Building Your Membership on Solid Ground

How can you build a sustainable membership? Here is one way of going about it. Build your organization around an idea instead of around a specific product or around a specific job or industry.

This type of foundation may explain why IBM is enjoying its 100th anniversary – an unusual feat in the rapidly changing technology world.

“IBM’s secret is that it is built around an idea that transcends any particular product or technology. Its strategy is to package technology for use by businesses. At first this meant making punch-card tabulators, but IBM moved on to magnetic-tape systems, mainframes, PCs, and most recently services and consulting. Building a company around an idea, rather than a specific technology, makes it easier to adapt when industry ‘platforms shirts’ occur.”1.

Interestingly, as I observe organizations that I have worked with over the years, I can see the good outcomes using this concept. Many of the memberships that are tied directly to a profession -- like the American Society of Professional (Fill in the Name) – have risen and fallen with the profession. But groups that are tied to a concept like curriculum, medical information, or quality have seen expansion over the past decade.

The story that I quoted from above was published in The Economist. Here is their concept; they were “founded in 1843, with the idea of explaining the world to its readers.” That is a need which will never go away. 

As the speed of change increases, think in terms of transcendent ideas and concepts as you build your membership value proposition instead of the latest trend. Build on solid ground instead of sinking sand.

1. The Economist, The Test of Time, June 11-17, 2011, p 20.
2. Ibid.

Consumer Use of Email Declines, but Association Deployment Remains Constant

In a time when some data indicates that email usage is declining, it appears that the use of email in membership marketing has remained stable this past year.

The 2010 U.S. Digital Year in Review Report showed that “Web-based email is waning: Total usage of web-based email dropped 9% in 2010 with more precipitous declines occurring among younger age groups, particularly teenagers. It’s clear that communication is shifting not only to other platforms, but to other devices. (If you plan to email your kids and you want a response, be sure to send them a text.)”1.

In our 2011 Membership Marketing Benchmarking research, we again asked where email was used in the marketing process. Respondents reported a small increase in using email to build awareness among prospects. They showed little change in using email to engage or onboard new members and support renewal efforts from the previous year. This follows a substantial growth in the use of email from 2009 to 2010.

Obviously, these two studies are drawing from completely different sets of data. However, if the trend line for web-based email is in decline, and since there is such a heavy reliance on email in membership marketing, it may be a warning that alternative channels need to be developed.

For example, the use of somewhat newer online marketing channels is taken advantage of by a minority of membership organizations. Only 13.6% of respondents report that prospective members become aware of their organizations through search engine ads and only 11.9% of respondents used paid advertising on other organizations websites to build awareness.

What results are you seeing in email usage for your organization? Feel free to share.

1. The Top 10 Digital Media Trends of 2010, By Linda Abraham - February 9, 2011

What Level of Engagement Do Members Really have with their Association?

Everyone would agree that a critical opportunity for associations is to engage members as customers of the products and services made available by an association.

But we wondered what proportion of members typically purchased or engaged the association each year through some type of product, service, or activity. To find out, we included the following question in our 2011 Membership Marketing Benchmarking research.

“What proportion of your members do you estimate engage with your organization in the following areas EACH YEAR?”

The chart below highlights the average percentage of members who used or were involved with each product offering. Some members may have used just one product others may have participated in every engagement opportunity. So this data does not show a cumulative level of engagement, but a product by product level of usage.

What stands out to me is the relatively low level of usage members have with the products and services offered by associations. Is it fair to say that members may be primarily members for the products and services that membership includes? What do you think?

What are the Biggest Impediments to Membership Growth?

I have often wondered what are the biggest challenges for organizations in growing their membership. So this year we asked association executives in our Membership Marketing Benchmarking research to tell us. And 631 unique associations answered the question.

Then we took their answers on the biggest challenges they faced and cross tabulated them with the reported membership performance for their organizations over the past five years. Did membership increase over this time period, stay the same, or decrease.

What we wanted to know was which challenges hurt membership growth the most and which were painful, but tended not to impede growth.

