Wanted by Chapters Everywhere: Member Recruitment Training

Chapter volunteers and staff may say they can’t find time for training calls and webinars, but they can surely find one minute a week. Yes, that’s right, just one minute a week to learn about membership.

Every Friday in the late afternoon, send the Membership Minute to your chapter leaders and staff. This newsletter takes only one minute to read—and you’ve timed it to be sure.

In the Membership Minute, you provide Membership (and Marketing) 101 education that chapter leaders can apply to membership and events. Share basic concepts in marketing strategy and tactics, for example:

• Marketing benefits vs. features
• Audience segmentation
• Needs analysis
• Copywriting tips

If you’re stuck for content, you can find plenty of basic marketing and membership advice on the web. Rewrite and repurpose it for your chapter leaders—giving credit where credit is due.

The room was nodding at CEX when someone talked about the frustration of sending a prospect list to a chapter and then finding out they didn’t do anything with it. Sometimes it’s a matter of no time—the prospect list falls through the cracks of their busy schedule.

Sometimes, it’s a matter of know-how. Chapter leaders don’t really know the best way to nurture a membership lead. They’re not sure how to follow up with prospects who attend their events or are referred by members.

ARMA International has a web page dedicated to membership recruitment resources that includes:

• Action plan for identifying and recruiting prospects
• One-page membership marketing flyer
• Social media marketing primer
• List of new ARMA benefits
• Sample guest follow-up letter and employer justification letter

The American Public Works Association has a chapter leader YouTube channel with videos about chapter leader resources, Membership 101, and chapter success stories.

Here are a few more ideas from CEX attendees:

• Teach chapters how to comply with email marketing and data privacy regulations, including GDPR for European chapters, state privacy laws, and good ol’ CAN-SPAM.
• Provide sample introduction and follow up emails for different target audiences.
• Explain how to gather and use membership testimonials.
• Collect and share compelling chapter membership marketing copy.

Give chapter leaders and staff an online platform where they can connect with each other, share successes, and seek advice. An online community platform like Higher Logic or a collaboration platform like Slack provides a home for peer-to-peer relationship building as well as a library for chapter leader resources.

At an annual chapter leader conference, you can provide more formal training to chapter staff and volunteer leaders. Consider doing a member journey mapping exercise with them—this enlightening experience was a big hit at CEX.

Chapter leaders carry a heavy load of responsibilities, but the knowledge and skills they’re learning during their time in office will serve them well throughout their career and life. Celebrate their progress and congratulate them on membership victories. When they see the impact of new membership and marketing strategies and tactics, perhaps they will convince their successors to continue learning and growing membership with you.

Don’t wait for components to create their own membership marketing resources. Give them the resources they need—chances are, yours will be much better. As a bonus, chapters and affiliates are more likely to stick to your messaging and branding if they rely on your materials.

Your member recruitment toolkit could include:

• Membership marketing collateral: The Association for Corporate Growth provides membership marketing videos, PowerPoints, brochures, and branding guidelines to their chapters.
• Email templates: Sample copy for following up with the first-time event attendees (like this template from ARMA International ), making email “cold calls,” and following up email introductions.
• Sample marketing copy for the chapter’s membership page: For their chapters, the Risk Management Association has a list of benefits targeted at different market segments.
• Social media marketing resources: The Association for Vascular Access provides a tip sheet on creating a chapter Facebook page.

If chapter leaders don’t involve young members in discussions about membership, marketing, and programming, they end up relying on their own assumptions about the needs and preferences of younger members and prospects.

Advise chapters to recruit young members for board and committee positions so they’re at the planning table. Listening to younger voices helps chapters:

• Design events and programs that appeal to young professionals.
• Collect testimonials from young members about the impact of membership on their career.
• Avoid relying on old tools to reach new audiences.

Many chapters have a Young Professionals committee that plan events for their peers, for example, roundtables on topics of interest to early-career members and prospects, or community service projects.

Young professionals can’t always afford membership. Many are burdened by student loan debt or don’t have the financial support of an employer. To make it easier for young members to budget for dues payments, your association and chapters could consider testing a Young Professionals membership tier with lower dues, or offering monthly automated dues payments.

Words of warning were also raised about packaging membership with conference registration. Most associations see a lower retention rate for new members who join in this way unless they make a concerted effort to nurture them throughout their first year.

Membership drives are a great way to build recruitment momentum and a competitive spirit between chapters but they come with their own challenges. Members can get a little over eager during drives. Remind them to focus only on qualified leads. They shouldn’t spend time trying to get just anyone to join. Membership has to be a good fit for the prospect and the chapter.

Chapters and affiliates also must be able to handle the onboarding of a large group of new members who join during a drive. Don’t encourage membership drives unless both National and its components have set up sustainable processes for onboarding.

Where’s the first place a membership prospect goes? The chapter or affiliate website—it’s the chapter’s virtual membership brochure and front door. When components or affiliates operate independently from National, their digital presence often suffers. The old culprits are to blame: time and technology.

Components don’t always have enough time to update their website so it’s full of outdated information or lackluster copy. Prospects can’t tell if the chapter is active or not. They don’t see anything that persuades them to explore membership further.

Bargain basement technology is another problem. The website isn’t responsive (mobile-friendly), loads slowly, or has no search function. What happens? Website visitors don’t return. And if that’s not bad enough, Google punishes sites that aren’t mobile-friendly or quick-loading, so the chapter ends up on page 4 of search results.

To make sure chapter websites meet members’, prospects’, and Google’s expectations, do a chapter website audit as part of your annual review. Help chapters develop a plan to improve their website functionality and copy.

Don’t let your chapters flounder with bare-bones technology. Look into website and email marketing solutions you can offer to all chapters so they can improve their marketing and branding, search engine ranking, and communication with prospects and members.

For example, one of the CEX attendees covers the cost of a MailChimp premium subscription for their chapters. Or, provide email blast services as the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources does for its chapters—they explain how in their Chapter Leader Toolkit video.

1. Relieve the burden of administrative tasks so chapter staff and leaders can increase their focus on marketing and recruitment.
2. Find ways to streamline data entry, data-sharing with National, dues disbursement, and financial reconciliation.
3. Consider implementing a shared system, hosted by National, for processing payments and tracking financials.

What prevents a prospect from taking that last step and becoming a member? It often comes down to two cherished things: time and money. If joining the chapter or affiliate takes too long or looks too expensive, many prospects won’t make the effort.

1. Streamline the Joining Process: Show components how to streamline the joining process. Membership prospects expect to take care of all their business online, including association business, like joining and paying dues. Make sure components have the technology and processes in place to securely accept online membership applications (data) and dues payments.
2. Make Joining Process Short & Sweet: A long application is a deterrent to joining. Keep forms brief by collecting only the data you need to establish qualifications, you can gather the rest during new member onboarding. Granted, some societies have stringent membership requirements, but for the most part, it should only take a few minutes at the most to join or request to join your association. Either require chapters to use a standard application or review their application to make sure they’re not putting obstacles in the way of membership.
3. Offer Other Membership Options: The other barrier to membership is money. Many prospects can’t afford a large dues payment. Even if their employer pays, sometimes the employee has to spend the money up-front and get reimbursed later. Make it easy on them by offering Instead of paying a big initial bill, monthly dues payments are automatically charged to the member’s or employer’s credit card or made via an electronic funds transfer from a checking account.