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Recruiting new members is an important task for many associations. In
this article membership development consultant Sue Froggatt covers some
of the main questions you need to be able to answer when planning an
effective recruitment campaign.
Before you start to plan your recruitment activity there are four areas
in which you need to have a clear understanding of a number of issues.
Firstly, what is the real value of membership? Have you
analysed the usage and value of the products and services that you
offer? Is it professional status, accreditation, the need to connect
with others in the community, your affinity schemes, the information you
provide, etc? Compared to other providers, in which of these areas is
your association particularly strong? Knowing what you really have to
offer will help you to determine who to target, the marketing approach
to use and how to write more powerful messages in your promotional
material. It may also uncover the need to develop new products and
services.
Secondly, what triggers interest in joining your
association amongst the group you are targeting? Find out from members
what was happening in their personal or business life that made them
interested in joining. If you map this out, you will find that people
and business follow ‘pathways’ of behaviour. By understanding those
pathways that lead to interest in joining, you can focus your attention
on finding people or business in particular situations.
For example,
triggers or catalysts for an individual could be that during their
appraisal their manager suggests they study for a qualification and
recommend joining a professional association and so you might decide to
target managers. For a company it could be a change in the location,
size, status or direction of the business means they now want to join
the trade association and be seen as part of the industry. One trade
association recently told me that their annual exhibition acted as a
catalyst for joining, because the prospective member would receive a
discount on the price of their stand. Other triggers could be new
legislation or adversity. There are many different triggers and when you
have identified those which stimulate interest, you can focus your
attention on others about to go through the same situation.
Thirdly what is the best way to get their attention?
Everyday we all receive hundreds of messages competing to attract our
attention and we only pick up on one or two. We will notice any that
help us solve a problem or need that we have already identified for
ourselves. That is the reason why researching the two steps above is so
important, because it will get us closer to people who are likely to be
on the lookout for what we can offer them.
In general
the strongest approach will always come when someone we know and trust
recommends an association. We are more influenced by other people than a
list of benefits. The phrase ‘your best salesman is a happy customer’
applies to membership associations and member-get-member schemes, when
managed in the right way, they are very effective. However remember that
some members will not want to get involved and you will need to manage
members who are happy to help out. The Allegiance® member segmentation
model would help you determine who would be interested in getting
involved.
Finally, what does the recruitment process look like from
the prospective members point of view? How long does it take and what
questions do they have at each stage in the process?
From our point of view, we would prefer it to be as short
as possible. We give them an information pack and hope they sign up. But
unless you have a very low subscription level, this is not likely to
happen.
Typically
the buying process goes through the four stages of the AIDA model –
attention, interest, desire and action. If we take the time to
understand this from our prospective members point of view, we can work
out the best way to naturally advance them along these stages and
identify where the hold-ups or problems might occur.
For example,
one barrier introduced later in the process could be a long application
form. Why not make the initial sign up procedure as simple as possible
and gather other information either during the recruitment process or
after they have signed up?
To conclude, minor adjustments in the recruitment process
can make a significant difference to the results, however if you decide
to make any significant alterations, please make sure that you have
tested them out first.
This
article was published in
Association Manager in September 2004 I
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