Driving Innovations in Membership Recruitment, Retention and Engagement Maria Tong ASAE China Representative

Agenda Membership cycle and what matters Trends for future membership What should you consider to respond the trends and case studies

“Membership is the lifeblood of every association.” Why membership? “Membership is the lifeblood of every association.” – Kevin P. Corcoran

R e t a i n R e c r u i t Value and Engagement Value is WIIFM (What in it for me), making a reason for member to join. Engagement starts from the first day a member interacts with an association. Engagement makes members to stay. R e t a i n Join Renew

Trends to future membership Membership in context: providing value to members where they are The impact of other decision-makers: engaging influencers to get new members Changing roles and responsibilities: the association position in the larger community Data: identifying a new opportunity for associations Innovation in member engagement

1、Membership in context - the value Value to individual members relative to where they are in their life journey Shift from “association defines value” to “members define value” How association defines the community is different from how individual does 1, at different stages of individual’s professional life, his needs must change. One size fits all doesn’t work. Association must provide resources and supports for a variety of situations while individual members change their personal needs. 2. However, the opportunities to effectively meet individual expectations based on context must be balanced with the understanding that an association can’t be all things to all people. The very notion of providing such individually oriented program and services seems to run counter to the collective aspects of associating with a group of people for a larger good. 3. An individual’s reason for joining may evolve and no longer remain their reason for renewing

What should you consider? How can you keep up to date on a member’s context? Are there any new membership needs that your association can address? What opportunities do you have to gather this information? Are there any new emerging market or new demographic change in membership? Personalization and segmentation in communication On new member and renewal forms, ask members why they joined or what will make this year’s dues payment worth it Share 2 case studies- AIGA (membership pricing), IUAA(small events)

Membership categories Rather than title, position

Evolving categories 1 Electronic 2 Product Driven 3 Customized 4 Corresponding 5 Enterprise/Corporate 6 Committee/SIG/COP Driven 7 Emerging economies 8 Traditional but Multi-year

2、The Impact of other decision makers Influencers: other players have a role in the membership decision: family, faculty advisors, senior colleagues, etc. What association are doing now and could do in the future to influence the influencers to gain new members and more fully engage their existing members Trade associations have an especially difficult time measuring satisfaction and engagement through only one point of contact 1.It’s not always the member making the membership decision; could be CEO, HR director, supervisor 2, share 2 case studies-

What should you consider? Reach out to potential members through their influencers. Who might influence a prospect’s decision to join and how would you reach that person? What business challenges does the influencer have that the prospect’s membership can help address? Is it possible to establish the idea of community among the decision-making group even they are not the member of the association? In large member company, we have to make our membership pitch to perhaps ten people and our approach has to be different for each of them Challenges are different fro professional associations and trade associations. Reach out through their influencers Ask the audience if they have any experience in reaching out influencers, share this experience. Association can creatively and effectively engage with families to expand membership and create appositive membership experience

3、Changing roles and responsibilities Competition from Social media and Corporates (Use of “member” to establish loyalty among customers) Increasing social responsibility among for-profits Member expects the professional community to contribute to and support their larger community.

What should you consider? What unique and exclusive resources can you offer? How do you communicate your competitive advantage? How are you creating ambassadors who can articulate this value? Make a brag sheet for your association or industry.. (Think about reaching influencers with this.) The opportunities to partner with companies on social responsibilities program. Think about unique and exclusive resources association can offer.

4、Data: identifying new opportunities Associations have a lot of data but we are not always collecting the right data, or rarely using it to the full extent Member experienced difficulties managing the volume of information

What should you consider? What data do you collect on a regular basis and how are you using this data? What would you rethink to provide value in terms of information and knowledge? Inventory all your sources of data and hire a grad student or statistics temp to dig in and find you new insights Prioritization of information for the individual that is accessible and specific to that person’s life life journey Association can play a role in helping members to determin the most important and relevant information.

5、Innovation in member engagement

New generation Generation shifts as boomers retire and millennials become the majority in the workplace Case study: AIGA The next generation’s needs: participation, contribution, ownership, rich experience, curation, relevance, clear sense of value. To achieve the goal, they resturcture so that there was greater emphasis on the benefits delivered at the chapter level AAUW case: Program “Start smart” . Educational program on wage negotiation for women engaged in the post college job search . Demonstrating the benefits of associations to be the young colleague graduates. The UNT research on these young professionals highlighted their preferences, echoing the finding of the studies ant he discussion of at the retreat, easily accessible and relevant information , socially import outreach activities, and networking opportunities for all members, regardless of career stage. AIGA case: AIGA determined if they are going to attract next generation, they must address following needs: participation, contribution, ownership, rich experience, curation, relevance,clear sense of value. To achieve the goal, they resturcture so that there was greater emphasis on the benefits delivered at the chapter level. The

Case study: CMIC Gamification Game ON! The Gamification of the 2011 GMIC Sustainable Meetings Conference,

Online community (mobile) Case study: AANAC Discussion in Action

Thank you Maria Tong mtong@asaecenter.org