The benefits of membership magazines

Membership organisations are a great way to build brand communities and bring people together around a common interest.

In the UK alone, there are an estimated 8,000 membership organisations and associations (with memberships of over 1,000 individuals/organisations) and around 80% of the population belongs to some kind of membership organisation/association. But what is the best way to communicate with them?

We have seen first-hand how membership magazines – both printed and digital – can drive membership sign-ups, boost retention and ultimately achieve more sales for your brand.

Membership magazines are an effective communication tool

There’s no doubt that a membership magazine reflects and reinforces the values of its member organisation. It helps communicate with members and provides a sense of common purpose, as well as informing and engaging readers.

Whether you have upcoming events, news to share or inspiring stories to tell, a membership magazine goes straight to members’ homes or inboxes so a brand should use its knowledge of its audience to service them with useful and entertaining content.

As Nicolette Beard at Top Rank Marketing put it: “The content in branded magazines represents an opportunity for customers to explore a brand that they feel strongly about and one that they already connect with.”

Magazines add value to membership

In our experience, a magazine is often cited as the most important benefit of membership overall. Get it right and a publication becomes a key member benefit and a powerful marketing tool to showcase everything you achieve.

A well-written, beautifully produced magazine gives an organisation authority and demonstrates a tangible investment in its members, who cannot wait to receive the next issue because they know it will be full of informative content that appeals to them directly.

Dialogue’s work with the Harley-Davidson Owners Group demonstrates this benefit, reaching hundreds of thousands of people from different cultures, languages and ideologies and producing a comprehensive content package that recognises geographical differences through localised content while uniting members under the brand’s overarching ethos.

You can make money from your magazine

Membership magazines can also provide an additional revenue stream through advertising. While the data gained from social media advertising is often cited as a benefit over other forms of advertising, a membership organisation has access to specific data about its members and this is of huge value to advertisers. You can read more about using data to create brand magazines here.

Brand and membership organisation publications offer easy access to a highly valuable niche audience that is combined with engagement and longevity. Whether that means featuring suitable adverts supplied by aligned companies or using compelling stories that have editorial value as advertorials, an agile approach finds the best solution for all parties and can earn you money.

Membership magazines can also be a valuable media platform for branded content or brand partnerships, where content needs to straddle multiple platforms to target the niche audience.

A multi-purpose magazine

Whether in print, digital or both, a membership magazine can be a great asset for any membership organisation. A direct funnel of information straight to members’ homes, a magazine is a vital communications tool and a benefit for members that can help build a brand community, grow loyalty and improve retention. It could even offer an additional revenue stream for the organisation too.

Get in touch to talk to us about creating a membership magazine for your organisation today.

Dialogue Content Marketing is an award-winning full-service content marketing agency that creates engaging visual and written content across all channels.