When the New Jersey State Nurses Association wanted to grow its membership, the statewide group reinvested in its marketing efforts.

They positioned themselves as the defender of the profession and then told stories that reinforced the messaging again and again. That year, NJSNA launched a media relations effort that focused on the state’s nursing shortage and celebrated its biggest legislative victory when the governor signed the enhanced multi-state Nurse Licensure Compact. The association bolstered its top member benefit—advocacy—through several marketing channels.

Growing your association’s membership requires a comprehensive outreach program that will require several tactics to succeed like NJSNA, which generated a 734% return on their marketing investment as more than 1,500 new members joined the group in a 12-month period.

Here are seven ways you can grow your domestic or international association:

1. Branded Website

Now that we live in a digital world, your association and its brand exist online in the form of your website. From a membership perspective, it’s the center of your universe because it’s where everything begins and ends. A branded website showcases your value proposition in depth, from networking opportunities, events, educational workshops and certificates, legislative updates and thought leadership articles.

When the International Card Manufacturers Association (ICMA), which is an international association for card manufacturers, personalizers, issuers and suppliers, wanted to increase member engagement, it launched a new branded website with a special feature. ICMA unveiled a robust, searchable online membership directory, which was an upgrade from its static listing of companies, to drive more business to its member companies. The new interactive feature makes it easy for prospects to find ICMA members. In addition, the member directory not only raises visibility for members by improving their company’s ranking on Google, but it also boosts ICMA’s SEO.

As a result of ICMA’s new website, the international association experienced a 105% increase in unique page views and a 91% increase in visitors to the updated directory where 850 visitors went 2,600 times during a 12-month period.

Association Management Benefits: Memberships, Membership Retention, Membership Engagement, Education

2. Brand Messaging

Brand messaging is a series of talking points that make up your association’s story, which is crucial in terms of recruitment and retention. For instance, you are promoting your association to prospective members, but your organization isn’t the only one that serves your industry. Now what? That’s why you should wrap your association in a “story”, which is the culmination of brand messaging. As opposed to only selling your nonprofit’s features, tell your association’s story through your members. Branding separates your brand from the competition—and that is huge because if every brand is the same, then you will only be able to compete on membership fees…and that’s a race no one wants to win.

When the Hunterdon County Economic Development Council (EDC) wanted to attract more companies to the rural but fast-developing region, the nonprofit developed a brand-messaging campaign that led to an improved digital and online presence along with the creation of a new website. The updated website featured new tools and features including a property locator, extensive demographic, workforce and industrial data, as well as access to state business incentives and a job board. The brand messaging on the new website positioned Hunterdon as a hub of innovation and as a prime area for growth in advanced sectors such as technology and life sciences, generating dramatic increases in organic traffic (+16%) and new users (+87%) during a single quarter.

Association Management Benefits: Memberships, Member Retention, Membership Engagement, Education

3. Virtual Events

The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us the importance of streaming services, which goes far beyond home entertainment. In the workplace, live-streaming virtual conferences have become a cost-effective way to reach your members and prospective members on a large scale, while remaining socially distant. Virtual conferences afford us the opportunity to retain most of the benefits associated with in-person experiences, allowing us to have invaluable group and two-way conversations.

When the American Pediatric Surgical Nurses Association needed to quickly share critical COVID-19 developments with members during a nationwide state of emergency, it launched its first Facebook Live feature as the ideal way to reach their largest audience. APSNA’s one-day virtual event helped build a deeper engagement with its members by providing a forum for them to connect in a genuine way through sharing regional updates about the pandemic and receiving real-time answers to their questions. The virtual event reached 4,000 members and generated 232 post clicks, 87 reaction and 20 live comments.

Association Management Benefits: Memberships, Member Retention, Membership Engagement, Education

4. Social Media

Social media is today’s word-of-mouth. It is a perfect example of “owned media”, which gives an association a lot of control over the messaging. Social media is a cost-effective way to start any member outreach. In fact, here’s one thought that most people don’t know about social media: The reason we go online is so we can go offline. That’s right. Social media travels pretty much around the world.  With some research, you can identify prospective members and make first contact on your social channels. So start with social media, then move your prospects to your website and, ultimately, to a virtual or hybrid event so they can experience your organization’s value proposition firsthand.

