My Go-To Association Growth Strategies

 

Year after year, association leaders face consistent pressure to expand membership, increase meeting attendance, and grow product sales. Without growth, their association may face stagnation and decline.

Having consulted with organizations on growth strategies, I have relied on the insights of several outstanding writers and thinkers to guide me. Here are some of the strategies I find most helpful in establishing and maintaining association resiliency.

Remove Growth Barriers with Systems Thinking

I have encountered associations over the years where warning signs are evident. Perhaps new member input is decreasing, or attendance at meetings is dropping. Peter Senge's insights on systems thinking address these issues. In his book The Fifth Discipline, he states that growth naturally occurs; however, when it slows down or stops, identifying and taking targeted actions to remove a specific barrier to growth offers a high-impact opportunity for change.

When it comes to an association, Senge recommends that an organization step back from addressing symptoms and instead focus on the bigger picture. For example, rather than reacting to a drop in new member numbers by pushing harder, Senge advises examining the entire system to identify one or two specific obstacles causing the decline. The systemic barrier to more new members might be an unclear value proposition, a lack of testing new messages, or an overreliance on email rather than other channels. A systems-thinking approach emphasizes identifying and addressing a specific obstacle to create meaningful change.

In my book, The Seven Deadly Sins of Membership Marketing, I identify the common systemic obstacles that prevent associations from increasing their membership. 

Foster Continuous Innovation

Unlike groups facing declines, many associations continue to grow steadily. Their challenge is not primarily to address obstacles but rather to foster a culture that encourages and sustains innovation. 

Matt Ridley provides practical advice on innovation in his book How Innovation Works and Why It Flourishes in Freedom. He shares guidance that I follow for the process of ongoing improvement. Here are three Ridley-inspired innovation principles that directly relate to associations.

1.      Innovation arises from trial and error. A strong foundation in marketing involves maintaining a continuous testing strategy. Some tests will succeed, while others may flop. Innovation requires accepting a certain level of failure. For example, Thomas Edison conducted 6,000 tests before discovering the right filament for the lightbulb. For membership, this might mean regularly adjusting and improving your renewal system or experimenting with a new marketing channel.

2.      Innovation often occurs by combining existing components. Mixing and matching can be one of the most effective ways to create new solutions. For example, associations might establish a tiered membership structure by adding existing products or services to create a new gold-level membership category that enhances member value and increases revenue for the organization.

3.      Innovation depends on teamwork. Collaborating and gathering input from others with specialized knowledge and skills fosters new ideas. Ask your customer service team what they are hearing from members. Get the latest tech solutions from your IT team. And go beyond your organization to connect with other membership professionals, consultants, and suppliers to gain fresh ideas and insights.

Follow a Proven Growth Playbook

Checklists help ensure you cover all growth opportunities. That's why I use the list provided by Michael Treacy in his book Double-Digit Growth. He outlines five specific disciplines that an organization can follow to establish and accelerate growth. These include:

1.      Preserve the growth you've already achieved. For an association, this involves retaining the members you have worked hard to attract through engagement and an effective renewal system. Associations generally excel at this. The median renewal rate reported in our 2025 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report stands at 84 percent.

2.      Capture business from your competitors. Associations now face increased competition from other associations, for-profit companies, the internet, and even AI. Treacy’s point is that it may be time to actively pursue sales from these rivals. Associations can differentiate themselves through effective marketing and by serving member needs as information curators and conveners of professionals and businesses.

3.      Show up where growth happens. In nearly every industry, some individuals and companies are pioneering new ideas and innovations. Associations that can identify and connect with these key players can benefit from their ideas and successes. Find and engage the innovators and leaders in your industry or field.

4.      Expand into nearby markets. Market expansion has long been a proven growth strategy. In my book, Membership Recruitment, I share examples of associations that use this approach to grow. A notable example is AARP, which shifted from being a teacher-focused organization to serving all retired adults and eventually opening to everyone 18 years of age or older.

5.      Invest in new lines of business. Product line extensions—adding exciting new resources and services—boost the usefulness and appeal of an association. An example of a highly successful one is the American Association of Airport Executives, as highlighted in my book, Membership Recruitment. It has grown to a $100 million budget largely through introducing new products.

These three thinkers—Senge, Ridley, and Treacy—continue to influence my approach to association growth. Their ideas serve as a reminder that lasting success isn’t achieved through quick fixes but through systems thinking, fostering a culture of experimentation, and maintaining a disciplined growth mindset. Whether your association faces challenges or is experiencing a wave of success, applying these principles can help ensure you stay relevant, resilient, and prepared for what’s ahead.

Association Recommendations and Insights for 2022

 Associations Evolve: 2022 and Beyond was just released under the editorial leadership of Belinda Moore. The publication includes articles from  50 leaders in the global association community. I was honored to be included in the group. With over 100 pages of content, I thought it might be helpful to share some selected quotes from the publication. Of course, I recommend downloading the entire document with this link. 

