Seven simple ways to grow association membership

How can your small staff attract more association members? Here are seven easy ways to grow your association’s membership.

Growing association membership is a never-ending project. Every year, members leave your association. They change jobs or professions, go out of business, lose their professional development budget, retire, or just leave for unknown reasons. As members go out the back door, you must keep new ones coming in the front.

But how can you continually increase membership – especially when you have a small staff?

Let’s look at seven simple approaches that will result in membership growth for your association.

Seven ways to grow association membership

1. Provide targeted, valuable content to increase lead generation.

Make sure you’re providing content that helps you develop relationships with membership prospects. And what’s the first thing to do in any relationship? Get to know the other person.

Identify and research different segments of your target membership audience, for example, students, early career, mid-career, executives, and professionals in transition. Here’s what to ask to identify their content needs:

• What do they need to know to advance their careers or do their jobs better?
• What issues trouble them?
• What challenges do they encounter?

If you provide valuable content for prospective members, they’ll keep coming back to you for more. They’ll begin to think of you as a reliable source for information and a partner who helps them reach their goals. Your content then becomes the catalyst for converting website visitors into prospects (leads) and then converting prospects into new members.

2. Rethink your membership levels.

There are multiple benefits to updating your membership levels. Doing so can help ensure you’re delivering membership packages that appeal to potential members’ budgets, preferences, career stages, and more.

But how can you rework your traditional membership models so that they’re better aligned with what modern members want? Here are three examples of membership models to consider:

• Career-stage tiers – Members often have different needs and are looking for different benefits at various stages throughout their career journeys. Think about offering membership tiers based on various career stages, such as:
  • Student or new professional tier – This tier could provide an affordable discounted rate for the first year of membership for this group and might offer a limited set of benefits that would appeal most to them.
  • Professional/intermediate tier – This tier might offer benefits for those who are looking to grow professionally through continuing education, career advancement resources, and deeper involvement in association leadership.
  • Lifetime/retiree tier – This tier could offer professionals who have a long career in your industry the opportunity to stay involved. For example, it could include ongoing access to select benefits, such as industry updates, networking events, and mentorship opportunities.
• Corporate tier – This tier can appeal to businesses in your industry that want to encourage multiple employees to join your association. It might include group membership discounts, customized educational programs, and corporate branding opportunities.
• Premium membership – This membership option might give members full access to member benefits, allowing members to take advantage of any or all benefits year-round.

As you update your membership tiers, make sure you confirm that the benefits and value of each membership package meet the needs of your members. You might accomplish this by sending a survey to, or conducting a focus group with, a select group of diverse members.

3. Develop appealing messaging around your membership levels.

Build value statements for your membership levels that establish the unique value each of your membership levels provides. The statements should concisely explain what benefits each membership package or level offers.

• Some questions to address in your value statement include:
• Who does each membership package help
• What are the benefits of each membership package
• Why is each membership offering more desirable than similar ones on the market

Your value statements should be the core of your messaging for each membership level. They will help you to convince your target audiences that it’s time to join (or renew).

Create messages based on your target audiences for each membership level. Be sure to keep messages consistent with your organization’s branding, and mention your association’s overall value proposition. Then, push your messages out through various marketing channels, such as social media, text messaging, and email marketing, that are most effective for each of your target audiences.

4. Step up your social media interaction.

Social media provides another channel for attracting new members. Find out what platforms your prospects and members use and how they use them. Develop a focused social media strategy that’s aligned with your organization’s membership and marketing strategies, and with the needs and interests of your prospects and members. Let that strategy guide your efforts so that your time is invested wisely.

Use social media to demonstrate your value as a membership resource. In addition to sharing your own content, select interesting and informative content from other sources to share.

Also, let followers know about the membership experiences you provide – events, online learning, publications, and other resources. Provide a preview of membership value – for example, snippets of online community discussions. And consider using Facebook ads for highly targeted promotional campaigns.

Be sure to differentiate your association from other organizations and brands by being personable and conversational in your posts.

5. Simplify the path to association membership.

When prospects are ready to join, don’t let barriers stand in their way. Make sure the joining process is quick and easy. Start by testing your website:

• Will first-time visitors know they’re in the right place?
• Can they immediately see the value you provide to members?
• Is it obvious what impact membership will make on their life?
• Is it easy to figure out how to join?

Make joining as painless as possible. Lengthy forms are a turn-off, so ask only for what’s necessary in your online membership application – the data you need now to process their membership. You can always ask for more data later.

Price is another potential barrier to joining. Consider offering a budget-friendly monthly installment membership plan. Paying initial monthly dues of, for example, $25, is easier to swallow – especially for early careerists – instead of annual dues of $300.

6. Offer an incentive to join your association.

An incentive can break down the last psychological barrier to joining. Choose an incentive that deepens the membership experience. For example, offer new members a special discount toward a future networking event or webinar registration. Promote the incentives on your home page, in your blog sidebar, in email campaigns, and on social media.

Add a sense of urgency to the incentives you offer. For example, members who join before a certain date get an exclusive invitation to a special in-person or virtual educational event. Make sure the event is exclusive and special.

Also, provide an incentive for your built-in network of recruiters, your current members. For every successful membership referral they provide, give them a gift as a thank you, and recognize their contributions in publications and at events.

7. Enhance the member experience with modern membership management software.

Membership recruitment isn’t the only never-ending project. You can never stop learning about your prospects and members. The more you know about their needs, interests, and preferences, the better decisions you’ll make about the content, products and services – the value – you deliver to them.

Take advantage of your membership software to collect and analyze data about the interests and engagement of prospective members, new members, and existing members. Also, use it to connect with members in engaging ways, such as through an online member community.