Blog

By Elisa Joseph Anders, Senior Account Director

The COVID-19 crisis has turned many organizations’ best-laid plans upside down. However, some associations are thriving during this challenging time by providing indispensable value to members and using effective marketing tools to communicate that value.

This is the story of one association that sprang into action at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis to help its members, its profession, and the public’s health. The results so far are inspiring.

The American Nurses Association (ANA), an MGI client, is the largest association for registered nurses (RNs) in the United States. With 220,000+ members, it serves all 4 million RNs in the country. Its…

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By Tony Rossell, Senior Vice President

Most economists agree, based on recent reports on GDP and unemployment, that we are entering a recession. And many association executives are wondering how this downturn will impact their membership numbers and what to project for the future.

Amidst the current challenges, there is data to provide some hope and insights. For over a decade MGI’s Membership Marketing Benchmarking Reporthas captured association membership best practices and statistics. One of the major disruptions impacting association membership was the Great Recession in 2009. Looking back at the benchmarking survey data can serve as a guide on how associations responded to this recession…

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There continues to be a lot of uncertainty about what business will look like short-term and long-term. An initial reaction by many marketers during this volatile and uncertain period has been to limit marketing efforts for channels such as email marketing.

But from our campaigns and testing, we’re seeing that email marketing campaigns, done correctly, are still proving highly effective. In fact, we’re seeing current email programs outperform those from several months ago when the economy was strong and life was operating business as usual.

So, what are some things that can be done right now to make your email marketing campaigns more effective? Here are five tips:

Test everything, especially…

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By Tony Rossell, Senior Vice President

For all of us, our lives are in a state of disruption. This is no less true for our members and prospective members. That’s why there is no more important time for associations to boldly communicate with members about the practical assistance that they can provide to them. It is a time for associations to empathetically and proactively demonstrate the value of membership. As the saying goes, “A friend in need is a friend indeed.”

This help can come in multiple forms. Here are some ways that you can reach out and engage members right now.

Provide Community– Many associations have the opportunity to help members connect electronically like never before…

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Clients often come to us with requests to do a Member Satisfaction Survey. After a discussion to gauge what their true research objectives are, we often steer them toward a Member Indispensability Study instead. But why?

Satisfaction doesn’t equate to longevity. In our research experience, we have seen that satisfaction isn’t a strong driver of member retention. In fact, we often see that lapsed members report high levels of satisfaction with the association membership, often very similar to the satisfaction levels of current members.

Satisfaction can be too broad a concept.In surveys, we often include a general question about the levels of satisfaction with one’s membership, but it is…

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