Here is what we found.

The data seems to indicate that if your organization has weak product and service offerings, an insufficient budget, or a lack of marketing expertise then membership growth has been not been achieved.

And if an organization suffers from the lack of a strategy or plan, then membership has been more likely to remain static.

However, there may be hope for membership growth even if an organization is faced with insufficient staff, market saturation, an inadequate association management database, or inadequate research to understand the market they serve as the biggest challenges. Organizations reporting these problems were more likely to see membership growth over the past five years.

What might be your theories to explain these outcomes? Does this data surprise you?

Current Practices in Increasing Membership Dues

We have started to work our way through the crosstabs for the 2011 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report and some great data is showing up from the responses provided by the 650 participating associations.


Analyzing Two Volumes of Great Data

 This week I have had a number of questions asked about dues increases and since we included questions on membership dues this year, I wanted to share some top line responses from the survey data.

In our research, we asked: “How often does your association raise membership dues?”, “When was the last time your association raised membership dues?” and “What was the average percentage of your last membership dues increase across all membership categories?”

Here is how participations responded.

These dues related questions were also included in our 2007 Membership Dues Increase Study. So in addition to cross tabulating responses with membership outcomes, we will also provide some trend data in our benchmarking report.

By the way, participating organizations in this year’s research will receive their copy of the Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report in a few months.

Pricing Your Product, Service or Membership

Sometimes pricing is an afterthought when developing a product or service or changing your membership structure. But this can be a mistake. Pricing is one of the four “P’s” of marketing for a reason. Proper pricing has a huge influence on the viability and profitability of an offering and should be part of the conversation from the very start of product development.

For example, a quick search for a pair of sneakers shows a price range from $6.99 to $2,395. Clearly, there are vastly different strategies between these two ends of the pricing spectrum.

So how does one go about building a pricing strategy? Here are five basic approaches to pricing.

1. Cost-Plus Pricing: A price established to cover costs plus a margin added for profit. This method is not unlike that used in regulated industries like utilities.

2. Market-Oriented Pricing: A price based on the levels charged for similar products in the marketplace. Automobile companies are keenly aware of the price for completive vehicles. Perhaps in part because of this competition, car prices have risen at a much slower rate than inflation over time.

3. Market-Penetration Pricing: A low price to position a product to gain market share. An example of this might be the deals offered by telecommunication and cable companies seeking new customers. The price starts low and then goes up after a year or two.

4. Premium Pricing: A luxury price is designed to convey extreme value and exclusivity. Some people only want to buy the very best and are willing, for example, to pay $47,500 for a Rolex watch.

5. Value-Based Pricing: A price established based on the actual or perceived value a customer places on the product. This method requires a lot more work to set a price, but done properly it can also lead to better profits.

A book that does a good job explaining the value-based pricing strategy is The 1% Windfall: How Successful Companies Use Price to Profit and Grow. The book makes the point that successfully adding just a 1 percent price increase can produce a ten-fold increase in profits.

How does your organization set prices? Do you have a strategy or make it up as you go along? Feel free to share your thoughts.

Sample Marketing Language for Automatic Membership Renewals

One method to improve renewal rates is offering members the option for automatic credit card renewals. I get a lot of questions about this, so I thought it might be of help to provide some sample language you can use to present this option on recruitment and renewal efforts.

“[ ] Yes, I want to join or renew. Charge my credit card and provide my membership benefits with automatic renewal for as long as I wish to continue. See below for details.

As a credit card member, we will continue your membership as long as you wish without interruption, unless you tell us otherwise. At the end of your initial term, and before the start of your new term, we will simply charge your credit card at in the dues rate then in effect. Should terms or rates change, we will notify you in advance. If we cannot charge your credit card we will send you a bill for your dues.”

This language is provided as a sample only. The goal of automatic renewal is to transform the renewal process from being opt-in to an opt-out. This language also allows for a billing option once the credit card has expired.

