Businesses exist to make money, fund retirement, provide social good etc…

Typically the mantra is "as in sport the key to success is keeping one's eye on the ball". Alternatively, consider just the word "relevance"; meaning "important to the matter at hand". This of course begs the questions "what is the matter at hand" and "why is it important".

Short term; resolve, improve, eliminate, fix, replace and upgrade so that the little things that "annoy" clients, both current and potential, no longer can do so.

Long term; ensure that there are processes in place to prevent "little things" from existing in the first place and where they do actively prevent them from growing into "big things".

For example, take the Website User Experience. Where this is perceived as inadequate, each time the site is used a "small thing" has been created; which over time can only grow. What to do?

Simple, regularly use the Website yourself, just as you expect each client to do, and resolve what annoys. The "small thing" may be real, or may be only perception. Read the literature; for example take the quotation from Steve Seow; author of Designing and Engineering Time. "Uncertainty is a disease, and information is usually the cure, particularly with software. Even something as simple as a gradually filling circle to convey the progress of a download can go a long way to keep slowness rage at bay”.

Relevance; consider all aspects of your business from the point of view of the Client; and take action on what you observe.

Every association deals with various complex issues and challenges. It’s safe to say that the association world isn’t always filled with sunshine and daisies - and that’s OK.

Decisions need to be made every day, and sometimes they are difficult ones. Since your organization handles memberships, the decisions you make directly affect others - no pressure, right? Associations that offer memberships often have to make adjustments that can rock the boat, but they are often necessary. Does your association know how to properly deal with these membership difficulties?

Enforcing a New Membership Structure

New trends and fads are hitting many associations’ membership models. It’s no longer standard to have a traditional one-size-fits all model that leaves members with no alternatives. Many associations have found that members want choices and flexibility when it comes to their commitment level. So where does that leave your association?

That means that your staff will have to implement a new membership structure, and that’s a hefty job. For starters, your members are accustomed to a certain membership style. It’s not easy to go against the grain and change your methodology without any pushback. It will be your job to keep your members at ease and assure them that their membership experience will not falter.

The final question remains: Does your association know what new membership model to implement? It’s important to understand which membership structure will best benefit your entire organization.

How do you know what will work and what won’t? What do members want? This transition causes for many questions, and it’s your job to figure them out. Luckily for you, that’s where data comes into play. If your AMS has robust reporting capabilities, you will be able to understand your members needs. You will be able to pull reports and analyze your findings - allowing you to lay the foundation for your new membership model.

Another strategy to gain insight into what your members want - just ask them! By polling your members, you will receive direct feedback on what initiatives work, and what don’t. You will be able to understand what benefits members value and implement that information in your new membership arrangement.

Measuring the Right Metrics

As stated above, the right AMS will make it easy for you and your staff to retrieve and extract useful data. However, just because you can pull data, doesn't mean you necessarily should. If your association is looking to advance, it will need to become a data-driven organization. By analyzing quantitative data, you will be able to make strategic decisions to better your organization as a whole.

To make your memberships the best they can be, you need to genuinely understand your member.

But are you measuring the right metrics? In order to understand your membership structure and memberships in general - you need to analyze the appropriate data. By pulling general member information (demographic information, overarching characteristics, etc) you can gain insight into your member type. Another important element is to understand what makes members tick - what initiatives keep them engaged. Take a look at your event registrations, see what sessions had the most attendees and review the topic being discussed. By surveying these data points, you can structure your memberships accordingly.

Dropping Certain Benefits

This one can be tricky, but hear me out. If your association offers 20+ benefits and only a few are truly being valued, why even bother? At this point, you are just adding more work for your staff and exhausting valuable resources. To alleviate this issue, associations need to match their benefits to their target demographic’s needs and wants. By conducting a market analysis, you will be able to align your benefits to your members. Depending on your industry, membership structure and target market - you will need to match all components. In the long run, it’s probably better to cut the benefits that are collecting dust and keep the ones that members truly value. These are the benefits that entice members to join - the ones that they can’t anywhere else. Again, it’s crucial to analyze appropriate data to give you these insights. Conducting polls and surveys is another intuitive way to listen to your members.

Nobody said the association world is easy. There are difficult decisions that need to be made on a daily basis - tough stuff! When dealing with memberships, you are directly affecting the experience of your members. It’s important to understand what to do when things get tricky. Every association deals with difficult membership processes, but with the right mindset and understand of your members - you can overcome anything.

