Developing a Membership Marketing Maturity Model

In the software world, there is a methodology to assess the level of sophistication an organization has achieved. It is called a Capability Maturity Model.

The thought came to me that it would be helpful to outline the same type of assessment in the area of membership marketing. Is it possible to evaluate an organization's level of sophistication in membership marketing?

I have been thinking about this for the past couple of weeks, so this concept is very developmental. I thought that I would share this proposed model and benefit from your feedback and insight. I am calling the Membership Marketing Maturity Model the 4M’s.

The model has four levels of maturity: (1.) Initial -- everyone has to start someplace, (2.) Basic, (3.) Good, and (4.) Great – a la the Seven Measures of Success.

The first driver for evaluating maturity that I have is management. So today, let’s take a look at the maturity model as it relates to the organizational management of membership marketing.

• Initial: When organizations start out with membership marketing it is typically a board driven initiative. This is good. One of the roles of leadership is to initiate. A board member might say, “Let’s all call our friends and ask them to join or renew.” However, this model is dependent on volunteerism, so it is not often sustainable or scalable. An organization will not thrive for long by staying in this early stage of maturity.


• Basic: At the basic level, the organization realizes that membership marketing takes a level of professionalism. Membership marketers are experienced with the principles, tools, and techniques that are needed. They competently manage the membership marketing process, but goals are handed down from the board or senior management based on the imperative de jour. They may have responsibility, but not authority.


• Good: Management drives membership marketing through research, testing, and analysis. Goals, strategies and budgets are based on data. However, the organization’s operational constrictions, bylaws, or departmental silos impose a drag on the achievement of the membership marketing opportunities.


• Great: A great membership marketing organization has a unified vision for growth. It brings together the people with expertise and talent; market data based decision-making; and the necessary “structures, processes, and interactions”[1] to achieve this vision.

As always, your feedback is appreciated. With input from others, my hope is that the 4M’s will be a tool that organizations can use in measuring and benchmarking their membership development program.

[1] Seven Measures of Success, page 24.

Associations are “Where the Winners Meet”

From my membership marketing tests over the years, it is clear that the best predictors of someone responding to a membership acquisition effort are typically that they are a subscriber, book buyer, or joiner already in the association’s field. Those who have not demonstrated a tendency to purchase and learn are less likely to join.

That’s why I enjoyed the interesting analysis on the attitudes and income of association members by The William E. Smith Institute for Association Research. It was just published in January.

The report shows that, “On average, association members earn significantly more money and are more satisfied with their jobs than non-members. This is true even after holding constant differences in job categories, disparities in education, and all other relevant personal characteristics. However, the benefits of association membership are not as straightforward as we often hear: Membership by itself does not stimulate higher earnings and job satisfaction. On the contrary, the most plausible explanation based on the data is reverse causation: Prosperity, success and happiness at work encourage association membership, because associations are where the winners meet in many professions[1]”




The data for this analysis was drawn from 2004 General Social Survey (GSS), a random survey of 1,200 American adults.

So who do we look for when we seek new members? This research and the marketing data that I have seen suggest that we seek the “winners” as new members. What do you think?




[1] Arthur C. Brooks, PhD., Where the Winners Meet: Why Happier, More Successful People Gravitate toward Associations, The William E. Smith Institute for Association Research, January 2008, page 13.

How is the economy impacting your association?

Almost every association that I have met with over the past few weeks is asking me the same question, “What are other groups experiencing with the current economic situation?”

They want to know if conference attendance is down or if membership acquisition or renewals have been impacted.

If you have some feedback, please go ahead and post a comment with what you are seeing with your organization. Is the bottle half empty or half full?

From a marketing perspective, whether the economy ends up in recession or we move back to a growth pattern, I think the key to success still depends on generating innovation as a means to maintain resilience. Time after time I have found that we have been able to innovate ourselves out of very challenging business situations.

This was articulated for me a number of years ago when I read an excellent article in the Harvard Business Review. The basic premise of the piece was that no matter what business you are in, keeping relevant and “resilient” was the key to success. The authors said:

“Most companies [or non-profits] would be better off if they made fewer billion-dollar bets and a whole lot more $10,000 or $20,000 bets – some of which will, in time, justify more substantial commitments. They should steer clear of grand, imperial strategies and devote themselves instead to launching a swarm of low-risk experiments.”[1]

I think that it is pretty good advice. Here is a link to an abstract of the article.

