5 ways to improve the results from your next member-get-a-member campaign
By Sheri Jacobs, CAE
Think about the last book you read, movie you saw or restaurant you visited. How did you hear about it? Did a friend or colleague make the referral? Did they send you an e-mail, or did the discussion happen in person? Now think about a recent experience that went beyond your expectations and you felt compelled to tell your friends or colleagues about it. How did you contact them, and how did you describe the experience? Did you mention the company? Did you tell a story with specific examples to make your point?
On average, there are 3.5 billion word-of-mouth conversations that occur daily in the U.S.; and a surprising 92% of those conversations occur offline! Not surprisingly, the conversations get more detailed as the experiences become more personal.
If you wish to reach your recruitment goals through an effective Member-Get-a-Member Campaign, consider these five ideas that incorporate research, offline tactics and personalization to get their message across.
1. Identify specific characteristics of the target audience you wish to recruit. What is their title or position? What is their career stage (or generation)? Are they likely to consider your organization their primary or secondary association? What specific programs, products and services does your organization offer that they might be interested in? And be specific. Don’t just say “education or the journal.” Identify program and article topics. Find out if your audience is price-sensitive.
2. Identify the influencers. Who is in a position to influence the target audience’s decision? Who has had a positive interaction with your association? How do your members interact with prospects? Do they talk in person, such as at a meeting, or do they make contact via e-mail? What inspires your influencers to tell others about your organization? Conduct some research to answer these questions.
3. Forget the organizational brochure; promote your next seminar. One factor that influences the decision to join an organization is the knowledge and belief that there is something essential and unique to be gained through membership. Terms like “essential learning or unique benefits” have become so commonplace that most prospects (like consumers) distrust those statements. To catch the attention and interest of a prospect, you need to be specific. Consider this: which headline would catch your attention more – “Write Marketing Copy that Sells Your Next Meeting” or “Marketing 101?” Promote a specific program first and membership in your organization second.
4. Use a conversational tone in your marketing materials. Most marketing materials use conventional marketing terms such as “We provide you with the networking and tools you need to do your job.” Sound familiar? If your marketing materials include that phrase or something similar…change it. After a recent speaking engagement, a member of the audience came up to me and said, “That was worth getting up at 5 a.m. and driving three hours to attend.” Imagine if your marketing materials used that for a headline. Do you think members and prospects may take notice? Would they be interested in finding out what others find so valuable that they are willing to get up at the crack of dawn and drive halfway across the state to attend?
5. Create the Non-Campaign. Forget the recruitment letter, pretty brochure and membership application. If you want to get your members to talk about you to prospects, surprise them in meaningful ways. For example, when I was at the Association Forum, I created Education Gift cards. When someone renewed their membership, they received the gift card that could be used for any half day education program. This small, unexpected action got our members talking. They reminded their co-workers to renew their membership in order to receive the card. They also told their colleagues who had not joined the organization about it. We did something remarkable and unexpected, and it helped recruit new members and retain existing ones.
As with any successful marketing effort, the first step is to know your audience. Once you know everything you can about who you wish to recruit and how they interact with other individuals, you can feel confident that your chances of reaching your recruitment goals will increase substantially.
Sheri Jacobs, CAE, is managing director of McKinley Marketing, Inc., Chicago. Her association experience includes nearly five years as the chief marketing officer and director of membership for the Association Forum of Chicagoland as well as director-level positions in membership and marketing at the American Bar Association and the American Academy of Implant Dentistry. She was 2006-2007 chair of ASAE & The Center’s Membership Section Council. Sheri can be reached at sjacobs@mckinleymarketing.com or 312-474-6068.
The study findings are a product of TalkTrack(R), the Keller Fay Group’s measurement program for word–of-mouth marketing that monitors daily conversations of Americans in all channels (online and offline). Results of the Keller Fay/OMD study are based primarily on surveys of 18,486 Americans ages 13-69, from late July 2007 through early February 2008.
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