To learn more about transitions in the association space, check out our blog, “Embrace the Association Change.”

This article was originally sourced from Member Suite and was written by Amanda Simmons. 

There are all kinds of memberships out there - individual, organizational, freemium, and ah yes, virtual. But how do you know what models are right for your association? You may be offering individual and organizational memberships, but should you be offering virtual memberships as well?

It’s definitely something to ponder, but before you make a final decision, ask yourself these three questions:

1. Do you have the resources and infrastructure needed to support a virtual membership?

Virtual memberships will likely entail a lot of webinars, online training, fresh content, etc. Does your association have the staff and technology needed to provide those services? If not, is the cost of getting (and sustaining) those resources worth offering a discounted, virtual membership? You definitely don’t want to spend more than you bring in.

2. Can you differentiate the benefits of a virtual membership versus a regular membership?

Your regular membership - whether individual, organizational, or both - should be your primary focus. It’s fine to roll out a virtual option, but make sure there’s a clear difference between that and your regular membership. The last thing you want is to devalue your existing members by rolling out an online option.

3. Down the road, can you encourage your virtual members to become regular, higher-level members?

Ideally, you want everyone to be a “regular” member. Virtual memberships exist, though, for those who don’t want or need all of your regular member benefits (e.g. all of those in-person perks).

That said, once someone commits to being a virtual member, can you later encourage them to upgrade their membership? Before rolling out a virtual option, this is something you’ll want to consider.

Offering different membership types is all about recruiting more people. The more options you provide, the more people you’re likely to recruit.

That said, if you’re not ready to roll out a virtual option or it’s not a good fit for your association, that’s totally fine. You can still recruit people with your existing membership types. Not sure how? Check out our free guide, Best Practices for Online Member Acquisition, below!

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

Membership is a team sport. It cannot be achieved alone.

But let’s face it, working with people is tough. Even if you’re a small-staff association, you still have several opinions to take into consideration, not to mention, those of your board. And with so many ideas/opinions floating around, it can be hard to land on one, meaning your association can’t move forward.

Not good.

So how do you eliminate silos within your organization and get everyone to work as a team? Here are a few tips:

1. Set goals (and frequently refer back to those goals)

Sometimes, when people are working in silos, they’re working towards different goals. It’s very easy to do. I mean, how often do you get lost in your day-to-day responsibilities? But if you really want to move your organization forward, it’s important that you’re all working towards the same goals.

To do that, clearly define your current and future goals and refer back to those when meeting/making important decisions.

2. Define roles

Now this is important for a number of reasons. First, you need to know who your decision makers are so that you can collect feedback and determine next steps accordingly. But also, you need to have leaders in place to keep the team moving forward. Without leaders, it often seems that people take a passive approach - and that’s not good for reaching goals.

3. Encourage creativity

Regardless of who your decision makers are, everyone should have a voice. Brainstorming and creativity are what spark the BEST ideas. That said, give everyone an opportunity to speak and encourage unique and transformative ideas.

4. Communicate

No matter how you spin it, the root of effective teamwork is communication. If you want your staff (and board members) to work efficiently together, you need to keep everyone in the loop. You need to keep people updated about current projects, future projects, and more importantly, why certain decisions were made (particularly if there were different opinions about it).

The more people know, the more included they’ll feel, and the more willing they’ll be to help. (Plus, the value of those ideas will improve.)

Teamwork is what it takes to successfully manage your organization - but that doesn’t make the management process any easier. If you need help with membership management, particularly when it comes to member acquisition, engagement, and retention, check out our free Membership Management Guide below!

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

ICMYI – in case you missed them, here’s a selection of Jamie’s posts on Association Success from August, each “busting a myth” about engagement.

The Employee Engagement Trap

“What do you do if the data says your managers don’t care, or people don’t have friends at work? Train your managers in empathy? Force people to go to happy hour together? Even the equipment one—if you buy new macs for everyone, are you really certain that true engagement is going to increase? Our approach to employee engagement has been to force improvements in the engagement metrics without understanding what drives engagement in the first place.

If you found that people with clinical depression laughed a lot less than people without depression, would you force depressed people to laugh more? No, you’d treat their depression, and if your treatment was successful, you’d probably find them laughing more.

