The Membership Engagement Blog: understanding member needs

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5 Ways to Engage Members

Many association executives pose the question “How do I engage my members in a meaningful way?” The following are five ways that are relatively inexpensive and not overly time-consuming to start implementing now:

Maintain a blog: Every association should have a blog that addresses key issues, provides opinions, and offers expert advice for their industry. Your communications department likely works diligently to put together a newsletter monthly that is distributed to your membership. But only those on the distribution list have the opportunity to read it, and the majority is likely not reading every installment. What if you took your content created for the newsletter and re-purposed it for your blog?
Show off the stars: Start a member of the month (or, week) program. Advise your community about what they have done to earn the spot (through their volunteerism or research for the industry for example). Have a spot on your website home page that showcases the member; and link it back to your blog for a full article. Get your members involved once the program is up and running by starting an nomination process.
Educate them: On their time. In many cases, the professional development programming is solely focused around a big conference. Keeping programming for your conference is OK, but many of your members will not be able to attend. Having regular webinars to help increase the chances of your members gaining their required credits, or just news regarding your industry, is a great way to keep them informed.

It can also be a new potential source of revenue for the organization – making them available on demand for purchase by your community can drive revenue to your organizations bottom line.
Push the envelope: After inviting your community to join you online in either a public social media platform or private online community, start posting questions to get people talking. It is a great way to get your network talking to each other, sharing ideas, opinions and articles of relevance.
Use video: Everyone likes watching videos, and you could incorporate this into your engagement strategy for many aspects within your organization. Your conference delegates, exhibitors and sponsors could be on video talking about your events and why they are a wonderful way to network and educate, your Executive Director could have a monthly vlog that is only available in the members-only section of your website (or, on a private online community).

Need help with your engagement program? From consulting on strategy, devising a plan to implementation, we can help! For more information please contact Meagan Rockett, Director of Client Solutions at 613-288-4517, or meagan@greenfield-services.ca.

5 Tips for Better Membership Retention

Professional and Trade Associations across all industries are showing growing concerns over member
retention rates. Our clients are reporting that they are seeing rapidly declining memberships, while
others are seeing a slow decline, and want to combat it while they can. The following are some
retention tips to help you get started:

Gather their communication preferences, and use them! It's important to ask member HOW they prefer to be communicated with. Get a sense of how they consume information and where they spend their time. Whether it is by email, on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or another social media network, or through other means, doing this enables you to gain valuable intelligence on what systems you need to have in place to engage your members. It is also just as important to use them; play in their sandbox, don't ask them to play in yours.
Mix Media. When gathering communication preferences, it is imperative to ask for all possible formats, not just the ones you have in place now. That way, you are able to devise a communications strategy that makes sense. Some messages can be sent by email, some by text, some a simple reminder on social media platforms. Mixing media will increase your chances of your message being read, and not discarded.
Start Early. In our 2014 Pulse Report, we found that over 50% of organizations are depending on a 60-day renewal marketing period to retain their membership base, with over 40% relying on only up to three touchpoints. Sales and marketing research shows that it can take up to 11 "touches" to cut through the clutter, and most people give up well before that! This is why we always encourage Professional and Trade Associations to communicate membership value throughout the year – and not just before renewal time!
Don't Be Afraid to Pick Up the Phone! Greenfield’s Pulse Report also shows that less than 25% of organizations are picking up the phone during a retention campaign to have a conversation with members. While making calls can be time consuming, it can also produce the best results. Having a conversation with your members (at any time) builds the relationship they were hoping for when they joined. You will gain valuable insights on how they feel about the direction of the association, in addition to their intentions of renewing.
Everyone matters. There are various opinions out there about who to focus the majority of your efforts on. Some believe that focusing on first-year members is the best place to spend your marketing dollars. While it may be true that first-year members are more likely to drop off if they are not satisfied with your operations, it is just as important to focus on longer-term members. They have seen your ups and downs, are likely at different career stages, and are more likely to have in-depth opinions on how you can better serve all members, instead of just the newbies.

What are some of the other best practices you have come across?

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

10 Tips for Creating a Rock Star Social Media Plan

Social media can be a daunting process, especially if you do not know where to start. But for your conference or event, it can be an extremely powerful tool to maximize engagement from your attendees before, during and after the event. Here are a few tips to get you started:

Appoint a Leader – Every successful plan needs someone to spearhead the program. Do not
just assign the task – find the right person. Plan on conducting an “interview” with the person
you have in mind. They must have knowledge on how the social media sites work (or at least
be capable of ramping up quickly).