Please also do share your insights on any early signs that your organization is seeing from the current economic conditions.


[1] Gary Hamel and Lisa Valikangas, “The Quest for Resilience” Harvard Business Review, September 2003, Page 6.

Are You Indispensable to Your Members?

When I go to association conferences, read the ASAE listserv, and visit association blogs, I continually hear people talk about delivering “value” to members and keeping members by providing value. Dictionary.com provides a lot of definitions of value. One for example is:

Value -- Relative worth, merit, or importance: the value of a college education; the value of a queen in chess.

One of my colleagues -- who by the way helped inspire my recent post on “Membership Interdependence” through vision, reward and recognition -- uses a much better word to highlight what associations are seeking to achieve with membership. He uses the word “indispensable”.

Indispensable -- Absolutely necessary, essential, or requisite: an indispensable member of the staff.

In a brainstorming session today when we asked a client to define the value they provide members, we did not get too far beyond information and networking. But when we asked what members found indispensable, the ideas began to flow. Surveys show that members with the association’s designation make more money (reward), there is real industry honor accorded to those who carry the membership designation (recognition), and the association is effectively improving the image of the industry through forceful enforcement of ethical standards (vision).

What do you think about becoming indispensible instead of providing value?

Life Cycle V – Renewal

Renewal is the quantitative measurement of how successful you have been with the earlier components of your membership system. An aware, engaged, and interdependent member is much more likely to renew than one who is not.

But at the same time, there is a unique challenge to renewing members. Any renewal program needs to take into account that people are very busy and overwhelmed with communications.

Over the years, my analysis of why members’ lapse shows that the number one reason that people leave an organization is not that they are unhappy with the services or angry about customer service. No, the key reason most people do not renew their membership is because they “forgot”.

In some cases, the member moved and did not provide the association with a forwarding address. In other cases, the brand of the association did not stand out enough in the renewal notice, and it was overlooked. Whatever the reason, more members leave an organization by omission than commission.

In order to break through this omission challenge, renewal programs need to break through the clutter of competing communications.

Perhaps one of the simplest and often one of the most effective ways to improve renewals is simply to increase the frequency of notices. Increasing the number of notices sent to a member should be considered if tracking reveals that the final notices of the renewal program are generating a strong response or if subsequent reinstatement efforts produce good returns. I have met with organizations that do telemarketing to former members and have response rates in excess of 10 percent. This says to me that their renewal system is leaking members who communicated with properly are ready and willing to stay with the organization.

As a rule of thumb, the frequency of renewal notices should be increased until the cost of generating a renewing member through the system equals or exceeds the cost of acquiring a new member. In the rare event that tracking reveals the cost of renewing a member is higher than acquiring a new member, then decreasing the number of renewal notices would be appropriate.

A second tool to break through the challenge of members forgetting to renew is the use of multiple marketing media. In addition to mailed renewal notices, other channels like phone, FAX, and email can be employed.

A high frequency, multi-channel renewal program might look like the following.

Finally, an opportunity to positively impact renewals is to look at offering different options to actually eliminate the member’s renewal decision. This is accomplished by offering payment options like:

• Automatic credit card renewal
• Automatic electronic funds transfer renewal (EFT)
• Multiple year memberships
• Life memberships
• Automatic monthly/quarterly credit card installment billing

These payment options change the renewal dynamic from asking the member to act pro-actively to continue a membership to requiring the member to act proactively to end a membership. Associations that have members who accept some type of automatic debit or credit card charge can see renewal rates 10 points higher for these members than for typical members.

What techniques have you used to increase membership renewals? Please feel free to share them here.

By the way, you can read my first four posts on the Membership Life Cycle through the following links: Awareness, Recruitment, Engagement, and Interdependence.

Membership Marketing Projections, Not Promises

Last month I was meeting with a prospective client and they were very surprised that I could project results, but not promise them a certain level of return.

That’s why I have always enjoyed the following quote.

