Growing Membership within an Organization (115 Ideas) |
If you're trying to connect with people, trying to get the people to register for your non-profit or your company is going to be an uphill task. It can be difficult to make sure that members are aware you're there, and then harder to attract and keep members.
If you're experiencing difficulty to overcome this issue, do not worry. Although it's not always easy to build a membership, it is almost always possible.
It's hard to beat an awesome membership group. In this article we'll go over various strategies to grow membership in the company. There's an extensive assortment of options, and there's something here to suit everyone. It's not necessary to tackle all these (and you shouldn't even try!). But whether you're running an online group, a non-profit or even a large national group These suggestions will help you unlock membership growth.
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The article...
Six things you must not do to boost your member base
Ideas to boost participation in your company
Active your members who are already active
6 things that you should not do in order to build your members
- High-pressure sales tactics
- Compromise your Ideal Member
- Open your criteria too broad
- The pressure or guilt of Members who are already members
- Make promises you can't keep
- Poach members from the organizations of your colleagues
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115 ways to increase participation in your company
Activate your existing members
- Create a Big Purpose statement: For membership to grow and grow, it's important to determine what motivates people to join and stay in the first place. Make a Big Purpose Statement for this to be crystal clear.
- Find out who your ideal member is: Membership organizations can't be the same for everyone. Find out the person you want to be your ideal member and then serve them.
- Stop trying to get everyone. There's not a single organisation that serves EVERYONE. One motivated and focused member is worth 10 who don't have a passion and are likely to leave (and bad-mouth your organization). It's best to let those potential members that don't fit pass on.
- Create your community. Be careful not to shoot in the dark. Create your community with care. The process is known as Community Design(tm).
- Referral program for friends: Your members love your community So why not get members to help refer colleagues? It's easy. If you'd like, you can reward them by rewarding them.
- Make sure that your members have a great experience: Part of growing word-of-mouth is ensuring that your company is delivering what it says. Make sure you provide a fantastic user experience that gets members off with a positive start.
- Ambassador program: Along the same line, you could engage new members by gamifying the process with the standing ambassador program.
- Invite a friend to events: The next time you organize a valuable event in the community, let your members invite one of their friends! They will get an idea of what's going on inside. Make sure to make your prospective members with a convincing offer.
- Quiz your members: Quiz the members you have already in your community to discover what they love about their community, and also the reasons why they chose to join to begin with. Use something like SurveyMonkey. Do more of the stuff they like.
- Review your statistics When you're on a community platform, it should come with an analytics. Utilize your analytics to learn the things people enjoy and how they're spending their time. Analytics don't lie :)
- Use polls: Use polls to discover which elements are effective and which ones don't.
- Connect your Google Analytics: In addition to native analytics, you can also connect Google Analytics for more insights like where your members are from, and how they're converting.
- Encourage social sharing by rewarding it The majority of your members are engaged on social media. Ask them to share some goodies through social networks. It is possible to even reward them to encourage them.
- Offer social templates and other assets: Make it super easy for your employees to share on social media and invite followers into the company by offering them images, text, or video. It is more likely that they will do it this way.
- Provide emails with templates. If users are using email to invite friends to the local community, don't make them consider the idea. Give them an email template that they could copy and copy and.
- Highlight your members: Incorporating your members in your content is a great incentive for them to be more active and talk about your organization. Consider things such as interviews, case studies, as well as "member spotlights ."
- Invite your readers to make content contributions: When people contribute content to your blog, website newsletter or physical magazine or mailer it is more likely to pass it along to everyone they know.
- Find an administrator for your community: If you are struggling to find the enough time for building your community and helping your current members look into hiring someone who will.
- Give members benefits: From hotel discounts to discount on auto insurance, a lot of organisations offer perks for members which can serve as an effective reason to promote your business.
- Present member-friendly gifts: Gift your members a present every now and then! A gift that is free shows them they're valued and gets their attention.
- Interviews for exits: If members leave, it's easy to think "Forget you!" But don't. Try to learn from them. Conduct an exit interview.
- Remind members who have left The exit interviews. So if someone says, "I'd like to see X" Send them an invitation to join when X is set!
- Inform them that it's OK to invite friends: You might be surprised by how few members consider inviting people. Sometimes, unlocking growth of members could be as easy as letting them know new members are always welcome.