Find an expert to help you – When you are looking to get things started, finding the right
person (or company) can really help when it comes to developing the right profile, planning
which messages should be delivered on what sites, etc. Determine what messages you want
delivered to the general public (including your membership) – which could be delivered through
various channels (such as Facebook or Twitter), and which messages are for members-only
(where create a “Members Only” group on LinkedIn, for example), and plan your marketing
accordingly.

Be timely – the purpose of social media is to disseminate information as it is released. If you
are going to post something, make sure it is relevant to what is happening now.

Use your Influence – as an association, you should be considered a leader in your respective
industry. Aim to be the “one-stop shop” for information and position your presence that way on
social media sites.

Keep Working It – this is a task that cannot be managed properly for about 10 minutes a day.
Ideally a few hours a day should be dedicated to maintaining your presence on social media
sites, so as not to be lost in the shuffle.

Need more? Click here to download the full document.

#Association Social Media Tips

Need some tips to assist your team to raise your social media presence?

Twitter Tips:

Tweet as your group or brand. And the tone of your tweets should showcase your brand personality – i.e. avoid using “I” or “Me”; instead, use plural verbiage such as “Our” or “We”.
Using graphics for your profile image and background? Customize it. Keep it close to your brand (such as, if your association represents doctors, try finding stock images of a doctor treating a patient, or of a stethoscope, etc).
Get out there. Ask a question, start a discussion using an already established hashtag (or, create one of your own), make a Twitter-only special offer. The point is to get involved.

LinkedIn Tips: Have you created a Company Page yet? If not, start one and use it!

Be sure to populate with your logo, locations, products, services etc. in the various areas that are applicable to you.
Update your status regularly. Update your followers with news, info on new products to benefit your members, new services or certifications offered, welcoming new members, reminding members of renewal timeframes, job openings, conference info, etc.

Facebook Tips:

When is the best time to post? You will likely receive the most engagement from your Facebook posts between the hours of 8:00 PM and 7:00 AM (when people are not at work or in workmode). Try scheduling most of your posts during that timeframe to determine if it is the right timeframe for you.
When are the best days to post? It can be different for every organization. However, I have found that engagement is highest on Wednesdays and Sundays.

Want more? Click here to download the full tips sheet.

Using Member Research to Map Out What We Need to be Doing

“No. No. No. We define the goals of the research before we pick the method!” she said. This was probably the hundredth time this research agency account executive heard, “I would like to conduct a survey” from someone like me. What I really meant was “I would like to conduct customer research” but I had mistakenly substituted the word survey instead. This is a mistake most of us make. Survey is a substitute for member research both in our language but also in implementation and this presents a problem for associations.

Each method of member research is specialized to answer certain kind of questions. Surveys are good at one kind of question, our data another, mining online communities another, and so on. Most often we turn to our data and surveys to get answers about our members but those methods, too often, are not designed to answer the kind of questions we are asking.

If we divide up all the member research methodologies they tend to fall into two groups. One group measures what we are doing and the other helps us map out what we need to be doing.

Measuring What We Are Doing

The typically quantitative methods: surveys, data and some feedback tell us how the association is doing. Or more precisely, member research like this tells us about what the association is already doing. If you want to know which of your benefits most members like the most these kinds of methods are designed to do just that. Here are some more questions that surveys and data can answer for you:

Who are our members?
What benefits do members use the most?
How would members rank the topics that we cover in order of preference?
Who are our most engaged members?
Where do members spend the most time on our site?
Members who attend the conference also __________.

This kind of information can help us refine our offerings. For example, members who attend the conference also tend to buy our benchmarking survey report. Perhaps we should test introducing more of the report findings at the conference? Or we find that members rank Topic E very high and it is not a topic we cover often so we add more articles in our media calendar.

The what-we-are-doing-type member research is valuable but let’s not stop there. There is a whole new level of member insights to uncover with the what-we-need-to-be-doing-type member research.

Map Out What We Need To Be Doing

At some point in our data sleuthing we may find that we have more questions than answers. Each time we uncover a new fact, like two years ago benefit A was top of members’ preference but now benefit D is top, we wonder why? We may notice that surveys and data are raising tons of new questions but not answering them. There are answers to those questions and a different methodology can help us.

Member phone interviews, focus groups, mining online communities and observation can give us the data we need to start mapping out what we need to be doing. To figure out what we need to be doing we ask questions like these:

Why did members join our association?
Why are engaged members engaged?
What problems do our members worry about and why?
What are our members’ goals and why?
How do members articulate the value of the association?
What do new members expect from their membership?
What pain points exist for members working with this association?
How are competitors meeting their needs?