“Successful companies are learning companies. They collect feedback from the marketplace, audit and evaluate results, and take corrections designed to improve their performance. Good marketing works by constantly monitoring its position in relation to its destination.” (Philip Kotler, Kotler on Marketing, page 34)

Marketing really is a process. Knowledge is built over time through experimentation and analysis. The challenge is that unlike a chemistry experiment, for example, when the variables are all controlled, marketing works in a dynamic environment. Variables include elements that you do not control like the economy, competition, and the post office and those you have more control of like timing, offers, market segments, and messaging.

So like a ship blown by the waves and wind, you need to monitor where you are and make adjustments to get to your destination.

Life Cycle IV -- Interdependence

In previous Life Cycle posts, we talked about the membership relationship beginning with awareness. I went on to discuss the importance of pro-active recruitment because of the “push product” nature of membership and the powerful contribution of engaging a new member to move them through their conversion year of membership.

The next season of the membership life cycle is interdependence. This level is the step above a simple transactional relationship. It is helping a member move to the point where his or her identity, livelihood, or safety is tied to your organization.

For a moment think of the association, charitable group, or faith organization with which you feel the most closely aligned. Why do you feel that alignment? Chances are because you are held by one of three 'glues' of interdependence.

I believe that these three elements or glues that build interdependence can be defined as: 1.) Common Vision, 2.) Reward, and 3.) Recognition. I have come to a better understanding of these over the past year through conversations with my colleague and friend Bill Jerome.

Common vision is a very powerful force that ties many of us to an organization. Many charitable groups are fully supported by selling their vision. Because we believe in the cause so much, we are happy to donate money with no expectation of reward or recognition.Have you established a common vision that you and your members are striving to accomplish together and that they can believe in and help you achieve? Members who are sold on the vision are interdependent with your association.

One of my colleagues at the United States Naval Institute once said to me: 'We don’t want someone to pay $39 to our organization solely to get a magazine, but to pay $39 because they also believe that through their membership, USNI is contributing to a better national defense for the United States of America.”

Reward is something that we all want. It is getting something back for our dollar.

The reward of membership in AAA that keeps renewal rates high is that if my car breaks down on a rainy night, someone will come and give me a tow or a jump. The 'towing' benefit is something that we would all like to have for our association.

Other organizations have succeeded in establishing interdependence through a very economically based reward system. One group accomplishes this deeper dependence through certification. Certification is required to practice in their field, and membership is required for certification. Clearly, interdependence exists here that has resulted in very high retention of members.

The most common reward that members look for from their professional association – according to Decision to Join -- is valuable training and information resources. Be sure to measure how your members think you are doing in these areas in order to establish their interdependence with you.

Recognition means that you know me, and I want to be known as one of you.It can be as personal as the great feeling of getting together with old friends at the annual convention or as technological as Amazon telling you what additional books you may want to purchase based on your previous selections. But the fact is that you are known, and this deepens your commitment and interdependence to the association.

Social media and Web 2.0 are perhaps the tools that will best help members connect with their association and build recognition going forward. Sara Costello, Manager, Global Strategy and Programs with the Society for Human Resource Management recently shared a great example of this on the ASAE International Listserv. She highlighted the just completed World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland which used blogs, flickr, You Tube, Podcasts, and Webcasts to build participation and recognition into the meeting.

Associations that have effectively applied all three of these glues of interdependence to their membership model have thrived.

How have you seen associations move from essentially a mailbox relationship to one of interdependence? Feel free to share your examples.

Comparing Wireless Phone Customer Churn to Association Membership Retention

Quick Quiz: Who has better retention rates, associations or wireless phone companies?

I got thinking about this the other day when I read a piece in the Washington Post on AT&T. They were highlighting that wireless “customer turnover narrowed to 1.7 percent to from 1.8 percent a year ago.” Sounds pretty good, except that they report turnover for each month. So that 1.7% monthly churn rate turns into an annual loss of 20.4% or a 79.6 percent retention rate. From my limited searching around, these rates are close to other wireless providers.

On the association side, ASAE and the Center report that the median renewal rate for individual membership associations is 87% and 94% for trade associations. [1] So associations win the churn battle. Good job!

What did you guess? What went into your thinking?

