Can Associations Adapt to the Revolution in Marketing?

 A marketing revolution is transforming today's advertising agencies, as highlighted in a recent Wall Street Journal article. The piece focused on the diminishment of marketing's creative aspects and the ascendence of the science of marketing. As one agency executive shared, “Whether we like it or not, the ‘Mad Men’ era is receding in our rearview mirror while we drive at full speed into the age of the ‘Math Men and Women.’”[1] 

While this shift occurs in agencies, associations are experiencing similar changes that demand new strategies and approaches. And the pace of change is accelerating. The article shared that the emerging roles in marketing will focus on expertise in digital marketing and data analytics. It noted that today, “the hot hires instead crunch numbers, run experiments, and use algorithms to analyze data and predict what kind of message will resonate, where it should appear, and even when someone is most likely to click ‘buy.’”[2]

The research findings in the latest Association Outlook Report support these trends. Respondents told us that their goals in 2025 are to increase operations effectiveness and marketing efforts through technology innovations. Some of the changes they noted include adding data visualization and dashboards to improve marketing campaign reporting and doing member and customer engagement scoring.

Additionally, the research highlighted the emerging use of AI technology. Almost two-thirds (63 percent) of respondents either use AI technology, plan to use it in the coming year, or will explore implementing it.[3] Some of the proposed uses of AI include supporting marketing, creating content, delivering more personalized member experiences, and automating responses to inquiries and support requests.

What does this ongoing marketing revolution mean for your marketing efforts? How will you need to change and adapt to remain relevant and effective?

Here are some areas that associations will need to evaluate going forward.

Staffing and Expertise: Building a Skilled Team

The first area to address will be staffing and expertise. Associations will increasingly need staff with abilities in digital marketing, data analytics, and AI. Traditional roles focused on creativity and general marketing strategy may diminish. New staff will need to be added with specialized skills. The new hires may require higher compensation because of more competition, as the private sector will also seek to fill these roles. Associations will also want to invest in training and professional development to ensure existing teams are equipped with more technology-focused skills.

Partnering for Success: Using External Experts

A second strategy will be leveraging outside experts: Associations may need to rely more heavily on consultants, agencies, and technology providers. This approach could allow them to access specialized knowledge without hiring full-time staff to accomplish some advanced technology and marketing functions. Associations might want to explore flexible, hybrid collaboration models with these external partners to implement digital marketing, data analytics, and enhanced reporting. At the same time, internal teams could focus more attention on strengthening member engagement and content development.

Harnessing Data: Personalization and Microtargeting

Additionally, association marketing must evolve beyond traditional segmentation and personas to focus on personalization and microtargeting driven by data analytics for prospect and engagement scoring. This analysis can identify the prospects to join, which members are likely to lapse, and what products and services are most relevant and engaging. The good news is that data will strengthen marketing effectiveness through testing, analyzing, and optimizing, empowering the association's responsiveness to market feedback and changes.

Budgeting for Innovation: Investing in the Future

No one wants to hear this, but budgets may need to substantially increase to keep up with these marketing and technology shifts. Marketing that relied on inexpensive email sends kept costs low. However, to maintain growth in this new era, the strategy must be upgraded with media spending for digital advertising and the accompanying data analytics tools to optimize campaign results. Planning for AMS enhancements and data integration tools will also be required.

Continually adapting to changes and innovations in marketing has been and will remain constant. For example, as early as the 1920s, marketing pioneer Claude Hopkins wrote in his book Scientific Advertising that in the past, “advertising was then a gamble – a speculation of the rashest sort. One man’s guess on the proper course was as likely to be as good as another's.”   In contrast, he asserted that “the time has come when advertising has in some hands reached the status of a science.”

Today, the science of marketing will continue reshaping how associations connect with their audiences, transforming the skills, tools, and strategies they require to succeed. By embracing this revolution—through strategic hiring, external partnerships, data analytics, and smart budgeting—associations can stay ahead of the curve.

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[1] Suzanne Vranica, “Sorry, Mad Men. The Ad Revolution Is Here.”

[2] Suzanne Vranica.

[3] Wasserman et al., “The 2025 Association Outlook Report.”

Membership Recruitment Book Release

For many years I have cataloged my experiences as I consulted with perhaps a hundred professional and trade associations to understand and capture the successes and challenges these groups have had in growing their membership.

That is why I am happy to share many of these lessons with you in my just-released book,  MembershipRecruitment: How to Grow Recurring Revenue, Reach New Markets, and Advance Your Mission.

This book aims to answer three critical questions: Why is a growing membership so important? How can a thriving membership program be planned and executed? And what is required to achieve long-term membership resiliency?

You can order your copy of the book in print or as an eBook on Amazon. Here are some of the early book reviews.

 “Membership Recruitment is a thoughtfully written guided tour of today’s membership marketing universe, complete with how-to advice for the uninitiated, updates for the experienced, and fresh insights for everyone.”

 Joy Davis, CAE
Managing Director, Member Products
American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists

 "Tony Rossell is the Master of Membership Marketing. This book is not a theoretical treatise; it reflects Tony’s work over many years, during which he has executed these principles over and over again to the great benefit of many membership associations. As the terrain shifts under the feet of non-profit associations, and for-profit corporations capitalize on the membership model, Tony’s expertise on member acquisition and retention is to be treasured by anybody serious about membership growth.”

 Ron Mattocks
Chief Operating Officer
Council for Advancement and Support of Education

“Tony Rossell is a leading expert on all aspects of membership from recruitment through retention. As it is stated in the book, ‘Members can and should be the driving power for association success.’ This book should be required reading for all who work in a membership association. The book contains practical, research-based advice and guidance that will assist associations in the development of strategies both to increase membership and retention.”