Engagement is fundamentally driven by a culture that truly works. A strong culture is one where what is valued internally is sharply aligned with what drives the success of the enterprise, and the people there see that, understand that, and live that. When that is happening, you’ll see your engagement scores go up. Ironically, however, you don’t need to measure your engagement scores in order to figure out how to build that strong culture.”

3 Tips for Engaging Millennials

“The reasons Millennials don’t listen to your marketing messaging is because it’s YOUR messaging. It’s what YOU want, and you’re still trying to interrupt us as much as you can with your message until the sales numbers go up. This is the digital age, folks. Millennials are expecting to be delivered content that is actually useful to them—that they would WANT to share with their friends. That’s not because they’re “entitled.” It’s because that’s what they’ve been getting their whole lives.

So what does this have to do with member engagement? If you want to engage Millennials, then learn how to deliver them actual value. And that’s before they join, before they sign up, and probably even before you’ve forced them to give you their email address (seriously, do you not realize that they have an email address they use ONLY for giving it away to spammers like you?). In the digital age, you start by delivering value. Membership and even revenue will come later. So as you think about engaging Millennials, here are some tips.”

Engagement: Local vs National

“Here’s the deal: maybe the new operating environment is asking us to shift our culture. Maybe the very separate cultures we have nurtured over the years at the national and local levels are now creating a negative experience for our stakeholders. Maybe in order to succeed today, we need to do things differently. Maybe we will have to change the way we share information with the chapters, make decisions about programming, or even share resources.

If that sounds impossible to you, then maybe you should look for a new line of work. Sorry to be harsh, but maybe you need to go find an industry that is not in flux, that has a super-stable customer base whose experiences and expectations aren’t changing rapidly. Go find that job, so you can show up every day and implement according to the plan and the way it’s always been done.

Because we need to make room for a different kind of association executive. One who recognizes that the work of associations—the work of engaging members and stakeholders in ways that produce extraordinary value for both the stakeholders and the organization—requires innovation, new practices, and a much stronger focus on the role of culture.

Culture makes it clear what is valued, and our traditional local/national split is all about valuing efficiency and control in a centralized hierarchy. It puts the association at the center of the universe, and that’s not what today’s stakeholders are expecting. We need cultures that are open to integrating local and national engagement experiences.”

This article was originally sourced from Social Fish and was written by Maddie Grant.

A new benchmarking study sheds some light on common chapter-relations practices at associations, but it falls short of stating the value of chapters—because so few associations are measuring it.

Early this year, I profiled a few associations that had recently restructured their chapter systems in the Associations Now Volunteer Leadership Issue. The International Association of Administrative Professionals, for instance, surveyed members and found that a poor member experience at the chapter level was a primary reason members were lapsing. Air Conditioning Contractors of America, meanwhile, had association chapters in about half of the states, and its membership was growing in states without chapters but declining in states with chapters.

In both cases, these associations knew it was time for change. They had evidence. They knew their chapters’ impact (or lack thereof) on their missions.

If your association has chapters or components, what evidence do you have? How do you know whether chapters are a lift or a drag on member value and the pursuit of your association’s mission?

When a volunteer chapter leader has to gather and send membership data manually, that’s a process ripe for breakdowns.

Well, if you’re like most associations with chapters, you probably don’t know.

In August, Mariner Management & Marketing released the results of its “2016 Chapter Benchmarking Study” [PDF], a survey of 162 associations conducted in partnership with Whorton Marketing & Research. Among a trove of data about this less-studied side of associations was one perhaps troubling finding:

Just 5 percent of associations with chapters say they calculate the return on investment (ROI) of their chapter systems.

Meanwhile, the percentage of associations that measure chapter performance along individual metrics looks much better, but that’s only because 5 percent is so low. Still less than half do so:

• 41 percent said they measure chapters’ membership retention (this was the highest among the metrics asked about in the survey)
  
• 40 percent measure chapters’ member recruitment
  
• 27 percent measure chapters’ event participation levels
  

Peter Houstle, CEO/COO at Mariner, says this type of measurement is too often overlooked. “Lots of people have metrics by which they assess performance of the chapters, but those metrics invariably are around organizational metrics rather than mission metrics,” he says. “They’re focused on things like: Are you legal? Are your bylaws up to date? Do you have a certain number of meetings? Stuff that in the grand scheme of things represents activity but doesn’t necessarily represent value.”

These checklist items are easy to track, but more detailed membership and engagement data is difficult to share. If chapter and headquarters data systems are independent of each other and a volunteer chapter leader has to gather and send that info manually, that’s a process ripe for breakdowns.

“One of the fundamental problems that associations have when it comes to this value assessment and performance evaluation process is that, in the majority of the cases with associations with chapters, the data sets are fragmented. They don’t have a unified data set,” Houstle says.

About two-thirds of associations, however, process dues payments for their association chapters. Peggy Hoffman, CAE, president at Mariner, says taking on this role could make chapter-membership data collection easier.

“One of the low-hanging-fruit services is to be the dues collector, so you could actually get the data that would help you have a better understanding of how chapters are having an impact on retention and recruitment,” she says. “Another easy thing to do is to provide some sort of event-registration support, which now gives you really important information: You can take a look at who’s participating in events at a chapter level, which gives you a more compete picture, because someone could be ‘checkbook’ at the national level and very active at the local level, or vice versa.”

The challenge associations often face, however, is getting chapters’ buy-in to adopt recommended practices from headquarters. That’s why healthy relations between the two are crucial. “If there is a good symbiotic, collaborative relationship, then people would be looking at each other and saying ‘How can we do better?’” says Houstle.

A few other notable findings from the benchmarking report showed some of the common structural practices associations follow with their chapters:

Charter type. About two-thirds of associations’ chapters are formed so that the association has “substantial control”:

• 46 percent use a “separate chartered” model, in which chapters are separate nonprofit organizations but cannot exist independently of the central association.
  
• 20 percent use a subsidiary model, in which the chapters and central association are all one organization.
  
• 29 percent use a “separate affiliated” model, in which chapters are separate and could exist on their own if they chose to.
  
• 5 percent responded “other.”

Membership requirements. Here, associations are broadly mixed:

• 31 percent use a unified membership structure, in which membership in a chapter and the central organization are packaged together.
  
• 29 percent require membership in the central organization before a member can opt to join a chapter.
  
• 11 percent require membership in a chapter before a member can opt to join the central association.
  
• 20 percent are “non-contingent,” in which a member can join at either level with no requirement to join the other.
  
• 9 percent responded “other.”

Hoffman says she sees the unified structure growing in use among associations as they revamp their chapter structures, which she says is “an interesting counter to the fact that so many associations are looking at membership models and they’re asking the question, ‘Should we unbundle? Should we have more variety so people can have choice?’”

Staffing. Associations reported an average of 3.3 full-time employees at headquarters significantly devoted to chapter relations. And 65 percent said they have no full-time employees at their chapters, meaning they are dependent on volunteer leadership. “You realize how important the staff at the headquarters can be,” Hoffman says.

Overall, Houstle and Hoffman note in the benchmarking report an “undercurrent of discomfort with the status quo on chapters.” While the data in their report can offer associations an understanding of how their chapter-relations practices compare to other associations, a stronger commitment to performance assessment and measuring ROI of chapters will give an association a clearer picture of how they do or do not advance its mission, Houstle says.

“The problem is, if you ask this question, what do you do if you don’t like the answer?” he says. “I suspect there is some inherent fear of the answer, because some organizations have invested a lot of energy into [chapters]. It’s the classic sunk cost problem; they just can’t get around the notion that these things could be not worth the effort.”

This article was originally sourced from Assocations Now and was written by Joe Rominiecki.

Social media is a powerful way to build a following, turn prospects into leads, and drive sales.

One of the biggest complaints I hear is that business owners are investing lots of time in social media and not seeing the returns on those efforts.

If you aren’t getting the social media results you are looking for, perhaps it’s time to look at new tactics.

If you are ready to get more out of your social media marketing, here’s 6 techniques to try:

• Use Facebook Live. Video marketing is a powerful addition to your marketing mix. But live video is shown to keep users watching for 3 times longer than a recorded video.Fans love the feeling of listening to what you have to share in the moment. Try answering questions and providing tips while live.Other ways to use Facebook Live is to broadcast an update when you are networking or attending events. Or share a Facebook live update on any launches coming down the pipe.

• Offer Opt-In Gifts to Grow Your Marketing List. People can’t resist getting a checklist, blueprint, app, or white paper that offers valuable information.When you give value first, it goes a long way to building trust and rapport with your followers. Plus, this allows you to capture your social media leads into your email marketing list. Give them something they can’t refuse and send them to a landing page to sign up. That way you can keep in contact via email sharing additional offers and information in a drip campaign.

