Getting Association Members to Stay. A lot of factors drive renewals, but what factors determine a decision to resign a membership? It might be perceptions of insufficient value, insufficient connection to business/personal objectives, or possibly an insufficient opportunity to have an impact. In other situations, members may not want bundled packages and they joined for a discount. In a knowledge based environment, Associations are challenged to find innovative approaches for members to contribute, have the ability to experience close peer interactions, and to also feel valued as a contributor.
Why Members Leave
In our survey of Strategic Member Engagement (http://bit.ly/1g8g1J2), we asked executives to rate the frequency at which members leave for 11 potential reasons. Included in the top reasons that members leave are:
- Insufficient connection to their business/professional objectives
- Insufficient perceived value (ROI)
- Joined only for a one-time purchase discount (e.g. meeting registration)
Three Key Building Blocks
Members feel more “connected” to those groups who value their knowledge contributions. In addition, members especially most value those things in which they participate.
Building Blocks to Accelerate Strategic Member Engagement:
- Contribution. Members see their opportunity to impact something they care about. Associations who provide these opportunities can move behaviors from being a “Recipient” of information to a “Knowledge Contributor.”
- Collaboration. Through ongoing community reinforcement, members experience increased value in what they perceive a “highly engaged solutions community.”
- Connectedness. As more contribution and collaboration “connectedness” to the association occurs, the Association moves from “casual priority” to “personal priority.”
Each building block helps reinforce why an executive should maintain their Association membership.
Getting Association Members to Stay
Accelerating strategic member engagement is really about creating opportunities and “experiences” to both contribute knowledge and feel valued; something that members don’t always find elsewhere.
Complete survey results and more information on Strategic Member Engagement is available at at www.potomaccore.com.
