Does your association host engaging events, provide valuable content, and offer an accessible member experience but still struggle when it comes to recruiting new members? If this is the case, your organization needs to revamp its membership marketing strategy.
When it comes to marketing your membership program, your association needs to know who your prospective members are, what they want, and how to reach them.
To help your association boost its recruitment numbers, this guide will explore seven ways to connect with and acquire new members.
Your value proposition is essentially your association’s sales pitch. By solidifying it, you can set yourself up to create consistent and powerful marketing materials.
Tradewing’s guide to member acquisition explains that an association’s value proposition consists of three main elements:
The main elements of a value proposition.
When you have a solid value proposition, you can clearly explain why your association’s offerings are valuable and start targeting a receptive audience.
The more you understand your audience, the better you’ll be able to market your membership program to them. To learn who your audience is, try the following:
During this process, you might discover you have multiple audiences or that there are new audiences you can target. Consider those different audiences’ goals and how you can adjust your value proposition to appeal to them.
Marketing is essentially about three things: knowing your audience, creating marketing materials that resonate with that audience, and publishing those materials in places your audience is likely to see.
To reach your target audience, consider what communication channels they likely use. This might be social media sites, like LinkedIn and Facebook, or non-digital methods, like visibility at industry events or recommendations from co-workers.
Then, craft marketing materials that will gain traction on these channels. For social media, this might be interactive content, such as a poll or open discussion question, to boost engagement.
Word-of-mouth marketing is one of the most effective marketing channels. However, it’s also the most difficult to control since it requires others to voluntarily speak positively about your organization.
You can earn positive word-of-mouth by creating a great member engagement experience. If you provide members with valuable benefits, then they are more likely to recommend others join your association.
Motivate members and jumpstart word-of-mouth marketing by implementing a referral program. Reward members who actively help your membership marketing efforts with tangible benefits, like reduced membership fees or discounts on upcoming event tickets.
Lower the barrier to entry with an “open-door” model. This approach involves creating a free membership tier where members can get a sample of your offerings without committing to a paid membership.
The key to an open-door membership model is strategically offering benefits that intrigue free members into upgrading. For example, you might make your member directory available to free members but lock messaging tools and full profiles behind a paid membership. This shows them that your paid membership plan is worth the investment.
Events are a prime opportunity to engage with potential members face-to-face. When it comes to events hosted by your association, consider planning gatherings that are open to the general public to connect with prospective members and show off your association’s offerings.
Additionally, attend industry conferences to increase visibility in your sector. For instance, you might pay to set up a booth for your association or have your team’s industry experts host workshops or act as guest speakers. This gives you an opportunity to demonstrate your expertise and engage with professionals in your sector who may be unfamiliar with your association.
Of course, when hosting and promoting events, don’t neglect your own members. Ensure your current member base is aware of upcoming opportunities through social media and email marketing. By having your members attend in large numbers, you can introduce prospective members to your community, giving them one more reason to join your membership program.
Expand your digital membership marketing efforts with search engine optimization (SEO). Following SEO best practices can help your publicly available content rank highly on search engine results pages, increasing your website’s visibility.
Nexus Marketing’s guide to SEO for associations offers a few tips for launching an SEO strategy:
Ultimately, SEO best practices improve your visibility and your members’ online experience as a whole by making your site accessible and filled with valuable content. Determine what written content to make publicly available for SEO purposes and what to keep locked behind a membership to incentivize sign-ups.
Membership marketing trends evolve over time, but ultimately, the key to promoting your offerings is understanding your audience and knowing where to meet them. Re-energize your marketing strategy by taking inventory of your audience, experimenting with marketing channels, and increasing your association’s visibility.