Here are some highlights from Associations Evolve.

"Associations who embraced the COVID-19 crisis as an opportunity to innovate are already seeing benefits. Many are reporting increased engagement, higher retention rates, and overall membership growth. The [COVID] crisis proved associations can adapt...  When provided with the impetus for change – and the freedom to act - associations were very capable of making the changes needed to advance themselves and their members." Belinda Moore. 

“All member markets are dynamic, and over time most have undergone significant change—without corresponding changes at the association.” Mary Byers, CAE, and Harrison Coerver

“If you want to manage change and avoid disruption, think like a futurist. That means avoiding the trap of relying too heavily on your past experience when making decisions for the future.” Gihan Perera

“Being forced to quickly learn how to run a virtual conference was not just about doing demos with virtual meeting platforms—it was an acceleration of an irreversible trend that has been happening for a long time that we call digital transformation.” Maddie Grant

“People don’t quit jobs; they quit people. If your culture supports people bringing their whole selves to work and your culture is one of belonging, your employee retention will reflect that value.” Sharon Newport, CAE

“Virtual workplaces are here to stay, whether employers like it or not. . .This is going to have a huge impact on how we work. Getting the hybrid model – that combination of at-home and in-office work – right is going to be hard. Impacts will be felt when it comes to all aspects of your association, including productivity, culture, employee engagement, collaboration, innovation, and of course, the bottom line.” Mel Kettle

“The membership economy is booming with more and more businesses enjoying the benefits of more predictable cash flow and opportunity to build strong, ongoing relationships with their customers. . . While many association leaders don’t take these trends as seriously as they should, traditional membership models are losing to the disruptors of the membership economy.” Olena Lima

“We are now living in a time where data is the basis of competitive advantage and strategic decision making. And access to accurate, up-to-date data is key to making the right decisions about how to respond to change. . . Increasingly, organisations will need to use data to support decision-making, to advocate for funding, and to remain competitive.” Joanne Jacobs.

These highlights offer just a glimpse of some very insightful articles. Please feel free to take a look at the entire publication.  

Trade Association Challenges and Opportunities with Membership Recruitment

Membership recruitment for a trade association brings more challenges than selling individual membership. The process is complicated because asking a company to join may involve a significant financial commitment and require building a consensus among the firm's stakeholders. However, the potential long-term value of adding a company as a member can be substantial. 

 

Here are some of the players to consider in the process of recruiting a company or organization to join your trade group and the strategies for a successful program.

·       Gatekeeper – Many organizations have a system in place to screen sales efforts from reaching decision-makers. So the initial hurdle is to get beyond the gatekeeper to establish contact with someone who might be interested in membership.

·       Champion – Identifying the primary user of the membership is one of the most critical contact points. The user will become the champion advocating for the company to join.

·       Technical Buyers – In almost every major company decision, a technical buyer will be involved. These influencers may include legal or finance. Their questions and concerns need to be addressed in the sales process. 

·       Detractors – In some cases adding an association membership will create more work for some and reduce budgets or influence for others. Present how the value of membership outweighs these concerns.

·       Decision Maker – Ultimately, a leader in the company, will evaluate the benefits compared to the cost of membership. The champion needs to be armed with the data to make a case for joining.

To meet these recruitment challenges, many groups find success with a basic three-stage marketing and sales process.

·       Prospecting – The first step in recruitment is to identify prospective member companies, their leadership at a firm, and contact information. My recommended method for this is to purchase or lease a database of firms in the desired target market. This type of data is available and inexpensive to obtain. Add these records into a sales database to drive promotions and track activity.

·       Marketing – It is inefficient for sales to call cold leads. That is why marketing plays an essential role in supporting sales efforts. Marketing's job is to get past the gatekeeper and convert cold records in the database into warm leads using the full mix of channels, including direct mail, email, digital ads, and telemarketing. These communications build awareness, share relevant content, and set up sales appointments.

·       Closing – Presented with a qualified prospect, the sales team establishes a relationship by understanding the company's needs, presenting the membership solution to the champion, handling objections from technical buyers and detractors, securing the final approval from the decision-maker, and following up on the delivery of the membership.

Even though the sales process for trade associations to acquire new members is more involved and often more costly than what is experienced by individual membership groups, the outcome from these efforts is favorable. Typically, trade association members renew at much higher rates than individual members. Because of better renewals combined with the generally higher dues rates, trade associations can expect substantial lifetime value from a new member. This revenue stream helps to make the recruitment effort well worth the results.

Your Membership Marketing Playbook for Turbulent Times

Most economists agree based on recent reports on GDP and unemployment that we are entering a recession. And many association executives are wondering how this downturn will impact their membership numbers and what to project for the future.

