Good News! Membership is Rebounding as reported by the 2011 Membership Benchmarking Report.

As reported by the 2011 Membership Benchmarking Report, released last week, over 600 membership marketing professionals and Executive Directors surveyed indicated that all three of the primary metrics that measure the 'vital signs' of association membership marketing are back to, or exceeding, 2009 levels.

Overall Membership...UP!

Overall New Member Acquisition...UP!

Overall Renewals...UP!

ALL UP over 2010.

So what does this mean to you? Strategically, a couple of things...

First, since these metrics are cumulative, meaning trends in new member acquisition and renewals determine the overall membership trend, they can give you a quick diagnostic of what is working for your association. 

Second, as indicated in the report, our industry is reporting a positive trend in each of these metrics. Comparing your own metrics to these 'industry benchmarks,' can help you possibly determine if your supporting your member acquisition &/or renewal programs properly.  

As a possible example, if you found your overall membership is unchanged, your renewals are up but your new member acquisition is down, and your goal is to grow your overall membership, you may want to consider reallocating some staff time &/or money from renewals to new member acquisition.   

Another example might be if you find that your overall membership is down, member acquisition is flat and renewals are down,  then your association is going against the overall industry trend and you may want to consider revamping your overall approach.

As many of you are preparing for 2012, knowing what to look at, with knowledge and understanding of the basic trends in an industry, can help you quickly identify the effectiveness of your programs and their impact on your overall membership efforts. These 'strategic tricks' are invaluable to your success and the success of your association.

Experts in Membership Marketing is written by Erik Schonher, Vice President, Marketing General Incorporated, and can be reached by phone at (703) 706-0358 and email at Erik@MarketingGeneral.com

How Often Do You Increase Your Membership Dues? - Results from the 2011 Membership Benchmarking Report

Recently I've been asked by several Executive Directors and Membership Marketers how often they should raise their dues?

This is obviously an important question and one that is unique to each association given its market, its penetration within the market, number of competitors, current dues rate and when the last dues increase was performed.

However, its been our experience that a small (10% or under) increase will, in most cases, have little to no impact on your membership numbers.

Respondents to the 2011 Membership Benchmarking Report seemed to fall in line with this as well.  When asked:

• "How often does your association raise membership dues?"
• "When was the last time your association raised membership dues?"
• "What was the average percentage of your last membership dues increase across all membership catagories?"

We found that "...30% of the associations reported that they will raise membership dues in 2011 and 71% will increase dues rates between 1% and 10%."

"How often does your association raise membership dues?"

17% responded "Annually"

4% responded "Every other year"

58% responded "As needed"

9% responded "Never"

12% responded "Other"