There was an interesting discussion on the Chamber Pros Facebook group this week. And it had responders divided heavily on either side. It’s a common question for membership organizations and gets to the bottom of exactly what the chamber means to the larger business community.
If you read the title of this blog and thought, there is NEVER a time to give away the milk for free, you might want to consider what these chamber pros had to say.
The question came from a chamber leader whose board members suggested sharing nonmembers’ events and anniversaries on the chamber page. The board sees it as an opportunity to reach nonmembers and bring them in as members, a gesture of goodwill.
On the other side, the exec thinks it defeats the point of membership if they’re doing it for everyone. She wonders why someone would “waste money” to pay for something others get for free.
What’s the right answer?
That depends on your mission and perspective.
Here’s what the chamber pros had to say and some examples of why occasionally bending the rules might be beneficial.
What Member Benefits Would You Bend the Rules On?
So, what types of chamber member benefits are we talking about?
Often chambers provide members with either a free or discounted rate on something or the ability to participate because they are members (i.e., nonmembers are not included).
These activities may include:
- Discounted or free attendance at events
- A Business Expo table
- Posting to the newsletter or blog
- Ribbon cuttings
- Social media posts
- Event or anniversary shares and posts
- Hosting a Lunch & Learn or other event
- Sponsorships
Most of the chamber professionals who answered the exec’s question landed firmly on the side of American Express’ old tagline–membership has its privileges. But a few outliers clung passionately to the idea that sometimes a “loss leader” is required to get people in.
Here are some of the reasons they shared.
Why Should a Chamber Give Nonmembers Member Benefits?
It’s important to note that no one was saying members and nonmembers should be equal in the eyes of the chamber. It shouldn’t be a “free-for-all” mentality. But there are occasions where inclusivity is a membership recruitment strategy such as:
Publicity
Chambers generally have large social media followings and a robust community events calendar making them a desirable partner for businesses trying to market their events. Lauren Batchelor, Executive Assistant at the Leavenworth-Lansing Area Chamber of Commerce shared the idea behind it, “We add non-member community events to our online calendar. It has really helped boost our website traffic. They only get the listing, no posters or pictures. We don’t share it on social media- that is a formally stated member benefit.”
Lauren added, “…It also increases the sense of community if we can say ‘We try to have all events in Leavenworth County on our online calendar. Let us know if there’s something happening we don’t know about!’ It also increased awareness of our brand outside of our immediate circle, we got a few new members that hadn’t really interacted with us prior to that point. It’s also become a minor selling point. We have a military post with yearly newcomers, and we promote our directory and calendar to them- which gets them on our site, etc. Our community also tends to complain about feeling too divided, so this is our way of helping out everyone without compromising on member benefits.”
Pro: This protocol allows the chamber to share a more complete listing of local events, while still holding something back for their members. As Lauren said, this choice has driven website traffic. If you only share member and chamber events, you leave the possibility that another organization can create a more inclusive calendar that will then become the community calendar, making the chamber event calendar irrelevant.
Con: Your members’ events will be listed alongside nonmember events, jeopardizing that feeling of exclusivity.
Solution: Feature both but give members something nonmembers don’t receive such as being listed first, including pictures, icons, or URLs, or some mark of exclusivity.
Additionally, you can create a cost for nonmembers. In some situations, chambers have leveraged these nonmember costs to drive membership. For instance, they may price the nonmember listing to be nearly the same as the cost of monthly membership thus making the nonmember consider the value of becoming a member for marketing reasons.
Ribbon Cuttings
Again, this is one of those chamber benefits that some chamber pros charge nonmembers the membership cost. They figure the business wants a ribbon cutting. The business will get one (for a similar cost to chamber membership) plus a free membership. It’s a win/ win for everyone.
Pro: Again, if your chamber represents the business community, you want to celebrate economic and business growth. For every ribbon cutting you do, the chamber’s brand is associated with expansion and economic vitality. It looks good for you to be celebrating a new business because people assume you were somehow behind it.
Con: If you open ribbon cuttings up to all, members may be angry that they pay for a membership benefit others get for free (unless there’s a cost).
Solution: Whatever works best for your community. One idea to balance the needs of both segments would be to do ribbon cuttings for free for members and charge nonmembers.
If you’re going to turn away nonmembers altogether and make ribbon cuttings a member-only benefit, you’ll want a good relationship with your city. Otherwise, a go-getter might convince local economic development people or city officials to create their own ribbon cutting leaving the chamber out of the festivities.
Sponsorships
What about sponsorships? Would you take a nonmember’s money? Maybe you would and then throw in a membership for free? There are a lot of ways to balance the money questions as well.
Pro: You have a larger base to secure money from for your events. Larger sponsorships mean more programming and money in the chamber budget.
Con: Members may see this as you diluting their exposure.
Solution: Throwing in a complimentary membership when they sponsor an event is an easy way to handle this conundrum.
Changing Your Outlook: Economic Driver vs. Membership Organization
Beth Heisinger Stewart of the Greene County Chamber of Commerce shared a podcast episode that had her looking at the idea of membership benefits for nonmembers in a new way. She explained how the Knoxville Chamber, “…changed its mindset and focused on becoming an economic driver for their region rather than just a membership organization. It’s a strategy that ended up truly serving their members and improving the entire business community. It made me think differently about this topic. Highly recommend.”
If membership is your primary driver, giving away benefits for free doesn’t behoove you. However, if you’re focused more on advocacy and economic development, the details of charges may not be as important.
Ultimately, it’s what works best for you and your community.
Read more about this topic here.
