Membership drives are a love ’em or hate ’em undertaking. Many chambers have found success in these high energy blitzes, while others have attracted a lot of the “wrong” types of members–the one and done of the world.
So how do you know if a member drive is right for your chamber? There are a few things you can do to help ensure its success.
The Upside of Membership Drives
Done well, membership drives can:
- Inject Energy: A focused campaign can create buzz and excitement around your chamber.
- Attract New Faces: Reach businesses that might not be familiar with your offerings.
- Boost Revenue: An influx of new members translates to increased dues and potential sponsorships.
- Rally the Troops: Drives can engage existing members and volunteers, strengthening your community.
The Potential Downside of Chamber Membership Drives
But beware of the pitfalls:
- Quantity over Quality: A drive focused solely on numbers might attract members who aren’t truly invested in the chamber’s mission and they might not be a good fit for what you offer. We know it’s hard to believe, but some businesses are better served by the chamber than others.
- Short-Term Gains: The initial boost might fade if you don’t have a solid onboarding and retention strategy.
- Strained Resources: Drives require significant time, effort, and potentially financial investment.
- Discounting Your Value: Overly aggressive incentives can devalue your membership offerings in the long run.
Strategies for Running a Successful Membership Drive
If you decide a membership drive is the right move, here’s how to maximize its impact:
- Define Your Goals: What are you trying to achieve? Increased membership? Specific industry sectors?
- Target Your Audience: Don’t try to be everything to everyone. Identify your ideal members and talk about the benefits that they will find the most value in.
- Craft a Compelling Offer: Highlight the unique benefits of joining your chamber. Think beyond discounts.
- Leverage Your Champions: Empower your ambassadors and existing members to spread the word.
- Create a Sense of Urgency: Limited-time offers or early-bird incentives can encourage prompt action (just make sure you’re offering them to the ideal member). One idea is running a drive at the end of the year and waiving the application fee.
- Make Joining Easy: Streamline the application process and offer multiple payment options. If you only take checks, your potential members may go home to get one and never join. Make payment as frictionless as possible.
- Provide Exceptional Onboarding: Ensure new members feel welcome and understand how to engage.
- Follow Up and Foster Relationships: Don’t let new members fall through the cracks. Nurture those connections. Remember, with a member drive, it can be very exciting. If you don’t follow up with an equally energetic onboarding program and member communications, there will be a disconnect and new members will begin questioning their membership decision. You want the excitement surrounding the drive to equal that of the promise.
Ensuring the success of your membership drive goes beyond simply attracting new members. The drive is only the first part.
The goal of the drive is gaining valuable, engaged members who contribute to your chamber’s community and strengthen its impact.
Here’s how to achieve that:
1. Set Crystal Clear Goals
- Specificity is Key: Don’t just aim for “more members.” Define exactly what you want to achieve. Is it a specific number? A certain percentage increase? Are you targeting businesses from a particular sector, or a specific size?
- Measurable Outcomes: Establish clear metrics to track your progress. This could include the number of new members, revenue generated, or website traffic to your membership page.
- Alignment with Overall Strategy: Ensure your drive aligns with your chamber’s long-term strategic goals. How will these new members contribute to your mission and vision?
2. Know Your Ideal Member
- Develop a Member Persona: Create a detailed profile of your ideal member. What are their needs, challenges, and motivations? Where do they spend their time online and offline?
- Targeted Outreach: Tailor your messaging and marketing efforts to resonate with your ideal member. Generic appeals are less effective than those that speak directly to their specific interests. For instance, setting up a table outside of a grocery store is not a good use of your time. How many people coming out will be business owners? Fish where the fish are. Additionally, drives are not always an in-person activity. Sometimes drives are electronic or a targeted social media blitz.
- Segmentation: If you’re targeting different member segments (e.g., small businesses, large corporations, solopreneurs), create customized campaigns for each.
3. Irresistible Value Proposition
- Beyond the Basics: Don’t just list membership benefits. Clearly articulate the value members receive. How will joining your chamber help them grow their business, connect with potential clients, and increase their visibility in the community?
- Exclusive Perks: Offer unique benefits that are only available during the drive or to new members. This could include early access to events, a free breakfast event ticket, discounted advertising opportunities, or a complimentary consultation with a business expert. But be careful you don’t end up with a reputation like a cable or cellphone company where members feel like only the new people get the “good deals.”
- Showcase Success Stories: Highlight testimonials and case studies from existing members who have benefited from their chamber membership. Create videos and image quotes showcasing the chamber’s value.
4. Amplify Your Reach:
- Multi-Channel Marketing: Utilize a variety of channels to promote your drive, including email, social media, your website, local media, and partnerships with community organizations.
- Engaging Content: Create compelling content that showcases the value of your chamber. This could include blog posts, videos, infographics, or social media contests.
- Member Ambassadors: Encourage your current members to spread the word by offering incentives or recognition for successful referrals. If you don’t have a standing ambassadors group, recruit “buddies” for all new members recruited.
5. Seamless Onboarding Experience:
- Welcome Packet: Provide new members with a comprehensive welcome packet that includes information about the chamber, upcoming events, and how to get involved.
- Dedicated Contact: Assign a staff member or ambassador to each new member to answer questions and help them navigate the chamber’s resources.
- New Member Orientation: Host a welcome event or orientation session to introduce new members to the chamber community and its offerings.
6. Sustained Engagement:
- Ongoing Communication: Maintain regular communication with new members through newsletters, emails, and social media updates.
- Opportunities for Involvement: Provide opportunities for new members to get involved in committees, events, and volunteer activities.
- Personalized Follow-Up: Conduct regular check-ins with new members to assess their satisfaction and address any concerns.
By focusing on these strategies, you can transform your membership drive from a mere numbers game into a powerful engine for sustainable growth and a thriving chamber community.
But what if you’re not convinced? What if something is holding you back? Maybe your board doesn’t support membership drives and you’re looking for alternatives. You’re in luck…
Chamber Membership Drive Alternatives
If a traditional drive isn’t the right fit, explore these options:
- Year-Round Membership Development: Focus on building relationships and demonstrating value consistently. With this approach, you’re in the long race. You know nurturing leads and showing the value of membership will pay off.
- Targeted Campaigns: Design initiatives focused on specific industries or demographics. This makes it easier to understand what your chosen demographic needs. For instance, if you’ve decided to create a targeted campaign around factories and manufacturing members, you needn’t worry about talking about your local holiday retail program.
- Referral Programs: Incentivize existing members (or your board) to bring in new recruits. You are the company you keep and you have existing successful members, it’s likely they understand which businesses will benefit from joining the chamber. Ask them to refer friends and peers or encourage them to practice word-of-mouth marketing for the chamber. You can even offer a “top recruiter” award. Some chambers offer a referral discount for renewing members who refer new members.
- Value-Added Events: Host events that showcase your chamber’s expertise and attract potential members. Post about the events before and after they take place. Livestream from the event for a short time to help people realize what they’re missing out on.
Ultimately, the decision to hold a membership drive depends on your chamber’s specific needs and goals as well as the support you have for hosting one. Member drives feel good when you generate a lot of buzz. However, you don’t want that buzz to fall flat with an unimpressive welcome when they join.
A membership drive is only the beginning of onboarding. If you’re going to host one, you need to have an exciting onboarding in place too.
