The Seven Deadly Sins of Membership Marketing
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Often the secret to a thriving membership is not so much working harder. Instead, success can be driven by understanding and removing an impediment that holds back growth. By identifying the challenges and eliminating the roadblocks, membership programs can flourish. This session is designed to diagnose the seven deadly sins of membership marketing and provide insights to remove them and allow membership efforts to advance.
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The Seven Deadly Sins of Membership Marketing
- 1. Tony Rossell Senior Vice President Marketing General Incorporated The Seven Deadly Sins of Membership Marketing
- 2. Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report • 14th year of publication • Accumulated Data of Thousands of Associations • Correlation of best practices through cross-tabulation
- 3. 1. Undefined Value Proposition
- 4. 2. Excessive Planning Getting Started with Membership Recruitment (PDSA) • Avoid “Paralysis of Analysis” • Impediments: Bylaws, IT Delays, More Research, and Silos Plan • Launch a Low-Cost Test Campaign • Think – “Ready, Fire, Aim” Do • Record Test Results • Calculate Cost Per Acquisition and Lifetime Value • Determine Return on Investment (ROI) Study • Deploy and Fund the Successful Programs • Continue to Test, Track, and Adjust Act
- 5. 3. Abandonment of Membership Recruitment Associations that increased new member input this past year: Far more likely to see total membership growth. • 63% of associations with membership growth increased new member input • 7% of associations with membership declines increased new member input
- 6. Renewal Rate New Members/Year Steady State Membership 90% 1,000 10,000 85% 2,000 13,000 80% 3,000 15,000 Steady State = # of new members/lapse rate Recruitment Offers the Best Growth Opportunity
- 7. 4. Overreliance on a Single Channel Mistake • Overuse of email • Reliance on Annual Conference Solution • Omnichannel Marketing
- 8. 5. Insufficient Frequency of Contact Average reported Email Online Mail Phone 5 3 1 1 Typical renewal touchpoints
- 9. 6. Inadequate Special Offers “Offers can mean the difference between success and failure. Depending on the offer, differences in the response of 25, 50, or 100 percent and more are commonplace.” Bob Stone Successful Direct Marketing
- 10. Successful Association Membership Offers • New Member Dues Discount • Additional Free Months (15 for 12) • Discount on Conference Registration • Product Savings Voucher • Gift or Premiums • Sweepstakes The Membership Offer – How do you incentivize a prospect to join?
- 11. 7. Lack of Testing and Analysis • Subject line • Sender • Time of day/day of week • Format/layout • Landing page • Messaging • Call-to-action • Images A/B tests Format Test Click- through rate (CTR) 57% Boost 57% Boost
- 12. Action Items • Interview Members to Define Your Value Proposition • Calculate Your Membership’s Future Level with Steady State • Test a Membership Recruitment Effort: • Using Email, Digital, and Phone • Including a Special Offer • Add One Additional Touch to Your Renewal Efforts Here are some next steps to REPENT of your Membership Marketing Deadly Sins
- 13. Bonus: Lack of Innovation Associations reporting membership gains: More likely to consider their association is extremely or very innovative.
- 14. Questions • Tony@MarketingGeneral.com • Linkedin.com/in/tonyrossell • Twitter: @TonyRossell
Editor's Notes
- Only 13% of associations say that they have a compelling value proposition. However, most associations provide terrific value to their members. We know they offer great value because they continue to pay dues at a high rate -- the average renewal rate is 84%. However, many groups do not understand or know how to message that value, especially to prospective members. Not understanding and communicating the value they deliver holds back membership recruitment efforts. Research is an excellent tool to help an association define its value proposition.
- Edwards Demming developed the concept of PDSA. A good plan is needed to grow membership. A plan includes defining your value proposition, identifying target markets, and developing a schedule and goals. However, many associations spend so much time developing a plan to answer every objection and contingency that they delay selling memberships. They end up with a book-sized document that is out-of-date when and if ever implemented. Instead, consider a “ready, fire, aim” philosophy and do something now.
- Perhaps the most significant problem holding back membership for associations is not consistently asking prospective members to join. An association may believe that it can grow its membership by increasing retention rates and that recruitment is too expensive or challenging. One of the best predictors of overall membership growth is a successful recruitment effort. Years of benchmarking data show a correlation between new member input and overall membership growth.
- Membership managers need to become fluent in using this calculation. It is a tool to predict the outcome of strategies and make the cases for investment in membership recruitment.
- Many associations have been damaged by relying on a single tactic to bring in new members. Those groups that depended on an annual meeting to attract members each year were hurt by pandemic-caused cancellations. Others that were reliant on email acquisition efforts have burned out their email lists through overuse. The solution is to develop a marketing portfolio using an omnichannel strategy that uses a variety of methods like mail, phone, social media, paid digital ads, and sales efforts to get potential members.
- Once and done is not an effective marketing strategy. Membership recruitment requires ongoing and consistent outreach. Growing associations maintain digital ads throughout the year, consistently call members every month when they lapse, send out regular invitations to join, and build their prospect database with new content offers.
- Membership is a push product. It is sold, not sought. A prospect can likely join 24/7 on your website. So, an incentive is needed to get someone to join now. The fear is a special offer like a new member discount will lead to a less committed member. But test after test by many associations demonstrates that a strong offer both in the near-term and long-term benefits membership growth. For example, companies run sales promotions not because they like giving away money but because it grows the number of customers and their revenue.
- When carefully measured, even well-run recruitment efforts show dramatic variance between their best list, offer, and message. So, structuring statistically valid tests can determine what is working and what is not successful. Some test outcomes impact results – even with minor changes -- by well over 100 percent. Without a testing strategy, a recruitment program will substantially underperform.
- Only 29% of associations consider themselves Extremely or Very innovative. Innovation correlates with membership growth. Successful innovation often means updating your membership model. The most popular are tiered membership and a hybrid model.
- Membership Recruitment by Tony Rossell is available for sale on Amazon.