These questions are answered by the more qualitative methodologies. Unlike their closed-ended-answer cousins data and surveys, these methods are more detailed, give context and will tell us stories. These stories are the building blocks for us to figure out what we need to be doing in the future.

Data and member surveys can get you started on your fact-finding mission. At some point you may find yourself asking “why?” more often than not. When you start asking “why?” why did members make this decision, why aren’t they satisfied or why is this group of members engaged, it is time to start exploring how qualitative member research can get you the answers you need.

Are you curious about member insights based association marketing, innovation or strategy? Find more articles like these from Amanda Kaiser, qualitative member researcher, at www.SmoothThePath.net or on Twitter at @SmoothThePath.

Image courtesy of renjith krishnan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What Are Your Goals for Your #Association in 2015?

The 2014 Pulse Report determined that:

Membership growth, higher visibility in the association's industry or field, and increased member participation remained consistent as respondents' top three functional priorities in 2013 and 2014.
Compared to 2013, the 2014 respondents attached somewhat more importance to advocacy, event attendance, and higher visibility in the field, and somewhat less to revenue growth. Event attendance has grown steadily as an association priority over the three years of Pulse Report Research, from 36.7% in 2012, to 39.9% in 2013, to 43.8% in 2014.
The "Other" category revealed the deeper texture of individual associations' criteria for success including member participation and satisfaction, membership or industry growth, effective service delivery and public protection, interest in certification, effective service delivery or business plan execution, and policy influence. One respondent parodied the tactical approach that holds some organizations back from more sustained success, claiming that his or her association measured performance based on "feelings. You know, if we FEEL that we're successful then that's good enough, right? RIGHT?"

Finally, for the third year in a row, the 2014 Pulse Report identified a key disconnect between association's objectives and their strategies for achieving them. While membership growth consistently scores above 60% as a key success factor for respondent's organizations, the proportion that prioritized efforts to renew existing members actually declined marginally from 2012 and 2013 to 2014. As we reported in 2013, "this reinforces a picture of organizations that are scrambling to acquire new markets, without devoting the time and resources that would help them build a satisfied, sustainable membership base."

Does this still look like the same picture for 2015? What are your goals this year, and how do they differ from last year?

Image courtesy of tiramisustudio at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Save the Date! #Engageassn is coming back...

On the heels of a successful Engaging Associations in July 2014, we are pleased to announce that the Engaging Associations Forum will return for a second year - so mark your calendars to attend July 23-24, 2015.

What's new this year?

In 2015, we will continue to focus on how to create an engaging association, with a heavy focus on topics to create the association, membership models, and strategies for the future.
We will have a great line-up of speakers, who are ready to help you create change.
The sessions will be MORE interactive than in 2014, and we want you to be a part of it!

Stay tuned here on the blog for updates on sessions and locations, or check out our website. The dates are set; it will be in Ottawa, ON, and the location will be announced soon!

For more information on the 2014 event, please click here to access our e-book, and update your preferences to stay in the loop about the event!

Top Picks for Membership Engagement Tips

Membership Engagement is a hot topic - and it isn't going away very soon...

In a recent infographic I published, based on survey results from the 2014 Pulse Report (our membership marketing & engagement study in Canada), we reported that 47.4% of respondents would increase budgets in membership engagement next year, if they had only one area that could be increased.

I think we know by now the concept of membership engagement; but association executives are struggling with how to engage members, and what they should track to determine if their efforts are successful.

Here are four blogs/articles that I have come across that offer tips, theories and suggestions that are well worth the read:

Engaging Next Generations (featured on the CSAE Ottawa-Gatineau blog): the article reports on a lunch & learn session that was help for chapter members, and association executives in the Ottawa area. It featured a panel of three association executives, who discussed the changed that they have made, whether they worked or not; in an effort to engage the next generation of member.
Weak Member Engagement? Look at Your Staff (featured on AssociationsNow): This article is a quick summary of another blog post, but the title caught my eye, as I was preparing for a presentation recently that spoke to engaged employees make engaged members.
Engaging Members in an Era of Profound Change (featured on CSAE): written by an association executive, this post talks about social change and how it impacts associations, along with some research and recommendations.
10 Elements of a Winning Member Engagement Strategy (featured on Socious): this particular post talks about why member engagement is so important, and the 10 elements they believe create an effective strategy, from goals to problems to staffing.