• Invite People to Take Action. Be strategic with your calls to action to get the most out of your social media efforts.In addition to sharing a mix of posts, be sure to offer ways your fans can dive deeper with you. This can include a free consultation, special offers and discount deals, webinars, participation in your Facebook group, and more.

• Build Your Fan Base Organically. Never hire someone from Fiverr who can add 10,000 fans for a fee. This is a bad idea on many levels.Instead, find groups with people in your target audience. Be helpful. Start real conversations. Invite them to join your social media page or group. Don’t be afraid to reach out with private messaging to respond to questions they have or share resources or advice. So don’t buy followers. It’s about quality of followers, not quantity. It’s better to have 1000 raving fans you have attracted, than to have 10,000 fans who don’t really know you or have investment in the connection.

• Offer a Mix of Post Content. People love variety. Be creative and provide a variety of content formats including how-to articles, videos, graphics, and infographics.An ideal content marketing strategy is to always keep your target market in mind and post what you think they will best want to receive from you.

• Post at the Ideal Time for Best Exposure. Timing is everything. If you share an incredible post, you want to ensure the most people possible can see it!There are many social media tools to help you see the best times to post content to reach the biggest audience. This may vary from platform to platform. So don’t guess when you can use analytic tools with reports that help you identify the ideal time to post.
  

Social media is evolving and growing fast. There is a lot of opportunity get leads, drive sales, and build a following but you have to get creative. You can’t just rely on the old tactics you have used in the past; you need to implement new techniques and tools if you want to stay ahead of the competition.

Discover Step-By-Step How To Boost Your Social Media Marketing Results in just 21 Days

Starting Sept 21st, I’ll be sharing my best social media secrets with a small exclusive group of individuals in a new 21 Day Social Media Challenge.

I’ll be posting short, powerful tasks you can do to take your social media to the next level.

What’s great is these are simple things you can do in literally 5-10 minutes. So if you are ready to ramp up your social media results for the Fall, you’ll definitively want to check this out here.

This article was originally sourced from Business 2 Community and was written by Susan Friesen. 

Recent research into the impact of corporate sponsorships of nonprofits suggests that the wrong collaboration can prove poisonous. One analyst suggests thinking long and hard about what a sponsorship means for your organization.

Sponsorship is a fact of life—and an important revenue stream—for many associations and other nonprofits. But could sponsorships be putting some negative marks on your brand? A recent study published in the Academy of Management Journal suggests that the answer is yes.

The study, “When Does Medici Hurt DaVinci? Mitigating the Signaling Effect of Extraneous Stakeholder Relationships in the Field of Cultural Production” [subscription], looked at that question specifically as it pertained to Russian theaters. The researchers, Yuliya Shymko of Belgium’s Vlerick Business School and Thomas Roulet of the School of Management and Business at London’s King’s College, found that, for every corporate sponsor a theater had, it was 10 percent less likely to receive a nomination for the Golden Mask award, the highest professional honor in the Russian theater world.

This point translates elsewhere, of course. In a Harvard Business Review article describing the research, Shymko and Roulet highlighted the saga of the Royal Opera House in London, which stoked controversy in the theater community and among the broader public after it accepted corporate support from the oil industry giant BP.

“In other words, corporate donors may provide a recipient with crucial resources, but accepting this financial support makes the beneficiary less likely to be recognized as artistically and culturally valuable,” the researchers wrote in HBR. “This in turn reduces the visibility and reputational benefit of the donor’s gift; after all, most donors want to been seen supporting the very best cultural institutions.”

That sounds like bad news for nonprofit organizations that need corporate support for their missions. But it also comes at a time when many corporations are increasingly speaking up on social issues, driving greater interest in social sponsorships across the board.

In a Nonprofit Quarterly analysis of the study that extrapolates beyond cultural institutions, Common Impact CEO Danielle Holly suggests that nonprofits take care when considering the advice suggested by the study, including that sponsorship funding be directed toward specific programs.

“Nonprofits would be better served by incorporating this study’s findings as one of the many inputs they weigh when considering a corporate partnership, looking at two factors in particular,” Holly writes.

Those factors? First, analyzing how philosophically comfortable the organization is with teaming with a specific corporation; and then, analyzing what conflicts of interests the partnership could create down the line, addressing those concerns as needed.

This article was originally sourced from Associations Now.

