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WHITE PAPER
SEVEN INNOVATIVE IDEAS
TO FIGHT THIS RECESSION
Second in a series of MGI White Papers on
membership marketing during a recession.
Erik Schonher
Vice President
Marketing General Incorporated
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Wherever we look upon this earth,
the opportunities take shape within the problems.
NELSON A. ROCKEFELLER
While we often compare today’s recession with the Great
depression of the 1930s, history chronicles that time as a period of
great innovation that led to increased social reforms, the elevation of
the status of women—even the invention of “talking pictures.”
WE ARE ON THE VERGE OF A Fortunately, “…not even the gloomiest predict that today’s
TIME OF GREAT INNOVATION. slump will approach the severity of the Depression…” (“The Job
Crisis,” The Economist [March 14–20, 2009]: 11). However, I believe
we are on the verge of participating in a time of great innovation.
When I authored Ten Tips for Membership Marketing in a
Recession in April 2008, my purpose was to give a “heads up” of
what was coming down the road and to find new tactics and
channels that would decrease costs but maintain visibility and
brand in the market. I advised that at a time when others were
pulling out of the market, a unique opportunity to capture greater
market share and top-of-mind awareness was presenting itself to
the savvy marketer.
TAKE STOCK IN WHAT YOU My message today is basically the same. Take stock in what you
HAVE AND START INNOVATING. have and start innovating. Don’t sit still and wait for the economy,
program results, and industries to change to what you want. Take
charge and change them yourself through innovation. Find new
ways to deliver your message, maintain and increase revenue, and
accomplish your mission.
When you look at something, tell yourself “if it ain’t broke,
break it! If you can break it, make it better.” Let go of your rules and
make new ones.
To do this, just like my high school soccer coach said, start with
the basics. For association and membership marketers, the basics
include:
G Your message
G The value of your association to your members
G How your members want to communicate, with you and with
each other
G Know your numbers and establish metrics
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SPRING 2009 SEVEN INNOVATIVE IDEAS TO FIGHT THIS RECESSION PAGE 3
The art of living lies less in eliminating our troubles
than in growing with them.
BERNARD M. BARUCH, financier
Now rebuild. Ask yourself, given today’s economy, is this the ARE WE DELIVERING TRUE
best message? Are we delivering true value to our members? Are we VALUE TO OUR MEMBERS?
effectively communicating the message and that value to them?
If there is another way that might be better, then try it. Innovate.
And if it works, try yet another way to see if it can be better. Again,
innovate.
One who fears failure limits his activities.
Failure is only the opportunity
to more intelligently begin again.
HENRY FORD, inventor and businessman
This paper highlights several brief case studies from professionals
like you who are trying new ideas because the old ones simply were
not doing enough. From these few instances, I hope you’ll find
inspiration to question what you’re doing and work to find new
“norms” and “rules.”
#1 – CREATE MEMBER “EVANGELISTS”
Kisha Green Dimbo, vice president for membership and IMPROVE MEMBER RETENTION
marketing with the American Association of Justice, wrote to tell me AND ACQUIRE NEW MEMBERS.
that her association is “…initiating a membership outreach task
force with the objective of creating member ‘evangelists’ …the idea
is that they will, with support from the membership department, be
responsible for implementing several different membership
initiatives such as phone-a-thons, outreach to first-time convention
attendees, and activities at the state level, with the objective of
improving member retention and acquiring former and new
members.”
Along that same idea, Cindy Simpson, manager of education for
the National Society of Professional Engineers, once worked at an
association where “…they made the past presidents Membership
Ambassadors. These ambassadors were armed with information
from the membership department and assisted in recruiting new
members. It worked out very well as many of these individuals were
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retired but still wanted to stay involved in the association. They met
during the annual convention to exchange tips and strategies, as
well as monthly via conference call.”
#2 – PERSONALIZE THE MEMBER
EXPERIENCE…LITERALLY
AN ASSOCIATION EARNED In February 2009, I chaired an ASAE Membership Idea Swap.
KUDOS FOR TAKING THIS STEP While a number of ideas were discussed, one struck me as very
impressive and truly indicative of the importance this trade
AND UPPING THEIR GAME.
association gives to membership. As it was explained, this
association welcomes new members by dispatching a member
representative from the membership department to their offices to
review the benefits and personally introduce the association to
company leadership and staff. This is very different from a year ago
for the association, when standard operating procedure would
dictate communications through mail, email, and telephone. The
association has apparently earned kudos from their membership for
taking this step and upping their game.
