Marketing for tomorrow in 5 simple steps

As generations shift, evolving membership categories, benefits and outreach are the keys to organizational survival.

By Michael Alderson

Change is coming. It’s the one thing every organization can anticipate. Whether you’re leading a group of 10 or 10,000, your membership base is vulnerable to the slow march of time. Generations cycle in and out. Methods of communication multiply. The core value of membership shifts. And with these changes comes the opportunity to evolve and thrive or dig in your heels and hope for the best — in short, to choose evolution or risk extinction. Sound like a daunting choice? It’s an important one, but that doesn’t mean it has to be difficult. A few well-chosen strategies can help you market for tomorrow and provide guideposts for success in a landscape of generational change.

Step 1: Know thy membership.

The first step of effective organizational evolution is knowing your member base on a deeper level. This is not just about collecting the basics of “who” and “how long.” It’s about collecting robust information and organizing it in a way that uncovers trends and patterns of growth or decline. Who are your members? Why do they join your organization? What messages and marketing methods do they traditionally respond to? Compiling this information via a multi-point membership audit helps you collect and evaluate the deeper demographic and psychographic details of who chooses to join your group, retain their membership, or make the decision to leave. It also allows you to project opportunities and stumbling blocks long before they arrive at your doorstep.

Step 2: Position your brand for longer “shelf life.”

With compiled updated membership information in hand, focus on positioning membership in your organization as a relationship rather than a transaction. What core feelings does your group speak to? Hope? Security? Belonging? Identify the emotional benefits of your brand by reviewing the results of your membership audit, then developing positioning and messaging that appeal to the emotional value of membership. For example, if joining your group may be a way to gain professional credibility or network with like-minded people, position your brand on what a prospect hopes to gain from the relationship with your organization, not just their place within the dues structure.

Step 3: Define your member segments to create new categories.

Your membership audit not only informs your brand positioning, it also allows you to define categories that directly appeal to member sub-sets (“segments”). Cross-segmenting your membership allows you to offer targeted categories, more relevant messaging and customized member benefits. It’s also the first step in avoiding the trap of trying to force one marketing approach on all members and prospects.

Take, for example, a professional society that appeals to one particular career group. Instead of offering tiered categories like “executive” and “associate,” offer categories that appeal to segmented members — students and emerging professionals, networkers and influencers, and experts and mentors. These categories anticipate change and allow you to create customized benefits for each group. Each of these segments can also have their own message points focused on prospecting, retention and re-engagement.

Step 4: Develop customized benefits.

Making membership in your organization relevant to an evolving member base relies heavily on communicating emotional and practical value in a way that addresses true interests and motivators. Benefits should reflect what members in each segment really want — not force-fitting each member category into a rigid benefit “template” expected to appeal to all members universally.

Take the earlier example of the professional society. Benefits in the first member category, students and emerging professionals, would need to reflect this group’s specific goals and interests — networking and peer reviews; a job bank/career development; scholarships and internships; industry insight through message boards and social media; and affinity programs such as group health insurance, especially if a young professional is just starting a career and/or rolling off a parent’s health plan. These benefits are vastly different from those that might appeal to an established professional, who may prefer to focus on continuing education, expanding a network of colleagues, or exploring a possible career shift within the industry. And of course these “value triggers” are different than those that would appeal to experts and mentors who are seeking opportunities to transition their knowledge base, showcase personal achievement and participate in advisory boards.

Note that a base of core benefits should appeal to all categories — discounts on industry products or general networking opportunities, for example. The trick is to create the right blend of “universal” benefits and benefits specific enough to make membership in the organization invaluable year after year.

Step 5: Shift your outreach efforts to reflect generational change.

Delivering communications about custom member categories, benefits and message points is critical. You need to customize your communications plan as well, though all outreach should share a unity of brand position, design and overarching message (one of many reasons why brand standards are so important for any organization).

Member outreach can, however, maintain some level of autonomy in sub-messages, tone, palette and tracking. If you are trying to engage students and emerging professionals, for example, creating a social media campaign that leverages existing networks, conveys brand personality and directly addresses prospects through social networking sites might be a core component. You can augment these specialized campaigns by creating “shell” member materials (such as branded folders) that allow you to customize inserts with custom messaging, images or color palettes. This allows you to create targeted collateral as cost-effectively as possible.

Like all good marketing efforts, the success of these steps relies on member feedback and evaluation with an eye toward constant improvement. They are a starting point, however, for positioning your organization to anticipate generational change, embrace organizational evolution, and be a step ahead on the long and winding road to success.

Michael Alderson is vice president of marketing for FSA Management Group, an association management company based in Louisville, Ky. He has more than 12 years of marketing experience in the for-profit and non-profit sectors. He is a published author and holds degrees from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Spalding University in Louisville. Don’t miss his upcoming educational session at the 2009 Connect Marketplace. For more information on Marketplace, visit ConnectYourMeetings.com.