Texting is a powerful (though underutilized) marketing platform because of its high engagement rate and effectiveness in reaching those who may be less inclined to pick up the phone or check their email regularly. We want information conveniently delivered to us through our mobile phones, and nearly everyone is texting.

Short Message Service (text) marketing is a reliable way to get in front of your members, and it makes engagement quick and easy. It’s very visible and harder to ignore than email. Using a mass texting program, you can send SMS messages to a list of subscribers who have opted-in to receive your texts. This program can be used to send messages quickly to every subscriber on your messaging list and to run campaigns in which texts go out automatically.

SMS is also a good way to send reminders, information, alerts or promotions directly to the mobile phones (and by extension, hands) of all of your subscribers at once.

Text marketing software providers:

Mass texting providers such as Ez Texting, TextMarks, SimplyCast, Mozeo and Tatango use short codes and keywords as the foundation of their SMS marketing software. With one of these services, you can send and receive texts from an easy-to-remember, short code. When you send a mass text with a call to action, you also need a keyword for subscribers to use to opt-in to your campaign. You can set up different keywords to trigger texts with different information. This is an easy way for subscribers to interact with your campaign and for you to communicate your message.

Note: Naylor and Association Adviser don’t endorse any of these texting providers above.

Text marketing programs also allow you to divide your subscribers into lists or groups so that you can better target your campaigns to your subscribers’ needs. For example, you can divide your list into teams, geographic areas and more.

With most texting programs, you can control all of your campaigns from your online dashboard. You can manage settings, add more keywords, view subscriber activity and even send text messages online.

How it works:

Once you’ve decided on a service provider, the first step in creating an SMS marketing campaign is to compile a solid list of subscribers who want to receive messages from you. Remember, you must obtain permission before sending any messages. Gather text subscribers by promoting the campaign on your website and social media accounts along with a simple way to join. For example, you could have prospective subscribers text a keyword like “JOIN” to your short code to sign up.

The next step is to craft your message. Keep it brief, making sure to include only the most important details. You may also want to include a call to action that asks subscribers to text back a keyword in order to RSVP, receive a coupon or learn more.

Every text message you send should include an unsubscribe option. Your provider may set this up automatically. If not, one of the easiest ways to do this is to set up an unsubscribe keyword like “STOP” that the subscriber can text if they want to stop receiving messages from you.

What it costs:

The two main costs associated with SMS marketing are the price per text and the price of keywords. Typically the price per text will decrease the more you send. Multimedia messages that include photos or GIFs will cost more. The number of texts you can send and the number of keywords you can use will initially be determined by the plan you buy, but additional purchases of extra messages and keywords are always an option later on.

Text marketing is instantaneous, two-way communication that has the potential to revolutionize the way organizations and companies keep in touch with their members and customers. The number of SMS marketing providers out there is vast, so ask plenty of questions upfront to ensure you make the best choice for your business. As long as your campaign is well-executed, engaging and user-friendly, texting could be exactly what your integrated marketing strategy needs.

This article was originally sourced from Associations Advisor.

Preliminary results of our unscientific reader poll show that association leaders have a wide variety of member challenges to address, and topping the list is the impact of a changing landscape. More than one in three (34 percent) respondents indicated concern about industry consolidation and retiring Boomers falling off their membership rolls.

Although only 13 percent felt that their member communications were ineffective, more than one in five (21 percent) were frustrated that members didn’t seem aware of all of the benefits they are entitled to with their membership. List segmentation was also cited as a significant challenge by more than one in six (17 percent) of associations.

New data from Edge Research, commissioned by Abila, Inc., showed a significant disconnect between the reasons young people join associations and the reasons associations THINK young people join.

At a recent webinar deconstructing the findings, Jamie Notter, founding partner at WorkXO, LLC, said many membership organizations are still stuck in the model of: “Pay to join us first and then we’ll show you our worth.” Notter said that’s a hard sell for always-connected young professionals who are “used to getting value instantaneously.”

“They’re used to the “freemium model,” Notter said, and then they upgrade to the paid model if they like it.

Scott Wiley, CEO of the Ohio Society of CPAs, said it starts with “really knowing” your members.

“At OSCPA, we have a dedicated business development team whose primary responsibility is to build relationships with members and understand their challenges and any gaps in service that we can fill,” he said. “The team regularly brings that information back to our staff so that our strategic priorities and the work we do is directly aligned with solving members’ pain points.”

This article was originally sourced from Associations Adviser.