Trade Association and
Professional Society Growth through Member Recruitment and Member Retention
Today's trade associations and
professional societies are better able to retain and recruit members when the
association leadership can demonstrate the ROI. This is possible through the Member
Value Process for determining the yearly sustainable real-dollar value a
member can expect to receive from his or her financial and time investment.
Your
Surefire
Grassroots Membership Recruitment Campaign
-More
Members Means More Influence in Your State House
-More
Members Means More Business Improvement Programs
-More
Members Means More Value for Your Current Members
Step
1: Ed will conduct his proprietary Member Value Process for determining the yearly sustainable
real-dollar value of membership at your next mid-year meeting, chapter
meetings, or similar
gathering. This will become the cornerstone of the campaign.
Step
2: Ed will help you to develop your full-color membership recruitment
brochure from your Member
Value Process findings. The brochure will basically explain why it is
a good business decision to belong to your association. This information
both helps in member retention and in recruitment.
Step
3: Ed will deliver a keynote presentation, Growing Your Business
with Smart Alliances, at your annual meeting. The presentation starts
out explaining various collaborations. Then Ed moves into the idea of your
association being one of the best collaborations in the industry. He then
transitions to sharing the benefits and return on investment (ROI) your
members enjoy, enroll your members in seeing the value they already
receive and recruit your members to become evangelists for your
association. Ed will evoke a commitment from your members to go back to
their geographical locations (grass roots) and handout at least 10 brochures each, to
colleagues and suppliers. Ed's job it to help you turn your current
members into Membership
Evangelists
for the association. This is just the beginning...
Step
4: Your board of directors will divide up the membership and make member
calls after 30 days to inquire on their results. No pressures, just
friendly follow up and an offer to refill their brochure supply. Soft
follow up throughout the year is quite important.
Step
5: Paid staff and the board of directors will start to work on improving
member retention through better member engagement using technology to
increase capabilities. Many of these ideas will have come from the Member
Value Process session. The board and staff will be charges with
finding even more ways to deliver value to the members. At this point
having Ed Rigsbee travel to present findings at regional and chapter
meetings could prove useful if you have determined a member recruitment
target; percentage or actual number.
Step
6: You will need to plan for a larger convention the following year, enjoying the
participation of both new and younger members. You will also need to
decide how you will use the additional revenue from new members to better
serve your industry through education and influencing legislators.
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