SECTION 9 The Demographics of Your Associatio
9
SECTION 10 Words of Wisdom
WORDS OF WISDOM
y Listen to your members to understand their needs. Testing is cheap and easy—use it especially to get leadership buy-in when taking a risk. A marketing campaign doesn’t need to be perfect—sometimes it’s just the ask that counts. (IMO) y Maintain your value proposition at the heart of everything that you do (Trade) y Most members need multiple renewal reminders! (Combination) y Never stop following up (until they tell you to stop)! (IMO) y On-time (regular) delivery of renewal and reinstatement efforts, and consistent commitment to new member acquisitions. (Combination) y People mostly do not join because no one has explained the benefits and asked them to join. (Combination) y Person-to-person, peer-to-peer asking is still the most powerful. All the electronic methods reinforce these tactics, but rarely produce great results on their own. A good database is a gold mine. (Trade) y Phone calls still work. (IMO) y Starting with the big picture is important. If you just send one-off emails, you aren’t going to get anywhere. Each email should be part of a campaign that takes the prospects on a journey to learn about the association and the ROI one step at a time. (Trade) y Test, target, and try it again. (IMO) y That just because something was tried in the past and failed, doesn’t mean it isn’t worth trying again. Circumstances change, so don’t ever discount an idea for that reason. (IMO) y That relying on anecdotal data and ad hoc recruitment activities does not achieve membership growth. (IMO) y The data we collect from our members has tremendous value and tells us exactly what we are doing good and what we need to improve. We should invest in collecting this data and analyze it. (Combination) y Things are changing fast and you have to be able to adapt to ensure you are communicating the value of membership in a way that continues to resonate and be relevant. (Trade)
y Understand your audience. Strategies and tactics that may work for one member/customer at one organization may not be effective in another, so be willing to test (a lot), measure as much as you can, and take risks. Fight for membership/marketing budgets by explaining the ROI and LTV. (IMO) y VALUE, VALUE, VALUE!! If you have it, people will want it. Value has to be real and tangible in a way that people can’t compete without it. Slick marketing campaigns and playing with the membership model will never work for associations with perceived or little value past advocacy and meetings. (Trade) y We can no longer have a “build it and they will come” attitude about membership recruitment. We overhauled our membership recruitment efforts to meet the prospective member on the channels of their choice. (IMO) y We have a quite high acquisition rate, our main problem is retention. Many new members join for the member discount to the conference, they may not renew again until the conference is once again in their state. We need to develop more effective strategies for retention and engage with members in many different ways other than just the conference. (Combination) y We keep hearing “I didn’t know you did that” regardless of how strongly we believe we do a good job of marketing our associations key benefits. (Combination) y What worked last year may not be the same thing that works this year. You always have to be looking for new ways to reach and engage members. (Trade) y Word of mouth is the most important tool when marketing to potential members. (Trade) y You have to know who you are, what you are offering, and why it matters to your audience(s) BEFORE you begin marketing. A tactic is only as good as the overall plan. (Combination) y You have to market continually. You never know when a message will finally trigger a renewal or acquisition from an organization that previously seemed uninterested. (Trade) y You must have a multi-year strategic plan and actively pursue it. (Combination)
800.644.6646 | 703.739.1000 | WWW. MARKETINGGENERAL .COM
79
Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator