Leverage Chapters to Engage & Grow Membership
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Whether you believe it or not – chapters can play a key role in membership and revenue growth for your association. But how do you get there? How do you set your chapters up for success? How can you support them? We’ll cover how… - You can leverage chapters as a channel to reach new audiences. - You can tap into (and boost) chapters unique ability to provide community and optimize the member experience. - You can leverage chapter experiences to drive community influencers. We’ll dive into how you can lead, support and measure these initiatives. The results will be a stronger channel and your chapter network will be aligned to association membership goals. #LeverageChapters #GotChapters
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Leverage Chapters to Engage & Grow Membership
- 1. Leverage Chapters to Engage & Grow Membership
- 2. Got chapters? We’ve got solutions. Billhighway gives your chapters the tools to automate and simplify operations while creating data visibility across your entire organization. This empowers you and your chapters to focus more on member value and grow your association. About Hosts Billhighway & Mariner Mariner Management & Marketing is your partner in helping association volunteers and staff create the greatest possible value for your members and in ensuring the long term health and growth of your association.
- 3. Our Shared Purpose To build community and connect component-based organizations and component relations professionals (CRPs).
- 4. October 18th Friday, October 18th, 2019 7:30 AM - 5:15 PM EDT Happy Hour to Follow Grand Hyatt Washington 1000 H St. NW Washington, DC 20001 $249 Pricing $25 off with discount code “Webinar” www.leveragechapters.com
- 5. $ $ $ Do you have an all-star chapter initiative or success story that you'd like to share with your fellow CRPs? Tell us about it at CEX! Share Your Chapter Brag Submit your story here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/chaptertrailblazers
- 7. Reach New Audiences: Components offer access to non-members, local-only members & members By Leveraging Chapters in Membership Efforts You Can… Capture Local Stories: Opportunity to highlight the local angle and local impact of national topics Provide Community: Expand your ability to connect members together And Ultimately Grow!
- 8. Recruitment/Sales: How are you using your chapters as a channel to recruit members? Engagement (aka Retention): How can you use your chapters as effective drivers of local engagement? Renewal: How are your chapters assisting in the dues billing cycle? Today’s agenda … 01 02 03
- 9. Poll Which of these are important strategic roles for chapters in your organization? a) Member Recruitment b) Member Engagement c) Member Renewal
- 11. Poll Do you track membership statistics by chapter for any of the following? a) Member Recruitment b) Member Engagement c) Member Renewal
- 12. 71% 64% 55% Use of more meaningful assessment metrics increased since 2016 study Recruitment 24% Participation 29% Retention 30%
- 14. Chat Question What’s your biggest recruitment & sales challenge?
- 15. Cash & prize incentives for top recruiting members – National Engaging members in call-a-thon – Chapter All expenses paid trip to trade show –Chapter #1 NAHB Incentives
- 16. PRSA National Membership Drive #2 PRSA National Campaign – Local Value Chapter Membership Bonus
- 17. Goal: reach young people Piloted with 2 chapters #3 AOA Campaign Pilot Test drove all aspects of campaign Conversion rate 11%, +3%
- 18. 5 years ago chapter membership dropped Offered member rate & future member rate #4 APWA Chapter Campaign Started with their conference Brought in 50 new members Invited them to education sessions, etc.
- 19. American Nurses Association – chapter opt-in Association for Talent Development Power Membership #5 Package National- Chapter Membership American Library Association – chapter opt-in GBTA All Access Membership
- 20. HowtoHackIt Set Yourself Up For Success Reimagine resources for your chapters (try new formats) Train them how to use it (include who, what, where & when) Help create audience specific copy (give them tools)
- 21. Tip: Provide tools and how-tos
- 22. Tip: Explain what, how and where
- 23. Tip: Try a different format
- 24. Tip: Create marketing copy for chapters
- 25. Tip: Share tools they can use
- 27. Poll How would you rate your chapters as engagement channels? a) Strong b) Fair c) Poor d) Don’t know – don’t track
- 28. Chat Question What’s your biggest engagement challenge?
