Unlocking Growth: The Innovation of Membership Marketing Strategies.

In today’s rapidly changing business landscape, membership-based organisations must innovate their membership marketing strategies to ensure future sustainability through continuous growth.

Membership growth is essential to any business. It is the primary funding source for member benefits, to ensure operational improvements are made, to attract new members and retain existing members, plus support volunteers and organisational advocacy.

At Sustainable Marketing Services, our dedicated team of experienced strategic marketers have been servicing marketing sports bodies, recreational clubs and not-for-profit organisations for more than 10 years. This experience has helped us understand what works best for successful membership marketing.

Through this series on membership marketing strategies, we will share our secrets to success to help your organisation achieve sustainable long-term growth.

Successful marketing is a journey that requires continuation innovation to reflect new trends and changes in your market, organisation and member preferences.

Some of the more significant trends we have seen which has had an enormous impact on the way we market to members include:

1. Personalisation: Marketing messages and communications increasingly focus on individual member’s preferences which requires a greater understanding of the behaviours and interests of members.
2. Content marketing: Members now expect to receive high-quality marketing communications that educate, entertain and inform, plus make it easier and faster for them to interact with your organisation.
3. Community building: Membership organisations use social media to create and nurture a sense of community that builds upon in-person social activities.
4. Multi-channel engagement: Marketing of membership organisations has evolved from using traditional marketing channels alone to multiple channels such as newsletters, social media, websites, event marketing, direct mail and traditional marketing channels.
5. Retention and renewal strategies: There is now a greater focus on retention strategies rather than acquisition strategies alone, with a recognition that both strategies are required to achieve sustainable growth.

One of the biggest hurdles we see in the marketing of membership organisations is a lack of marketing expertise in an area that has evolved so rapidly and now requires a higher level of knowledge and skills across various marketing strategies and channels.

Gone are the days when most of your members are members for life. Acquisition strategies are required to keep membership numbers up and retention strategies are just as essential to keep current members engaged.

Membership marketing strategies to enable growth have evolved to a more holistic approach in recent times. While acquisition and retention are crucial, strategies must go beyond this to ensure a membership organisation has sufficient capital for today and the future. Additional revenue sources such as grants, advertising and sponsorship are required to keep your organisation moving forward.

The best-performing acquisition strategies for membership organisations include:

• local area marketing – think of a suitable strategy to target potential customers within a specific area
• social media - organic posts or paid advertisements
• digital marketing – use a few relevant online channels available
• public relations – build media contacts to share news with on a regular basis
• events and relevant shows – Bring the community together

Some ways in which you can maximise your membership renewal rate includes early and ongoing communications across multiple channels, reminding members of their exclusive benefits, offering incentives and staying in touch with follow up communications.

To increase your success rate with funding grants, work with a specialist grants writer who will identify more grant opportunities and work with you to maximise your application.

Once you have achieved success with marketing through digital and social media channels, you can then seek out advertisers and sponsors who will value your large and engaged audience and work with you for mutual benefits.

Here are three examples of good membership marketing strategies that have performed well:

1. Model Aeronautical Association of Australia: Launching of a digital magazine called Wingspan which was promoted through newsletters and social media to help shift member attitudes and behaviours and improved their Net Promoter Score from negative -11.77 in 2014 to positive 40 in 2020. The newsletter releasing each edition of Wingspan achieved a very high open rate of 47.4% and an average click-through rate of 21% (compared to the hobby industry rate of 6.6%).
2. Sports Aviation Federation of Australia: This member-focused organisation has a renewal campaign that includes ongoing membership communications, an article in their SkySailor Magazine, social media reminders for approximately six months, and an incentive to renew early. Each year, they see members renew earlier and at a higher rate. The visibility of their sport has been raised through national, state and local PR campaigns, including TV, radio and press.
3. Little Ship Club: Adopting an integrated approach to marketing through newsletters, a new website, social media, PR, and local area marketing helped boost the brand's visibility, increased patronage of the Club and helped them achieve a significant surplus whereas the club previously incurred deficits. Their Facebook page has grown from 300 to over 5,500, reaching an audience of 70,000 in high season and 35,000 in low season each month. The promotion of their annual Seafood Day attracts 700-800 people and achieves an increase of revenue of 165% on previous years.

We hope you found our first article in the series helpful.

Retention marketing strategies are always more cost-effective to undertake than acquisition marketing strategies. Watch out for our next article on membership retention strategies.

Sustainable Marketing Services are specialists in helping member organisations to increase member retention, boost their visibility and achieve more sustainable growth.

Sustainable Marketing Services is an award-winning Brisbane digital marketing agency with a long history of delivering sustainable success for our clients.

Book a complimentary meeting on 07 3446 5837 or via email us here to discuss solutions to your biggest marketing challenges.