Tips for Membership Marketing Chantal Rotondo

2 –Current Marketing Environment –Key learnings from 2013 MGI Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report –Understanding the investment in new members – best practices –7 Tips to Boost Membership –Simple Membership Marketing Tips Agenda

3 Marketing Stats  A customer has an average of 3.8 touchpoints with a brand before taking an action.  50% of qualified leads are not ready to purchase immediately.  The average sales cycle has increased 22% over the past 5 years due to more decision makers being involved in the buying process.  90% of consumer buying decisions start on the web  Linkedin is 277% more effective for lead generation than facebook and twitter  35% of recipients open based on the subject line alone  23% of s originally opened on a mobile device were later opened a second time.

4 Marketing Stats  50% of companies have a content marketing strategy  81 billion minutes spent on social networks and blogs in 2011  Companies that blog effectively generate 55% more traffic and 70% more leads than those who don’t  70% additional leads generated by B2B companies that blog 1 to 2 times per month over those that don’t blog at all  188 million U.S. Internet users watched 37.7 billion online content videos in August 2012 alone  Video testimonials on youtube can generate up to 3x more conversions than organic visitors

5 Top Reasons for Joining an Association –Networking (24%) –Access to specialized/current information (13%) –Advocacy (8%) Top Reasons for Not Renewing: –Budget cuts/economic hardship of the company (18%) –Lack of engagement with the organization (15%) –Unable to justify membership costs with any significant ROI(11%) 2013 MGI Benchmarking Study

6 Acquisition Source

MGI Benchmarking Study Onboarding Trends –The welcome has gone up from 72 to 79% –Associations with 80%+ renewal rates are significantly more inclined to use a staff welcome call –Growing associations are significantly more inclined to also use new member webinars and in–person new member receptions –What else are you doing?

MGI Benchmarking Study First Year Renewals –The mean renewal rate for first year members is 68% –More than half of associations reporting <60% retention of first year members report overall decline in membership in the last 5 years –What do your chapters do differently for first year members?

MGI Benchmarking Study –Associations are increasing the number of renewal contacts –Associations with 80%+ renewals are more likely to indicate that they don’t stop contacting members after expiration, as opposed to the 36% that end renewal efforts after 2 to 3 months.

MGI Benchmarking Study Marketing Channels Used in Renewal Efforts

MGI Benchmarking Study Non-Renewal Reasons

12 Investing in New Members In most instances it costs more to get a new member than you get back in revenue the 1 st year  The basic math: – Each year I get $55 per member on average between dues and events revenue – Members renew overall at 75%, which means on average they stay for 4 years. $55 x 4 years = $220 of revenue from an average member. – Does spending $80 to get new members today make sense?

13 Recruiting people through multiple channels An example of daily life 8 pieces of mail96 s10 phone calls

14 Recruitment is an ongoing process Keep the trains running on time…and have a basic plan Find ways to collect prospective member names and e- mails Ask non-member attendees to join with a follow-up e- mail after each event Quarterly send a letter to prospects asking them to join Twice a year call each lapsed member and event attendee asking them to join

15 SHRM Learnings/ Best Practices: Sender Which one gets the highest open rates from SHRM s? – Chantal Rotondo, SHRM Membership Marketing Manager – SHRM Membership Team – SHRM Test what works for you! If you do use someone’s name to send s, people expect you to answer their questions.

16 Best Practices: Subject Line  Urgent – 2-Day Membership Sale – Expires Friday - 3 Recert Credits  Personalize (Include your readers’ first name) – Tracy, Your Membership Gift  Use Actionable Words – Download I-9 How-To Guide – Register for Employee Conflict Chat  Avoid SPAM Triggers: – Free, Cash, !!!, $, ALL CAP

17 Best Practices: Call to Action  Be Clear and Obvious: When you ask people to sign up for a networking event, which one is more likely to get more clicks? Click Here Submit Now Register Today  Above the Fold: Place it in the top third of your layout

18 Best Practices: Design Pretty is not always better. Test using a clean and consistent template and focus on your offer and messaging.

19 Best Practices: Offer & Messaging  Short, Limited Time Offer – Short deadlines make people act quicker (1 day offer; 48 hour discount, registration ends tomorrow, etc)  Ask Your Current Members What They Think! – Why did they join? – Why did they renew? – What do they really value from your membership? – What needs do they go elsewhere for? – Use their feedback for your pitch to new members and to enhance your programming and engagement of current members

20 Best Practices: Offer & Messaging  Clear Value Proposition: – What is it that they will get? Recert credits, networking, big savings, free white paper, free webinar? Free lecture? Mentoring opportunities? – Find different ways to explain ROI. For example, SHRM Membership is $185 a year Or $15 a month Or less than 52 cents a day Or $3.75 a week

21 Explaining Value Proposition

22 Quick Membership Marketing Tips 1.Make it easy! (KISS) 2.Personalize your s and communications 3.Make new members feel welcome and included 4.Understand who your current members are and look for more of them as the easiest method to growing membership 5.Use multiple communication channels 6.Pretty doesn’t always work 7.Optimize your website 8.With marketing messages, use a clear call to action with a deadline 9.Focus on what matters to your members

23 7 Ideas to Boost Membership this Fall 1.Get in touch with lapsed members, offer them an incentive to come back and join the chapter 2.Offer incentives to prospects – books, mugs, free meal at next meeting, discount on membership, etc. 3.Allow visitors to your website an easy way to sign up for your e- newsletter, then offer them membership deals 4.Partner with other local associations for meetings and/or memberships: ASTD, World at Work, Chamber of Commerce 5.Encourage current members to bring a colleague for free to the next meeting 6.List your upcoming events on a local newspaper/business website calendar 7.Reach out to local universities and create relationships with the HR professors so they can help push membership to their students

24 THANK YOU! QUESTIONS? Chantal Rotondo Manager, Membership Acquisition Marketing 800/ ext