- 29. Direct correlation between training & member retention Help chapters understand local educational needs Support education programming #1 NATP Chapter Training for Members
- 30. Kansas City NARI chapter hosts new member mingles #2 NARI New Member Mingle New members network in small group setting Each attendee receives discount coupons for Educational programming, Events & Membership Renewal
- 31. Small networking events hosted by members #3 PRSA Maryland Coffee Withs Free to members Drew largely unengaged members
- 32. NY Society developed a research challenge for college students; Global scaled it #4 Student Challenge Engage members at early, critical age Bonus: Creates ad-hoc volunteer opportunities Bonus: Prepping students with real-world learning
- 33. #5 ASLA Chapters Instagram Takeover ASLA’s goal: celebrate member’s work & profession Power move: Tap chapters for local stories; engage members 49 chapters each took over ASLA’s Instagram feed for a day Win-Win: boosted national-chapter relationship, boosted chapter-member engagement, grew Instagram followers 10%
- 34. HowtoHackIt Set Yourself Up For Success Don’t go all in! Pilot programs with certain chapters first – fix the bugs, then roll it out nationally Give your chapter leaders new engagement ideas or crowd source them from more innovative chapters Look at your own member engagement strategy – where do your chapters fit in?
- 35. Tip: Build chapters into your welcome campaign Built in an email from the chapter president Added quick links including one to state page Tied to a New Member Welcome tool-kit
- 36. Renewal Strategy
- 37. Poll How do you involve chapters in renewal? A. Send a list of expiring or expired members B. Include chapters in the renewal messaging C. Chapters handle renewal invoicing/messaging D. Don’t really
- 38. Chat Question What’s your biggest renewal challenge?
- 39. Personalized Email Phone call #1 Pre-renewal: Confirming value Postcard
- 40. Add chapter to messaging Add signature #2 During renewal cycle: Invoice Messaging Ask chapters to send targeted emails, postcards, calls
- 41. Matched BOD with members on expired list #3 MRN Outreach Calls Friendly check-in call Netted intel on members (clean up data); BOD useful feedback; soft reminder
- 42. HowtoHackIt Set Yourself Up For Success Look at your retention cycle, where do your chapters fit in? Don’t have chapters make expired phone calls—they aren’t your best bill collectors! Make sure to use your chapters as one of your touchpoints/reminders
- 43. What’s Your 1?
- 44. October 18th Friday, October 18th, 2019 7:30 AM - 5:15 PM EDT Happy Hour to Follow Grand Hyatt Washington 1000 H St. NW Washington, DC 20001 $249 Pricing www.leveragechapters.com $25 off with discount code “Webinar”
- 45. Thank You!
Editor's Notes
- Chapters can play a key role in membership and revenue growth for your association. But how do you get there? How do you set your chapters up for success? How can you support them? We’ll cover how… You can leverage chapters as a channel to reach new audiences. You can tap into (and boost) chapters unique ability to provide community and optimize the member experience. So your chapter network will be aligned to association membership goals.
- Share our purpose in putting events like these on between BH & Mariner Give them our WHY
- www.leveragechapters.com Have a story to share?
- Do you have an all-star chapter initiative or success story that you'd like to share with your fellow CRPs? At this year's CEX, we want to highlight your best chapter programs or big wins for your department. Did you try something unique and it made a difference? We've built-in two options for CRPs to share a success you’d love to brag about: short 3-5 minute slots to tell the story and a brag wall where you can post your story. If you're interested in telling your story, please fill out the information below! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/chaptertrailblazers
- It’s ready and will be unveiled at CEX! Join us to get your copy. @Peggy, do you want this at the beginning or the end?
- Why are we here today? To talk about how chapters are integral to your membership strategy Remove Silos – Think of all the non-members (and members) your message may not be reaching in each metro area or chapter location? It’s like starting a movement (reference the dancing video from TED Talk). It also breaks down silos in your own association because the more collaborative they can be and realize how chapters may be able to help them accomplish their goals. Local Storytelling – People love seeing people they know, or stories they can relate to. Going local is a great way to do that. Think of all the stories out there and how much chapters may be able to broaden the reach.
