Ready, Fire, Aim Membership Marketing

-Tony Rossell, MGI Senior Vice President

Inaction is the single largest enemy to association membership marketing success.

Over the years, I have been in more meetings than I care to count where statements like, “we cannot do that because,” “we need approval,” or “we need more research” has shut down the marketing process.

To many, it may sound like heresy, but very often the right course of action is to simply do something. I call this the Ready, Fire, Aim solution. By doing something, an associa...

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Actual Photo of the Iceberg that Sank the Titanic

The Hidden Obvious – Search and Discover it Before Adding another Layer of Complexity.

I said this in the last Tipster I wrote: I am nearing retirement after 41 years of professional marketing. It has been an invigorating, aggravating, and enervating run. I...

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There are many reasons members lapse, but so often the answer is some version of, “I didn’t see the value of membership, or I didn’t use my membership.”

The organization’s internal response to this reasoning is usually something along the lines of, “But we sent you twenty emails telling you the value of membership and outlining your benefits.”

If this sounds like you or someone you know, here are a few questions to ask yourself:

Are you articulating the value of membership benefits or just listing features?

For example, do you simply tell memb...

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Tip #1 – Engage!

If renewal time is the first time throughout the year you’re checking in with your members, you’ve just become the relative no one talks to because he only asks for money. Have an on-boarding and ongoing engagement plan in place, check in with your members at various points throughout the year, and increase your efforts with your at-risk member groups.

Members who engage even one additional time with an association throughout the course of the year are significantly more likely to renew.

Tip #2 – Personalize your rene...

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The client was dubious. “Our members don’t use mail. They’re used to electronic everything. We don’t think mail will work as part of our renewal series.”

They agreed to test the inclusion of mail alongside email and Facebook advertising for one segment of our campaign target audience. If it didn’t move the needle, we wouldn’t repeat it.

So what was the result? The cell that received mail in addition to digital reminders responded seven points higher than the groups that did not.

Was that group’s cost per renewal higher? Yes, but the ROI was still pos...

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