Innovation through Collaboration

We are always looking for new innovative ways to do things better. So I wanted to share two items that I came across this week that attribute successful innovation to collaboration.

First in an article in the Technology section of the Washington Post, the case is made that much of the economic dynamism of technology companies comes from sharing talent and ideas. “Across the Internet industry, the most successful organizations compete by cooperating. It’s a modern strategy based on two assumptions. First, innovation is collaborative. Second, the rapidly expanding market of online products is limitless. Businesses that focus on the process of free-wheeling creation – rather than squashing the competition – gain dominance and profit.”1.

Along the same lines, Edward Glaeser, author of "Triumph of the City”, also believes in the power of collaboration, but he sees this collaboration arising not out of sharing, but because of the physical proximity of people to each other in a city environment. He says, “So much of what humankind has achieved over the past three millennia has come out of the remarkable collaborative creations that come out of cities. We are a social species. We come out of the womb with the ability to sop up information from people around us. It's almost our defining characteristic as creatures. And cities play to that strength. Cities enable us to learn from other people. They enable us to become better, in a sense, by leveraging the talent of the crowds around us. When you think about all the great inventions that human beings have made -- from Athenian philosophy to Henry Ford's Model T's, to Facebook -- they were always collaborative.”2.

From my own personal experience, I find that if I can get a bunch of smart people in a room, we can innovate much faster and better than any other process that I have employed.

One suggestion for collaboration in membership marketing would be to participate in this year’s benchmarking research. If you want to be part of the research, please use this link.

Where do you find your place to innovate through collaboration?

1. Greg Ferenstein, In a cutthroat world, some Web giants thrive by cooperating, The Washington Post, February 19, 2011.
2. Edward Glaeser, "Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier." Penguin Press

Why Hire a Marketing Agency?

To outsource or not to outsource is often a hot topic within many associations and membership organizations.

The arguments on why current staff should do the job are pretty well know, so I wanted to share some reasons why I believe it can make good sense to bring onboard a marketing agency. Here are five opportunities presented by through an agency.

1. To Bring Perspective and Objectivity – Just as an individuals can benefit from a counselor or coach, there also are situations where an outside perspective is very helpful for an organization. A marketing agency can bring an objective eye to help an association work through issues that are complex, controversial or politically sensitive.

2. To Provide a Proven Methodology – Does it really make sense to reinvent the marketing wheel? There are proven marketing solutions that agencies have developed and tested that can be rolled out right now. By hiring an agency, you can leverage the methodology of these solutions at a fraction of the cost that it would take you to develop them alone. An agency with the right experience may have the right tool at the right time for the job you need done right now.

3. To Raise Accountability – There are times in every organization when the urgent distracts from the important and key goals are not accomplished. Hiring a properly qualified marketing agency with clear definitions of scope and outcomes can bring focus and accountability to a task and get the important item done on time and on schedule.

4. To Supplement Existing Staff – There are times when the workload is just too much for an existing staff to handle. It might be because of vacancies, special projects, or large events. Theoretically, an association could carry staff for these situations, but this might add extra costs for salary, benefits, computers and software, office space, and recruitment or severance. A marketing agency can join your team to help your staff through this time and move on to the next assignment when the crunch is over.

5. To Share Specialized Knowledge or Skills – If you need surgery, you look for the doctor that has done the procedure the most times. You want the doctor with the best specialized skills and knowledge. That’s because no one can be an expert in everything. However, a strong marketing agency is composed of top specialists with very specific skills ranging from print production management, to media and list research, to online advertising lead generation. So when there is an important assignment or program that requires a specific knowledge or skill set, a marketing agency with specialists who have successfully accomplished the assignment dozens of times might be just what the doctor ordered.

If bringing a marketing agency on board is something that you want to consider, I have one other piece of advice. Please remember that hiring a marketing agency is not a commodity purchase.

To find the right agency you will find having a dialogue with candidates much more productive than issuing an RFP. I understand the need for an RFP process and I do get some that are excellent. So this post in no way is meant as a criticism or critique of any RFP that I have received.

However, I have seen much better outcomes for both clients and agencies when the parties meet with each other and help define the specific challenges and needs and then jointly build an appropriate solution.

Full disclosure, I obviously manage a marketing agency and therefore have an opinion on this subject. So I am curious to hear from you. Do you agree or disagree on the benefits of hiring a marketing agency or the process of entering into a relationship? Feel free to post your thoughts.

Open Community: A Little Book of Big Ideas for Associations Navigating the Social Web

Okay, I have to admit that when I got to page 21 and I was reading about “embracing the ecosystem” and “empowering the periphery”, I almost gave up reading Open Community: A Little Book of Big Ideas for Associations Navigating the Social Web” by Lindy Dreyer and Maddie Grant.

But I stuck with it and I am glad that I did. Because as I continued to read , I found the book to be a very practical and constructive guide on how to go about starting and developing a social media strategy for an association.

The book provides a step by step road map on how to start by listening to the market, building an organizational consensus around the purpose, and launching low risk efforts to see what works best.

But what I particularly appreciate about Open Community is the clear call to purpose and focus for social media.

The book makes clear “that just using social media for the sake of having a Facebook Page or a Twitter account just doesn’t make sense. There has to be a real, ‘show me the ROI’ reason to start and some business intelligence backing that up.”1. 

Open Community also emphasizes building a value proposition around your social media strategy. “The most important question is this: What can your members get from your social spaces that they can’t get anywhere else? If you can’t answer that question, start over.”2. 

Finally, the book highlights some of the add-on benefits social media provides to an association like empowering members to champion the organization to others and providing staff with real time feedback on association events, marketing, and content.

There is one thing that I think would make the book more helpful – maybe Lindy and Maddie are setting us up for a sequel. It is great to say a social media strategy needs to have an ROI focus and a clear value proposition, but it is another thing to do it. I think that even though every situation will be different, the book would have benefited from some case studies that highlight the ROI and value that associations have achieved by deploying a successful social media strategy.

The bottom line is that if starting or improving your social media strategy is part of the plan for 2011, then it is well worth buying, reading, and using the ideas in Open Community.

1. Lindy Dreyer and Maddie Grant, CAE, Open Community: A Little Book of Big Ideas for Associations Navigating the Social Web, 2010, page 40.

2. Ibid. page 140.

3 Tips on How to Improve the Presentation of Your Membership Product

Whether it is a meal at a restaurant, a theatric performance, or a piece of art, presentation is important.

How membership is presented is also important when promoting to prospective members.

So when I came across some behavioral concepts from the consumer market in the Mckinsey Quarterly magazine, I thought that they could be applied to how we market and present our membership product.  Here they are. 

1. Offering payment terms – Many organizations find that adding a bill-me to a membership promotion or offering installment billing can improve responses. In fact, over 45% of associations report that they now offer a dues installment payment option. Similarly “retailers know that allowing consumers to delay payment can dramatically increase their willingness to buy. One reason delayed payments work is perfectly logical: the time value of money makes future payments less costly than immediate ones. But there is a second, less rational basis for this phenomenon. Payments, like all losses, are viscerally unpleasant. But emotions experienced in the present—now—are especially important. Even small delays in payment can soften the immediate sting of parting with your money and remove an important barrier to purchase.”1.

2. Offering a tiered membership with lower and higher priced options – I have commented in the past on the benefits of developing a tiered (or multi-level) membership product. These tiers allow a member to pick the best value for themselves and allow the organization to maximize its share of wallet. As an example from the retail world, “many restaurants find that the second-most-expensive bottle of wine is very popular—and so is the second-cheapest. Customers who buy the former feel they are getting something special but not going over the top. Those who buy the latter feel they are getting a bargain but not being cheap.” 2.

3. Bundling diverse additional services into a membership package – The opposite problem of having only one membership category is having a membership with lots of choices like interest sections, local chapters, and optional periodicals. This complexity can actually reduce response rates. In fact, “reducing the number of options makes people likelier not only to reach a decision but also to feel more satisfied with their choice.”3.

