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Novi Roundtable: Growing Membership & Managing Prospects
Novi Roundtable: Growing Membership & Managing Prospects

November 3, 2021

Erin Marks avatar
Written by Erin Marks
Updated over a week ago

During this roundtable, Novi Customers discussed successful methods for growing membership and how to manage prospects.

Of the customers participating in the poll during our roundtable:

  • 59% saw their membership increase in the last year, 27% stayed the same

  • 45% said their membership is higher than 2019, 41% said it was about the same

  • 41% do not hold an annual membership drive, 36% do, 23% were considering it

Best Practices: Women in Manufacturing

Membership growth from March to November 2021:

  • Corporate Membership grew from 149 to 203

  • Individual Membership grew from 6400 to 9600

They provide member value by showcasing several member resources:

  • DE&I initiatives

  • Virtual Learning library

  • Educational Conferences & Networking Events (Live & Virtual)

  • Benchmarking & Research

  • Recruitment & Retention Resources

    • Diverse candidates for companies

They do extensive membership tracking:

  • Ask in a Novi custom field how they were referred to the organization

    • LinkedIn and Referrals are the top 2 recruiting methods

  • Use promo codes not to discount, but to track where members are joining from

  • Require registration for events to track engagement from companies

They encourage growth through chapters:

  • Give the chapters a target to hit for memberships (both corporate and individual)

    • Chapter gets a % back when they hit the target number

  • Invite ALL members to chapter events to network!

  • Give their chapters a toolkit and their own page on the main site

They hold annual membership drives:

  • 13 months for the price of 12 - sent to all their expired members and their prospects: 46% return

  • Offer gift cards for new members (can be a $5 Starbucks card!)

Managing the Prospect Life Cycle

Use the "Prospect" Status to Create a Group in Novi

  • Can sync to Mail Chimp or Constant Contact

  • Can use the list in an email merge

Create a Custom Field to Track More Information

  • A set of options field for hot, warm, or cold

  • Creative tip from SAAA and MBCEA!: Use a custom field to provide reasons why a member was dropped, including options like can't get ahold of a contact, out of business, or other.

Add Notes to Prospect Records Using the Activity Timeline

  • Personalized notes keep staff members on the same page (SPA)

  • Will see notes on company record for individuals (or other companies) in the family tree

Put Membership Committees to Work

  • Segment out lapsed members and have someone from the membership committee reach out to them personally (ARLIS /NA)

  • Novi Tip! - Create a group of recently lapsed members and place them in a private directory, for only your board or membership committee to see

  • Creative tip from Multifamily NW!: Incentivize supplier or vendor members to be on a membership committee by including their contact information in a New Member Welcome Pack. Send them in person to encourage networking.

  • Set your membership committee into teams and gamify your recruiting (AAA)

Take a Look at Your Membership Engagement Report

  • Filter down to expired members and see which ones are engaged

    • You can get some members back if it's just a matter of updating contact information

Communicate with Members Before Renewal

  • Reach out to primary contacts from corporate members to have a conversation about what their membership can bring them for the next year (WIM)

  • Keep it short and sweet! (WIM)

Thanks to our moderator Kara Mayner, Membership Coordinator, Women in Manufacturing, for sharing her best practices and helping to keep the conversation moving!

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