In our just released 2023 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report, many respondents shared that one of the reasons for success this year in growing their membership is an increased budget. About one-third of associations report increases in the marketing budget earmarked for recruitment (36%) and awareness and engagement (32% each). And these higher budgets correlated with overall membership increases.
But how did membership staffs make the case for more money? We asked respondents how they successfully advocated for additional membership marketing funding. Here are some open-ended responses from our benchmarking research to this question:
“With data showing the effectiveness of previous marketing promotions and. . . the changes/decreases that happen when the budget was cut.”
“By suggesting, using, and measuring the results of Facebook and Google targeted advertising. Then pointing out that the cost was easy to control so it would not cause a sudden, large need for cash.”
“Market research, articles about membership, and articles about marketing have been compiled in reports that are presented to the CEO. These have all been convincing in their own way and resulted in higher marketing efforts.”
“Demonstrating that all electronic marketing isn’t as effective as a combination of electronic and direct mail.”
“By constantly showing our board and executive team what we do to market membership and the results that we get. I remind them that if we weren’t doing these things, our membership numbers would be even lower.”
For more information on what practices correlate with gains in membership, take a look at the full report.