Every organization has a "natural constituency"
So when an organization or business wants to find NEW members, how do they go about doing it? 1. Define your target market
2. Meet them on their terms You wouldn't target a google ad to market to someone who is never online, so why do you go to the same old marketing channels without thinking where your audience is first? The significant way to get your name out to others in this oversaturated market is to be creative, genuine and considerate of how your potential members preferred to be approached.
3. Provide Value
4. Simplify the path to membership Joining MUST be easy to do. The top recommended way to register members is through your website. A membership form should not be longer than one page. You need the basic details, not a life story. Also consider easy opportunities to recruit members at events. If you can not register prospects for membership at the event itself, it is almost always best to get the person's information and follow up with them 3 days or less from the event. If someone takes a membership brochure or card, they may forget but if they receive a personal email, they may sign up on the on the spot. 5. Don't forget to ASK! This may go without saying, but I have been guilty of it myself. Ask at events, ask in one-on-one conversations. Just ask. The more you do it, the easier it gets. Yes, you read that correctly. The most affordable, powerful, user-friendly membership system and it comes with a free trial? Well geez, now that you have said it twice, we are blushing. But really, it's true, allow us to tell you why.... Hey HubSpot. Member Center is built on HubSpot. HubSpot is the leading customer relationship management (CRM) tool on the market. This is a system that fortune 500 companies around the globe use to lead their sales. By teaming up with one of the best CRM software platforms, Member Center was developed to further Hubspot as a tool for nonprofits and businesses with membership needs. We help you develop and sustain membership. It is as simple as that. Visit the features page to see the details. Here's the story... We know multiple businesses and nonprofits have been trying to use HubSpot for free as a tool to run their membership, communications, marketing, and sales pipeline but Hubspot does not offer the opportunity to track members. That means if you are an organization that has a membership you are forced to use a system that literally makes you want to pull out your hair! This was our co-founder. A nonprofit director of a small arts organization, trying to get by with little infrastructure and limited resources. What did she do? She quit! But not without realizing the problems that she had faced effects countless nonprofit organizations. She was determined to find a way to automatic things, makes things easier, and affordable for all nonprofits, big or small..... Well a few years later, and in walks handsome tech guy...... One marriage, a pet tortoise, countless cups of coffee, and a few years later, Member Center now stands strong as an online membership platform that makes membership tracking, auto renewals, and member engagement easy for anyone! Imagine if small businesses and nonprofits had the same tools as large corporations...Why we do it? Imagine if small businesses and nonprofits had the same tools as large corporations. Imagine they could share their unique perspectives, creative ideas and talents without the hassle of excessive manual labor. Maybe we are dreamers, but we believe in supporting small business and nonprofits in being their best selves to further their goals and mission. We believe in sharing knowledge and resources and we believe in collaboration. Member Center is something we developed out of a need we had and have decided to share with others. What can you do with Member Center? With Member Center you can:
We invite you to read more, learn about us, get in touch, and join us on this journey. Together, we can all support one another and provide value to our members.A membership tool for everyone. Organizations and businesses share a need to track members, customer activity and they deserve to be able to do it without breaking the bank. We strive to keep Member Center as one of the most affordable membership systems available on the market. We start at $5, offer a one-month free trial with no credit card info required and have built our entire system on the Free version of HubSpot. Member Center's ability to accurately track members and integrate with other apps makes it a good option for many types of businesses and organizations including:
We all know engaging with your members leads to higher retention and stronger interest and volunteerism. So what are some ways we can automate these processes to make our engagement easy? 1. Increase engagement by hosting an event. We all host different events with different budgets, guest lists, etc. but how can we leverage the engagement from these events? Try sending a personalized message inviting major influencers/donors/investors to attend in addition to your usual marketing and don't forget to thank guests for attending. Events can easily be automated in HubSpot with their paid features, but even with the free version there are a multitude of ways:
2. Survey your members. Survey Monkey is just one of the many survey services out there to get feedback from your members. Ask members and participants about their overall opinions or ask them questions regarding about a specific event.
3. Meet up with members. Going to a conference? Traveling? Let your members know. Set up a meeting if they live in the area. Ask if anyone else will also be traveling to the conference. Ask for recommendations of people you should meet while there. Host a get-together
4. Write a blog and automate your content. There a number of cutting edge computer softwares and apps to write blog posts that are being developed. Though most still have a long way to go, our favorite is AI Writer. Chances are it will need some editing, but it will definitely help you get started. Also, do not re-invent the wheel. Make your content once and share it across your platforms. When making a blog post, use images that are square to fit on your multiple social media channels. Copy and paste quotes from the article into your social media scheduler. 5. Send eNewlsetters. Mailchimp is our favorite way to send eNewsletters, but there are plenty of options for creating colorful emails that keep your members up to date. We recommend trying a few types of emails: Maybe your members prefer a round-up, others may want specific event-related emails or "how-to" content. To automate these take some time and set up a flawless template you can use every time and use that scheduling tool. (Pro tip: Make a fabulous graphic for your email that can be used on your social media, or take a screenshot to post later) 6. Create fast and easy videos. Are you always running trying to work on the next project, and still trying to make fabulous video content for your audience? Try Canva or Magisto. Take a few video clips and a few photos and quickly make them into a video to increase your marketing reach and increase your engagement. (Pro tip: Pick one editing style that works with your branding, one music style and pick them every time, this will help with both your branding and your time!) 7. Utilize tools to help with your social media outreach. Schedule your posts and use a schedule to keep this simple. There are so many options for scheduling posts: Hootsuite, Buffer, Later, Sendible, and now you can just use the Meta Business Suite. Pick one that works for you, and then create a schedule. 8. Have an easy-to-use, engaging website. There is NO reason to have a poorly designed, static website. There are multiple ways to build a website literally in minutes and good branding has a huge impact on your member engagement. Our favorite website builder is Weebly. To keep your content timely, try adding the Bloggons app to automatically update your homepage with your latest blog posts or try tockify to create a user-generated calendars that can be added to any site. 9. Create opportunities for volunteerism. Most people want to be apart of something larger than themselves and if they can find a sense of belonging in what you are doing, they will most likely become your best promoter. But how can you automate volunteering? Well, you can post volunteer opportunities on Idealist, this will make the process of finding volunteers easy. Then use a volunteer sign-up tool, like SignUp or Sign Up Genius to schedule when you need help and allow the volunteer to select a time. This means the only work you have to do, is be yourself when they arrive.
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