The key to growth for many associations and non-profits is the
growth of their membership. Each year the membership grows but
also there can be a drop due to attrition, making it even more
important to attract new members.
The associations are dependent on not just their membership fees
but also external funding. However, this funding source is
usually tied to the membership growth numbers so it still all
comes down to membership numbers being the key to success for an
association. Marketing costs can make it expensive for an
association to grow.
Marketing involves offline and online marketing such as a website
and email campaigns. Most associations don't have the resources
or skills to market online, so they resort to the tried and true
methods of paper newsletters, ads in local business publications,
and possibly an occasional email campaign.
When an association needs to market more to increase growth in
membership, the costs to do so can be high relative to the return
they get in new membership "sales". What are some ways that an
association can use to increase the growth of their membership
without the high cost of traditional marketing?
One idea is to use the concept of affiliate marketing, which is a
type of online marketing that has been around for several years
but only now is beginning to branch out beyond pay per click or
pay per sale. Affiliate marketing used effectively can increase
membership without the high marketing costs associated with the
traditional methods.
So how does an affiliate strategy work in the context of an
association or non-profit looking to increase their membership?
The fundamental idea of affiliate marketing is to reward someone
for referring you business. That referral can take many forms
such as a sale, a lead, or a click on a website. Another name for
affiliate marketing is performance marketing. In other words the
merchant pays when an event tied to their performance occurs. In
the case of an association wanting to increase performance in
signing up new members, we could set up a system where a reward
is paid to someone referring a new member.
Most non-profits and associations may not be comfortable with
paying for new members, but there are other ways. For example the
referring member could get points for making a successful
referral. At the end of the year the members with the most points
could get some special recognition - e.g. a bottle of wine, or
their names on the association's website, or invitation to an
executive dinner. It doesn't always have to be money in exchange
for the new membership. If money is not a big issue, the
referring member could maybe get a small discount on their next
year's membership.
The key idea is to make the members affiliates for the
association. The affiliates who refer the most new members get
recognition from the organization and some sort of reward for
helping the association boost their membership numbers.
Communication is one of the extra benefits of establishing an
affiliate strategy for your association. You get to communicate
the new programme to all the members, who can now also be called
affiliates. They will be incentivized to go out and talk up the
organization, creating an army of sales people spreading valuable
word of mouth advertising to new members. Communication can also
be online in the sense that the new members could have an
affiliated link back to the website of the mother organization,
from their own websites. Increasing qualified traffic to your
site can also result in higher conversions or new members signing
up.
Competition is a good thing too. Some of the existing affiliates
will try to compete with each other to see who gets the most new
members at the end of the year or whatever period you have
chosen.
Another benefit of the affiliate strategy is that the affiliates
can take the new members under their wing, invite them to the
first few meetings, and introduce them to other members. In other
words, a mentorship system has been enabled as result of the
affiliate programme. The increased competition and communication
between the association, affiliates, and new members can result
in not only an increase in membership, but a closer relationship
with all the members and the organization.
Websites are one way to route qualified new members to your
signup page. The affiliates put links or banners on their sites
and have a link back to your site, with their affiliate code
embedded in the link. If the new members signs up after visiting
via an affiliated link, then the affiliate gets the credit for
the referral. Coupons can also be used in such a way that the
affiliate id is encoded in the coupon they give out. Some coupon
systems can also provide a discount to the purchaser so that they
have some incentive to use the coupon, guaranteeing the referring
affiliate their credit.
Email can also be used as a way to recruit new members within the
affiliate strategy. Some of the affiliates may have their own
mailing lists of customers, partners, employees etc. They
probably send out a newsletter now and then to their base of
contacts. In this newsletter they could mention your organization
and the benefits of joining. The email could include a link to
your site and once again it could have the affiliate id embedded
in the link.
Email campaigns should be managed carefully so that the
affiliates are not seen to be spamming their readers with your
signup page. It is vital that your members have an email opt-in
system so that their readers have agreed to get email from them
and also have a way to opt-out at any time.
Automation of the affiliate programme is important. You don't
want to have to spend hours explaining to your members how it all
works. Make sure you have a plan to train your staff in the use
of the system, and get a system that makes most of the signup and
tracking automatic, so that you can focus on evaluating the
benefits and tweaking your programme. Otherwise you will be back
in the situation of having high marketing costs which may not
justify the added memberships for that period.
The image of your organization will improve just by the fact that
you have adopted some clever internet marketing technique to the
special needs of your association. Some members will appreciate
the fact that their member fees are not being spent on expensive
offline ads, but instead on building the membership from within.
Make sure you spend the time in the upfront planning of your
affiliate strategy and select the right software based on your
requirements. There are many packages - hosted and non-hosted
available. For an association needing just the basics, there are
several which could meet your needs. The key is to plan as much
as possible before jumping in and purchasing a system.
Done right, an affiliate strategy can bring you value in terms of
new members and improved relationships with your existing
members.
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