For membership and association professionals, it has never been more important to stay on top of the latest developments and best practices in constituent engagement and marketing. But, when you’re short on time, staff, and budget, this can be an extra chore you don’t have the hours in the day for!
Here at Cuseum, we combed through the latest insights from MGI’s newly released 2021 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report, and we are here to share some enlightening trends and numbers. In case you don’t have time to read the full report, here are six insights that you don’t want to miss.
1. Membership is Down Across Associations
According to the 2021 report, 47% of associations “are reporting declines in their total membership.” Much of this is due to a decrease in membership renewals: this year, 45% of associations noted a downturn in member renewals, which was nearly double what associations experienced in the previous year.
As a result, many associations may wish to reassess their membership recruitment, renewal, and retention strategies. For example, associations still rely primarily on email marketing, staff phone calls, and direct mail to support their renewal campaigns. With this in mind, you may consider exploring emerging channels like direct push notifications to supercharge your renewal efforts. In 2020, push notifications had an open rate 50% higher than that of email marketing and a click-through rate 7 times higher than email marketing. And in April 2020, push notifications hit their highest open rate in 4 years! With numbers like these, it may be time to jump onto this bandwagon.
→ Pro tip: Cuseum’s Digital Membership Cards can enable your association to deliver renewal reminder push notifications straight to your members’ smartphones! Learn more.
2. Effectively Communicating Your Association’s Value is Critical for Member Retention
As associations work to combat a decline in renewals and overall membership, it’s equally important to understand why members fail to renew. According to MGI’s report, when asked, “what do you believe are the top reasons members do not renew their membership,” a “lack of engagement” came out on top, with 50% of associations citing this as the primary reason for member churn. A “lack of value” was a close second, with 39% of associations indicating this as a concern.
With this in mind, it is important to reconsider how you engage members, as well as how you add value. For some organizations, this may involve critically examining your membership offerings and value proposition. However, it’s also important to note that when seeking to add value, one of the biggest hurdles associations face is effectively sharing what benefits, services, and opportunities they provide. In fact, “difficulty communicating value or benefits” is the number one internal challenge associations face to growing membership.
This means that rather than completely revamping member benefits, it may be necessary to improve communication about their value. In the same vein, it’s imperative to consider how accessible these benefits are in our increasingly virtual world.
→ In today’s digital-first era, Digital Membership Cards can be a convenient mode of offering digitally accessible benefits and a means to deliver reminders about your association’s services straight to each member’s smartphone. Learn more.
3. The Pandemic Has Spurred a New Wave of Membership Offerings
Of course, that’s not to say that innovative membership offerings aren’t important too. With lack of engagement and lack of value triggering heightened member churn at associations, creating fresh offerings and benefits for members can make or break your membership program.
In the pandemic era, COVID-19 has served as a catalyst for associations to reimagine member benefits. According to MGI’s report, 85% of associations “increased virtual professional development opportunities for members” and 78% have developed “new products and services to assist members and member companies.”
Moving forward, associations can leverage the momentum they’ve gained during the pandemic and continue down the path of innovation and out-of-the-box thinking to deliver even greater value to their constituents.
→ To learn more about how digital tools and technologies can supercharge innovation at your association, get in touch with Cuseum.
4. Associations Are Implementing New Membership Models - And Fast
In addition to rethinking membership benefits and offerings, many associations are also innovating their membership models. In MGI’s 2021 report, associations were asked, “Over the past 5 years, has your association adopted or considered adopting a new membership model?” Overwhelmingly, associations are saying “yes” - 17% have already adopted a new model, and a whopping 45% of associations are considering it.
The types of new membership models can vary. Most popular was a tiered membership model, with 43% of associations citing this option. Another 26% of associations “added special interest (student, retired, etc.) to an existing model” and 23% created a “combination” membership, which typically includes membership options for both individuals and companies.
→ If you’re looking to launch a new membership model, Digital Membership Cards can help. Digital cards offer many opportunities for sophisticated segmentation and personalization, which can support more complex membership models. Maybe you’d like to have different membership cards for each of your tiers? Or perhaps you’d like digital cards to list the particular benefits applicable to each member’s special interest affiliation? Or, maybe you’d like to send segmented, on-demand push notifications to certain members? With Digital Membership Cards, all of this is possible. Schedule a free, no-pressure demo today!
5. Member Onboarding is Undergoing Rapid Shifts
You never get a second chance to make a first impression! For that reason, many associations are also rethinking their member onboarding to ensure that it’s both comprehensive and engaging. Gone are the days where a single welcome email or letter will suffice. While 77% of associations still rely on email as their top mode of member onboarding, a growing share of organizations are using a member profile or member portal to initiate new members. As of 2021, the “opportunity to create a membership profile” has risen to become the second most popular mode of member onboarding, with 51% of associations deploying this method. Since 2018, the share of associations using a member profile has increased over 13%!
→ If you’re looking to tap into the streamlined onboarding, self-service capabilities, and unified membership experience that a Member Portal can offer, Cuseum can help!
6. Associations Still Lack Tracking Capabilities and Reporting Dashboards That Are Critical for Their Success
Where are associations struggling the most? And what are the most significant challenges they’re facing? Overwhelmingly, this comes down to data and reporting. According to MGI, a “lack of marketing results tracking and analysis reporting” (37% of respondents) and “inadequate membership dashboards and reporting tools” (34% of respondents) are the top two biggest data challenges that associations are up against.
→ When you start using Cuseum Digital Membership Cards, you unlock reporting capabilities for previously untrackable components of your membership program. With Cuseum’s Digital Membership Analytics Dashboard, your association can easily view information like how many members are using their membership card. What’s more, you can filter this information by specific time periods, and by specific membership levels. With this insight, you can be well on your way to making more data-driven decisions about your membership program.
Armed with the most important data and trends from MGI’s 2021 Membership Marketing Report, you can be well on your way to understanding and improving membership services at your association.
Looking to introduce cutting-edge technology at your association? Get in touch with Cuseum (hello@cuseum.com) or schedule a demo today!