Every day as marketing professionals working for associations, we constantly have on our minds the thought of “I need to increase membership.” [Insert ghost voice]. All jokes aside, this is always a number one concern for marketers because our associations are built on our members. We want to do more events; we want to be able to provide more for our members, then we need to increase membership numbers. Here are four marketing tips that will help you increase membership numbers.
Buy One Get One
Well, not necessarily. The idea is to create some sort of referral program where members who have been with the organization can save on dues if they were to recruit potential members. This not only gives members a reason to promote the association, it is also a self-motivated reason to save money. I mean, who doesn’t love to save money.
Our Members Are Over There
This might be my public relations background kicking in but going out as an association to community events can be very beneficial to increasing brand awareness and recruiting members. If your association allows students to become part a member, are you actively going to college events and recruiting? Sometimes, you need to meet the people where they are.
Update That Email List
Marketing professionals send out tons of information via email all the time. Who are these messages going out to? Every quarter it helps to revise your email lists to see if you are reaching the targeted demographic that you want. If you get yourself in a rhythm of doing this, you will constantly have updated email lists.
Here’s Your Welcome Package
When people order from a subscription service for the first time, they get a handwritten welcome letter, some merchandise, and even cool pins that they can show off to their friends and peers. Why can’t associations do the same? We may not have the budget to send merchandise to every single person, but you can create social media graphics that you can include in a new members’ welcome email. That way, they can share that on social media and feel special. By doing so, they are also promoting the association to potential new members.
There is no full-proof plan for what will always work, but I can guarantee that if you try one of these four tips, you will more than likely see some positive responses.