Trying new ways to present membership really comes down to making the buying decision easier for a prospective member. We make it easier for them to buy if we offer payment over time and if we give a member a product that both meets a member's diverse needs, but also is not too complex or cumbersome to purchase.

What other suggestions do you have to better present membership in your organization?

1. Ned Welch, A marketer’s guide to behavioral economics, McKinsey Quarterly, February 2010.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.

3 Membership Marketing New Year’s Resolutions

The start of the New Year is a good time to step back and look at the big picture and put in place some initiatives that can really make a difference. So here are three resolutions that you may want to make for a more successful membership year in 2011.

1. Adequately Fund Membership Marketing – Just like putting money into retirement savings, investing in membership pays dividends for years to come. A new member produces a long term income stream. However, as I meet with membership organizations, I am continually surprised at the budgets that have been set aside for marketing. Almost every organization wants to grow their membership, but rarely do I see budgets that are tied to the lifetime value of a potential member. Lack of funding means many organizations are leaving money on the table and missing their potential by not crunching the numbers to determine how much they should be investing in getting more members.

2. Initiate and Cultivate Potential Member Relationships – We find that a promotion sent to a prospective member who provided an opt-in to receive more information from an organization will garner up to four times the response than the next best list. To gather this opt-in, we offer free content from our clients in exchange for contact information (an opt-in). The content offer may be presented through SEM, online ads, or to visitors to the organizations website or social media sites. The key is to initiate the lead and then cultivate the relationship.

3. Test and Track Membership Marketing Efforts – If you want to double or triple your marketing returns over the next year, then setting up marketing tests with a control and test cell is your best opportunity. You can test what marketing list is most responsive, what message is most compelling, and what offer best encourages action. To test you need to code the outbound marketing pieces and track the responses as they are returned. To capture un-coded responses, match back returns to your promotion file.

These membership marketing resolutions are summed up well by a comment from one of my survey respondent who wrote:

“When you actually do a recruitment campaign, they join. When you engage with your members, they stay. When you analyze the data, you find a nugget of information that can change all of your preconceived ideas.”

What are your membership marketing resolutions for 2011?

Can We Talk? Join an Interactive Discussion on the Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report

For those readers located in the Baltimore/Washington metropolitan area, I wanted to invite you to attend an interactive session that I am leading for the Maryland Society of Association Executives discussing the results from our Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report.

The meeting is on Wednesday, January 12th. If you have read the report and have comments or questions or simply want to learn more about the research, you can sign up using this link.

How Long does the Average Member Stay with an Association?

There is actually a formula to calculate how long members on average continue their membership. It is called calculating the Average Tenure of a member.

Here is how you can calculate this for your membership. Take the lapse rate of the membership (the opposite of the renewal rate) in a decimal form and divide it into the number 1. So a membership organization with an 80% renewal rate would have a lapse rate of 20% and an average tenure of five years (1/.20= 5).

Another way of looking at this calculation is if you have a 20% lapse rate, your membership will turn over every five years.

So what would be the “average”, Average Tenure for membership organizations?

In our 2010 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report with over 400 participating associations, our average renewal rate was 83%. So this would put the Average Tenure of a member at 5.88 years for the participating organizations.

Please be aware that this is an average for the participating organizations. Some reported renewal rates less than 50% and others more than 90%.

Knowing the Average Tenure of your membership is a crucial data point to use in marketing planning and making long term budget projections.

Does it Make Sense to Hire a Consultant to help your Membership Marketing Team?

In an article in the November issue of ASAE’s Consultants Connection newsletter (member sign in required), I make the case that there are at least five good reasons to add a consultant to your team.

1. To supplement existing staff.
2. To bring perspective and objectivity.
3. To provide a proven methodology.
4. To raise accountability.
5. To share special knowledge or skills.

