September 12, 2023   |   Vol. 22   |   Issue 9
By Kelsey McKinney, MGI Account Director

Start Your Preparations for 2024 Membership Growth

As summer comes to a close, it’s time to start thinking about how to set up your organization for growth in 2024! If you’re ready to begin your acquisition planning for next year, here are a few tips to keep in mind.

1. Set your goals–and keep them front and center. As you start thinking about what acquisition efforts you’d like to implement, take some time to set clear, realistic goals. Are you looking for X number of new members next year? A percentage growth increase for new members? Whatever goal you set, communicate that goal to everyone in your organization and make it realistic. As you decide on new campaigns or tactics, make sure that each new project directly supports that growth goal in a meaningful way.
2. Find your audience, wherever they may be. Don’t fall into the trap of only reaching out via one medium, when we can now reach people everywhere! Coordinated multi-channel campaigns can help you reach your audience, not just in their inbox but their mailbox, their phone, their computer, and even their television. Position your marketing where it is more likely to be seen in multiple places, to keep your organization top-of-mind for prospective new members.
3. Understand your audience, and tailor communications strategically. Are you marketing to internal lists? These groups have some familiarity with your organization and most likely have interacted with you in the past, whether it was to attend a conference, download a resource, or participate in a webinar. Because these folks know who you are, you may find success with an online direct join campaign. However, if you are marketing to brand new audiences, you might need to take a step back and put a multi-channel cultivation program in place to help this group learn more about your organization’s mission and why they should join.
4. Make it easy to join! If you’ve followed steps 1-3, you’ve already spent your time, energy, and resources putting together an exciting new acquisition campaign. So, don’t lose anyone now! Before you launch your campaign, it’s important to audit your join process to see what your potential new members will experience. Are there any roadblocks to joining? Is the process straightforward or unnecessarily complicated? What pieces of data are you collecting, and are they really critical to capture, or are you making your join form needlessly long? Eliminate anything confusing or time consuming that may make a potential new member abandon the process before they’ve completed it. Once they are ready to join, you want to be ready to welcome them as a new member.

Want to learn more about acquisition campaign planning? Reach out to Jana Darling by email at jdarling@marketinggeneral.com or phone at 703-706-0349 to schedule a meeting today.