Advancing Engagement + Recruitment: Moving Membership
Five Steps to Modernize Your Association’s Membership Dues Model for Growth JP Moery, Moery Company
Does more than 50% of your revenue come from membership dues? If so, you may be joining the numerous associations that are now addressing taking a real good look at their business models this year by resetting their membership dues and modernizing their membership categories. Here are steps that you can take to modernize your dues models and value propositions. Step One First things first, get your mindset right. What will help you focus on creating the optimum model for your organization? It’s not just a dues review, it’s a business analysis. The way you tug or pull on your dues model, or a membership category, may affect the overall engagement that your members have with your association. There are three key areas that we’ve used in our reviews to come up with the optimum business models, things that the board of directors and the executive staff are willing to navigate to come up with a new system. Step Two Begin the process with a quantitative review of your membership data. It will look like this: renewal rates by membership category, review of non-renewal data, and a look at the impact of mergers and acquisitions on your organization. Secondly, look at the distribution of dues by member company so you can see how many small members you have compared to the largest organizations and how they affect, and the percentage of, the overall membership revenue that comes into your organization. Then take a look at non-dues revenue participation to see the total business involvement in your association. This is really important with your allied members. While they may not be paying a lot of dues, they may be investing money into your sponsorship program and, as a result, they’re putting more money into the organization than the core members. You’re going to get a real good idea of your membership engagement. The second step is to interview members in different membership categories in a series of face-to-face interviews. The qualitative aspect of this is extremely important. This gives you the opportunity to find out what they value the
most from being part of your association, not what you’ve got in the membership brochure or the membership section of your website. What do they tell you that they value the most? When you look at the major parts of your value proposition, are there things that these members don’t use or they don’t even mention? Find out how they decide which groups to be part of. Step Three Figure out how members view your association and if they think they are getting a fair deal, or not. If your members don’t feel like they’re getting a lot of value, or they think that they’re paying more than their fair share, you need to reevaluate. It’s easy to do the math and come up with a revised dues model. What’s more difficult is to see if members of your association are actually buying into that. Do they think it’s fair? In some cases, these large members may be paying maximum dues rate but they don’t think they’re getting that much value from you. It’s better to know that before you walk into a board meeting to introduce a revised membership structure. Step Four Find out how your association fits into the decision-making process of that company and how they view your organization compared to others. Step Five Associates are often paying low dues but may be contributing significantly into your non-dues revenue. Creating new tiers with marketing opportunities within their membership category may reveal themselves through this analysis. I’ve found that new industry entrants may not have a category, or segments, that they fit into. It may or may not be worth recruiting them at an intense level and that information may reveal itself in this analysis. They may not bring in any revenue or engage with your organization. You need to rethink whether the juice is worth the squeeze in terms of going after them. Modernize, adapt, stay relevant in your industry, and adapt the business model in a way that makes you increasingly valuable to your members. Develop a dues model that is modernized and reflective of the business realities of today.
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