Need more ideas? Keep an eye out for our member engagement posts, and mark your calendars - as we will be addressing these issues and more during our Engaging Associations Forum, taking place July 23-24, 2015!

51 Shades of Gray (Hair)

One of the associations that we work with celebrated their 51st anniversary in 2014 at their Annual Conference and Trade Show. After the big 50th Anniversary Extravaganza blowout in 2013, staff had to work hard to ensure that the 51st Anniversary was just as exhilarating, so that we harnessed the positive momentum moving forward. While we were successful in making our 51st Anniversary Conference effective and exciting, we also noticed a trend that we may have been purposely overlooking.

As we started looking around the room at the 200+ attendees at the conference, we quickly realized that it was a room with 51 (or more) shades of gray hair. Our members are aging! This means that eventually (soon), they will be retiring and passing their businesses on to their sons and daughters or selling them to current employees or outside parties. And many of these new owners will be younger and new to the industry and the association. While we’ve enjoyed 50+ years of continued support from our current members, we can’t just assume these new owners will embrace the same principles of joining and supporting our association.

In order to ensure the continued success of the organization, we are going to have to strategically recruit and retain these younger up and coming members. As our staff and board discussed this new “look and feel” that would be transcending on the association in the next few years, we knew we had to quickly get ahead of the game and create some new services and benefits that would have these newbies not only joining, but embracing and enjoying our association’s activities and services!

Here are some quick tips we’ve found that helped to encourage the younger generation to participate in our association:

Tip 1: Technician Subscription – We developed a Technician Subscription Program that would allow up-and-coming professionals to try out and participate in our association without investing a lot of money and time. Our Technician Subscription Program allows participants to receive all association communication (including the quarterly magazine), attend one educational seminar at the member rate and participate in other member benefits for a one year period; all at a very affordable rate. We even offer quantity discounts off multiple technician subscribers from the same company. Since we weren’t sure of the success of this venture, we decided to offer this as a subscription service rather than a membership type, which would have required a change in our bylaws. Since its inception, we now have 28 new technician subscribers, many of whom are under 40 and excited to be a part of our association! We see these 28 technician subscribers becoming true new members in the near future!

Tip 2: Social Media Presence – Social media has become very important to the success of associations in today’s world. Per USA Today, a recent study conducted for an online casino found that one in four people spend more time socializing online, via sites such as Facebook and Twitter, than they do in person. This means that 25% of the population would rather spend time communicating online than communicating in person. With this statistic (and the many others found online), we knew that we had to accelerate our social media presence in order to attract and keep our younger generations of current and potential members interested and excited about our association. We did research and developed a weekly marketing plan to ensure that information was posted to our social media sites 2-3 times per week at a minimum. We also worked hard to ensure that different information was posted on each of the venues so that visitors didn’t see the same posts on all of the social media sites. Finally, we created an email newsletter called Agents of Change that we use to remind our current and potential members to visit our social media sites on a regular basis. With this new focus on social media, our online presence has grown tremendously!

Tip 3: Mentoring program – We are currently developing a mentoring program, where we will partner a more experienced (gray haired) member with a newer (younger) member or potential member. They will communicate via social media, email, phone, etc. throughout the year and then meet in person during our Annual Conference. Our goals with this mentoring program are two fold and include the sharing of a wealth of industry knowledge from the well-oiled professionals with the newbies and also the importance of supporting their industry trade association. Only time will tell how successful this mentoring program will be, but we’ve already had some good support on both sides!

Tip 4: Seminar Topics of Interest to Younger Audiences – Like most trade associations, many of the educational seminar topics we offer are driven by the rules and regulations of the state requirements for continuing education for our industry. But we are lucky in that some of our required educational requirements include Business Practices, which can cover an array of topics. With our new goal of attracting younger members, we have recently offered seminars like website marketing, online reputation management and online marketing to grow your business. In 2015, we plan to offer even more topics (both in person and online) that are of interest to the younger audience and play upon their preferences to communicate and learn differently. We have received very positive feedback in our post-seminar surveys about these new topics!

Tip 5: Member Grandstanding – In today’s world, we all love to share any and everything about ourselves on our personal social media sites, but very seldom does this information get shared with your association. We are now encouraging our members and subscribers to brag about themselves and their accomplishments and to share this information with their association. We are creating areas on our website, social media sites, in our magazine and other member communications to allow other members and interested parties to learn more about the association, members and industry. This information adds a human touch to the association, but also may inspire others to share and do great things!