Kimberley Gray, events coordinator at Associated General
Contractors of Alaska Anchorage, wrote to me the following: “We
have just started a group of associate members called the Associates
Council. We have explained to them that they are not responsible
for finding new members, but can help membership by delivering
new member packets and offering to call them when we have
functions and help them meet the other members, etc. It is meant to
be a benefit to the associate members and, in turn, helps us. They
will hold functions where we can invite our general and specialty
contractors; they will build relationships with each other as a source
for support, and more. They can help our other committees by
offering to call the contractors and let them know what is going on,
etc. The group is just getting started, but I’m confident that their
value and benefits from their work will grow.”
#3 – OUTRAGEOUS OFFERS! FREE HOTEL
TO INCREASE SHOW ATTENDANCE
At that same ASAE Idea Swap, one attendee stated that her
association was having trouble getting people to register for one of
their conferences. Since they were looking at a penalty by the hotel
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for not filling the block of rooms, they were going to offer “a free
room” to attendees. Pretty bold and ingenious.
#4 – LEAD BY EXAMPLE
Even in an unstable economic environment, an association’s
mission often requires it to lead by example and incur expenses in
support of the “greater good.” With soaring costs, acting on this
social consciousness can be financially difficult, especially when it
may mean taking funding from one program and applying it to
another.
Raylene Kershaw, senior vice president and chief operating officer IN YOUR ZEAL, DON’T STOP
with Marketing General, notes that “…there is little question that the PRINTING ALL MATERIALS
‘greening’ of America will reach into all aspects of marketing this year
as this all-important movement seeks to save, reuse, and recycle all
that we can. As a marketer, some simple steps can help you to play
an active role by using recycled paper whenever possible while
testing out alternative and additive vehicles such as e-marketing and
all things digital. A caution…in your zeal to comply, don’t stop
printing all materials. Gradually see if your audience will respond to
a substituted email versus a printed piece. (Remember, a great
percentage of the population still holds a printed catalog in their
hands while ordering online.) Finally, whatever your course of action,
test before making any final decisions.”
#5 – STAY OUT THERE
In their article “The Upside of Down,” (Associations Now,
February 2009) Sara Perry, vice president of operations with the
Charleston Trident Association of Realtors, and Tony Rossell, senior
vice president with Marketing General, both offered their personal
observations on what associations are doing to manage their
membership marketing initiatives.
Sara wrote that they “…have been able to offer some financial OFFER A DISCOUNT ON
assistance in the form of a seven percent discount on annual dues ANNUAL DUES FOR THOSE
for those members who paid online (saving us staff resources in
MEMBERS WHO PAY ONLINE OR
processing payments) and on time (encouraging prompt payment
when money is tight). We waived the application fee for new WAIVE AN APPLICATION FEE
members during the final months of 2008, prompting many agents
who had previously been involved in the organization indirectly to
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become full members. We also allowed increased flexibility on
assessment of late payment penalties for those who needed more
time.”
Tony wrote: “We would all agree that manufacturing has been a
hard hit sector of our economy. Nonetheless, the Society of
Manufacturing Engineers (SME) found 2008 to be its best year in
more than a decade for both retaining and attracting new members.
Mark C. Tomlinson, the executive director of SME, says ‘A key
reason for our turnaround was aggressive marketing around the
theme, Survive and Thrive.’ We backed up this theme by providing
members with real value to help them excel in their job and career.”
MEMBERS REPRESENT AN Tony continued by noting that the “…Association for
IMPORTANT PURCHASING Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) has enjoyed
decades of membership success—growing from 12,000 members to
SEGMENT FOR PRODUCTS AND
more than 175,000. And 2008 has not been an exception. Ron
SERVICES. Miletta, assistant executive director of ASCD, says that ‘dues revenue
continues to be the bright spot in our budget picture, with an
increase of four percent so far this year. And members continue to
represent an important purchasing segment for our products and
services.’ ”
#6 – MEMBER RELIEF PROGRAMS
TO RETAIN PEOPLE, Following on, Suzan Yungner, vice president with District
ENGAGEMENT IS THE KEY Councils for the Urban Land Institute (ULI), told me of a very
inventive program ULI has instituted called the Member Relief and
DECIDING FACTOR.