- Learn what members are looking for Don't guess. Talk to members and prospective members to find out what they're looking for from your organization. And then help them achieve that.
- Start a community If your company or non-profit does not include one, you can create a virtual community to help members connect.
- Select the best community-building platform: Picking an awesome platform for a virtual community can help you connect your members and give them the value they deserve.
Improve Sales & Marketing
- Employ a salesperson. Not all people are gifted at selling. If not, you should hire a salesperson. Even if you don't have enough money to start it is possible to make a payment based on commission.
- Give a lot of value upfront: Don't hide all your worth behind a paywall. Look for ways to offer good stuff to the world. Creating value positions you as an expert, and it makes potential members more inclined to join.
- Master relationships: Most sales are made on relationships. Start building relationships with potential members or find somebody who has the ability to.
- Invite prospective members: If you know people who'd be great do not be afraid. Ask them! Most likely, they'll reply "no ."
- Create a funnel: Marketing funnels have been proven to help sell membership. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to build the membership sales funnel.
- Utilize an opt-in feature: Make something useful that you are willing to offer on the landing page of your website , in exchange for email (ie. 10 Strategies to Increase Your Profits This Week ).
- A/B test landing pages Conduct tests on the sales page and the landing page to see which perform the most efficiently.
- Make the registration process or checkout easy: Don't ask for too much info - keep it simple.
- Try a webinar: Webinars are an effective and proven method to sell memberships. Make it available in a manner that creates a ton of worth for the Ideal Members Then, invite them to sign up!
- Pay for social-media advertising The tested and proven method to get to the attention of your target audience with paid ads. Platforms like Facebook can also allow you to modify your target audience a lot so that you are able to get in touch with the exact people that would be your ideal customers.
- Make sure you enable pixel-based retargeting. A pixel makes use of a cookie to mark people who came to your site, even if they did not purchase. This can be used to keep sending advertisements for your business. It could be very effective if done well it helps to ensure that you are top of mind.
- Try list-based retargeting: In certain cases, you may utilize your email lists for targeting. This is the same idea as the pixel but works from an email address instead of cookies.
- Consider PPC advertisements: Google's Pay-Per-Click advertising can help you show your organization to relevant searchers. For instance by bidding for the phrase "X associations within Y city," you can directly reach those who are interested.
- Build SEO keyword value SEO means aiding your site or community to get noticed by Google. Be sure to use relevant words on your website.
- Add SEO-friendly content to your website: Adding a blog or sections of resource content to your website or community will increase the number of pages Google could use to discover your site. Create content relevant for the members of your group and post it! (Like we did with this blog post! )
- Perform the SEO technical: Google won't serve your page for search results who aren't optimized for mobile. Check that your site's clear and fast to load.
- Keep an email list in place It is true that people check their email. This means that giving the potential member something to look forward to in their inbox is an excellent way of building relationships.
- Automate your email: Make sure potential members aren't forgotten about your company. Create an incredible sequence of emails that continues to give these leads value and nurturing until they're ready to purchase.
- Utilize numbers to prove social evidence: "Come join over 550 members!" When our brain recognizes that other members are there, we are more likely to sign up. FOMO is an actual thing.
- Tell your members about the benefits of being members How many of you are currently members? Are they members that prospective members might like to see? Brag about that! (e.g. "Come with the most successful marketing leaders" in Kansas !")
- Brag about affiliations Are you proud of your high-value connections to groups or associations your business has ties to? Let people know! (e.g. "Proudly supported by Forbes .")
- Make a statement about the media coverage you have received: Talk about any big press coverage that your organization has had (e.g. "As as seen in Inc. Magazine !")
- Be on podcasts: Many podcasts are seeking guest speakers. Are you able to be featured on one and take advantage of their audience?
- Advertise on podcasts: You might also consider the possibility of sponsoring a show that fits your niche.
- Lend your expertise to journalists: Journalists need experts. They can interview you to write relevant articles. You can sign up for something similar to the HARO (Help Reporter Out). ).
- Tell the world about your founder's story If you know that your founder has an amazing story to tell, some followers, or even qualifications, then you could utilize that information in your advertising too. (e.g. "Led by Dr. John Jacob Jingleheimershmit, Ph.D .")
