Membership organizations have two main goals: gain and retain members. Members are the lifeblood of any membership company and without being able to recruit new members and keep them happy, re-subscribe members, you will soon find yourself in a bind.

Marketing can be used to help win new members and reinforce the value proposition for existing members. Many member organizations put off marketing because they feel it is expensive and time consuming. However, there are many marketing activities that even the most limited association can undertake.

So what are our top 10 membership marketing tips?

1. Create and understand your ‘buyer persona’: Understand who your main customers are. These will fall into two categories: those who are not members and need to understand who you are and why they should join, and those who are members and need to understand why they should continue to subscribe. Find out who your typical new or existing member is: what they do, what business/personal problems they face, where they spend their time online, who they turn to for advice, what is the key factor in their decision to join a membership organization members? Understanding your buyer persona will ensure that your marketing messages are created to target exactly these people.
2. Make more use of your website: Your website and online presence is your most valuable and profitable marketing tool. Make sure you squeeze every little benefit out of it.
1. Optimize for search engines to make sure you can be found online
2. Establish clear sales routes so potential members can easily understand the benefits of membership and the subscription process.
3. Allow members to log in to a self-service portal so they can manage their own membership profile, make purchases, register for events, and purchase relevant products.
4. Enable social sharing of documents and pages
5. Integrate social media feeds.
3. Create engaging, useful, and thought-leadership content: Create content that both prospects and members want to read and share. This is a great way to boost your site on search engines and social platforms, driving traffic and positioning yourself as an industry thought leader. It encourages people to come back to your website again and again (and refer you to others in your industry), whether they’re a member or not.
4. Encourage online discussions: Allow members and non-members to communicate through an integrated self-service portal, a members-only forum area, and/or through social media platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook. If members can use your website or social accounts as a hub to come and engage in discussions with their peers, you’ll not only be able to keep up with the latest industry news, issues and issues, but you’ll also be able to market yourself as a hub. through which both members and non-members can network.
5. Make sure your membership offer stays up to date: People want to make use of online communications, so make sure you can communicate via email, social platforms, and through your website. Allow members to login to manage their own membership. Try to eliminate as much paper as possible from the subscription and resubscription process; then be sure to communicate these innovations to your members and prospects.
6. Make it easy for members to rejoin: Be sure to contact members before your membership expires; if they don’t know their membership needs to be renewed, how will they remember to do it? Encourage renewals by offering early reinstatement discounts and offer multiple ways to pay, including online payments, direct debits and automatic credit card payments.
7. Make sure all your brand initiatives are in line with your core message:Decide what you want to stand for and make sure everything supports it, reinforcing the message wherever you are.
8. Make sure your membership events run as smoothly as possible: Take advantage of event software to make planning and executing events easier. Invite members via targeted emails, allow them to register online, give them access to their own self-service portal where they can manage their booking details, provide online post-event surveys, and more.
9. Build relationships with key industry personnel: Make sure relevant people in your industry know what you are doing and what your message is. Connect with journalists, key bloggers and industry experts through their websites, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Start building a relationship with these key people and find out what kind of news they are looking for. Then be sure to tell them about relevant news and events and give them all the information they need to help you promote them.
10. Be sure to communicate the value of membership: What do members gain by joining your organization? If they attend events, improve their grades, gain new connections and business, make sure they know about it (it’s easy to forget exactly what you’ve done over the course of a year; you can’t assume members will put in some mental effort). list of all the interactions and benefits they have had with your subscription). Make it easy for members to see exactly what they’ve earned through their membership and reinforce the value over and over again.