If you’re a membership organisation, attracting new members – and keeping them loyal – is one of your top priorities. But without a compelling (and distinctive!) member value proposition, you’ll struggle to do it.
In this article, Consider’s Strategy Director Amy Nield outlines three key areas that will help make your member value proposition stand out from the competition.
Clearly define the problems you’re solving
It’s almost unbelievable, but research by Memberwise showed that less than 60% of membership organisations have a clearly defined membership value proposition.
If you can’t clearly articulate your membership proposition yourself, you’ll struggle to convince both current and prospective members of why they should join (or stay).
Therefore, you need to clearly outline the problems you will solve for your membership base. These are your value drivers.
Every organisation’s value drivers are unique. But there’s some common themes. Take professional membership, for example. Typical value drivers include offering network opportunities, enhancing career paths, or saving members money.
Whatever your value drivers are, they must be both relevant and distinctive, setting you apart from competitors.
Find out what makes your members tick
To convince your members to renew, or prospects to join, you need to understand what really matters to them – what makes them tick.
Gather as much information as possible from your members about what they want, what they value, the problems they’re facing, and how they want their membership organisation to help solve them. This information will be essential to tailoring your member value proposition.
Crucially, this information must be relevant and up-to-date. In an ever-changing market, member needs are changing quickly. For example, Gen Z members are shown to be especially appreciative of continuing education options – compared to past generations.To keep pace with rapidly changing member needs, you need to conduct regular research on what your members are looking for.
Tried and tested quantitative research methods, such as surveys, interviews and focus groups, are great for this. When creating CIPD’s value proposition, we discovered that workshops were especially effective for delving into the core of their offering.
Your CRM system also has a role to play. The right system will capture the data entered or provided by members each time they interact with you. You can use this bank of data to adapt your offerings based on their preferences and interactions.
For instance, you can use your CRM to find out which content your members are engaging with – and adapt your communication strategy accordingly.
Communication is key
People loyally keep their memberships when they’re reminded, often, about the value they get from it. Don’t take their money for granted.
When we create member value propositions for our clients, we differentiate between actual and perceived value.. Actual member value refers to the tangible benefits members receive, while perceived member value is the value they feel they receive. Ensuring that perceived member value aligns with actual member value is critical for retention.
Perceived member value is often different from actual member value, as members may not recognise or be aware of the benefits they have access to.
To give a very simple example, a professional membership association may offer two networking events a year, providing members with opportunities to connect with industry peers. However despite having access to two networking events annually, a member may be only aware of and attend one of them.
In this scenario, the actual member value includes the full range of offerings – two networking events. However, the perceived member value for an individual member is limited to their attendance at one networking event.
A member’s perception of value is based on their awareness and engagement with specific aspects of your association’s offerings. When the gap between actual member value and perceived member value becomes too wide, then you will have issues with member retention.
Plug this gap by regularly communicating the benefits of membership to existing members, monitoring engagement to adapt your communication strategy accordingly. Make sure that your communications are constantly hitting the mark, and no member is slipping through the net.
We’ve found that real stories from members can be a powerful tool in conveying the tangible impact of membership, and fostering a stronger connection between members and membership organisations. For example, we asked members to upload stories demonstrating how ACCA had changed their life – with fantastic results.
Consider is a full-service creative and strategy agency. If your organisation is looking to build your membership community, improve your member stewardship, or you’d like to discuss specific challenges you’re facing, we’d love to chat.
Email [email protected] and we’ll be in touch!
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