By implementing these tips and continuing to make many other enhancements to our association and the way we communicate with our members, our goal is that the younger generation becomes just as enamored with the association and 30 years from now becomes our new “50+ Shades of Gray!”

Thanks Amy for providing this post!

Top 10 Reasons to Attend the Engaging Associations Summit #engageassn

Thinking about joining us for the Engaging Associations Summit? Here are the Top 10 reasons why you should participate:

Be a Part of Something NEW: This is a new event, produced by Greenfield Services. We did not create this on our own; focus groups were conducted, and we joined forces with Smarter Shift, sensov/, Lou Lou Lounge and AV-Canada to get it in production! Our goal is to facilitate a change in the way associations operate.
Conversations: While we have set sessions, our promise to you is that you will not sit in a meeting room all day listening to the speaker. Participants will be asked to share, question, and challenge what is being said to ensure that all knowledge and experience is shared throughout the summit.
Less Time Away: Taking place all day July 24th, and just over a half day on the 25th, we are creating an experience that ensures you are taking as little time away from the office as possible; AND that you can get away for a bit of a long weekend at the end!
Engagement: There are always questions that don’t get asked; whether that is a lack of time, or a lack of comfort publically sharing. That’s OK here – we have extended the breaks and meal times to ensure that you have the time to speak with the facilitators, our partners, and your peers. As one focus group participant said, “Business is not conducted in the meeting room, it’s done in the hallway, and 15 minutes is simply not enough time”.
Location, Location, Location: With the Summit taking place in Ottawa, ON; it is easy for association executives to get here, and it is central to many of the Canadian-based associations; which means lower costs for participating!
Change: We all want to do things differently. But how do we get started? Learn from your peers, and industry experts, like Jeff Hurt, Jeff De Cagna, Meredith Low, and PCMA’s Chief Operating Officer, Sherrif Karamat. They will all be there to ensure that their expertise is shared.
Unique Approach: We are committed to presenting this in a way you have not experienced before. We selected the Canadian Museum of Nature of host this event, as it is a creative and historic building. It changes our expectations; and has allowed us to utilize the expertise of AV-Canada & Lou Lou Lounge to create an environment that is modern, fun, relaxing, and that fosters the conversations we need to have.
Action: With each session delivered, you will receive key takeaways from the facilitators, and we will be providing a forum to share your “A-ha!” moments; little snippets of information that you would like to use in your daily work life. We will be reporting back to all participants with session summaries, case studies, etc.
Network with Partners who GET IT: Those who have chosen to partner with us truly understand that change is required to ensure associations thrive in the future. We will have a select group of partners joining us – our commitment is to present to you quality companies to have conversations with, and not overwhelm you with too many of them. Businesses who have not officially partnered with us will not be in attendance.
Cost: We have chosen to keep this Summit affordable for all – and at a rate of $329 plus tax, you cannot beat the education that you will receive!

Interested in attending? Register today!

Six Big Questions on How Associations Engage Their Members

It’s the million-dollar question in association management.

In an era when member priorities are shifting, generational expectations vary widely, and anyone with a free Internet connection can get the benefits that used to come with paid association membership, what’s the future of member engagement?

At the Engaging Associations Summit in July, you’ll get a C-level view of this existential challenge from an organization that has done a great job of measuring member engagement, then using that market intelligence to build commitment in its target audience and sustain revenues.

The Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) represents association meeting professionals who were hit hard by the economic downturn, and have long fought an uphill battle to demonstrate strategic value in the organizations that employ them. PCMA Chief Operating Officer Sherrif Karamat, a 20-year veteran of the meeting and convention industry, oversees all the organization’s revenue streams. So he has a keen interest in PCMA’s financial sustainability, and a clear view of what it takes to keep associations strong and successful.

“Fifteen years ago, associations deployed information to their members and served as the ‘fountain of knowledge,” Karamat said in a recent online interview. “Today, people don't necessarily need an association, because through social media, multiple individuals are connecting, sharing knowledge, and bypassing the central conduit—the association.”

If associations fail to engage with stakeholders online, he warned, “your value will be diminished, and so will your brand.”

Before Karamat’s presentation, Meagan Rockett will unveil results of Greenfield Services’ 2014 Pulse Report, a must-read annual review of association issues and priorities. This year’s Pulse Report asked six big questions about member engagement:

What are your organization’s top three challenges when it comes to member engagement?
Are you currently working toward a plan for engaging younger members, or do you already have one in place?
How frequently do you follow members and other stakeholders on key social media platforms?
What percentage of your members participate on your public social networks?
What is the level of your members’ engagement with different association products and services?
Are you looking at emerging membership models to customize the experience and attract new members?

