How to drive revenue from your association’s webinars

You need to drive non-dues revenue, and your members want convenient on-demand learning opportunities.   

Here’s how to bring the two together so everyone wins. 

By Michelle Schweitz, Marketing Director, Community Brands

Driving non-dues revenue is essential for growing your association when you can’t simply raise the cost of membership dues. Meanwhile, research suggests that members are interested in on-demand, self-paced online courses: In the 2021 Association Trends Study by Community Brands, members in the study list on-demand online courses as a top way they would be likely to consume professional education and training opportunities. 

So, why not put the two ideas together? Why not drive revenue from your association’s webinars by offering them on-demand? 

The benefits of selling on-demand webinars
Making your webinars available on-demand and selling access to them offers multiple benefits: 

• Your association can re-use content you’re already producing – your webinars or content from other live events.
• Your members gain convenient access to content that helps them reach their career goals.
• You can charge a fee to access this valuable content, driving more revenue for your organization year-round. 

Four ideas for driving revenue from your association’s webinars
Here are some ideas for offering your association’s webinars on-demand to drive non-dues revenue: 

1. Offer sponsorships for your on-demand webinars.
Provide various options for companies in your industry to sponsor your on-demand webinars. For example: 

• A sponsor could sign up to create and present content for one of your webinars. This avenue for reaching a targeted audience as a thought leader in your industry can be highly appealing to potential sponsors.
• A sponsor could simply sponsor your content, with their logo highlighted as the sponsor for the webinar.
• You could offer on-demand webinar sponsorships as an add-on to other sponsorships that you offer, such as event sponsorships.

2.Sell on-demand webinars in your online store.
Your online store is a great place to promote and sell your on-demand webinars. For example:

• Sell on-demand webinar sponsorships through the store.
• Make on-demand webinars available for purchase to both members and non-members.
• Offer access to on-demand webinars as an add-on option for your other offerings, such as event registrations.

3.Offer credits.
Make on-demand webinars even more appealing to members and non-members by offering continuing education credits for completion of the webinars. 

4.Put the right technology in place.
The right learning management software can help you deliver on-demand webinars more efficiently while providing a great experience for learners. For example, YourMembership Learning powered by Freestone enables associations with small staffs to easily and professionally deliver on-demand content through a single platform. It allows you to:

• Manage, track, organize, store, and deliver on-demand courses.
• Offer a mobile-responsive learning portal that learners can access any time on any device.
• Monitor course progress, track credits, and automatically deliver certificates for course completion. 

Learn more.
When you need to drive non-dues revenue, and you have a small staff, it’s important to find ways to work as efficiently and effectively as possible. Discover more ways to increase non-dues revenue: Download the toolkit, Sponsorships 101.