- Provide incentives to certain groups: e.g. Harvard alumni can receive 50% off membership fees.
- Create great alliances Make sure you have great partnerships with organizations in your ecosystem doing similar work to the ones you're doing. Avoid competing with them. Partner with them.
- Offer student discounts: If some of your Ideal Members may be struggling to pay for their membership, you can offer discounts to encourage your members to join.
- Offer seasonal discounts: You could offer discounts on memberships for the season too.
- Open only at specific times Certain organizations have experienced huge success with limited windows to join - which creates fear of missing out and creates. (e.g. The membership deadline is this week! )
- Add it on social media platforms: Share invitations to join your club on social media!
Get visible
- Write your book The process is certainly it's a lot more work than you think. Writing a book regardless of whether you self-publish it will help establish your brand as an authority.
- Get started with your podcast There are a lot out there, but a good podcast still grows your brand and establishes your company as professionals.
- Create your own YouTube channel: You don't have to appear everywhere on social networks, but did you have the knowledge that YouTube operates as an indexing platform? That means the content you published years ago will continue to receive views even to this day (unlike the majority of other social media platforms). If you like creating videos, this could be an effective strategy!
- Upload your video to YouTube Create a YouTube video for your next community event or the interview of an authority and upload some or all of the content on YouTube. Giving some great content away can encourage members to become members of your organisation, not less.
- Get into the traditional media Imagine if there were massive audience to tap into? Actually, there are! Consider pitching your work to traditional, as well as "earned" or "earned" media. It's unlikely that you'll get all of them, but it's a great method to be the attention of those who need it.
- Participate in trade magazines: If your business is represented by a newsletter or magazine Try to be involved with writing it!
- Begin a trade publication or newsletter: If there isn't one, create it!
- Guest posting in other blogs: Find most popular blogs within your organisation's area and pitch a guest post.
- Present your members to the world There is no need to do all this writing and creating yourself. If you already have members or leaders that are interested, help them get published.
- Create an app: If you're able to create an app to help your customers, you can offer a ton of value. Learn how to create an app with no programming.
Events & Learning
- Live stream: Try broadcasting live to your employees on a regular basis! It's a great method of keeping them updated and talking about your organization.
- Interview great guests: People love interviews with professionals. Find people who bring value to your members and/or new members, and then interview them either online or in person.
- Hosting an AMA: "Ask me anything" sessions, made popular through reddit, are great methods to allow people to ask any questions they need to ask. (e.g. "I founded a million-dollar corporation I'm willing to answer any question you want .")
- Create an interactive networking event: Create space for potential participants of your organisation to get together and build relationships.
- Host an online networking session The same as above, but virtual!
- Create the virtual "speed networking" session: A alternative to traditional networking, speed networking lets you get to know as many people as possible while only spending a few minutes with each.
- Hosting an Open House Open space for people who aren't members is the perfect opportunity to connect you and your members and get to know the community, and ultimately expand your members.
- Create a virtual summit One of the greatest ways to establish yourself as an authority (and maybe bring in some more revenue) could be hosting an online summit. It should be a regular event!
- Live performances are a great way to entertain your audience The talk show isn't the most popular event people enjoy. Consider putting on a live event (musical or stand-up.) to get some good publicity for your company.
- Host an online performance Everything we've just mentioned, but online!
- Present at a conference There are conference for almost everything. Find one in your niche and make a speech on behalf of your company.
- Events sponsored by sponsors: Everybody thinks about speaking at events however, most events require sponsors. This is a fantastic opportunity to increase the visibility of your business.
- Organise a fundraising event: Choose an issue that you are passionate about and get money to support it.
- Get a table to hold a conference. If the conference you are attending within your field is searching for exhibitors, reserve tables to showcase your company. Do something different instead of handing out brochures!
- Host free meals: Try making meals available for your guests to meet, socialize and to learn. Who doesn't love free food?
- Meetings that are public. When you're an organization with a local focus and you want to make your meetings public, they can offer the organization exposure.
- Host the LinkedIn live stream: If you're qualified to go live on LinkedIn, hosting a panel is a good way to get to the right users!
- Try Social Spaces on Twitter: Hosting or participate in a voice-only party in a Twitter Space (or Clubhouse).