Amidst the current challenges, there is data to provide some hope and insights. For over a decade the Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report has captured association membership best practices and statistics. One of the major disruptions impacting association membership was the Great Recession in 2009. Looking back at the benchmarking survey data can serve as a guide on how associations responded to this recession. The data suggest that there are some near term challenges for some groups in the current environment but for most associations they can look forward to a strong membership rebound in the future.

Past Recessionary Membership Results

The findings from the 2010 benchmarking report published showing results for this recessionary time found that the percentage of associations seeing increases in membership counts dropped to a low of 36%. While an all-time high of 48% of associations reported an actual decline in their membership counts. Membership renewals were also a challenge. A total of 44% of respondents said that their renewal rate declined for the year. Using these past results as a guide it is likely that in 2020 many associations will see a dip in their renewal rates and total membership.

However, the data did show that even during that time of economic dislocation, over a third of professional and trade associations still reported that their membership increased. And 42% reported that they improved their new member input. These groups were able to sustain growth and add new members because they found a way to provide value and to continue to effectively reach prospects. I remember one association executive described how members regularly hired other members who were out of work.  His association shared with members the effectiveness of their networking with the message that the cheapest unemployment insurance they could get was joining the association. Likewise, today we are aware of some clients seeing the biggest new member months in their history by providing members and prospects with critical information, advocacy, and community during this pandemic. For some associations, growth is still achievable right now.

For other organizations facing declines in the current environment, there is still long-term hope from our benchmarking data. The results from our research following the Great Recession shows that membership counts made a remarkable recovery in subsequent years. Following the economic downturn, the proportion of associations reporting increased membership rapidly rose from a low of 36% in the 2010 report to nearly 50% and higher in the following benchmarking years.

Additionally, the driver for this rapid improvement appears to be associations refocusing on membership recruitment. Each of the four years after the Great Recession produced the best new member recruitment years to date in our research. Just three years after the low point, an all-time high of 63% of associations reported that their new member acquisition had increased.

Membership Strategy Going Forward

The encouraging news from the trends in our longitudinal benchmarking data shows that there is light at the end of the tunnel.  Associations that have messages and services to help members' immediate needs can flourish even in this challenging time. For those that are seeing a drop in membership and struggling with renewing members, the data provides hope for the future.

In either case, what should your membership marketing playbook look like for right now? For those associations that are currently offering indispensable services that are bringing in new members the plan should be to aggressively market to gain market share by reaching out as broadly as possible to your house prospects and third-party databases. For groups that are facing membership challenges, the strategy is to do everything you can to hold on to the members that you have worked so hard to gain over the years. Just like there was panic selling in the stock market you likely have many lapsed members who might leave in a cost-cutting panic. These are prime prospects to invite back with a special offer. Reach out to them with all the tools you have available including email, telephone, texting, and digital media.

Going forward it is a time for all associations to invest in building the foundation and capacity for future growth. Maintain a presence in the marketplace, gather knowledge of member needs through research, test new marketing messages, and tactics to see what works. Build your marketing plan now so that you are ready to capitalize on the coming membership growth opportunities. 

6 Bad Habits that are Killing Your Membership Marketing

The most recent research shows that nearly half of all professional and trade associations are experiencing growth in their membership counts.  But that also means over half of associations are reporting declines or stagnation in membership.

What is holding back growth for these associations?  Much of the problem lies in not following sound marketing practices.  

Here are six bad marketing habits that are killing membership growth.

