New members are great, but as you know, they can be hard to find. So where, oh where is the best place to look? Here are five places we recommend:

1. Start with your current members

When looking to recruit new members, always start with your current member base. Do you have any upcoming meetings or events? Encourage your members to invite their friends/colleagues. Word-of-mouth marketing is the BEST weapon against obscurity.

2. Reach out to companies within your industry

Companies within your industry are a GREAT resource for you. Consider reaching out to them (via phone or email - your choice) and seeing if they’d be willing to work with you. You could either go by their office and drop off a few flyers or send them a promotional flyer via email and encourage them to share it with their employees. Since your association helps advance the profession, many companies are more than willing to help out.

3. Stay active on social media

An active presence on social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) is good for multiple reasons. First, tweets now show up in Google desktop search results, so the more you tweet, the better it is for search engine optimization. Second, an active social media presence gives your organization credibility, which is huge when it comes to online member recruitment.

4. Take advantage of events

Events are a great way to engage your organization’s membership, but did you know they’re also a great way to grow your organization’s membership? By following a few best practices (planning an event with value, bundling event registration and membership, simplifying the non-member event registration process, etc.), you can actually maximize the impact of your events. (More about that here.)

5. Work your website

Your website is a HUGE tool for online member acquisition. People are constantly searching for information online, so if you provide valuable content on your organization’s website, people are more likely to be driven to your page. And if they see value on your page, they’ll see value in your organization (Helloooo new member!).

Now the “work your website” process is actually a little more complicated than that, but definitely still doable! For a list of next steps/best practices, check out our free guide to Online Member Acquisition below!

This article was originally sourced from memberclicks and written by Callie Walker.