Membership Growth Blog

So I tried to put my principles into practice this week by hosing a Toastmasters demonstration meeting. I lined up a great speaker, got a Toastmaster, and even got the best room in our building to do the demo in. I had even had over 15 people tell me that they were going to attend and they were going to bring friends.

I had 6 people come. Only 6 people! You need at least twenty paying members to charter a Toastmasters club and I only had 6. What did I do wrong?

I posted flyers in approved places, I sent out e-mails, and I posted an ad in the company newsletter. Why out of 2200 people in our office did only 6 people show up?
Face Time.

The reason that more people did not come is that they are bombarded everyday with people asking them to spend time on an activity. E-mails, signs, and postings on internet sites do not work. The only way to truly attract more members is to get out there, get some face time, and show your potential members why it is important to join an organization.

Next time, food, fun, and an even better speaker.

Better luck next time,
Chris

What is your conversion rate? In Internet marketing speak they call when a user clicks from the front page to a sales page the click-through. In terms of membership organizations, the conversion rate is the rate at which you turn visitors into members? It is a little similar.

So what is the best way to convert guests to members? An Open House.

Open houses give you an opportunity to show off what your organization has to offer without the rigid formality of a standard meeting. It also might add an element that many college students find important, free food. I remember during undergrad and grad school, the organizations that had the most new members were the ones that had the best free food.

A lot of churches have forgotten this important membership building tool. My 93 year old Great Uncle has told me many stories of his famous pancake breakfasts. At these events, hundreds of people would come through the doors to have some free pancakes. Did they get every one of those people through the door to become members? No, but for open houses you are looking at the numbers.

It could be that you find your normal conversion rate is 1 in 5. So for every five visitors you get 1 new member. What if you are only getting one guest at each meeting? That means it takes 5 meetings before you convert a guest. What happens at a well organized and publicized open house? Maybe you get 100 guests? It could so happen that due to the nature of the event you get 1 in 10 guests to join your organization. That is still 10 new members in 1 meeting instead of 1 new member in five meetings. Under you old method it might have taken 50 meetings to get that many new members.

Think about if you made it a goal to have an open house every quarter? Even if you were at 1 in 20, you would still beat your old membership conversion rates. So I ask you, when was the last time you had an open house?

Today is the day to be more positive about your future.

Today is the day to smile and say hello to more people.

Today is the day to get out there and show the world what you have to offer.

Today is the day to lead by example.

Today is the day that you demonstrate what your organization has to offer.

What are you going to do today to make a positive impact on your organization?

In a world of choices, how does your membership organization stand out from the rest? What value do you give to your members that they cannot get anywhere else? What is your niche?

Dear Readers,

In a world of ever expanding choices, most organizations are going to have to stop targeting everyone and focus on a niche for growth. If you don’t focus on explosive growth in a core market, then you might only grow a little spreading yourself too thinly. It takes a lot of value, effort, and marketing to drive growth across all markets, but you will find with the right value set and pitch, that you can drive growth where it is most important to your organization.

Questions to ponder today?

1. What is the market for my membership organization?
2. How many people are in that market?
3. What is their most common method for my potential members to learn about my organization?
4. What is the most cost effective method to reach my audience?

The questions you are going to ponder will take some work to answer. You might even need to hire a professional. However, if you take the time to think about who you are targeting and how you are going to reach them, you will be on the path to sustainable growth.

My goal is to help organizations realize that. I have seen to many non-profits and subscription based businesses get some press, boom, and then lose a majority of their membership due to unsustainable growth. They stopped service the core niche that allowed them to get known and now are no more.

Good luck and keep growing,
Chris

Have you looked at your web page today?

Ask a stranger to look at your web page. Do they feel compelled to click through to the rest of your pages?

Look at the last updated tag at the bottom of your page. Does it have a date before 1999? Unless you somehow got bit by the millennium bug a bit late, then I am guessing that technology might be a hindrance more than a point of leverage for your organization.

But I know that you don’t have time to blog, build web pages, or update your web page. That is why you are spending all of your time reading about it and not doing it. So what to do?

Hire someone. Talk to an organization that has a great webpage. Ask them who did it then hire them.

Now hire someone to post on your blog, update your videos, and interview members of your organization for your podcasts.

Done.

You are now on your way to leveraging technology and not letting it be a hindrance.

Easier said than done right?

Trust me. If you said yes, then you need to ask around and talk to an expert.