Membership Space Blog: Insights for Effective Management

The effort that goes into club websites may feel like it’s wasted at times and if you feel this way, you’re not alone.  Many associations struggle in their efforts to craft an effective membership recruitment strategy.  Certain strategies take hours to debate and days to execute.  Yet, the results they deliver in terms of growth are often so miniscule that some people are tempted to give up.

Of course, while all associations go through such slumps, many of them eventually reverse their fortunes at some point by perfecting their membership acquisition strategies.  Two tactics, in particular, produce the best results which are email campaigns and recommendations.

 

The easiest way to grow the number of members in an association is to encourage current members to recommend it to other people.  Most people don’t believe the boasts that associations make about their own offerings but they trust the reviews of others.

It’s also good to encourage members to reach out and make sure you offer them rewards for bringing new people on board.  If that doesn’t work, add online communities to your club websites so potential members are able to participate in discussions.  Obviously, you should limit their access and assign special privileges to members as it will peak the interest of non-members.

 

This tactic is even easier to implement because it doesn’t rely on the participation of your members.  It isn’t enough to send out a general email, you need to find what a potential member likes and gather some data.  Once you know what they like, craft email campaigns that target their specific interests.
New members are more likely to be attracted to your membership if they believe you have something to offer that benefits them.  Don’t rely on just one tactic to produce results.  Instead, combine them with your existing strategy and use them individually or together based on the interests of your target audience.