Club Membership
CLUB MEMBERSHIP
Membership / Engagement
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Member engagement has become a critical issue within the association, NFP, and club sector over the past few years, and with an aging membership base and fewer people wanting to volunteer it has never been more important to reach out support each other and develop a plan for the future membership and succession plan for your club.
We have put together some items and a list of strategies to help you engage with your members and the members of tomorrow.
1. Definitions - Meetings must be held to determine what member engagement means to your club/association. Member engagement can mean different things for different groups and even to different individuals, but to get started your committee must agree on one thing, your mission, purpose, objects (in the constitution), and what member engagement means to you collectively. If everyone's on the same page the next steps are easy!
2. Touchpoints - Does every person in the club leave a new contact feeling welcomed and as part of the club from day 1. If you have any one person who is not supporting the objectives of the club and being as welcoming as possible then people will simply go elsewhere for what they are looking for and generally that is a feeling of support and inclusion. It can be very hard to go to a new place for the first time. make sure the club has its best foot forward.
3. Feedback - It is so important to touch base with new members that have joined and especially with those who did not join to get some feedback as to why and then be able to act on that information in a tactful and supportive way. You might not like what you hear, but sometimes you have to hear it!
4. Have a plan - Your committee must review the above steps and come up with a plan of attack. Who are your best recruiters and who are your targets to recruit. Who are they, how old are they and where can you get in touch with them? Once you have a plan you must ensure that annually it comes up for review and to check that it is effective. If not, go back to step 1.
5. Who's your buddy - Once members are recruited are they in a 'buddy' system or who is contacting them in the first year to answer questions and make sure that they are getting emails. Someone must be appointed to make sure that they have everything that they need. Buddies should also be looking through cancelled memberships and lapsed memberships to see if they can ask why they lapsed and if they might join again? Always get them to fill out a feedback form, even if you ask the questions over the phone (not everyone likes email) to get some feedback to consider.
6. Bulk memberships - Are there any groups or associations that you can work with which might attract a bulk membership sign up? Can we add any membership benefits that might attract bulk membership?
7. Remember failure to plan is planning to fail. If you need more help with member engagement specific to your needs contact us, members can get assistance for FREE.
Free Newsletter Website - Mail Chimp
Free Design Website - Canva
Free Social Media - Facebook
Free Social Media - Instagram
Free online survey website - Survey Monkey
Low cost Website Design - Crazy Domains
Low cost Membership CRM - Hubspot
Member Type?
Every club has one thing in common, a diverse group of members but they have consistent member types. What's your member type?
* THE ADVOCATE - These are your members who have and can actively advocate for membership/ volunteers and getting involved.
* THE PIONEERS - Founders and life members who have a sense of ownership for the establishment and creation of the club/association. *PASSIVE SUPPORTERS - Members who are don't actively participate in events but still want to be members.
*ACTIVE SUPPORTERS - Members who actively participate in events. *RESISTERS - Members who resist change.
*DRIVERS - Members who actively wish to grow and improve the club.
Tools to Engage with Members
Challenges
It is extremely important that clubs and associations abide by privacy legislation and at the same time keep communication lines open with their current, past, and future club members through some of the following list of communication tools.
Newsletters
Member Updates
Feedback forms
Marketing and membership information
Member joining literature
Volunteering opportunities
Website updates
Presence at events
Running suitable member events and attracting non-member guests
Encouraging and responding to social media comments and messages
Providing member benefits - extra reasons to join
Show good governance and strong but fair leadership
Ensure all touchpoints are supportive and assisting new members
Typically most clubs struggle with the same issues.
* No system for managing member relations.
* Diversity in the membership goals.
* No feedback loops in place.
* Lack of uniformity in messaging.
* Member retention.
* Ineffective member administration.
* Attracting new members.
* Handling unengaged members.
* Member personality clashes.
* Unengaged or uneducated volunteer board.
Member Management
Why Engage?
It can be difficult managing members and memberships, not only can choosing a CRM (customer relationship management) program be difficult but then there are newsletters, managing the lodgement of documents, and numerous other things to consider.
You must engage with your members for today and the members of tomorrow. But most of all, you need to ensure that there are as many touchpoints as possible to gain feedback and insights as to why you are losing and why you are gaining members.
Your management of the members must include the following groups.
1. Manage the disgruntled - These are members who generally want to be a member but have become either disillusioned for some reason, either they can’t use your offers anymore, or your policy and services don't align with their needs. This means that you need to either adapt services to suit these members and keep them on board or try to get further feedback on what they need and see if you can support them in some way.
2. Manage the unengaged - These are members who don't really attend events or engage with the club but are the most 'at risk' of dropping their membership due to 'lack of use'. They must be communicated with and need support, or they might become 'disengaged' and cancel without reason or return.
3. Leaders and consumers - Active and involved members are great, as they help us achieve what we need too. But there is always the chance that they will get burn-out or not feel appreciated.
4. Lapsed members or non-renewals - Members may have not renewed simply because the offers of the club were not relevant to them anymore. Messaging to this audience needs to be clear, benefit-driven, and focused on club improvement (through feedback) and re-recruitment.
5. Unemployed members - Some members might cancel due to unemployment or redundancy and in this instance the tone and way in which these communications should be considered.
If you personalise and put effort into understanding your members you will quickly learn the best path to grow and attract more members to your organisation. Ask yourself the following questions:
* What strategic challenges/opportunities do we want to address?
* What is our core value proposition? How are we communicating it?
* How are our members segmented? What services do they use?
Retention rates go up significantly when members feel engaged and connected.
Engaged members are proud to be members. Increasing member loyalty creates referrals which is the strongest path to additional member acquisition.
A member who is engaged through something interactive are more likely to purchase services.
The cost to acquire a new member is very high compared to the relatively modest cost of reaching out and engaging a member.