Click here for more information on the Engaging Associations Summit, July 24-25, 2014 at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa.

The Two Secrets of Member Engagement From An Engaged Member

“You can learn to be a great public speaker!” That’s all I needed to see to know that I had to find out more. Throughout my career I have done a fair amount of public speaking usually to teams of about 15 people and a few times at company-wide events with an audience in the hundreds. I mastered the basics: organization, preparation and effective slides. The piece that was missing for me, the skill that I needed to learn to be a truly effective speaker, was to learn how to be not so boring. Boring? Yep! The speaking I had done was boring. The topics and the material were informational but not all that interesting.

I’m putting boring behind me. I know that I have an important story to tell and to do that I need be a better storyteller. I have found a place to learn and practice my public speaking skills in my local Toastmasters club. I’ve been a member for one year and I believe I will still be a member ten years from now. I’m engaged and this is why…

The secret to member engagement is… connecting in those first critical interactions.

Our Toastmasters group encourages anyone to attend a meeting or two for free to see what it is all about. I didn’t need the second meeting because I was hooked at the first.

I was welcomed – As I walked through the door a couple of members welcomed me and introduced themselves. A few talked to me longer to find out what my goals were and told me how Toastmasters helped them. My impression from the start was the group exuded a warm, friendly, collegial feeling. How about appointing a welcoming committee to every event in-person and online. Are you wondering how to do this online? See how @kikilitalien does it at the #AssnChat on Twitter Tuesdays at 2PM.
I could see the way to solve my problem – During my first visit I saw speakers addressing the same issues I wanted to solve. I watched members practicing, trying, failing and succeeding. I noticed that the members were at all levels of expertise. I heard speakers getting encouragement and feedback so they knew precisely how to improve. I could feel the supportive environment. Know what your new member’s biggest problem to solve is and simply communicate to them, even demonstrate to them, how you solve their problem.

Toastmasters connected with me and I connected with Toastmasters. How can you foster a connection like this with prospective members? What ways can you make them feel welcome? How can you tell them the story they need to hear about how you can help them solve their problem?

The secret to member engagement is… making it easy to engage.

There is a clear path to follow – New members get a guidebook that outlines the goals and requirements of their first 10 speeches. While the topic selection is all mine I have a structure that allows me to play with the different elements of public speaking – organization, body language, strong openings, etc. Reaching the achievable but substantial goal of completing my first 10 speeches keeps me moving forward. Give your members a path to follow through your benefits based on their current need. For example, new-to-the-profession? Here are the top 5 association resources that members like you get the most value from.
I see benefits beyond those that I came for – When I joined I was singularly focused on improving my public speaking. At one meeting another member told us that she noticed that not only has her public speaking improved but her communication skills in one-on-one conversations became better as well. Recently I started noticing the same. I’m getting more value from Toastmasters than I originally thought. As new members try the more basic benefits introduce them to a few more benefits that will solve their newest problems.

Once members join give them a clear path to follow. They will avoid engaging if they are presented with all 25 of your member benefits. They only want to know about those few benefits that will help them solve their most pressing problem. As your member samples the basics slowly introduce them to another benefit that helps them solve their newest problem.

What are the two secrets to member engagement? First understand your potential member’s problem and then deliver a series of first impressions that establish a connection with them. Second keep helping your members solve their newest problem.

Amanda Kaiser helps associations understand their member’s most critical problems. You can find Amanda writing on her blog www.SmoothThePath.net on association marketing, innovation and engagement and on Twitter @SmoothThePath.

Canadian #Association Execs: #Marketing & Engagement Study Now Open (2014 Pulse Report)

Greenfield Services Inc, in collaboration with Advanced Solutions International and Smarter Shift, is pleased to announce that the 3rd Annual Benchmarking Study of Membership Marketing & Engagement Practices in Canada is officially underway! Our 2013 Pulse Report had over 170 responses to the initial survey, with an additional 100 downloads of association executives interested in the results!

We have launched the survey now to ensure that results are ready in time for Greenfield's inaugural association event, the Engaging Association Summit.

Many of my conversations with Association Executives still focus on concerns with engagement, and how recruitment, e-communication and social media strategies can help move the needle of success. We would like to benchmark where your organization currently stands with membership practices in general, so that we can compare this year’s results with past reports, and see what other issues can be addressed.

