Every association knows that a vibrant growing membership base is absolutely necessary in order to survive. While retention efforts certainly help, and are a crucial part of your overall growth strategy, without new members to replace the ones that leave you will soon be left with a dead or dying organization. Not only do you need to replace members who, for whatever reason, dropout, they also need to compete with thousands of other organizations and distractions vying for your membership’s time. Your members today have access to more volunteer and professional development opportunities than ever before, so it’s vital that you make a solid impression.

The best way to break through the clutter and draw potential members to your association is to show them current members who love what you do. A powerful member video, shot in crystal clear high definition and with impeccable audio, will act like a magnet for prospective members. Membership videos like the one above made for the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine, generate a ton of excitement for the association.

There are three factors as to why membership videos work so well as a recruiting tool.

1) The Peer Influence Factor

A peer holds more sway over his or her peers than an actor, spokesperson, or even an executive in the association. Peers are able to communicate in a way that speaks directly to the audience and touches their life specifically. No other type of marketing you produce will have this kind of impact.

The principle is simple – dentists respond more positively to other dentists because they both know what it’s like to be a dentist. Teachers respond to other teachers better than they would to a real estate agent, who in turn will respond to other real estate agents better than a teacher. If you see someone who is like you, doing something you don’t have experience with, you are more likely to give that activity more thought because of the professional connection.

When prospective members see your current members speak with passion about your association, they are more likely to listen to everything you have to say.

2) The Credibility Factor

Often a prospective member will have heard of your organization but isn’t all that familiar with what you do. No matter their level of understanding or recognition, there’s a simple reason prospects are not already members. That reason is credibility.

In order for someone to trust and like your association, it has to appear credible and trustworthy. Member videos show that your current members love your organization enough to publicly throw their support behind it. That’s a powerful message to prospective members.

When current members can’t help but gush about their experiences with their association, it shows prospects that they can at least trust your organization because people like them already do.

3) The Likability Factor

Just because someone trusts you, it doesn’t automatically mean that they like you. Credibility is just not enough, your prospective members have to feel that stirring of positive emotion toward the association in order to act further. A well produced member video will do just that.

This factor is tricky because you can produce member videos and testimonials that increase the credibility of an association but not the likability. If your members are not coached properly, or the video quality isn’t the highest caliber, your members could come off as trustworthy but not likable. That’s a huge problem, and a misstep that you can’t afford make.

People are naturally drawn to smiling, enthusiastic people. When membership videos are done right, they influence with a smile. A happy, enthusiastic member will influence prospective members way more than text on a screen or a brochure in a hand. If the prospect can see that members of your organization are successful, happy, and engaged, they are sold.

What to do next?

If you haven’t planned to produce your member videos, now is a great time to start. Or why not capture some production-quality videos at your next event or conference. Since association conferences gather together an association’s members, leadership, vendors, and supporters in one place, there is no better time than a conference to capture these videos. The excited atmosphere of the event will make for great videos.

Member videos are incredibly powerful tools to harness the natural enthusiasm of your current members to show prospective members just what your association is all about. These videos are an effective and cost beneficial way of reaching out to new prospects. Nothing is more credible than a peer to peer endorsement communicated through beautiful high definition video. If you have any questions please leave a comment below or feel free to contact me directly.

With so many of your members using mobile devices, it just makes sense to communicate through the technology they prefer and will be using well into the next several decades. So, how best to connect with your members through mobile devices? Mobile apps are the best way for your association to engage your members for three reasons.

1) The absolute first priority for association executives is engaging their organization’s membership. If an association’s members don’t care, act, or interact, the organization won’t be around for much longer. Mobile apps allow associations to connect with their members in real time, opening up possibilities that were unheard of even 5 years ago.

2) Using mobile apps can be easier than using a website. The last thing you want is to give your members one more thing to learn, but with the right design and functionality, every one of your members can use a mobile app right away.

3) This might be the best reason of all; The incredible return on investment for your mobile app. Of all the other spends you can make to connect and engage with your members, a mobile app will pay for itself more quickly in many ways.

Download: Why Associations Need Mobile Apps

Mobile device use is growing every year, which means your members are using the mobile internet more than ever. Associations that don’t think seriously about their mobile strategy today will miss out on hundreds of opportunities in the coming years, from increased engagement to new revenue possibilities. If they aren’t thinking of how to integrate mobile into their market strategy, their members wish they would. 

Lets talk about your app ideas, questions, and mobile strategy. Leave a comment or give me call on my personal line: (850) 556-9669. 

Video is the crown jewel of marketing but until recently it was prohibitively expensive and out of reach for many associations. Thankfully, times have changed and video is now affordable and available to all.

Hopefully your association is already using video. It’s important for keeping up with the expectation of your members.  If not, you’re not only missing out on the best way to communicate and engage your members, you’re also not keeping up with the times.

The list of reasons associations are using video is near endless. To narrow down to three we had to keep it broad: superior form of communication, social platforms and mobile devices, and the low cost of production.

 

#1 Videos are multi sensory.

Video is powerful because it tells your story and evokes emotion.  Nothing creates a faster and tighter bond than speaking directly to your audience with information they need and want to know.

Your members are visual learners and they are watching lots of videos. Video is entertaining, informative, and frankly very easy on them to consume.

Consider this:

• 60% of the people are visual learners
• 90% of the information transmitted to the brain is visual
• The human brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than text

More importantly though, it’s about the emotions we feel. As humans, we relate to each other. Video allows us to process body language, tone, and sentiment. That’s difficult to do with text or even images.

Video will help you create a bond with your members like nothing else can.

#2 Fitting into your members’ lifestyle.

Your members have become really good at blocking out unwanted advertisements and messages. The fact is, they are in control now and they have been for some time.

Now you need to develop a strategy to fit into their lifestyle. Chances are incredibly high that your members are spending a lot of time on social media sites and have smartphones. Video is a very effective way to reach your members on both.

In January, Facebook posted on their blog, “We’re increasingly seeing a shift towards visual content on Facebook, especially with video. In just one year, the number of video posts per person has increased 75% globally and 94% in the US… Since June 2014, Facebook has averaged more than 1 billion video views every day.”

Even better, thanks to the nature of social media, your videos are easy to attract engagement such as liking, commenting, and reposting. Every time someone reposts your video or takes some other positive action, that’s an endorsement for you!

#3 The cost of video production.

It’s really incredible how much the cost of producing videos has come down in the last few years, and that’s great news for everyone. DSLR cameras off the shelf at Best Buy will shoot incredible video and editing is done on a MacBook Pro.

Shooting high quality video has become so accessible that we even teach associations how to shoot video themselves. Clients then upload the raw video for us to edit. This greatly reduces expenses such as travel.

Already using video or have questions? Please leave a comment below. Want to see what other associations are doing with video? Check out our list of the Top 25 Videos Every Association Should Have.

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