Having associations come out on top was a pleasant surprise for me. You would think that AT&T has some clear advantages to associations that might help them retain customers at a better rate. They have long term contracts with big cancellation fees, a monthly billing routine, and an opt-out instead an opt-in renewal system. Plus, they have the hot new iPhone.

If you are interested in looking at this comparison more deeply, take a look at the MSN article on a Virginia wireless company, NTELOS. At the end of the article it shows their SEC 10-K report on their wireless subscriber acquisition and renewal. It is remarkably similar to the dashboard report that I recommend to associations to keep track of membership growth and renewals. You can see the post for this on this July 9th.

[1] 2006 American Society of Association Executives (ASAE, Policies and Procedures in Association Management: A Benchmarking Guide, vol. 1 Membership P. 36.

Why get help for Membership Acquisition?

Many organizations seek outside help from advertising agencies and marketing firms when they are looking to acquire new customer or members. Why is that?

I think that the main reason is that we are very comfortable with using our “inside” marketing media channels. But we may need help when we try to employ less familiar “outside” marketing media.

As the following chart highlights, the process of making prospective members aware of an organization and recruiting them is highly dependent on the use of marketing media that does not reside within the organization. Outside media can come into play once again when a member defects from an organization.

Exploring Alternative Membership Models

A few weeks ago, I received an RFP from an association asking for consulting to help them explore new membership models. They currently offer traditional individual membership that includes a magazine and a discount on the annual meeting for dues of around $100. Not too different from many associations with whom I consult.

I thought that it was a very intelligent strategic marketing question for the association to ask. Probably every couple of years all associations should explore new membership models. And getting help from a consultant was also a wise move for this type of a study.

Anyway, the RFP got me thinking about the variety of membership models that now exist. Here is a list, off the top of my head, of my top 10. This is a brain dump, not the result of historical research. I did not include classic individual professional or trade association memberships in my list.

1. Religious Membership – Maybe the oldest, still active form of membership is membership of a religious group. As one ancient text says, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together.” Faith based membership is to help change the heart, but donations are welcome.


2. Credit Card Membership – American Express was one of the earlier for-profit companies to coop the concept of membership. They used the famous tagline, “Membership Has Its Privileges” and charged an annual fee for the card, but made their profits on the use of the credit card. The new tagline is “Membership Begins with the Right Card”, and they have generally dropped the annual fee, but not the interest payments.


3. Retail Membership – Costco was a revolutionary concept in retailing that started in the mid-1970s. “Membership was initially limited to small business owners, whose fees would also offset overhead costs.” Membership fees still apply. Costco offers three levels of membership, Executive, Business, and Gold Star memberships.


4. Magazine Membership -- National Geographic started in 1888 and “[Alexander Graham] Bell and his son-in-law, [Gilbert Hovey] Grosvenor, devised the successful marketing notion of Society membership and the first major use of photographs to tell stories in magazines.” When you go to the National Geographic web site now, the focus seems to be much more about becoming a subscriber than a member.


5. Insurance Membership – USAA is a membership based around providing insurance and financial services to those in the military and their families. “In 1922, when 25 Army officers met in San Antonio and decided to insure each other's vehicles, they could not have imagined that their tiny organization would one day serve 6 million members and become the only fully integrated financial services company in America.”


6. Alumnae Association Membership – As a member of the Dickinson College Alumnae Association, I get a magazine, online alumnae directory, my own web email account, an annual networking day, and the chance to participate in local Dickinson clubs. There’s no membership fee, except $43,000 annually for tuition, room and board, but donations are welcome.


7. Electronic Membership – The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) offers an innovative electronic only membership for $29 a year. It is truly a paperless membership including no mailed renewal notices and full access to magazines and newsletters.


8. Avocational Membership – The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) offers membership to those who are joined together by a common hobby or interest. Dues are fairly low at $39, but AOPA generates operating revenue from additional products and services ranging from aircraft insurance, to newsletters, to personal loans made available to members.


9. Fund Raising Membership – Many donation driven, non-profits offer memberships including WETA the local Washington DC, PBS TV and radio station. As a member, you get a one-year subscription to WETA magazine, WETA member decal, volunteer opportunities, and television and radio station tours. Your motivation to write the check to support the cause.