Last year, the survey produced a lot of blog content on Education and Networking, Disconnects on Member Retention, and how Associations are Scrambling to Do More With Less. We also started producing infographics on Association Goals and Objectives, Member Relationships, Membership Growth, and Social Media.

I invite you to join your industry peers by providing your input by following the link below. The study takes approximately 35 minutes to complete. Your input is very important and it will be kept strictly confidential. Results will be reported in aggregate and will not identify any specific response or respondent.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MGLM3ZV

The survey is open until Friday, June 6, 2014, with results being available in July 2014. All respondents will receive a copy of the report, once available. Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me directly, I would be happy to chat further!

Meagan Rockett
Director, Client Solutions
Greenfield Services Inc.
866-488-4474 ext 4517
meagan@greenfield-services.ca

Why It Is Not Enough To Know Why Members Join

Amanda Kaiser helps associations stay relevant by deeply understanding member challenges, needs and wants. You can find more of her articles about member research, member experience and member insights at www.SmoothThePath.net.

“What do you think is the top reason members join?” is a critical question asked in membership benchmarking surveys but the ranked answers may be inaccurate. The question asks association professionals to report why they think members join which may not necessarily actually be why members join.

Meagan Rockett beautifully illustrates this in an earlier post when she questions a big swing in the results in the 2013 Pulse Report. Education, as the reason to join dropped significantly and Meagan says, “If associations are listening to the tone of the times, rather than the needs of their members, and positioning themselves accordingly, they may be missing an opportunity to boost member engagement and retention.”

Knowing why members join is crucial for developing great marketing and innovation. This question can’t be left to a benchmarking study to answer for you. And the one or two word answers your members gave you do not help either. What you need to know is the motivation and emotion behind why your members join.

Know their motivation

When you ask a member why they joined they are likely to give you a quick answer: “for networking”, “to have access to professional development”, or “to receive industry data”. You need to find out the why behind the why; what is their motivation behind joining?

A member says the #1 reason they joined is to go to the conference. Now it is up to you to determine the motivation behind their need to go to the conference. Did their boss tell them to register? Are they new to the profession? Are they struggling with a problem and they hope to meet someone who successfully found a solution? Do you see how knowing member’s motivations can help you craft a better message or alter the session subject matter to better meet your member’s needs?

See the emotion

With almost all purchases there is an emotional reason that drives the purchase and the same holds true for joining an association. You should know how your members feel when they join. Are they thrilled at the opportunities for being a part of your organization? Do they feel uncertain that joining will meet their needs? Are they hopeful that joining will help them solve a problem? Understanding the underlying emotion helps you fix flaws and fine tune the member experience.

Knowing that “networking” or “education” as the reason to join is not enough. When you know why they join, their motivation to join and the emotions surrounding joining you can develop strategies that unquestionably meet your member’s needs.

Making All Members Feel Welcome

Lori Halley provided this guest post. She is the Blog Writer (Engaging Apricot) at Wild Apricot, cloud software for small associations, non-profits and clubs. With a background in associations and non-profits, Lori tries to offer tips and information to help the staff and volunteers of small organizations with day-to-day challenges. We thought this was an interesting perspective on multi-chapter associations and their communications.

Do you remember the first conference you attended? What about your first association networking event? Did you feel welcomed or feel more like a wallflower waiting for a dance invitation?

A recent AssociationsNow post - Perfecting the First-Time Attendee Experience - brought back some distant memories of my very first association conference. As a junior association staffer, I was so excited to fly half-way across the country to attend my first industry conference. But once I arrived, I felt so lost and alone since I didn’t know anyone there. Try as I might, I felt like a new kid at high school where the cliques were very tight and unwelcoming.

In her post, Samantha Whitehorne reminds us that “conference newbies can be just as anxious to attend your meeting as they are excited, especially if they don’t know anyone.” And she asks: “how can you turn a first-time attendee into a meeting veteran?” In response, Whitehorne offers links to some great examples of unique ways organizations are welcoming newbies and helping them navigate meetings, including:

online guides:

the American Homewbrewers Association offers a First Time Attendee Guide
the Society of American Archivists also offered a guide for New Members, First-Timers and Students

“first-timer orientation forums”
“network cafes”
orientation luncheons - such as the one the Global Business Travel Association offers specifically for first-timers.