Retention Program. As Suzan puts it, the program “…was designed to
help both members and ULI during the current economic
conditions. ULI cannot afford to offer relief to everyone, so the key
was to figure out who we can and should help. For ULI engagement
was the key deciding factor. We wanted to retain people who
attended meetings, bought books, and/or volunteered. ULI also
wanted to engage our District Councils (similar to local chapters) in
the decision and implementation process as they know many of our
members better than we at headquarters do. ULI empowered each
District Council to offer the below deal to one percent of their
membership. If the District Council wants to offer it to more, they
have to make the request and ULI will see if we can do it.
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“ULI supplied each District Council with a list of all their
recently expired members, listing the most actively engaged people
at the top. District Councils may hand select engaged individuals
they want to try and keep as members and offer them a free
membership for up to one year. While the District Council is
speaking with them, ULI has asked them to figure out ways to keep
the former members engaged in return for the comp membership.
They can attend events, write an article for their local newsletter or
Urban Land magazine, volunteer (committee, mentor, community
outreach initiative, help onsite at an event), buy publications, etc.
District Councils also ask the member if they are OK with receiving
the Urban Land magazine electronically but only during the duration
of their comp membership.”
Suzan believes this program will build goodwill with her
membership and District Councils and hopes it will help develop
and grow more committed members from those who receive the
benefits, those who make the offer, and those who simply hear
about it. She hopes members will remember how ULI helped them,
and/or their peers, during a very difficult time, and become lifelong
engaged members once they can again afford it.
In line with Sara Perry’s offer above, Belinda Reutter, director of HOW ABOUT A “TRANSITIONAL”
member services for the National Institute of Government MEMBERSHIP—AN EXTENDED,
Purchasing, presented the idea of a “transitional membership…
TIME-BOUND COMPLIMENTARY
which is an extended, time-bound complimentary membership for
those between jobs.” But not leaving this alone, she took it a step MEMBERSHIP FOR THOSE
further and is currently considering creating a similar category BETWEEN JOBS?
“…for those military members who are deployed.”
#7 – USE E-MARKETING
In a conversation I had with Andy Steggles, chief information
officer for the Risk & Insurance Management Society (RIMS), he
talked about how RIMS held a two-day, 3-D virtual event called
“RiskLive!” in November 2008. He had 750 registrants, resulting in
511 attendees. The event had about 15 sessions with three
concurrent sessions. The most popular session drew about 110
attendees and lasted for almost 90 minutes. One session featured a
panel of three speakers located on three continents. Andy’s
participants consider this first attempt a rousing success.
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PAGE 2 WHITE PAPER SPRING 2009
Wherever we look upon this earth,
the opportunities take shape within the problems.
NELSON A. ROCKEFELLER
While we often compare today’s recession with the Great
depression of the 1930s, history chronicles that time as a period of
great innovation that led to increased social reforms, the elevation of
the status of women—even the invention of “talking pictures.”
WE ARE ON THE VERGE OF A Fortunately, “…not even the gloomiest predict that today’s
TIME OF GREAT INNOVATION. slump will approach the severity of the Depression…” (“The Job
Crisis,” The Economist [March 14–20, 2009]: 11). However, I believe
we are on the verge of participating in a time of great innovation.
When I authored Ten Tips for Membership Marketing in a
Recession in April 2008, my purpose was to give a “heads up” of
what was coming down the road and to find new tactics and
channels that would decrease costs but maintain visibility and
brand in the market. I advised that at a time when others were
pulling out of the market, a unique opportunity to capture greater
market share and top-of-mind awareness was presenting itself to
the savvy marketer.
TAKE STOCK IN WHAT YOU My message today is basically the same. Take stock in what you
HAVE AND START INNOVATING. have and start innovating. Don’t sit still and wait for the economy,
program results, and industries to change to what you want. Take
charge and change them yourself through innovation. Find new
ways to deliver your message, maintain and increase revenue, and
accomplish your mission.
When you look at something, tell yourself “if it ain’t broke,
break it! If you can break it, make it better.” Let go of your rules and
make new ones.
To do this, just like my high school soccer coach said, start with
the basics. For association and membership marketers, the basics
include:
G Your message
G The value of your association to your members
G How your members want to communicate, with you and with
each other
G Know your numbers and establish metrics](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)