- Today we’re going to break down membership growth into 3 components: Recruitment Engagement aka retention Renewals Note, we see engagement and retention separately from the dues billing cycle so we’ll look at them separately
- 2019 Benchmarking survey, Everyone listed Member Engagement as important—64% said it’s “absolutely essential” and 25% said it’s “very important.” No one described it as less than “important.” Member recruitment ranked nearly as strong – 47% absolutely essential, 24% very important and 18% important. The other strategic role topping the list was Leadership Development
- 2019 Study, associations are using more meaningful assessment metrics: Retention 71% up 30% Recruitment 64% up 24% Participation 55% up 29%
- NAHB Incentive Example https://associationsnow.com/2018/10/membership-hack-recruitment-competition-chapters/ Great for super competitive members or industry. Need to understand what they value (it might be more than just money!) Key Takeaways for Incentive Programs Incentives can be effective, when leveraged appropriately Understand what motivates chapter leaders and members Word of mouth is powerful, provide ideas on how to leverage Things to watch out for: Packaging conference registration with membership = low retention Can drive non-qualified members to register who then drop Membership drive – make sure there are scalable processes for onboarding in place to minimize poor experiences.
- If you join, you get your chapter members & initiation fee waived – People love to tell their peers
- American Optometric Association, a piloted approach with chapters pointed the way to a successful national member recruitment campaign to reach more young people. The test-drive let AOA monitor the response to all aspects of the campaign, from its call to action to its creative touches, before rolling it out nationally last year. The “United in Possibilities” campaign, which won a 2019 ASAE Gold Circle Award in the membership recruitment campaign category, launched first in AOA’s Georgia and Minnesota chapters. The pilot yielded a conversion rate of 11 percent, exceeding the 8 percent goal set early in the project. https://associationsnow.com/2019/07/test-drive-next-member-recruitment-campaign/
- "It Worked For Us" – Alberta Chapter: New Member Recruitment Patty Podoborozny tells us about the Alberta Chapter's New Member Recruitment. 5 years ago chapter membership dropped What are the local benefits of membership besides the obvious national benefits? Started talking about incentives they could offer Offered member rate & a future member rate Started with their conference and this got them about 50 new members Engage members throughout the year (invite them to education sessions, reach out to them) Retention rate of new members is about 20%, then the next conference they bring in about 50 more Every year they build on that base and work to expand their support https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPoY4ZrtHJw&list=PLbTAQf0hXtkoyPWYNE0hyrP8Jh1EgV5hQ&index=8&t=0s
- American Nurses Association - While NJSNA has been working in partnership with ANA for years, it’s now one of 25 state-based nursing associations participating in a dual membership. GBTA – All Access membership Global Business Travel Association, where joint membership makes it possible to communicate directly and efficiently with their 9,000 members, based in 39 chapters spread across the world American Library Association https://www.ala.org/ala/ourassociation/chapters/jointmembership/jointmembership.htm National Science Teaching Association https://www.nsta.org/membership/joint.aspx Association for Talent Development https://www.td.org/chapters/clc/powermembership Power Membership
- How do you set yourself up for success? Here’s the 3 things you need to think about: Create a resource for your chapters Train them how to use it Help them create targeted copy for young professionals…give them specific tools (canva, etc.)