Neil Reichenberg
Former Executive Director
International Public Management Association for Human Resources

“If you are in the membership business, do yourself and your organization a favor by buying and reading this book. Tony Rossell understands the membership business better than anyone. Save yourself years of trial and error by discovering what he has learned during a long and successful career in membership marketing. Tony knows what works today and where the trends are leading us tomorrow.”

Frank Kenny
Founder
Chamber Pros Community

Membership Recruitment: How to Grow Recurring Revenue, Reach New Markets, and Advance Your Mission is available on Amazon. You can also get more information here. 

Top Findings from the Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report

Everyone working for an association can relate to the competitive challenges of today.  In addition to 24/7 competition, associations are faced with scarce resources, talent shortages, and sometimes political or bureaucratic hurdles.

Yet despite these threats, findings from the 2019 MembershipMarketing Benchmarking Report shows more associations continue to experience membership growth year over year than those that are seeing a decline in membership.  This year 45 percent of associations shared that their membership has grown over the past year compared to 26 percent that saw a decrease in membership counts.

Indeed, contrary to the narrative that membership “no longer works,”, for the past decade with the exception of the Great Recession, our benchmarking research confirms that far more associations have reported experiencing an increase in members than those who have reported a decline in their membership counts.

Why have associations been able to adapt and continue to grow despite the challenges they face?

Some definite answers are apparent from the insights that we have gathered in this year’s research.  In addition to looking at the tactics and strategies that typically correlated to success, we also asked respondents to rate how innovative their association is and what level of value that they are delivering to members.

In each case, associations that reported higher innovation and value scores showed a correlation with increased likelihood to be achieving a number of important positive outcomes in membership. In short, these more innovative and value-producing associations are successfully adapting to the challenges faced in today’s completive marketplace.

Here is some of the data underpinning these findings.  Associations with increases in membership over the past year and the past five years, as well as those with increases in their overall new members are significantly more likely to indicate that the organization has a culture that supports innovation. Conversely, those reporting declines in membership are significantly more likely to believe their association culture does not support innovation.

Additionally, associations that indicate that their organization is only slightly innovative or not innovative at all are significantly more likely to show declines in their membership over the past year and the past five years, plus decreases in new members and overall renewal rates.  Moreover, associations that have a specified process in place to support innovation and new ideas are significantly more likely to report increases in one year and five-year membership numbers.

Many of the same outcomes are evident for associations that report having a compelling value proposition for their members.   In fact, associations that described their value proposition as very compelling or compelling are significantly more likely to report increases in their one year and five five-year membership numbers, as well as increases in their new members and their overall membership renewal rates.

So if innovation and value are so important, how are associations innovating and providing additional value to members?

One of the areas of innovation and value enhancement that we looked at this year in our research was the development of new membership models.  Ideally changing the membership packaging is designed to respond to new market conditions, give members more options, and competitively price membership.  The data from our research does support that adopting a new membership model may give membership a bump.  Specifically, the associations that have adopted a new membership model are more likely to report experiencing an increase in the number of new members this year (22 percent vs. 13 percent).

Historically, one membership model that has seen growth is the move toward Combination membership. An association with a Combination membership offers members the opportunity to join as either an individual (like a typical IMO) or as an organization (like a typical Trade Association).  In the 2011 version of the Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report, only 13 percent of respondents identified their association as having a Combination membership structure.  This year, 26 percent of respondents identified their association as a Combination association. The Combination membership structure appears to be working for associations.  These groups have the highest median growth over the past five years of 14 percent, compared to 12 percent for IMOs and 10 percent for trade organizations.

Another developing innovation for associations is the use of paid digital media for their marketing efforts.  For membership recruitment, this channel has increased as a preferred channel from 12 percent to 15 percent over the past year.  Of the 15 percent of associations that consider paid digital marketing tools as a highly productive method for recruiting new members, Facebook paid advertising remains the most effective digital marketing tool. Associations are also increasingly using various paid digital advertising platforms to present their message for many products and services beyond membership recruitment.

The other technology-driven development that associations reported this year is a significant improvement in data challenges that have been reported in the past. The top data complaint of a lack of marketing results tracking and analysis dropped from 51 percent of associations citing this as a major challenge in 2018 to 39 percent in 2019.  Similarly, the issue of inadequate membership dashboards and reporting tools went from 48 percent in 2018 to 35 percent in 2019.  In the competitive environment facing associations the ability to track, analyze, and report on marketing efforts has become a core ability to drive success.  So these improvements are significant.

Finally, some associations are thriving through innovative ways to attract and provide value to Millennials and Generation X members.  Our data highlights that associations with increases in their one year and five five-year membership numbers are significantly more likely to have higher percentages of Millennials and Generation X members. One way these groups are achieving this is through growth in participation with their young professional programs.

On the other hand, associations reporting no changes in their membership in the past year are significantly more likely to have a higher proportion of Baby Boomers as members.  Associations reporting declines in membership totals are much more likely to report that their specific challenges in membership marketing are related to their struggle in attracting and/or maintaining younger members.

So what should associations take away from this year’s Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report?

In an era of rapid changes in technology, culture, and demographics, our data shows that many associations have been able to sustain a level of membership growth and continue to serve their markets.  The data points to the conclusion that innovation and value creation are important drivers of this success. However, a critical look at the trend data also shows that over the last decade the percentage of associations reporting membership growth is in a gradual decline from 52 percent in 2012 to 45 percent today. My hope is that this report will encourage associations to aggressively innovate with new strategies, technologies and marketing approaches in order to thrive and grow in a changing world.