How to Diagnose (& Solve) Association Recruitment Issues

When planning for your association's future, one of your first questions is what your member base will look like in a few years. Ideally, your member base will grow, but if you’re having recruitment challenges, the time to address them is now, not in a few years when your member base will have only shrunk further.

Recruitment relies on a number of factors, including membership marketing, website user-friendliness, and the value of member benefits. As such, if you are experiencing recruitment issues, it can be difficult to identify exactly what the problem is.

To help, this guide will look at several common recruitment issues, explore common reasons for these challenges, and provide strategic solutions that leverage your existing software, resources, and skills.

Slow member growth

Causes

Take a look at your membership database to assess your member acquisition rate. If you are recruiting fewer and fewer members each year, your acquisition strategy needs a rework. A few factors that might cause this situation include:

• Poor marketing. Membership marketing that targets the wrong audience, doesn’t communicate your benefits, or isn’t appealing to prospective members will result in low recruitment.

• Max market capacity achieved. A rare few associations will experience low growth due to reaching the maximum number of possible members in their field. For example, a chapter of a trade association for electricians in a small city might already have recruited all local electricians interested in membership. In this situation, your association should focus on retaining current members rather than recruiting new ones.

• Changing industry trends. Prospective members may sign up with rival associations if your offerings are outdated or misaligned with their professional goals.

Solutions

Assess what factors are contributing to your low growth by surveying members and assessing your competitors.

For instance, you might ask new members to share how they first heard about your association. If they don’t cite the communication channels your nonprofit regularly uses, your membership marketing strategy likely needs a rework. Or, if a competitor sees a surge in members, check if they are offering new programs that appeal to current industry trends.

Whether you need to upgrade your offerings or rework your outreach strategy, you will likely need a new approach to membership marketing. After learning what benefits members want and what communication platforms they use, leverage that data to launch a revitalized marketing campaign.

For instance, you might discover members are looking for communities where they can make professional connections and are currently relying on websites like LinkedIn to do so. As such, you would create LinkedIn posts and ads showcasing your association’s vibrant community, extensive membership directory, and numerous networking events.

Low new member renewal rate

Causes

Raw recruitment numbers often don’t tell the full story. Compare your member growth rate to your first-year member retention rate to determine how many members you recruit but shortly lose. If you have low retention, a few causes might be:

• Few continuous benefits. Members might join your association and feel they have experienced everything you have to offer in a few short months. For example, a member might join an association to access certification programs. Then, after completing the courses, they may not find additional reasons to remain a member.

• Misaligned marketing. If your marketing emphasizes benefits or programs your association doesn’t provide or only has limited offerings for, new members are likely to feel misled and not renew.

• No renewal reminders. Sometimes, members don’t renew simply because they forget. If your association has no renewal reminders, members might lapse on accident. For example, a member who primarily engages with your association by attending annual events might lapse and not realize it until months later when they try to buy event tickets.

Solutions

Create a member exit survey and prompt lapsed members to complete it to learn why your retention rates are low. Depending on your members’ responses, reworking your benefits and upgrading your software are likely the solutions.

For instance, you might focus on cultivating an active online community to ensure members have people to talk to and content to engage with between events. Or, you might set up renewal reminders and provide a grace period so members have one last chance to experience your benefits before deciding whether to renew.

Few high tier members

Causes

Your recruitment efforts may bring in new members, but rather than eventually upgrading to your higher member tiers, they stick to free or low-cost plans. While this issue is less concerning than experiencing low growth or retention, your association is still missing out on potential revenue.

A few reasons behind this phenomenon are:

• Little differentiation between tiers. Consider whether your tier benefits appeal to your members and if your membership model encourages upgrading. For instance, if your members want user-generated content and networking opportunities and can enjoy those offerings at any tier level, they may see little reason to upgrade.

• Expensive high-cost tiers. While your higher tiers should be more expensive, members may feel the costs are too high for the benefits provided or simply not have the means to upgrade. For instance, if your association attracts many new members looking to break into your industry, these job seekers likely lack the disposable income to purchase a premium membership.

• Difficulty upgrading. What steps do members need to take to change tiers? If they have to contact a member of your team, some busy members might decide upgrading is not worth the hassle.

Solutions

The first step when resolving this issue is assessing each tier’s benefits and determining whether they are worth the price. If your benefits as a whole are lacking, you will likely also see decreases in membership growth and renewals.

Ultimately, your membership model should encourage advancement to higher tier levels. This involves balancing benefits and content with exclusive promotions. For instance, you might let lower-tier members view new webinars but not have access to your archived content. Or, you may let free members view a set number of articles each month.

This approach entices members by showing off content locked behind high tiers. This causes a fear of missing out, which can push members to make the jump to a higher tier. Of course, this strategy relies on your premium tiers having membership benefits that are worth the price.

Additionally, check if your membership management platform has self-service capabilities that allow members to update their personal information and change their membership tier. Making this process easier means more members may also lower their tiers.

While this may seem like a negative, your association can maintain better member relationships by not forcing members into subscription packages they don’t want. Additionally, you can learn more about your members and benefits by collecting data on who chooses to move to a lower or higher tier.

Understanding your association’s recruitment issues starts with your data. Use your association management software to generate reports related to recruitment, retention, and member value. Use this information and qualitative data collected from member surveys to understand why they joined your association, what factors may be pushing them out, and what you can do to reach more prospective members.