10. Frequent Flyer or Hotel Membership – “The first frequent flyer program was created in California by Western Airlines in June 1980,” according to Wikipedia. Soon after the airlines, hotels also launched programs like the Marriott Rewards membership.

What surprised me when I completed this list were just how many organizations of which I am a member. I am or have been a member of my church, American Express, Costco, Dickinson College Alumnae, USAA, ASCD, AOPA, WETA, and Marriott.

Each operates with a different financial model. Numbers of them let you in for free, but make money on secondary purchases.

Can you add any others to my list? Which model -- if any – would you recommend for your organization to explore?

Does Wal-Mart Announce a Price Increase?

We have all seen the Wal-Mart commercial announcing that prices are falling. But it occurred to me that I never see Wal-Mart or almost anyone else in the consumer world announce that prices are rising.

So last week while I was working on an article about pricing for the March issue of FORUM magazine of the Association Forum of Chicagoland, I dove back into the data from our Dues Increase Survey. I compared associations that said they announced and justified a dues increase to members to those who did not announce it or attempt to justify it.

The survey supports that silence may indeed be golden. It turns out that associations who raised dues but gave members no justification (i.e. to pay for new programs or advocacy) for the dues increase and those that did not make an announcement about the increase where more likely to subsequently see membership grow compared to any other option.

For example, groups that gave no justification were 33% more likely to see membership grow than those who justified the increase to support additional advocacy. And groups who made no announcement of a dues increase were 84% more likely to see membership grow compared to those who announced the increase at their annual convention.

For those of you who never want to hear about the dues increase research again, I promise to move on to other topics. For those who want a copy of the research, send me an email and I will provide it to you.

Membership Life Cycle Part III -- Membership Engagement

In earlier posts, I comment on the first two stages of the membership life cycle: Awareness and Membership Recruitment.
Now I want to focus on how we keep these new members from flying away from your association.

Once a member joins, he or she becomes the most likely member not to renew. Almost every association that I have worked with has its lowest renewal rate among new members. That’s why we call the first year of membership the conversion year.

Over the years, there have been many attempts at increasing renewals for these first year members. Some associations resort to sending the member a BIG new member kit to make them aware of all the association has to offer.

But there is a better solution. It is called engagement – encouraging and initiating interaction between the member and the association.

In a recent post on Growth through Membership Retention, I outlined the results from data analytics project that we conduction that showed for one association the powerful impact on renewals from different types of member interactions ranging from a member purchase to getting the member to call the association.

The survey results from ASAE and the Center’s, Decision to Join highlights the same concept. There is very little statistical difference between non-engaged members as lapsed members. “Those who are not involved lie perilously close to former members in their overarching assessments of the value they derive from associations. If former members are thought of as being dead, the uninvolved are close to comatose” (page 4).

So then how do we engage new members?

Many associations are now moving a conversion program which is a multi-step, multi-channel communication. The program is NOT built around informing the member about the association, but it is dedicated to generating a second interaction with the member. Essentially, a new member conversion program continues to “ping” the member until a response is achieved.

The program might include: a letter from the members personal member service representative asking them to call

• an email assisting the member with registering for the password protected membership web site
• a mailing with a dollars-off voucher for a first purchase
• an email survey verifying the use of member benefits
• a courtesy call to answer member questions

How important is getting a second purchase or interaction? In consumer marketing, customer-retention expert Jim Novo says, “If a customer has not made a second purchase by 30 days after the first purchase, the customer . . . is telling you something is wrong.”
Have you had experience in engaging members? Please share your thoughts.

Tips for Brainstorming Membership Marketing

I heard from several of you that with the start of the year you are thinking through your membership marketing plan for 2008. So I wanted to pass along a creativity tip that you may find helpful.

I have heard it said that creativity is not inventing something wholly new, but looking at what exists from a different perspective. Remember how you use to open a soda can?

That’s why I have found the questions provided by the late Bob Stone, in his landmark book, Successful Direct Marketing Method [1], useful in getting the creative thought process going. Here they are:

• Can we combine?


• Can we add?


• Can we eliminate?


• Can we make an association?


• Can we simplify?


• Can we substitute?


• Can we reverse?

