Can you list the ways your organization generates leads for prospective members? Most likely your leads come from three main places: newsletter subscriptions, annual event attendance, and webinar attendance. These are good sources of leads, don’t get me wrong. But too many organizations are going about their year as if that’s good enough. There are, however, other ways to generate leads and drive prospective memberships that lead to growth.
I’m not going to reinvent the wheel or beat a dead horse; we have all attended webinars, conferences, or read articles about lead-generation tactics. In case you do need a refresher to jumpstart some 2016 ideas, here’s a great article that summarizes various strategies. I will however take a few minutes to discuss why your organization should be doing more lead-generation.
It’s an organizational skill
Lead-generation is a skill. It can be developed, honed, practiced and improved. Too many times, the associations I work with try a new lead-generation strategy, conduct a short-term campaign, and then stop. It becomes an annual drive or a twice-a-year campaign to generate new leads, when we should be thinking about and pursuing lead-generation every month, every week, continually.
I’m a runner. What if I only ran one marathon every year, and that was all the running I did? I would be a terrible runner and would open myself up to injury.
Sometimes new strategies don’t work like we want them to at first. Don’t let the possibility of a failed campaign keep you from trying. And whether or not a new strategy is initially successful, do it again – differently, and better – in order to keep practicing and improving your lead-generation skills.
Find the bandwidth to develop this skill
Perhaps your organization is fortunate enough to have the staff and resource capability to dedicate someone to this skill year-round. Most organizations I’ve worked with, however, drop a lead-generation point into the job description of existing full-time employees with ongoing full-time job descriptions. This leads to busy people trying to do one more task and are doing so less-than-effectively.
If you do attempt to bring on a new team member, the article mentioned above points out that “Finding people that [are intelligent, competent, friendly, and flexible], who are still willing to do what is effectively an entry level job, is a difficult task.” There are ways to avoid spending the time and resources posting a job listing, interviewing candidates, hiring, and training.
It’s outside-the-box thinking, but using a membership-management firm can be a low-risk solution. Some firms will dedicate a FTE to your organization to act as a liaison between you to your prospective members. Outsourcing lead-generation can be cost-effective and efficient, provided you do the homework up front to ensure you’ve chosen the right partner.
Ask questions
I operate from a fundamental position of, it never hurts to ask. If you’re not sure how to generate better lists, ask other association executives. If you’re not sure how to make the most of your ever-growing database, ask a membership-management firm for suggestions. Sure, they might try to sell you services, but in the process you might gain insight and perspective you didn’t have before. (And, chances are they can probably help you do what you’re trying to do in a way that will both save you money and be more effective in the long run.)
Your organization is most likely not the only organization doing what you’re doing in your space. By treating other associations as nothing more than competitors, you miss out on opportunities to exchange ideas and gain insight on what’s working and what needs adjusted. Develop benevolent relationships with other non-competitive associations, and use them as resources!
Ask for lists from other players in the industry.
Ask for referrals from your current members.
Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask.
Lead-generation for associations, membership organizations, and non-profits is too important. It’s too important to be ignored. It’s too important to be done once a year. It’s too important to be done poorly. It’s too important to be done the way you’ve done it for the past two decades.
So practice doing it better. Do it continually. And ask for help.
