For many associations, fall is crunch time. It’s the annual scramble to meet membership numbers and set yourself up for success in the year ahead. Getting results during this unique season can be challenging as the year winds down and the holidays ramp up. The surest way to reach your goals is a strategic plan that includes six key strategies.
1. Understand Timing and Duration
Plan to make your final push starting in September and running through December. Campaigns should be in full force during these months. Of course, connecting with your base must take place all year long—with join campaigns launching at least quarterly. Regular contact will make your end-of-year campaigns much easier.
2. Create Core Components
These four components are essential to getting attention, engaging people emotionally, reassuring their intent, and converting them to members.
Storytelling
Personal stories from your current members are perhaps the most powerful way to compel and convert prospects. Member stories have a human touch and vital third-party credibility that validate a prospect’s choice to join. Structure stories to discuss how your association helps in the early, middle, and late career stages to show real-world value.
Resources
Mix helpful resources such as whitepapers, checklists, and webinars into your content strategy to further demonstrate the value of joining your organization. Align these items with the needs identified in your member stories.
Brand Touchpoints
Ensure prospects have a seamless experience across all brand touchpoints, from digital to print to events and more. This is a best practice for all your marketing, but it’s especially critical when prospects are still getting to know your association.
Pillars
Help potential new members see your value at a glance by identifying three to four pillars that all your resources fit into. These should align with key industry trends as well as member goals and pain points. Show people what’s in it for them now, not five years from now.
3. Identify Distribution Channels
Plan on a mix of channels to reach people based on their preferences. Go beyond the obvious emails and social posts to increase your chances of success.
Keep in mind that nobody wants more email! Include segmented, data-driven email with customized messaging as part of your strategy. But don’t send too many. And don’t make this your only play.
Social Media
Paid social is a vital part of an effective join campaign, but the cost per lead is going up. Here also, you’ll need to precisely target prospects based on data to avoid wasted effort. Another solid strategy is to stage an organic social media “takeover,” where all your posts for a week focus solely on joining your association.
Direct Mail
Don’t forget direct mail! Sure, it seems low tech, but that’s part of why it’s great. Direct mail provides a tangible, impactful message that complements your digital efforts. Plus, data-driven, behavior-based direct mail is much more likely to get attention—and action—than a canned email message.
Other Ideas
Consider additional channels based on where your audience spends their time. For example, buying ad space in podcasts can help you reach busy CEOs. YouTube Shorts can help you capitalize on the current boom in online video streaming.
4. Include Trends and Insights
Your association is an authority on current and future industry trends, and you can use this to your advantage for join campaigns. Create collateral that articulates trends and how they align with industry developments. This can draw in new members with valuable insights into the future of their field.
5. Make the Most of Your Data
Your association has loads of data that can help you improve your join campaigns. Go beyond job title or company size. Consider segmenting your list by user behaviors, purchase history, demographics, or engagement levels for highly relevant campaigns.
6. Ask for Action, Follow up
Every touchpoint should have a clear call to action. Tell people exactly what you want them to do—click here, schedule a call, register for a webinar. And plan your follow-up before you launch a single campaign. Use a mix of automated emails, retargeting ads, personalized messages, and phone calls to engage prospects.
Stop the Scramble
Turn your year-end membership scramble into a well-organized campaign that compels people to join. Finetune your timing, content, distribution, trends, data, calls to action, and follow-up to ensure the message hits home and drives membership growth.
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