Give these questions a try at the start of your next marketing project. You may come up with a terrific new idea.

[1] Stone, Bob. Successful Direct Marketing Methods. (McGraw-Hill; 7 edition (2001) p. 468.

Thank You Ben

For a second year, Ben Marin of the Certified Association Executive Blog handed out what I will call the “Bloggies” for the best association blogs for the year.

Ben was very kind to pick the Membership Marketing Blog as the “best new blog about associations”. He wrote, “Tony Rossell at Membership Marketing Blog is holding both bloggers and the industry accountable. This year he went toe-to-toe with the anti-marketing meme at Acronym and The Decision to Join. He cites MGI client statistics and both secondary and primary research in his posts. For these reasons, he takes home the top spot for best new blog about associations.”

The other well deserved awards include the following.

For the second consecutive year, the “best association blogger of 2007” award went to Jamie Notter, the author of GetMeJamieNotter.com.

The “best blog about associations in 2007” was awarded to Acronym, ASAE & the Center's official blog.

The “best new association blogger” goes to Maddie Grant, blogger at Diary of a Reluctant Blogger.

I sent a note to thank Ben for his dedication to association blogs. Conversations with Ben were actually part of the inspiration behind launching the Membership Marketing Blog. Thanks Ben!

Membership Marketing Planning for 2008

As the New Year begins, I thought it might be useful to outline the marketing planning methodology that I use to brainstorm and develop strategies for the associations for whom I do consulting. .

I presented this to my good friend, Chris Rogers, President of CDR Communications, at breakfast the other day and he also felt it was a good tool that would serve in his communications work for non-profits. So here it is.

We are all familiar with the four P’s – Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. They are established tools in marketing to help define strategy, but I find that they do not serve non-profits as well.

So I have adapted these for the association world to the following:

• Market – Answers the question, “WHO?”


• Product – Answers the question, “WHAT?”


• Promotion – Answers the question, “HOW?”


• Economics – Answers the question, “WHY?”

Let me make a few quick comments about each of these.

First, any sound marketing strategy needs to look at “Who” we want to reach. I have found it helpful to break most markets down visually using a triangle or pyramid.
At the top of the triangle are the best prospects for the product that we are offering. If properly defined, this is almost always the smallest segment. As we work our way down to less qualified prospects, we have increasing numbers of potential members or customers – hence the wider triangle. The goal of course is to be sure that we flow our scarce marketing funds first to the best prospects and then down the triangle to generate the best ROI.

Taking the time to carefully define who is in each market segment and how many people are in the segment is fundamental to planning.

Next, define “What” you are offering. Should your product be bundled or sold a la carte? What are your best price points? What is your unique selling proposition (USP) to each market segment? What enhancements can be made to the product to make it unique or more valuable? How does your product compare to the competition?

The third element is promotion or “How” we go to market. Unfortunately, many marketers start at this point without doing the earlier leg work. I sometimes, for example, hear that “direct mail doesn’t work for our organization.” It is possible, but it is more likely that the channel is not to blame, but the message went to the wrong person. You cannot sell ice to Eskimos.

Promotional decisions look at how best to connect the product and the market. What marketing channel should you choose (personal sales, telemarketing, direct mail, space ads, broadcast FAX, email, search engine ads, or retail)? Each channel offers unique advantages, cost structures, and response rates.

Finally, marketing planning requires an answer to the question, “Why”. Does the plan make economic sense? This involves looking at realistic projections of revenue and costs and calculating the Life Time Value, Cost of Goods Sold, and Maximum Acquisition Cost for a member or customer. I provided these calculations in a membership marketing context in my post, Know the Numbers on Membership Marketing.

I hope that these thoughts get your strategic marketing juices flowing. I wish you a joyous and peaceful New Year!

I will return to the Five Phases of Membership Marketing in January.

Membership Life Cycle – Part II

Most associations have done a good job at building market awareness. Over the years, members and prospective members learned about the association from doing research, a professor, or a colleague.

After awareness, recruitment is the second part of the membership life cycle. It is the process of getting a member to join your association. Or perhaps better described, it is the process of getting a member to 'try' your association.Membership in professional associations is typically what marketers call a 'push' product rather than a 'pull' product.