- Create a free course one method to make yourself known as an expert in your industry and provide value is to design a no-cost course in which you will teach the things you're knowledgeable about.
- Create a paid course: Everything we said above, but you get revenue too. Plus, people are more likely to remain with something they paid for.
- Host an event: Get with other groups within your area of interest and host a conference!
- Offer members-only pricing: If you are hosting an event, ensure that you are a member.
- Host your event in a exotic location If your clients are well-heeled, they might want to host a conference or an annual gathering in an exciting, exotic location. They can combine business with fun.
- Have fun: don't take yourself too serious. Be sure your parties allow plenty of space for fun and laughter.
Concepts for local groups
- Create an online directory of businesses: You Chamber of Commerce probably keeps an inventory of local businesses as well as organizations.
- Door-to-door is a bit old-school, but people rarely get visits IRL. If you're a member of an organisation that has a prospective member you can drop in and not make a big deal of it (e.g. an owner of local businesses) Go talk to them!
- Set up a booth at an event in your area: conference aren't the only way to get acquainted with individuals. Choose fun, local fairs and festivals and put up a stand.
- Rent out your space: When you are hosting a gathering in an actual space, you can raise awareness and earn some additional money by renting the space out for special events.
- Create posters When you're organizing a local celebration or have membership openings coming up, put up posters throughout town.
- You can try local Facebook marketing. We've talked about Facebook above, but you can also advertise by geographical location. It can be cheap and cost-effective, through Facebook it is possible to get your message out to the whole city or town via customized advertisements.
- Try Craigslist A messaging board and it's completely free. Utilize websites like Craigslist to advertise to would-be members.
- Use the newspaper: It's somewhat old-fashioned, however ads on your local paper can bring in interest (especially when you're Ideal Members are a little more mature).
- Let the paper know about events: If you're planning an event that is cool, reach out to the paper in your town to ask if they want to cover the event.
Offer tranquility
- It's easy to cancel If someone joins and decide it's not appropriate for them, then allow them to leave at a moment's notice. Inform people of your cancellation policy (and alter the rules from time to time), and how to make a cancellation.
- Provide a money-back assurance This eliminates the "what is the risk if this doesn't work suitable for me" risks. In the event that your participants do not think the product is a good fit, they aren't out the money.
- Have written member testimonials If you've already got members loving the work you've done, members testimonials placed on a website go far.
- Test video testimonials: They're rarer, but video testimonials are solid gold.
- Try a free trial offer It's pretty simple. Consider letting them sign up for free. Be aware that those who are able to join free of charge are often less likely to participate and be committed.
- Do not require credit cards: When your free trial requires a credit card, some people fear they'll fail to cancel. Offering a trial without the card can make them feel secure.
Other Ideas
- Institutional memberships If your company doesn't offer institutional memberships yet make it happen! OR, create bundles for institutions (e.g. prices for 10 seats). ).
- Join relevant bodies: Joining appropriate professional organizations or bodies (e.g. industries associations and think tanks) will help you gain better exposure.
- Donate research to: Depending the scope of your organization, partnering with research organizations in the field you work in is an effective way to highlight your research and help the cause that you're passionate about.
- Pricing tiered for membership Membership fees aren't always alike, and therefore your membership fees aren't the same for everyone. Make your pricing for memberships in a way that has an option for every member.
- Pricing for yearly and monthly: Some people might know they're willing to commit. There are those who just would like to try dipping a toe into.
- Charge something: it's a counterintuitive hack for members' growth. But people often don't value what they don't pay for. Companies with memberships paid for usually have higher engagement.
- Let renewal be easy: While it's not exactly growing new members, you shouldn't let go of your existing members!
- Watch your churn rate A few turnovers, AKA churn, is typical. But if your turn rate increases, try to figure out what's causing it.
Are you ready to begin?
There's plenty to learn from this We're sure. We hope that you leave this feeling encouraged, and not frightened. In the end, you don't need to do everything. Even a few of these executed correctly can be a game changer.
After you've learned the best way to boost membership within an organisation, why not consider a great community platform? We've developed this on . is a complete community platform which brings together memberships and forums, as well as messaging, live events, classes, and subgroups. It's a powerful tool, and we even build totally customized, white-label apps for your business.
Do you want to begin growing your membership with a great community?