- CREATE A RESOURCE: Power Member Marketing Resources: https://www.td.org/chapters/clc/powermembership Customizable Power Membership Brochure (Use this to promote your chapter and ATD! Tailor the brochure to add information relevant to your chapter, upcoming event details, and membership details. Include your chapter logo where instructed, add your chapter’s contact information, and include photos of your chapter members!) Customizable Power Membership Handout (Use this to promote your chapter and ATD by either printing out or posting to your chapter's website. Tailor the handout to add information relevant to your chapter. Include your chapter logo where instructed.) Customizable Power Membership Email (Use this to promote your chapter and ATD and help complete one of the foundational joint membership activities, "Send quarterly email to prospective members promoting Power Membership." Tailor the email to add information relevant to your chapter.) Power Member Ads: one-third page or one-half page Power Member Chapter Presentation Power Membership Webpage for Wild Apricot: (Use the HTML code to create the webpage and the job aid to help you facilitate the implementation process. Include your chapter ChIP code where instructed!)
- CREATE A RESOURCE: Membership marketing collateral: The Association for Corporate Growth provides membership marketing videos, PowerPoints, brochures, and branding guidelines to their chapters. Provides membership marketing videos, PowerPoints, brochures, and branding guidelines to their chapters. Explain what the resource is Explain how to use it Give examples of where to use it
- TRAIN HOW TO USE: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbTAQf0hXtkoyPWYNE0hyrP8Jh1EgV5hQ Sometimes people don’t read that perfectly crafted email you created…so you’ve got to find other ways to get the info out. The American Public Works Association has a chapter leader YouTube channel with videos about: chapter leader resources Membership 101 chapter success stories https://www.billhighway.co/wanted-by-chapters-everywhere-member-recruitment-training/ Tips Send a short video on the same day each week – “Tip Tuesday” Make it personal – show someone’s face to make a connection Highlight stories from other chapters Chapter leaders could make short videos to send vs. standard emails
- HELP CREATE MARKETING PIECES: YOU PROVIDE https://www.rmahq.org/newchapterresources/ Sample marketing copy for the chapter’s membership page: For their chapters, the Risk Management Association has a list of benefits targeted at different market segments.
- HELP CREATE MARKETING PIECES: YOU HELP WITH TOOLS Canva
- What would you expect of your chapter leaders when a new member joins their chapter? What do you expect of your chapters once a member has been through the welcoming/onboarding process?
- NATP did analysis & found out # of events produced by chapters direct correlation to retention in the area served by chapters regardless of the presence of # national events in that space. Corollary the # of national events in the chapter space didn’t have the direct correlation to retention Key is you have to help chapters figure out what education needs are in their area How do we partner with our chapters for educational programming? RAPS …. CoreNet Global had more events through their chapters than national
- @Peggy Options for New Member Orientation Monthly new member mingles Example: The Kansas City chapter of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI) hosts monthly New Member Mingles, an opportunity for new members to network in a small group setting. Each attendee receives coupons to use in their first year of membership for discounts on educational programming, events, and membership renewal. Resources: https://www.billhighway.co/give-new-members-the-personal-touch-during-chapter-onboarding/
- @Peggy PRSA Maryland Coffee Withs Started as a way to engage members “closer to home” and to deepen engagement with various agencies Largely drew unengaged Free to members and eventually added small fee for non-members – worked to our advantage Borrowed idea from the GA chapter and made it our own Got rave reviews. One nonmember said it drew him to a paid event and then to membership and then to speaking
- @Charlotte Example: CFA Institute Research Challenge – Recruiting Younger Members Aimed at the university community, the research challenge, where student teams would pretend to be an investment management team for 2 semesters where they would research a publically traded company and make recommendations on whether to buy, sell or hold that stock like they would in the real world. Great experience for them. Started in the NY society about 10-13 years ago. Global came in and asked if they could use that idea, now several 100 schools around the world participate in it and they complete in a Global competition (a winning team from each region participates) Challenge ROI Membership - Engage members at an early, critical age. One specific society wouldn’t be surprised if 50% of their charter members participated in the challenge. Chapter Engagement - Each society manages/hosts their own challenge, winners advance to Regional competition, then Global competition. Volunteer Opportunities - Research challenge creates opportunities to evaluate, mentor, be a judge – at local and regional levels. Education & Career Prep - The challenge is exposing students and potential members to real-world examples Key Takeaways You don’t have to have all the ideas - Recognize that the creativity and ideas can come from the local. You can communicate & scale. Be Intentional - Success will be more likely if you make an intentional decision to include chapters and leverage them in channels that they excel in. Look for win-wins - If an initiative or campaign can accomplish multiple goals such as connecting with members (or prospective members) in a meaningful way while creating volunteer opportunities, you’re going to find win-wins.
