There is, probably literally, an association (or society, institute, council or other) for everything. Every form of economic activity, every sport, every political, governmental, scientific, artistic, military, or social group. The association universe is necessarily vast and multifaceted. Each organization serves to crystalize an industry or avocation, create cohesion, foster networking and education, influence the regulatory process, and more.
Associations can be huge, with hundreds of thousands of members. They can be regional, or serve smaller industries and niche topics. Within that realm are service providers that assist associations in mission-critical tasks like membership development and marketing. One of those service providers is Marketing General Incorporated, a 45-year-old marketing agency serving the association space. MGI, based in Alexandria, Virginia, focuses on membership marketing, and within that function does consulting, conducts research, manages lists and analyzes data, among other things.
John Sample.
Because of the vital role of associations in society, and the equally important role of keeping associations healthy, we were pleased to connect with John Sample, senior relationship director for MGI, who shared his company’s strategies and observations about the market. Here’s a transcript of our conversation.
Fox Tales: You mentioned the 2023 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report. What are three essential takeaways for the association world?
John Sample: The biggest takeaway is that there has been a substantial rebound in association membership after the incredible challenges of the past few years. Forty-nine percent of the associations that took part in our research reported an increase in member counts. That percentage is up from 38% in 2022 and 26% in 2021. This is a rebound worthy of celebration.
New-member acquisition is leading the way, correlating with the overall membership increases. In the report, 50% of associations showed an increase in new-member acquisitions. Over the years, we have found that a much higher percentage of associations experiencing higher levels of new-member acquisition are also more likely to have overall increases in membership.
Another robust correlation with growth centers on the innovation level of the association. Associations reporting increases in one-year and five-year membership are more likely to say that their organization is extremely or very innovative. The two most frequently cited new initiatives—one or more new membership benefits (48%) and expanding beyond core members (31%)—both correlate with membership growth.
Fox Tales: If not covered in the responses to Q1, what are the top challenges for associations in general in 2023?
Sample: This is a great question and we ask it in our membership marketing benchmark survey [An annual study that’s now 15 years old.] One of the consistent answers we get has to do with articulation and understanding of the organization’s value proposition. We have found that many associations have a robust value proposition, but struggle in articulating it to prospective members. The root cause of this challenge is where things get tricky. Perhaps there is just not enough communication to prospective members. Or perhaps the list of prospective members has been worked over and needs a refresh. Perhaps there isn’t any diversity of the channels used to communicate. Part of our challenge is to assist the association in effectively articulating that value proposition.
Another very specific challenge is retaining first-year members. We found the average overall renewal rate in our survey is 82%. The average first-year renewal rate is 71%. Associations reporting increases in overall membership over the past year and increases in new-member acquisitions are significantly more likely to report first-year member renewal rates of over 80%. Retaining a larger percentage of first-year members is top of mind for many associations that we speak with.
Fox Tales: Among your customer base, what are the most common services they seek from you?
Sample: We are having this conversation with Q4 looming large. Many of our clients are looking for an immediate boost to close their year strong. We believe the low-hanging fruit can be found in reinstating lapsed members. Our digital team and our telemarketing team are both executing a lot of reinstatement or win-back programs right now. It helps that they are low cost and high ROI.
In general, our clients look to us to assist with developing strategies to grow membership, to drive more event registrations and to attract more prospects to their certification programs. Our competitive advantage is that we not only assist with the strategy but also with the execution of the strategy. A lot of our competitors would love to present an association with a plan and wish them the best. We know that associations are understaffed. We assist with the plan but then run alongside the association staff in executing the plan and being accountable for the inevitable course correction that is required once the execution begins. The great boxer Mike Tyson was quoted as saying, “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” Our advantage is that we are in the association’s corner when the punch lands.
Fox Tales: Beyond hiring you, what should be top-of-mind in membership development?
Sample: We believe that there is a membership lifecycle made up of five interdependent phases:
- Creating awareness of the association and its value proposition.
- Recruiting new members.
- Engaging members.
- Renewing members.
- Reinstating lapsed members.
We often see organizations focusing myopically on one or two phases. Our research and experience tells us that focus on all five phases is crucial for membership growth. Being able to focus on all five phases is a tall order and as mentioned earlier, most associations struggle with having enough staff to do this effectively. We are often brought in to support the internal team in executing best practice programs in each of the phases.
I would add one additional thing. The simple mantra “Do Something” should be kept top-of-mind always. We often see organizations that are stuck in “analysis paralysis.” The cure is “Do Something.” Marketing is imperfect, there will never be a perfect plan. Stop waiting. Get something out into your marketplace, study the results and then course correct. “Do Something” is also the cure for associations with small budgets. A full multi-channel campaign may not be feasible, but doing nothing guarantees the status-quo, or worse.
Fox Tales: What’s the role of media within associations and non-profits in building membership? What media channels are emerging as primary/preferred?
Sample: Marketing General is celebrating 45 years of helping membership organizations grow. In the early days, direct mail was the workhorse of membership marketing. Today, we know that the magic in membership marketing is in the mix of tactics and platforms. We still do a ton of direct mail but paid digital advertising has become a huge driver of results in recent years. We are currently testing connected TV (CTV) and the results are very promising. Testing different media channels is essential to the successful marketing of any organization.
Fox Tales: Tell us about the role of organizations like Fox Associates in fulfilling your mission—and the association’s?
Sample: We are a team of 50 marketers, and while that might seem like a large team, there is never enough time to fully evaluate all of the tactics and channels that are available. We rely on a core group of supplier-partners to keep our saw sharpened, to help us in evaluating what’s next. I hear from Bill Bell at least once per quarter and we talk about what is working for Fox Associates and for our clients. I never fail to walk away with a few good ideas!