When the Rental & Staging Network, a North American network of premier live event staging companies, wanted to increase its website traffic, it asked for a comprehensive social media strategy. The campaign positioned the association as a knowledge center for the industry. Through a yearlong social media initiative, RSN’s blogs were promoted on social media and resulted in an average 74 new leads per month. Key elements of the strategy included posting when the target audiences were actively online to increase sharing and engagement. As a result, RSN generated 893 new prospects and a 42% increase in referral traffic from social media, compared to the prior year.

Association Management Benefits: Memberships, Member Retention, Membership Engagement, Education

5. Public Relations

Public relations is a strategic communications discipline that builds your association’s reputation and relationships to grow your brand. From a media relations perspective, public relations creates third-party affirmation, which is crucial for any organization. In life, there are things we can’t really say because they are too self-serving. For example, you can’t say your association is the best because you are on the payroll. But if you can get a third-party to say it, well then, maybe you are the best. Every time you get a positive brand mention in a media outlet, it’s like the media outlet is propping up your association as a thought leader. If you want to tell someone something, you should buy an ad. But if you want someone to believe something, then you should get yourself some good PR. Building reputation and relationships take time and energy, but they are both invaluable.

When the Event Service Professionals Association (ESPA) wanted deeper membership engagement, it launched a yearlong public relations campaign, which capitalized on cultivated media partnerships with target publications in the events industry. The initiative secured placements in Meetings Today that showcased ESPA’s members expertise and a feature article in a USA Today supplement about the future of travel and events, which resulted in 16 additional placements nationwide. As a result, the ESPA campaign promoted the association’s members as go-to, subject-matter experts, positioning them as the answer to questions that meeting planners and venue decision-makers face. The PR effort increased web traffic by 25% and delivered 38 media placements for a total reach of 284,824 readers in target publications.

Association Management Benefits: Memberships, Member Retention, Membership Engagement, Education

6. Email

When it comes to marketing tactics, it’s all about what’s new, right? Not always. Email marketing has been around for several decades, and it still works like a charm. In fact, associations  can expect an average 4,200% return. These electronic messages reach recipients around the clock, 24/7 on your cellphone or laptop, which means your association’s story can be very close to your members and prospects at all times.

When New Jersey’s governor needed help fighting COVID-19 on the frontlines, the New Jersey State Nurses Association (NJSNA) launched an email campaign that supplemented its ongoing marketing efforts. The statewide association, representing 110,000 registered nurses in the state, developed a crisis communications campaign to encourage active nurses, retired nurses and nursing students to join the war against the viral outbreak. As a result, nearly 1,900 additional nurses answered NJSNA’s call to action to join the front lines against COVID-19 during a two-week period in the spring. NJSNA’s open and click rates for the organization’s e-publication, Nurses Weekly, increased to 24.3% (2-fold increase over norm) and 12.5% (6-fold increase) respectively during a two-week period. One issue of Nurses Weekly drove 8,540 readers directly to NJSNA.org, a 10.3% increase in the website traffic typically generated by the e-publication with a 27% open rate.

Association Management Benefits: Memberships, Member Retention, Membership Engagement, Education

7. Advertising

Advertising is the one marketing tactic that can buy your association time, which is worth more than money. Can you motivate 1,284 prospects to go to your “Join Now” page without spending a penny on ads? Sure. But it might take you more than a year. With ads, it might take you 30 days. Do you know what happens between 12 months and one month? Payroll happens. Property taxes and utilities tied to your facilities happen. Time is money—so why not shorten the long-game and ramp up membership and attendance today.

When ICMA wanted to build a deeper level of engagement with its members, it launched a 12-month, retargeting ad campaign to promote its training and events. These special ads, which follow your website visitors around the web to stay top of mind, were shown worldwide. As a result, the retargeting campaign generated 4,228 clicks and 1,311,521 impressions with a 32% click-through rate.

Association Management Benefits: Memberships, Member Retention, Membership Engagement, Education

Contact us today to tap into the full potential of partnering with an Association Management Company to help grow membership.