- We explored this idea in an earlier webinar [insert link] Briefly, ASLA had a base on IG – wanted to explore how they could take it further. Offered that a chapter could take over their Instagram feed for one day – since they have more chapters than days in a month…they extended a bit Gave an option based on comfort level – given log in to actually take it over, or ASLA would post for them if they provided the posts Had members showcased Created a local value statement and enabled chapters to have conversations with their members “hey, you’re doing this really awesome thing, we’d love to showcase it’ – now you’re getting tons and tons of stories show that they truly were a global organization with members all over the place doing different things in the realm of landscape architecture Membership - Chapters enjoyed showcasing members on the national level Chapter Engagement - Allowed ASLA to engage chapters who weren’t as involved with national or on social media Increase Followers - Grew ASLA’s Instagram followers 10% Target Market - Aimed at (and hit) target market for younger professionals & college students New Ideas & Content - Gave fresh photos and content for the national Instagram campaign Social Media - Gave chapters a hands-on social media lesson Support Given to Chapters Provided chapters with a webinar & toolkit The toolkit included a card “This is Landscape Architecture” to hold in front of your favorite design Allowed chapters two options to participate: Chapters are given login to national Instagram account to post images National will schedule posts through Hootsuite on behalf of the chapter National’s PR & Communications Coordinator shared his cellphone to volunteers for help outside office hours
- The question you have to ask yourself is: How are we helping the chapters engage members? Look at your own member engagement strategy. Map out your journey of a member and then place chapters in the mix… What would you expect of your chapter leaders when a new member joins their chapter? What do you expect of your chapters once a member has been through the welcoming/onboarding process? Pilot Programs - Sometimes you might only have 3 chapters that want to get onboard, that’s fine – work with those 3. Empower Chapter Ideas - Empower your chapters to take an idea and run with it on their own.
- What does a chapter need to be successful in welcoming new members? https://www.billhighway.co/new-member-onboarding-its-not-just-show-tell/ Ex: AADE redesigned their New Member Welcome and inserted an email from the CB chair and added a set of quick links which included a link to the state page. Borrowed from AARP. Tied to a New Member Onboarding program shared with chapter leaders Resources & technical support (you may not have an organization of marketers or tech-savvy individuals) Website audit – are chapter websites in a spot to welcome new members? Automated email campaign or resources that simplify the communication process for chapters to greet new members Understand new members Feedback about what members value Feedback about why they joined Feedback about their professional challenges More detailed information about each member Increase in identified volunteers Cleaner database
- What do you expect of your chapters when a member’s renewal timeframe is coming up? How do chapters fit into expiration notices? Let’s talk about 3 ways to embed chapters in the process – that DON”T include making expired calls. Worst use of chapters is as bill collectors
- Confirming the value before the renewal begins through phone call, personalized email or postcard mailer. This works when the action happens before the invoice
- In the renewal process, include chapters in the messaging or use chapter signature Ask chapters to call as the invoices go out. Ex: ILIA DC chapter used to be phone-athon
- MRN Outreach calls to expired members Created a list of whose membership expired Reviewed list with BOD – opt-in based on personal knowledge or willingness Made calls – script Hey just calling to find out how things are going … make sure we’re connecting in the right way 3 outcomes: left biz/job; hmmm slipped my mind, send; not seeing value/not interested
- Look at your retention cycle, where do your chapters fit in? Don’t have chapters make expired phone calls—they aren’t your best bill collectors! Make sure to use your chapters as one of your touchpoints/reminders
- What will you try?
- Just another quick reminder Don’t forget to submit your chapter brag: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/chaptertrailblazers
- @Peggy