A 'pull' product is best defined by the famous statement made in the movie Field of Dreams 'if you build it, they will come.' There are some products that consumers will spend hours seeking out. They do not need a lot of marketing. There are web sites dedicated to tracking down a “pull” product like the Nintendo Wii .

As opposed to the Wii, membership tends to be something that needs to be sold or pushed in order to get returns. Did you ask for a professional membership for Christmas?

A pro-active plan needs to be put in place in order to attract large numbers of new members to an association.

I believe that the single biggest reason that many associations are not growing membership is because of this lack of focus and funding for membership recruitment. I looked at this issue in more detail in an article that I did for ASAE and Center’s Associations Now.

When membership recruitment is done properly, most groups can see their membership blossom and grow.

The National Middle School Association is a good example of the importance of 'push,' or active recruitment.

Jeff Ward, the Deputy Executive Director of NMSA said ‘the association believed that it had a high level of awareness in the school market, but for many years we had experienced a flat membership.'Then the association settled on an aggressive membership recruitment program designed to take membership over a five-year period from 17,000 members to over 31,000. Once the acquisition program was launched, numerous tests were made to optimize both to the NMSA membership product and renewal system. The end result was that over this five-year period, NMSA indeed grew by over 80% and reached the new membership level of 31,000 members.

A solid recruitment plan requires an ongoing learning mindset that uses testing strategies to optimize three key areas:

• The marketing message - To determine what value proposition is most attractive to prospective members.


• The membership offer - To determine what price points, benefit packages, and special incentives will attract members.


• The target market - To determine what market segments or lists of prospective members are most responsive to the message and offer.

Next we will take a look at what you do with the new members once you get them.

Five Phases of the Membership Life Cycle

We have just put out a new white paper titled the Membership Marketing Life Cycle. It highlights the five major phases in the membership lifecycle:

• Awareness
• Recruitment
• Engagement
• Interdependence
• Renewal

Over the next few posts, I would like to highlight each of these phases in the membership lifecycle.

First, let’s take a look at awareness. Membership marketing starts with one very important question. Do prospective members know who you are?Awareness is the measure of how successful your branding efforts have been to gain share of mind in your target audience. Until someone knows you, they are not likely to become a member or a customer. Or put another way, how does the bee find the flower?
Good direct marketing alone is not the best or most effective tool to build awareness. For example, the United Professional Sales Association (UPSA), desired to expand its strong and thriving local organization beyond the Washington, DC area. Members of UPSA attended meetings and established meaningful networking relationships.
However, when UPSA conducted a national membership development campaign, the results were less than they hoped to receive. The promotion was targeted to an audience that tracked with local membership. The challenge appeared to be one of awareness. The market that they sought to reach did not know and recognize their brand.

Fortunately, there are some tools available to membership marketers to help build awareness. These include:

• Search engine optimization
• Search engine ads
• Public Relations
• Word of Mouth Marketing

And when awareness is raised in key constituencies, results will follow. The U.S. Naval Institute (USNI) provides a good example this. USNI just completed a very strong membership growth year, but this growth was supported by a series of videos titled, Americans at War that highlighted the real life stories of their members. These video testimonies were so powerful that they went from You Tube to being picked up on run on PBS stations across the country.

How do you know if awareness is the challenge facing your membership marketing? The best way to find out may be to conduct a small test marketing effort to the prospects that you feel would be interested in joining your organization. If the returns are acceptable, there is enough awareness to move forward. If not, it might be time to cultivate a higher level of awareness before investing funds in selling.

Frequency of Contact in Membership Marketing

In my earlier post this week on Sensible Branding, I emphasized the importance of frequently communicating your brand to your target audience.

I thought that it might be helpful to follow that up with some actual test results.

Earlier this year, we conducted an A/B split membership acquisition test for an organization where we added a follow up email promotion two weeks after our mailing dropped to a portion of the file. The email carried the same graphics and special offer that was included in the mailing.

Here is what we found. The prospects who receive only the mailed membership invitation responded at a .57% response rate. Those who received both the mailing and the follow up email generated a total response rate of .97%.

Adding the email cost very little, but raised overall response rates by 68%. That’s adding 3.9 members for each thousand contacts. Let’s say the dues rate is $200, then the additional email generated $780 more dues revenue for each thousand people contacted. Not bad.

