Pitch Camaraderie - It Never Gets Old

I'm currently preparing a FY2012-2013 Membership Marketing Plan for one of clients. As part of this process, I'm speaking with Board members and other volunteer leadership to get their perspectives. As part of my interview process, I always ask..."Why did YOU join?"

The overwhelming reason from each of the 12 people I spoke to was because they were looking for...

"Camaraderie"

On the heels of these interviews, I was also reviewing a member acquisition letter that, even after years and years of use, it still remains one of my best responding letters. It starts..."As a member of our profession I know you understand how important being  a member of a community is."

Its an interesting dichotomy that as technology allows us to become more independent and possibly "reclusive," we're still drawn to each other for ideas, affirmation and confirmation.

My point is to suggest that you DON'T UNDERSELL THIS when preparing your member promotions. "Camaraderie" is still something we look for and are willing to pay for. Some also want discounts, training, social media...but these simply don't seem to be as consistantly desired as "Camarderie."

Membership Acquisition - Some Practical Advice

If you're interested in some ideas on a variety of tactics to drive your membership at any stage of the Membership Lifecycle, take a look at my most recent article "Member Acquisition - Some Practical Advice" in CalSAE's The Executive. 

Here's the link:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/naylor/CSES0411/#/8

Reporting to you LIVE, from 30,000 feet! A Truth to Successful Marketing: Multiple Touch, Multiple Channels & Multiple Cycles

As I wing my way back from MN where I've been attending a 2-day meeting at our corporate headquarters in MN (ooooofta!), I thought it would be a good idea to write a quick editorial on a very important topic.

The offer and the list are still the most important elements of any member acquisition effort. However, the days of sending out one direct mail piece or making one phone call, and expecting that one effort to be singularly profitable are declining...if not simply over.

Today, to have a successful campaign you have to use multiple channels, email/direct mail/telemarketing/etc., multiple times during a singular initiative to even hope of  being somewhat successful. 

My experience with my clients finds that we can, on average, increase the response rate of a member acquisition program (by as much as 50%) by following up a direct mail piece with a series of emails.

We've also recommend the use of telemarketing as one of the final efforts in renewal programs, after a series of emails and letters. 

Would you be happy with a 500% return on your member acquisition? Is your membership acquisition program too successful?

I visited a client this week and told him that "I have good news and bad news."

Good news first! I showed him a summary of the eight new member acquisition campaigns that we've run for him during the past 19 months. The results have been great. For every $1.00 he spent with MGI we returned $5.38 in membership dues.

A 1:5 ratio. An impressive metric. This was accomplished with new offers, a new package and using internal lists (expired members, product buyers) and a few external lists.

But its too much good.

Now the Bad News...I told my client that the return prompted me to make two recommendations: 1) we need to be more aggressive in our list and channel testing. While I do believe that my team - shout out to Toya - and MGI do a great job (hopefully many of you feel the same way), every campaign can't be a winner. Let's be realistic. We're ecstatic with a ratio of 1:1. The typical metric for retail is 1:3 or 1:4. I told him that we need to be increasing the size of our campaigns using more outside lists.

He got it right away! Even though we're just now beginning to dig our way out of a recession, he understood that he needs to invest more in exploring new opportunities.

The second recommendation was to review his renewal program. While the lists of product buyers ranks as the #1 response list for these campaigns, the #2 has been non-renewed members. If we take a Systems Approach to membership acquisition as outlined by the Membership Lifecycle, we realize that the success of our reinstate program is inversely dependent upon the success of the renewal and engagement programs. Given that the reinstate is so successful strongly indicates that not enough is being done to renew these expired members and possibly not enough has been done to get them engaged after they joined.

He understood.

We're now working to increase the number of lists and channels that we test and we'll be reviewing the renewal and engagement programs as we move forward.

But what about your reinstate and acquisition programs? Are they too successful? What return should you reasonably expect? These are important questions to answer.