As a consultant, I have an opinion, but I would enjoy your feedback.  What do you think? Do consultants play a role in helping organizations with membership marketing or should this be entirely an inside job? Have you used consultants successfully? What positions on your marketing team do you look to fill with a consultant? What do you look for in choosing a consultant?

Please feel free to share your thoughts.

Using Social Media to Recruit Staff

A former client contact of mine helps to manage a blog and related social media to recruit staff for the company where she works -- Sodexo.  I think it is a really creative use of a blog, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Here is the link. If you get a chance, take a couple of minutes to browse all of the tools that are deployed.

The Top 25 Lessons Learned in Membership Marketing: 200 Marketing Pro’s Share their Wisdom

We asked 200 membership professionals to share in their own words what were the most important or successful lessons that they have learned in membership marketing. I have reviewed all the comments and have distilled these direct quotes down to the top 25 responses. I think you will find them inspiring and insightful.

If you would like to see all 200 responses, please email me and I can forward them to you.

1. A multi-channel approach is best. There isn't any silver bullet. A variety of techniques, well executed elicits success.

2. You can't spend too much time or money on marketing.

3. When you actually do a recruitment campaign, they join. When you engage with your members, they stay. When you analyze the data, you find a nugget of information that can change all of your preconceived ideas.

4. There is no such thing as a Non-Member....only potential members. You must keep trying and promoting; they will never buy - if you do not (personally) believe in what you are trying to sell; this includes the Association itself...not just the 'goods' of the Association offers.

5. Members need to be reminded multiple times about their membership dues. It always amazes me that you can contact a member 7 times and then 1 year later, they are "surprised" they are no longer a member of our Association.

6. Personal contact with people. Connecting with individuals at conferences, meetings, in their workplace, or on the phone has been the most successful for us. Staying connected through e-mail was second in our marketing plan.

7. Market early, market often!

8. Like the economy, membership marketing goes through cycles. You need to make sure your message speaks to what is motivating people in tough times and be prepared for when the changes come.

9. Focus on what makes your association unique. What niche do you fill that no one else can - market that to potential members?

10. Positive word-of-mouth is worth its weight in gold. If you can get your existing members to recruit new folks then you can just sit back and count the cash.

11. That the membership model is rapidly changing as a result of increased access to free information.

12. 80/20/10. Staying motivated even when you see low membership involvement. Remembering that 80% will not be active members, 20% will be active participants and 10% will take on leadership roles.

13. It's not easy.

14. It is incumbent upon any association to first provide value to its membership and then to communicate that value to the members on an ongoing basis. Building community and member engagement is the key to successful membership marketing.

15. Membership marketing is not a silo unto the membership department alone. It requires coordination across multiple departments, lest it appear that the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing. This remains an ongoing challenge in my association.

16. This survey has reminded me of what I have learned, and ashamed to say not implementing half of it. I'm the only full-time staff, but I know better.

17. That there are very few "new" ideas and listening to what others are doing is the best way to improve your business.

18. The most important lesson I've learned is test EVERYTHING! Also, agility is paramount. You have to be agile enough to change your strategy, approach or messaging quickly.

19. Never stop doing it. We are seeing results today of marketing we continued to do through 09 even though there was a downturn.

20. Direct mail works for our association. And it works especially well if you continue to test your campaign ideas. The process to change is constant and important. We've learned what works well with young members, what works well with older members, whether advocacy is important to certain contingencies, and more.

21. I have learned to apply the same discipline in marketing as we do in software/standards development.

22. You must continually examine your marketing mix to ensure that you are maximizing ROI, utilizing the most cost-effective channels for different audience segments, and placing retention and acquisition efforts and expenditures in the most appropriate balance to meet organizational goals.

23. Without accurate and comprehensive performance data and statistics on membership activities (financial, marketing, costs, lifetime value, recruitment, retention, on boarding, etc.) it is virtually impossible to determine the health and success of the membership program.