Make meetings "network-friendly"

We also offered up some tips for Creating Network-friendly Membership Events a while back, including ideas to help spark connections and ways to stimulate an "atmosphere of connectedness" at membership events. Some ideas that might help all of your members, especially newcomers, feel more welcome and take advantage of networking opportunities include:

Plan Pre-Event Preparation: Put articles and tip sheets on “networking know-how” in your magazine, newsletter, and convention packets.
Put Networking Know-How in the Spotlight: Give attendees at your events the rules and tools for making networking an art, not an accident. Schedule a keynote or opening session that shows attendees how to make the most of the meeting.
Make Nametags Novel: Print the first name as LARGE as you possibly can. As a conversation starter, add a colored ribbon or sticker to designate “first timer” or “award winner.”
Maximize the Mix & Mingle: Include some short, structured one-on-one or small group activities to encourage mixing and meeting. Choose an upbeat, energetic, well-known person to lead the session.

Don’t forget to welcome new volunteers too

While it’s important to make new members and event attendees feel welcome, don’t forget your new volunteers - especially those who are helping out for the first time at your conference or annual meeting. They should be welcomed, introduced to your entire staff and volunteer team as well as receiving an orientation to the venue and the event. After all, your event staff and volunteers are your goodwill ambassadors, so you want them to feel comfortable and connected so they can model inclusive behavior.

How you can make new members or attendees feel welcome? Offer up your suggestions in our comments below.

Image courtesy of Lavoview / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Member Relationships [Infographic]

Education or Networking? Members Drive for the Bottom Line

One of the most striking results of Greenfield Services’ 2013 Pulse Report was the declining importance of member education.

It’ll be interesting to see how this statistic develops over the next few years. But in 2013, the 173 respondents who completed the Pulse Report survey saw education and professional development declining as a reason for prospective members to join their associations.

And with that change, Canadians’ motivations fell more closely in line with the results of a similar association survey in the United States.

A Sharp Decline

Of all the questions from our 2012 Pulse Report that we repeated in 2013, this was the one that showed the most dramatic change.

Last year, our survey of association managers, leaders, and executives identified education as the single most important factor in members’ decision to join, with 24.4% citing it as a top reason. Networking placed third, at 16%.

A year later, education had plummeted to fifth rank, with only 7.4% of respondents listing it as a top motivator, while networking surged to the top of the list, at 24.3%.

Two years of data can paint an incomplete picture. But if this trend carries on through future editions of the Pulse Report, it will point to shifting member expectations that put more emphasis on business relationships and less on professional or personal growth.

Top Reasons to Join a Canadian Association, 2012–2013
	2012		2013
	Rank	%	Rank	%
Education	1	24.4%	5	7.4%
Access to specialized information	2	16.8%	2	19.1%
Networking	3	16.0%	1	24.3%
Advocacy	4	10.9%	3	14.7%
Affinity programs			4	8.8%

The Bigger Picture

With some of the questions we ask in the Pulse Report, it’s interesting to cross-check the results against the annual Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report by Marketing General Incorporated (MGI). And in the U.S., an emphasis on member networking is nothing new. For the second year in a row, the MGI report found that education took fourth spot, with only eight percent of U.S. respondents identifying it as a leading reason for their members to join.

Top Reasons to Join an Association, Canada and U.S., 2013
	Canada		U.S.
	Rank	%	Rank	%
Education	5	7.4%	4	8.0%
Access to specialized information	2	19.1%	2	12.0%
Networking	1	24.3%	1	22.0%
Advocacy	3	14.7%	3	12.0%
Affinity programs	4	8.8%

Interpreting the Results

There are a couple of possible conclusions to be drawn from the survey results.

Canadian association executives may be right that their members are putting their professional development on hold. Knowledge and education are still important—they may be more central to members’ performance and success than ever before. But it’s hard to maintain your business or professional standing if you don’t have a job, so networking might be the prime focus in a tough economy.

But there’s another possibility. If associations are listening to the tone of the times, rather than the needs of their members, and positioning themselves accordingly, they may be missing an opportunity to boost member engagement and retention. If their programs and marketing emphasize networking, when members are really interested in education, organizations could lose ground with their single most important audience: the people who pay membership dues and trust their associations to represent their best interests.

Time will tell, but there’s a way to find out without waiting for next year’s Pulse Report. If you’re not entirely certain of your members’ programming priorities, a focused, well-designed survey could be the best investment you make over the next year.

Greenfield Services Inc. will release the 2013 Pulse Report at the National Conference of the Canadian Society of Association Executives, September 18-20, 2013 in Winnipeg. Contact us today to receive your own copy by email.