1. Lack of Innovation – In the 2018 Association Innovation Benchmarking Report only 26 percent of associations reported that they were “very” or “extremely” innovative.  Yet with the marketing world changing at an exceptionally fast pace, breaking the habit of not innovating is more important than ever.  New and effective marketing and research innovations like paid digital ads, data modeling and analytics, online focus groups, and texting are emerging as best practices in the association marketing mix.  Taking the risk to move beyond traditional marketing efforts and trying these new opportunities can empower growth.
2. Lack of Testing – In the 2018 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report, only 32 percent of associations report that they do A/B testing in their marketing efforts.  This bad habit is particularly disappointing because for a century, testing has been in use by marketers.  Claude C. Hopkins is acknowledged as the great grandfather of direct marketing. In 1923, Hopkins wrote the book Scientific Advertising in which he declared: “The time has come when advertising has in some hands reached the status of a science.”  But for many associations, the science of testing messages, special offers, and market segments is not a part of their marketing efforts.  As a result, bad marketing continues and good marketing is not identified and repeated.
3. Lack of Tracking and Analysis – When asked in the benchmarking research what the most significant data challenges associations face, 51 percent said they lack “marketing results tracking and analysis reporting” and 48 percent said they had “inadequate membership dashboards.”  Here is the challenge, as one survey respondent wrote, “You can’t improve something if you don’t measure it.”  And the reality is that most associations are holding a treasure trove of information in their database that can highlight who are the most profitable members and customers, who are not engaged and likely to lapse their membership, and what content members most want and value.  As ASAE shared in the book 7 Measures of Success “If there’s one phrase that sets remarkable associations apart from their counterparts, it’s ‘Data, data, data.’ They gather information, analyze it, and then use it to become even better.”
4. Lack of Spending – In a recent edition of the Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report, individual membership associations reported that they spend on average $24 to acquire a new member while the mean basic dues revenue is $175 and the average renewal rate is almost 80 percent.  In other words, associations are spending $24 to obtain a dues income stream for five years totaling $875.  Plus these members become customers for the association’s products and services.  Most businesses would jump at that ROI.  Associations need to break the habit of underspending on membership marketing and take advantage of the very positive economics of the long-term, lifetime value of a member.
5. Lack of Frequency – Studies vary claiming that the average consumer sees between 5,000 and 10,000 brand messages a day.  That is a lot of competition.   And whether you like it or not, it means your infrequent marketing messages will not get the attention you desire.  Some associations, for example, still rely on one or two renewal efforts to keep a member or do not use mailed renewal notices.  Others limit membership recruitment campaigns to once a year.  The day when this low frequency of contact will effectively communicate your important messages is over, but the habit persists limiting the effectiveness of the mission and a member or prospect's understanding of the value provided by the association.  One survey respondent summed it up well, to be effective, “Communications have to be frequent and through a variety of channels.”
6. Lack of Volume – Admittedly there is an upper limit on how frequently an association can ask a prospective member to join or current member to renew and maintain a solid response rate.  But the bad habit of some associations is giving up on lapsed members or former customers too soon.  These opt-in records of former purchasers remain buried in their database, but many might respond to a periodic email or could be upload as a custom audience to be shown digital ads.  If the email address is no longer valid it can be deleted from the database and if the person does not want communications they can unsubscribe.  But not reaching out as broadly and deeply to people in your database will assure a non-response.  As one membership director noted in our research, “If you never ask them to join, they won’t join.”

Of those associations, in our research, reporting an increase in membership, 40 percent reported that their membership grew 11 percent or more this past year.  Membership growth is very possible.  But growth is realized by breaking the persistent bad habits that stop effective marketing. 

Should Associations Pursue a Membership or Customer Strategy?

One question that comes up from time to time is whether an association will economically benefit more by pursuing a customer growth strategy instead of membership growth.  The thinking goes that perhaps focusing on selling professional development, conferences, and publications might be more profitable for an association than getting more members.

For the most part, the client data that I have gathered would argue strongly for following a membership strategy. 

When evaluating which strategy to follow, here are some points to consider.

1. Based on our 2018 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report, the mean renewal rate for an association member is 81%.  This translates to an average tenure (how long a member continues membership) of 5 years.  So membership provides an ongoing income stream of revenue and only 19% of members need to be replaced each year to maintain counts. 
2. In data analytics completed for one client, we found the renewal rate of a customer (someone who attended a meeting, bought a book, or went to a conference more than one time) was 8%.  So the customer tenure was 1.2 years.  To maintain customer levels, essentially 92% of customers needed to be replaced each year.
3. In this same analysis, the median lifetime value for a member was $516 while the median lifetime value for a customer was $100.
4. Finally, the cost to acquire a new member or customer is one of the more expensive marketing efforts.  While the cost to renew an existing member or customer is usually a fraction of the marketing cost.  But as noted, a membership continues for a number of years through renewal efforts and while the pipeline of customers’ requires more extensive acquisition efforts to stay full.

Most associations find that a member who has identified an interest in the content and services of an association typically makes an excellent candidate to make additional purchases in addition to paying members dues.  In fact, you can make the case that members are effectively paying to become a customer.

For a comparison, one of my clients shared with me a statistic with a for-profit membership, “Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) estimates . . . that Amazon Prime subscribers spend $1,300 per year, nearly doubling the $700 per year the average non-member spends on the e-commerce site."


Every association is different, so to determine the optimum strategy some analysis of purchasing patterns and lifetime value is required.  But when exploring a strategy, an important component to include in the calculation is not just first year of sales, but to calculate the lifetime value of a member and a customer.

Using Data Analytics to Drive Effective Marketing Strategy

One of the most rapidly adopted tools in association marketing today is data analytics.  It provides the knowledge to segment members and customers, target offers and messages, and maximize efficiency.

Here are some methods that are making a big difference for associations right now.

