The Value of a Membership Model
7 real benefits to having a membership model
1. Financial Planning
Your members may pay monthly or annually but either way this gives you real control of your financial position, forecasting and cash flow.
If your members pay annually this has shown its real value in recent times. If your members had already paid their subscription when the pandemic hit you will not have felt an immediate impact and if you have continued to support them, you should have every confidence that they will renew. Your community may well have become even more important to them, especially if membership is linked to their academic learning, career progression and opportunities to network and engage with likeminded people.
2. The Value of Community
A price cannot be put on member loyalty. A sense of belonging will mean if you provide excellent extras such as well organised events, accreditation and networking your members will want to attend. Being part of a group where you can share knowledge, experiences and support each other has real value. You have the perfect opportunity to join a community of professionals or like-minded people together. There are just so many ways to do this, you have no excuse for not bringing them together and this leads onto your next benefit.
3. Growth
Membership growth in a well-run organisation can in part, be achieved through the passion of your members; sharing reasons to join with their friends or colleagues. The benefit of this is of course lower marketing costs for you as an organisation and your community expanding with people who already know, like and trust those who recommended you and they will join with that same feeling for the organisation. The key thing is to ensure you know your target market, make sure your benefits align with their needs and demonstrate this clearly through your mission, vision and values. Do your research and be sure you know where to find them and focus your marketing here.
4. Reduced costs
As mentioned above your marketing costs will be reduced as you do not have to keep marketing your organisation to a new member time and time again. By offering excellent access to relevant resources, opportunities to network and real career progression your business expenses are far lower than those having to produce, market and sell a product.
5. You have the data
Data is invaluable and if you have asked the right questions at the time they join, you will have an abundance of it at your fingertips. You will also understand how your members behave and by analysing your data you will know what articles were of most interest, what events attracted the most attendees, what pages of your website are the most popular. This allows you to adapt to the needs of your membership to ensure they stay part of your growing community.
6. Experts in the field
Your membership will be filled with enthusiastic people wanting to be involved. Tap into this knowledge to help grow and deliver the very best. With guidance from others, young and new members can gain great experience to add to their CV. It’s a win win situation.
7. Drive Change and Policy
Membership organisations are so good at driving change. Whether this is with government or a community. The common interest of the membership and the drive and passion to make a difference make this so much easier. You will have members will many different skills be sure to utilise them.
Compleat work with membership organisations, saving them significant sums of money in managing their Secretariat efficiently. We bring about growth in both membership numbers and revenue.
For more information about how the Compleat team can help you grow your membership organisation and deliver effectively to your members contact heather@compleatgroup.co.uk or call 01489 668333.
