One of the silver linings in the ‘cloud’ of the pandemic is that associations can leverage the virtual medium to bring some of the industry’s best minds to members and do so inexpensively. To this end, MSAE is thrilled to launch our new Thought Leader Webinar Series. The series features a 90-minute webinar each month from some of the best association minds in the country. The content was explicitly hand-curated for Michigan’s association community, and each speaker was selected for their knowledge and experience.

When it comes to membership marketing, it’s easy to assume you know the one value proposition that resonates with your membership the most. But as many marketers have discovered, the only way to confirm a value proposition’s effectiveness is to compare it with another. 

We recently had a conversation with Marketing General’s Tony Rossel, who discussed this very topic. Tony called it the 80-10-10 method, and it made such an impact with our group, we thought we’d share the method with everyone. 

 

Whether you just got a member to renew or join for the first time, you’ve clearly got their attention. So, what do you do with it? Too often, organizations do the worst thing they can do after earning my membership dollar - nothing.

The rise of podcasts over the last few years has seen the rebirth of an old medium we thought we lost when radio faded, but it’s clear the spoken word is back in spades. Entering 2020, there are now over 800,000 active podcasts worldwide, with that number only expected to grow this year and beyond. 

This month taught us much about the value of community. As COVID-19 required us to stay home, we came to appreciate how much we enjoy interacting with our coworkers and industry colleagues. We've had to make difficult decisions, and change plans, again and again over the past few weeks. And, through it all, we looked to our industry community for ideas, answers, and resources. At MSAE, we're making some improvements that will serve to support and connect the association community far better in the future.

It's not possible to capture all of the remarkable things association leaders have done in the past week. The news feed, my Twitter roll, TV... everywhere I look, I see the difficult decisions you are making and critical leadership you are providing to your members, your teams, and society at large. If you ever doubted it before, you can hardly do so now: your members need you. 

 

In these past ten days, the needs of your members have driven you out of bed, pulled at your core, and challenged you to think more, do more, lead more. Their need pushed you to utilize the capacity of your self and your organizations in ways that weren't previously considered. "Can we...?" "What if we...? "How can we...?" Barriers that were once onerous and formalities that seemed important have been stripped away by the driving need of your members. 

Membership. It matters, right? Lobbying, professional development, networking, discount programs...the list of association services is endless! But no matter what else we do in associations, the work always comes back to membership - understanding the membership, growing membership, serving the membership.  

 

It was the concern most often identified by CEOs in our member survey. Given this environment of radical change, massive shifts in the industry, and changing member demographics, it only makes sense that CEOs give careful consideration to ensuring their associations remain relevant. So what is the state of membership? How are associations faring?