1. Recruitment Modeling – Many factors serve as either positive or negative predictors of whether or not a member will join an association including previous buying behavior (frequency and recency), non-monetary interactions, list source, number of previous recruitment contacts, and company or personal demographics.  By analyzing and scoring how each of these factors impacts someone’s likelihood of joining and rolling up the scores, a prospective membership file can be arrayed from the most likely to the least likely person to join and then broken down into segments or deciles. Not surprisingly the top deciles may perform at double the return of the overall file producing outstanding results.
2. Membership Retention Key Performance Indicators (KPI) – Every interaction that a current member has with the association is a predictor of whether or not they will renew.  Data analytics can help to define which behaviors or interactions a member takes are most likely to result in them continuing with the association.  Knowing this can drive an engagement strategy and move members to these behaviors.  Interestingly, conference attendance is often a negative predictor of renewal.
3. Member and Customer Ranking - It is not at all unusual to have 20 percent of customers or members produce 80 percent of sales.  Identifying who these customers are is a great use of data analytics.  The method to identify the very best performing customers involves building an algorithm around three coordinates: Recency, Frequency, and Monetary Amount (RFM).  This method highlights a customer who recently made several purchases as a better prospect over one who made a very large purchase several years ago.  Focusing time, resources, and attention on the best members and customers will pay off.
4. Missionary Products and Member Migration - Whether it is understood or not, most associations have one product line that is typically the very first financial transaction between the association and an individual or company.  Data analytics can define this product or service and knowing this allows an association to focus marketing resources on that “missionary” or introductory product and service.  In addition to identifying the introductory product – whether it is conference registration, membership, or certification – further analysis can track secondary and tertiary purchases to help understand the product migration path for the association.  All of this enables a marketing team to help an individual successfully navigate the opportunities presented by an association and reduce marketing static and conflicting messages.

There are obviously far more opportunities than listed here to analyze data in order to maximize marketing effectiveness.  In fact, the only limits are having the data available and defining the knowledge that you want to gain from the data.

And even if all of the needed data is not on hand, demographic and firmographic data appends are available with a wealth of information to enhance any database.  Then for success in data analytics it is important to define what specific questions that you want the analysis to answer before you start the analytics process. 

Everyone is Discovering the Power of Membership

The theme of the recently released book, Marketing 4.0, proposes that “The role of marketers is to guide customers throughout their journey from awareness and ultimately to advocacy.”

Most membership organizations have operated with this philosophy for years.  I have defined this ongoing relationship as the Membership Lifecycle.

But the news is that today the understanding of membership as one of the most powerful relationship builders between any organization and its audience is becoming foundational in minds of most marketers.

For example, the for-profit world is rapidly adopting the membership model.  In her book, The Membership Economy: Find Your Super Users, Master the Forever Transaction, and Build Recurring Revenue, Robbie Baxter spoke to this opportunity.  She wrote, “Membership strengthens loyalty.  Membership strengthens participation.  Membership strengthens referrals.  And organizations that think about membership tend to focus more on providing long-term value, which ultimately leads to better customer lifetime value.  Any CEO who is not thinking about membership is missing a huge opportunity to point his or her organization toward long-term sustainable profitability.”

The economic benefits or establishing long-term, continuity relationships with customer (or members), was also recently documented in a study published in Forbes Magazine titled, “New Subscription Economy Index Shows Subscription Businesses Growing 9X Faster Than S&P 500 Ones.”  The authors study compared the growth rates of companies using a sales platform of recurring subscription revenue (think Netflix) to companies in the S&P 500 and US retail sales.  “The result: Since the start of 2012, the sales of subscription economy businesses are growing nine times faster than sales of companies in the S&P 500 and more than four times the rate of U.S. retail sales.”

What’s more associations themselves are reporting significant strength in membership.  In the soon to be published 2017 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report, of the 1,056 responding associations, 46 percent reported that their membership has increased over the past year, while only 25 percent reported a decrease in membership counts.  And respondents also reported a median renewal rate of 84 percent meaning associations were benefiting from the revenue of a membership relationship on average for over 6 years.

What can we take away from what we see happening in the marketplace?  For associations the key is to invest and continue to focus on recruiting and retaining members. The tools, methods, and competitive environment of getting and keeping members are changing, but the power and opportunity of this core relationship will continue.

Determining Your Association’s Missionary Product

The most expensive task in marketing is new customer, member, or donor acquisition.  But many associations are trying to fight the marketing wars on multiple fronts because they have not identified their introductory or missionary product.  Instead they reach out to the marketplace with many products like membership, certification, conference, or publications.

An association that defines the product with the best level of response and return on investment and focuses its marketing resources on it to bring prospects into relationship with the association will achieve the most success.  The strategy is then to upgrade or cross-sell additional products and services to buyers of the introductory product.  However, when acquisition marketing efforts are spread over many products lines the marketing impact is diluted and the costs increase.

For associations, the most successful missionary product is membership.  This makes sense when you think about it.  As a member, a prospect is signing on to stay in touch with you for the next twelve months allowing for regular upgrade and cross-selling opportunities for secondary products and services.  Additionally, the average member stays with an association for five years, so there is a long-term income stream tied to a new member that supports the initial marketing investment.

