Let’s go over a few growth tactics that can help your association take its membership numbers and further increase them. We’ll show you a few new ways to promote future growth and success for your organization.
One of the most important questions any association asks themselves is, ”How can I grow my membership?” You may wonder if you’re doing all you can for your association, or if your current tactics are promoting success to the best of their abilities. And similarly enough, many other individuals in association leadership positions are asking the same questions.
Growing your association is a never-ending project, so what strategies will guide your plan for building your membership to all new heights? To even begin to implement plans to grow your association and your membership numbers, you have to first make an effort to understand the motivations of potential members.
Let’s go over a few growth tactics that can help your association take its membership numbers and further increase them. We’ll show you a few new ways to promote future growth and success for your organization.
Instead of relying on membership promotions, provide content that helps you advance relationships with membership prospects. Get to know that other person through the content you generate, and growth will be inevitable. Identify and research each individual segment of your target membership market.For example, executives, professionals in transition, early career, mid-career, and so on are all great places to start your analysis. What do they need to know to advance their career? What do they need to know to improve? What challenges do they encounter?
If you provide valuable content for prospects, they’ll keep coming back for more information. They’ll begin to think of you as a reliable source and a loyal partner who is helping them reach their goals. By adding inbound marketing to your recruitment strategy, your content takes on a new role as lead magnets.
Lead magnets are pieces of content that a prospect finds so valuable that they’re willing to provide their email address in exchange for downloading it. These prospects let you into their inbox because you’ve proven your value as a source of consistent and dependable information. With lead magnets, your content becomes the promoter for website visitors to become prospects/leads and then eventually new members.
Becoming a member of your association should never feel cryptic and confusing. Make sure the joining process is quick, intuitive, and simple. When a prospect is ready to join, no barriers should stand in their way to make the process difficult.
Go to your website or blog and see if you can immediately find the value you provide to members. Check to see if it’s obvious what impact membership will make on their life, and see if it’s easy to figure out how to join. Making joining as painless as possible will make growing your association a lot more effective. Lengthy forms are unwanted by prospects; don’t make it so potential members second guess their decision to join. Ask only for what’s absolutely necessary in your online membership application; but also don’t be afraid to ask for more data later on.
Most times, an alluring incentive breaks down the last barrier to joining and growing your association. Pick an incentive that will deepen their membership experience. Offer new members a special discount toward a future event, online learning, or webinar registration. With an incentive they can take advantage of, your association is sure to attract the attention of your members.
Then, be sure to promote your incentives on your homepage, your blog sidebar, in email campaigns, and on social media. Anywhere that allows you to let members know about new incentives is a good place to place promotional materials. Make the incentives you offer bring to mind a sense of urgency. For example, if a member joins before a certain date they get an exclusive invitation to an in-person or virtual educational event.
Social media provides another channel for attracting growth and interest. Find out what platforms your association’s prospects and members use, and you’re on your way to growth.
To start, your association should develop a social media strategy that’s aligned with your organization’s membership and marketing strategies, as well as with the needs of interests of your prospects and members. Use social media to demonstrate your value as an association membership resource and help followers manage information overload by being an information overseer for them.
In addition to sharing your own content, select interesting and informative content from other sources to share that could help lead prospects to your social media platform first. Let followers know about the membership experiences you provide such as events, online learning, publications, and other resources. Provide a preview of membership value such as online community discussions. Consider using Facebook ads for highly targeted promotional campaigns but most importantly, differentiate yourself from other organizations and brands by being personable, conversational, and responsive.
You can never stop learning about your prospects and members. In fact, the more you know about their needs, interests, and habits, the better decisions you’ll make about the content, products, and services to help grow your association.
Take full advantage of your membership software to collect and analyze data on the interests and engagement of prospects, new members, and existing members. When you integrate your association membership recruitment with marketing automation or email marketing software, you can also learn more about your prospects and members preferences and habits.
When it comes time to onboard a new member, ask them questions about their reasons for joining as well as their needs, aspirations, and challenges. This can help your association grow and retain membership. Launch an automated series of onboarding emails that introduce them to the resources, upcoming events, and educational opportunities that could potentially fit their interests and needs. Or, better yet, create a survey to send out to your email list with any questions you may need answered. Targeted content will help you deepen your relationship with prospects and tie them closer by encouraging them to take advantage of association benefits which will help with your growth.
Every association’s journey is different, but if you implement these suggestions over time, you’re bound to not only see a rise in members, but a rise in long-term members as well which will ultimately keep your association growing.
