Looking to increase your association's revenue this year? It may be in your best interest to focus on increasing your non-member—or customer—sales rather than putting all of your effort into recruiting new members. Non-members often pay more for the events and benefits that are included in your membership packages. This could ultimately make non-members more profitable for your association.
This is not to indicate that you should not work to retain your members’ happiness. They are vital to the core of the organization. A shift of focus, however, to the non-members might help to bring in more income for the upcoming year. The shift should change the board’s mindset from how to recruit this member to how to have this person choose our products and experiences.
1 . Increased Revenue from Webinars
Many businesses will not pay for an employee’s full membership but will reimburse an employee for professional development opportunities. If your association is hosting a webinar that applies to something within that person’s industry, they can show the value of this to their employer and attend. The guest-cost will bring in a little extra revenue for each event.
2. Wide Variety of Guests at Events
If the goal of your organization is to network and connect with others in the industry, having a set of recurring guests that are not at every event, will also keep your members happy. They will then have the opportunity to network with new faces rather than the same members that come to everything. This will increase their value and will help to retain current members’ memberships.
This change in mindset, is beneficial to the organization in small doses. At the end of the day, the mission of your association should be at the forefront of all decisions. Sometimes, however, achieving that mission requires money and this is one option for reaching that financial goal. Learn how Impact can help your association achieve its goals—financial and otherwise.