On the other hand, a book buyer may only be interested in a specific topic and perhaps make their next purchase through an online bookstore.  And a conference registrant or certification candidate has to make a much bigger financial and time investment compared to the price of purchasing a membership.

But whatever product or service an association chooses to use for new customer acquisition, it makes sense to support it with adequate budgets and push.  Growth comes through focused efforts targeted at a specific market segment. 

Tips for Forecasting Membership Growth in the New Year

As the New Year gets started, it is a good time to review membership marketing plans and forecast where membership counts are headed.

Here is a method to help make accurate projections on long-term outcomes and run possible growth scenarios.  It is called a Steady State Analysis.  The concept of steady state can be illustrated with a bucket of water.  If there is a steady input of water and a steady outflow, eventually the bucket will come to a balanced level or equilibrium.

To do a Steady State Analysis with membership, you use a simple calculation based on current new member input and the organization’s lapse rate (non-renewal rate). Using these two numbers, the formula calculates the level where your total membership will reach equilibrium or a steady state.

Here’s the formula. Annual New Member Input / Reciprocal of Renewal Rate (or Lapse Rate) Shown as a Decimal = Total Membership Steady State.

For example, with an input of 5,000 New Member over a .25 Lapse Rate, the steady state of membership will be 20,000.

Steady State Analysis is also a useful tool for studying different membership growth options.  Here are three sample scenarios varying the new member input and renewal rate from the example above.

•The first option maintains a 75% renewal and increases the new member input to 7,000 per year and results in a steady state membership of 28,000 members over time.

•The second option increases the renewal rate to 85% and reduces new member input to 2,000 per year and results in a steady state of 13,333 members over time.

•The third option increases the renewal rate to 80% and also increases the new member input to 6,000 per year and results in a steady state of 30,000 members over time.

In order to create the optimal strategy, associations can use a Steady State Analysis to define where the opportunity for growth lies — through enhanced acquisition efforts, renewal efforts, or a combination of both.

When calculating an association’s steady state, the question often arises as to how long it will take to reach the projected membership number.  The timeframe will depend on how close or how far away an organization now is from its equilibrium.  The further away the longer it will take.  However, a simple spreadsheet calculation can be used to establish an accurate time line for reaching equilibrium.

One important message that can come out of a Steady State Analysis is that incremental changes in new member acquisition and renewals can make a big difference over time in membership counts.  Take some time to see where your membership is headed and run some scenarios to see what strategy might be most effective to focus on in 2017 to maximize your organization’s long-term membership growth.

Using Membership Marketing Partners to Help with Your Membership Challenges

One of the questions that I find most interesting in our Membership Marketing Benchmarking research is, “What are your organization’s top challenges in growing membership?”

The answers fall into two broad categories.  The first are environmental challenges outside the organization.  These are situations like the economy, competing organizations, market perceptions, and industry consolidation.  The second are institutional challenges inside the organization.  These are challenges like the ability to communicate value, insufficient staff, identifying prospects, lack of marketing expertise, and the lack of a plan or strategy.

The outside challenges often need long-term strategic changes in the organization and can be more difficult to address.  However, the inside challenges many times can be addressed by adding outside partners with specialized expertise for a period of time.

For example, an experienced research firm can help an organization better understand its value proposition and select the marketing messages that best communicate it to members and prospects.  And when peak work times are present, staff can be supplemented through marketing temporary firms or contractors.

When identifying prospective members is the challenge, a list broker can help.  List brokers have numerous tools and contacts available to help find prospects for your marketing efforts and since they receive a commission from the owners of the prospect lists they find for you, their services are effectively free to you as the list buyer.

Finally, there are a number of marketing firms that specialize in membership marketing including my company, Marketing General Incorporated, which often will provide a free consultation to help you define your needs and possible solutions.

If your organization’s membership growth is being held back by issues that can be addressed and solved by adding expertise from partners in the membership marketing community, why not reach out and ask for assistance? 

Winning in Membership Marketing Even if you are Wrong 99.5% of the Time

Here is something that I have been observing in membership organizations of late.  Many organizations too quickly assume rejection.

When I ask why they do not reach out to this or that group of non-members, I might hear statements like, “we asked those people to join when they attended our meeting and they did take our membership offer.”  Or “they didn’t renew their membership awhile back, so we do not contact them anymore.” 

Essentially some organizations have imposed restraints on themselves that might not be supported by marketing data.

The fact is that even if 99.5% of the time you are correct and indeed a prospect will not join your organization, most organizations can still be remarkably successful with a .5% acceptance rate.

The psychological challenge – and the reason we may impose restraints on ourselves -- is that there are very few life situations where a 99.5% failure rate can actually be good.  It does not work in school, engineering, sports, or even Vegas.