24. 1. Test new things and track everything--it's the only way you'll know what works and doesn't work. 2. Recruiting new members by direct mail trumps e-mail marketing 100 times over. 3. Many of those in management do not understand the value of marketing--or the difference between good and bad marketing efforts/techniques. So, it's important to educate them and toot your own horn to help them understand. But don't get your feelings hurt if they do not! 4. Member testimonials add considerable value and spark to all.

25. The right list and the right offers are key to prospecting. Retaining members is the work of the organization. Delivering the value promised through marketing is key to renewals.

Okay, here is a 26th bonus comment.

26. Most important lesson is how critical membership marketing is to our success (and how frustrating it is that we don't have enough staff to do it well.

Building Your Online Membership Lead Generation and Conversion System

In my last post, I noted the importance of building a mechanism to capture leads that come to your website through SEO, SEM, social media, third party links, or online ads.

The vast majority of visitors are not going to join the organization on their first visit to the website. However, an attractive offer of free additional information related to their search can be enticing.

Therefore, the initial goal is to get an opt-in from the visitor for future communications. This list building function can often be done by having these web searchers directed to a microsite specifically designed to capture an opt-in.

The next question is what to do with these leads and how to maximize the effectiveness of the conversion system.

One way to look at this lead to paid member conversion system is as a funnel. Each stage can be monitored and measured for optimization.

A good system might look something like this.

Responses and effectiveness can be measured at each stage of the funnel:

• What online ads, pay per click, or co-registration sites are the best sources for leads?
• What offers – free articles, newsletters, discounts, event notifications -- produce the highest opt-in rate?
• What cultivation efforts -- email, mail, phone follow-up -- produce the highest click through rates and membership sales rates?

Many membership groups make huge investments in their websites, but do not fully take advantage of the traffic that the site may produce. Adding a lead generation and conversion system to an attractive website helps maximize the economic value of the site.

Please let me know if you would like to talk more about setting up this type of program and how to optimize it.

Maximizing your Website as a Tool for Membership Recruitment

Many membership organizations invest a lot of time and energy in building web traffic through SEO and some also with SEM. But surprisingly few use a visit to a website as an opportunity to capture an opt-in from a prospective member.

Joel Book commented on this in DM News. He wrote, “Research from Web analytics technology provider Webtrends shows that on average, 95% of website visitors leave a site without indentifying who they are and taking some form of action, such as subscribing to your e-newsletter. That’s why subscriber conversion is one of the most important metrics that impacts marketing ROI.”1

When an opt-in is captured, we have found that these leads are some of the highest responding lists for membership recruitment campaigns.

So how do you get a visitor to opt-in to receiving additional information from an organization?

We recommend a concept that I call trading content for contact. This involves trading valuable information in exchange for the right to continue a dialogue with a prospective member. This information typically comes in the form of a free email newsletter or a white paper on an important topic of interest to visitors.  This process is fundemental in achieving the awarness stage of the membership lifecycle.  Here is one example of offering whitepapers or an email subscription to visitors of a website. 

If a visitor to your site desires to access valuable information, you do not have to give away the store.  It is not inappropriate to ask them to share who they are and have the opportunity to opt-in for future contact.

1. Joel Book, Advanced e-mail tactics can shed light on new customers, DM News, Strategic Content, October, 2010, page 10.

To Collaborate or Not to Collaborate that is the Question

I have a confession. I do not function well on a committee. The challenge for me is that many times, I think I know the right answer and I do not have the patience to wait for the group to come to a conclusion.

So I appreciated Joe Rominiecki’s post today on the Acronym Blog titled, “Collaboration for collaboration's sake”.

He writes, “assuming collaboration is always positive puts a greater value on process than it does on results. It ought to be the other way around. Surely collaboration is great in the right situations, but not all the time.”

So his post makes me feel a little bit better about my aversion to committees.

However, over my career I also know that over confidence can be a big trap. Often I don’t know what I don’t know. This is expressed really well in an old proverb that says, “The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly” (ESV Pr. 26:16).

Which do you find the biggest challenge in your organization – too much or too little collaboration?