Within reason, good membership marketing requires frequent contact with prospects, ideally using multiple channels.

Sensible Branding

I have to confess something. I have developed negative feelings toward “branding”. Here’s why. With some associations, branding has become an excuse to return to the deadly practice of “if you build it they will come”.

The branding process can stop pro-active marketing in its tracks or can become the end instead of the means to communicating with members and prospects.

After all, who wouldn’t rather spend time focusing on all of their attributes and what members and non-members “really” think about them instead of selling.

It reminds me of the humorous saying: “Enough about me talking about me. What do you think about me?”

But flying back from The Great Ideas Conference and catching up on my reading I was greatly encouraged to read an article that presented a very sensible and smart perspective on branding.

The article appeared in the December issue of Associations Now and was written by one of keynote speakers at Great Ideas Conference, Bruce Turkel.

Turkel defined branding this way, “A brand is not a name, a logo, or a masthead. A brand is the promise of a relationship—the relationship that you build with your customers when they agree to do business with you (page 28).” In many cases, the brand can be described in just a word or two.

He goes on to emphasize that of course you must deliver a top notch product as a baseline for success, but beyond having top products “the most important thing you have to do is to make your customers feel good about the time and money they spend [with you].”

Furthermore, he says, “In order to keep your brand vital to your members, your organization has to be the cauldron where the great new ideas are always bubbling. Like the mama bird catching fat worms to drop into the waiting mouths of her hungry hatchlings, it’s your job to search the world for the best practices and bring them back to your members, often before they even realize they need what you’re offering (page 29).”

Essentially, Turkel is describing great, innovative products and experiential customer service.

But here is the part where some organizations fail and where I think Turkel get’s it right. He emphasizes that once you have a brand, “You must constantly and consistently communicate your brand value. Only a constant message will break through the clutter of all the communicators trying to get your target’s attention. And only a consistent message will present your message reliably enough to stick. Ironically, this doesn’t give you license to be repetitive. Instead you have to regularly refresh your message so it doesn’t bore the very people you’re trying to excite.”

He has it right. A brand does not magically make the world come to your door. Instead, it is the foundation from which to market. Once you have a sense of the promise you can make to your members and prospects in products and experience, you need to aggressively take it onto the street, test it, adjust it, and frequently communicate it.

Ultimately it is not your brand that funds your mission. It is the dues and member purchases that allow you to fulfill your purpose.

What do you think?

More Dues Increase Findings

I wanted to share a few more items related to the dues increase survey research that we conducted this fall.

First let’s take a look at how associations justify raising dues to their members?

• 54% of associations indicate keeping up with inflation is the justification used to support the dues increase.


• 48% report that the addition of new programs or services is the justification used to support the increase.


• Close to one-quarter mention increasing advocacy as justification for an increase in dues.

Directionally, the proportion of associations offering inflation as justification for a dues increase decreases as the percentage of the dues increase grows. However, associations citing the additions of new programs and services are significantly more likely to raise dues 11% to 20% and to have provided a special offer as an incentive to renew.

Next, let’s look at how the dues increase announced to members?

• 44% of associations have announced their most recent dues increase through a letter or e-mail to the association and/or through a letter in the renewal notice.


• 40% of associations announced the increase through an article in the association newsletter or publication.


• If the announcement was made via some form of written communication, associations are significantly more likely to provide a special offer for joining/renewing.

Finally, here is how associations handled the timing of the dues increase and notification of members.

• About one-half of the associations made the dues increase known to the membership within three months of it taking effect.


• 30% of associations announced the change in dues four to six months before it was implemented.


• Only about 10% of associations made members aware of the increase a minimum of six months ahead of time.


• Associations planning to raise dues by 21% to 30% are more likely to announce this increase much further in advance.


• Only about 16% of associations provided some type of special offer to lessen the impact of the dues increase. Those who offered an incentive were significantly more likely to be implementing a dues increase of 11% to 20%.

My goal in conducting this research was to provide associations with a benchmark to consider when raising dues. Clearly, every association is different and needs to consider the environmental and political factors that they face. I hope you find this information helpful if you are considering a dues increase.