Here is some quick math to support how we can be wrong a lot and still be successful. 

Let’s say you have 5,000 prospects that may have declined membership even after a couple of sales attempts.  Most likely you could reach out to them with a direct mail solicitation and a couple of follow-up emails for $1.00 to each person or $5,000 in marketing cost.  If the dues amount for these members is $200 and half a percent of them decide to join, you have generated $5,000 in new dues revenue.  And if your organization maintains an industry average renewal rate of 80%, you will realize $1,000 in lifetime dues revenue from each of these new members (or $25,000 total lifetime dues revenue) plus any non-dues purchases that they might make. 

 

Yes, there will be costs to service these members over their lifetime with your organization, but your overhead and fixed costs will exist whether or not you added these new members.  On an incremental basis, the cost to provide services to these new members should be minimal.

However, these numbers reflect a minimalist view.  Clearly, you always want to do everything possible to achieve the highest success rate you can.

So here is another scenario.  Conceivably, you could be wrong only 99% of the time as to whether or not a prospective member will decide to join your organization.  In this more optimistic case with a 1% success rate, your first year revenue from reaching out to these prospects would jump to $10,000 against a $5,000 marketing cost and your lifetime dues revenue would be $2,000 for each new member and $50,000 in total lifetime dues revenue.

What might we learn from this example?  When we hear from prospective members that they are not interested in joining, it is easy to project that feedback over a larger population.  However, our perceptions can easily trick us.  Instead of drawing premature conclusions, be sure to do the math and remember that even if 199 out of 200 prospective members say, “No” to membership, we may only need one out of the 200 on average to say, “Yes” to maintain a successful program.  Do not give up too soon on reaching out to prospective members.

 

Under Investing in Membership Recruitment: The Biggest Mistake made by many Membership Organizations

This afternoon, I was interviewed for an upcoming article on association membership. The writer asked me, “What do you think is biggest mistake that organizations make in the membership marketing?”

I shared with him that for me the answer is pretty simple. Most membership organizations under invest in getting new members.

Frequently, I speak with organizations that have very lofty plans on how many new members they want to add. When I ask them what they have budgeted to accomplish this, the answer is shockingly low.

One recent group I spoke with, for example, wanted to stem their decade’s long membership decline by developing a marketing campaign to recruit an additional 3,000 members over the next year at a dues rate of $65 each. However, they only budgeted $30,000 to accomplish this goal or $10 per new member. Unless they discover a marketing silver bullet, it is unlikely that they will accomplish their membership goal.

At the same time, members in this organization typically stay for four years. So from the members that they acquire, they will realize an income stream from each new member who joins of $260 plus any revenue from non-dues purchases. Assuming that they have incremental servicing costs of $15 per member, per year, a new member represents a $200 net revenue stream for the organization.

How much should an organization be willing to spend for a new member in order to produce $200 in net revenue? They should be willing to spend more than $10.

The basic mistake that many membership organizations make is that they under estimate the cost of acquiring a new member and they overlook the lifetime value that a new member can deliver to the organization.

The Membership Lifecycle Turns Five

Way back in 2007, I developed a white paper around a concept that I called the Membership Lifecycle. The concept was built around a systems thinking approach to membership. The lifecycle model has gone through some changes and adjustments over the years, but I still find it a very practical and helpful tool to use to diagnose and fix problems that organizations are experiencing with their membership.

So on the fifth anniversary; I thought that I would share a brief review of the concept. The Membership Lifecycle segments the membership experience into five consecutive stages:

1. Awareness -- when prospects first discover you. No one joins a membership organization unless they first know that you exist and have value that will help them. You also will have difficulty recruiting a new member if you cannot identify who top prospects are for membership. So the goal of the awareness stage of the lifecycle is what I call mutual awareness. On the one hand, just like any product, you need to establish share of mind with your prospective members. But in addition, you also want to gain what I call share of database. You want them to raise their hand and register on your website, accept a free whitepaper or newsletter, or attend a webinar or meeting. When they know who you are and you know who they are, you have the chance to cultivate a relationship.

 2. Recruitment -- when prospects choose to join you. Membership is what marketers call a “push” product as opposed to a “pull” product. A pull product is something that is bought not sold. If you are a coffee drinker, you do not need a promotion piece to convince you to drink your coffee every morning. You seek it out. But very few people wake up in the morning saying that they need to find a membership organization to join. As a push product, membership is sold not bought. Successful membership organizations put in place a very pro-active recruitment plan as part of the lifecycle. They test, track, and analyze special offers, messages, marketing channels, and timing to convince a prospect to give membership a try by making the decision to join.

