially found his slides on Strategic Listening to be insightful.

The second web site is provided by an Australian membership marketer named Belinda Moore. Among a long list of resources, her site includes content on:

• Membership Statistics
• Models of Membership
• Lead Generation
• Prospect Relationship Management
• Membership Sales
• New Member Integration
• Member Relationship Management
• Renewals

I hope that you find the information on both sites useful.

ASAE Marketing, Membership & Communications Conference

There promises to be many great speakers and sessions at the upcoming ASAE Marketing, Membership and Communications Conference held May 23 and 24 in Washington, DC. It is a conference that I can highly recommend and it often sells out, so you may want to register early.

Rick Whelan, the president of Marketing General Incorporated, will be speaking at the conference on my favorite topic, “The Economics of Membership Marketing Programs”.

Rick is a 30-year marketing professional and a Certified Direct Marketer. He serves on the Direct Marketing Association of Washington, DC, Educational Foundation Board of Directors. He is a past DMAW Board Chair and former Chair of the American Society for Association Executives Membership Section.

But in addition to his credential, I believe that this topic is lays the foundation for all membership marketing activities. The economics of membership includes important toics like:

Steady State Analysis – Determining the future membership size of your organization.
• Membership Tenure – Projecting how long a member will remain with your organization.
• Retention Calculations – Measuring the continuity of your membership.
Life Time Value (LTV) – Understanding the long-term revenue stream a members will produce.
Maximum Acquisition Cost – Calculating the margin or potential profit that a member will produce for your organization and therefore how much can be spent to obtain a member.

If you plan to attend the conference, please let me know. I enjoy meeting and getting feedback from those who read this blog.

Fundraising with Social Media

In the March edition of Associations Now, Andrew Lang highlights a social media success story titled Tweeting for Dollars

He writes, “Most of us know or have heard of associations that use tools like Facebook or Twitter to promote conferences or other products and services, thereby increasing their sales. But reports of associations creating net income directly from these tools have largely proven illusory. Finally, I am pleased to report that I have found just such an association—and it turns out it has been succeeding at it for three years already.”

The program he highlights is run by Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN) using Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn posts to request donations to fund scholarships for their annual conference. For each donation made, the responder got a vote on what video would be produced for the conference.

“The resulting campaigns have raised an average of approximately $10,000 each of the last three years.” Lang reports, and “because NTEN has a corporate sponsor that provides matching funds, the total raised comes to $20,000 a year. While this is only a small percentage of the organization's overall budget, it is nevertheless a useful sum for the purpose intended.”

Social media is still in its infancy compared to other more mature marketing channels, but over time we will see innovative approaches that will help it become part of a predictable and projectable marketing tool. Keep watching.