3. Engagement -- when new members feel they belong with you. The most likely member not to renew is a member in their first year. The second most likely member not to continue membership is one who has no behavioral indicators of usage or involvement with the membership. So the goal for these new members and those not taking advantage of the value provided is to generate interaction. Any type of interactive engagement, whether it is a purchase, a visit to the website, a completed survey, or a phone call to the organization correlates positively with the ultimate renewal of a member. Membership engagement is a crucial lead-in to renewal.

 4. Renewal -- when lapsing members decide whether to keep you. The mind shift that is important when thinking about renewals is that you are undertaking a campaign and not managing an event. We are entering another political season. Politicians know that just sending one letter or one phone call is not a strategy that will maximize voter turnout. So they are very aggressive (some say too aggressive) in turning out the vote for themselves. In the same way, today the standard three part renewal series is no longer sufficient to maximize retention rates. A synchronized, multi-channel, high frequency, campaign is required to maximize renewal outcomes.

5. Reinstatement -- when former members agree to return to you. In life there will always be bumps in the road with any relationship. It is no different with the membership relationship. However, it almost always makes more sense to try and restore an existing relationship than starting a new one. The reinstatement portion of the lifecycle is where attempts are made to understand the problem and fix it. This sometimes involves market research. As the old proverb says, “Look where you tripped, not where you fell.” It also involves ongoing outreach to highlight new opportunities and new membership options. Successful membership organizations never give up on getting members to come back.

The Membership Lifecycle is a framework to diagnose and fix the challenges that face every membership program. In my consulting work, I usually find that two, three, or even four elements of the membership lifecycle are functioning well in a membership program. But I also find that one or two parts need to be addressed to establish a strong and resilient program. Take some time to look at your membership to see which of these parts of the lifecycle is a weak link and put some time and effort into making some changes. It will positively impact the entire membership program.

Solutions to a Declining Membership

Back in April, I wrote a post titled, “What are the Biggest Impediments to Membership Growth?”

However, I did not talk through potential solutions to these impediments. So here we go with some thoughts on what to do about a declining membership.

I have been doing membership consulting for over twenty five years. During this time, I have noticed that organizations tend to react to membership declines with two types of responses.

The first response is to demand action now. An organization might say, “Our membership numbers are down. We need to send out emails tomorrow to get the numbers up for the month!”

The second reaction that I see is avoidance. “Our membership numbers are down. But I cannot get the staff, chapters, or board to do anything about it.”

Neither of these reactions tends to bring long term solutions to a membership problem. What I have found works best is to help an organization step back and see the big picture and then develop a systemic solution to fixing the problem.

A classic treatise that speaks to these organizational tendencies is a book by Peter Senge titled, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of The Learning Organization. In the book he applies the concept of systems thinking to help organizations respond effectively to the challenges that they face.

Systems thinking highlight the inadequacies from the response that says “do something now” or simply work harder to solve the problem. This organizational response generally results in just kicking the can down the road. System thinkers call this “just push harder” reaction “compensating feedback”. This is “when well intentioned interventions call forth responses from the system that offset the benefits of the intervention. We all know what it feels like to be facing compensating feedback – the harder you push, the harder the system pushes back; the more effort you expend trying to improve matters, the more effort seems to be required.”1

In fact, Senge maintains, “pushing harder and harder on familiar solutions, while fundamental problems persist or worsen, is a reliable indicator of nonsystemic thinking – what we often call the ‘what we need here is a bigger hammer’ syndrome.”2

Systems thinking also speak to the avoidance or victim response to organizational challenges by helping to uncover high leverage solutions to a problem.

A basic premise of The Fifth Discipline is that organizations, economies, and people naturally grow as long as the things preventing that growth are removed. Senge says, “Don’t push growth; remove the factors limiting growth.”

“Systems thinking shows that small, well-focused actions can sometimes produce significant, enduring improvements, if they’re in the right place. Systems thinkers refer to this principle as ‘leverage’. Tackling a difficult problem is often a matter of seeing where the high leverage lies, a change which – with a minimum of effort – would lead to lasting and significant improvement. The only problem is that high-leverage changes are usually highly nonobvious to most participants in the system.” 3

So from a practical perspective instead of treating just the symptoms of a membership problem or being in denial what should one do? How do you bring a systems thinking solution to the problem?

A tool that I recommend to help diagnose a membership challenge from a systems thinking perspective is using a concept called the membership lifecycle.

The lifecycle breaks down each stage of the membership relationship. What I find is the most membership problems exist in one of the five lifecycle stages of awareness, recruitment, engagement, renewal, or reinstatement. Identifying the root membership problem can lead to a highly leveraged or efficient solution.

You can download a free whitepaper that outlines this concept using this link.

There is hope for a declining membership. Don’t give up. Step back and identify the key impediment to growth and work on fixing that nonobvious problem first.

1. The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization, by Peter M. Senge, p 58.
2. Ibid. p. 61
3. Ibid. p 63-64

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