Joe Abraham

A Chamber Membership Drive Idea

// July 24th, 2009 // View Comments // Next Gen. Chamber of Commerce

So you’re looking for ways to attract more new members to your chamber, huh?

Here’s a tip that has worked 100% of the time for the chambers that have executed it correctly.

(Yes, there are some that have botched it up by putting their own spin on it).

When it’s membership drive time, don’t just hand each current member a list of prospects and send them off into the blue yonder hoping they’ll come back with signed enrollments.

Rather send them off armed with some value. Then surprise the prospect by asking for nothing in return!

Here’s what I mean.

Let’s say you have recorded content from the last few chamber events. Grab the content, listen to it and pick off the best 30 minutes to 6 hours (depending on how much content you have available).

Have it duplicated and packaged nicely.

Then arm your members with this “care package” with a nice cover letter and some other goodies you can think up.

Have them drop off this care package with 5-10 businesses in their area that are not members of the chamber. Let your pitch be simple. “We just wanted to give you a sample of what we get as members of the XYZ chamber. We hope it helps your business.”

Make sure one of the goodies is certificate for a 90 day “free trial” of your chamber membership. So now when a member goes to recruit another member, they aren’t asking them to pull out their checkbook on the first visit. They aren’t asking them for anything at all.

They are GIVING them something of great value. They are GIVING the potential member a chance for a test-drive.

Does it work?

The last time this technique was used, a chamber that was struggling to recruit 10-12 members in a membership drive ended up enrolling 115 businesses for the trial and retained over 60 paying members after the 90 days.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

By the way, here are a couple of extra tips.

1) If you are going to roll out a membership drive like this, make sure the content of the care package is very high quality (both audio quality and speaker content). If you don’t have access to good content, I’ve got plenty to give you. The worst thing you could do is to do all the work, hand off cruddy content and get no marketing traction.

2) Have some systems set up to follow up with the trial members via email and social media. I’d recommend Aweber or Constant Contact. As prospects enroll for the 90-day trial, put them in an email follow up campaign so that pre-designed marketing messages can be dripped to them during the 90 days. Each message should highlight another aspect/benefit of the chamber. Some of the messages should be real-life testimonials from other chamber members about the impact the chamber has had on their business and personal life.

3) Spend 1-on-1 time with each of the trial members. Guide and advise them. Most importantly, open some doors for them through your rolodex. Show them a measurable impact so that when it’s time to part with a couple of hundred bucks, they feel it’s the best decision they have made in a long time.

Hope this helps or at least inspires some fresh ideas for you!

Your Fan

Joe…

Reinventing the Original Social Network

// May 24th, 2009 // View Comments // Next Gen. Chamber of Commerce

This post is in response to some questions and comments I got from the post I made on April 28th. If you haven’t read that post already, do that first by clicking here.

Ok, so we agree that Chambers of Commerce need to reinvent themselves to survive this changing marketplace.

But if you’re a Chamber leader, how do you go about re-inventing and re-energizing your Chamber…specifically?

Here’s an idea…

“Present The Pudding For Inspection”

They say the proof is in the pudding right? So where’s your pudding?

We all know the #1 reason an entrepreneur joins a Chamber is so their business can grow.

Are your members businesses growing? If so, let’s highlight them. If not, let’s help them grow! (I know, I know. I’m not a rocket scientist).

Let’s show current and prospective members that business growth is part-and-parcel of chamber membership.

In other words, let’s show them some proof.

Here’s a step-by-step plan on how to go about putting the proof in the pudding:

1. Take 20 committed entrepreneurs who are serious about their business growth. Invite them to participate in a 90-day business accelerator program. (Bonus Tip: Depending on how you structure the program, you can probably generate an extra infusion of non-dues revenue from the participants).

2. During the 90 days, track everything! From starting revenues to ending revenues and everything in between. Have each participant submit weekly detailed information on the impact the program is having on their growth. (Bonus Tip: set up a social media network around the 20 participants and let the rest of chamber membership “listen in” as the results pour in).

3. At the completion of the 90 days, have a marketing campaign ready to launch that highlights the stories and successes of these 20 entrepreneurs. Include PR, local radio, blog articles, grass roots efforts and promotions. Follow it up with an exciting membership drive.

4. As prospects hear about the transformation of these 20 companies, offer them a no-fee, no-obligation opportunity to sit down with one of the 20 campaign participants for a meet and greet. These 20 company owners will end up doing all the “selling” for you.

5. Have some creative “packages” available for prospects that allow them to test drive your chamber membership with little to no risk to them.

That’s it! Just deploying this one strategy could set your chamber on the fast-track to growth and set you head-and-shoulders over the competition.

More importantly, it will legitimize the organization and the value you promise your customer, the entrepreneur.

These 5 steps are “out-of-the-box”.

It takes a focused and determined team to execute.

However, if it results in a 200-500% increase in new membership while having a significant impact on retention of existing members, wouldn’t it be worth the time and effort?

Of course it would.

There are only 3 reasons you would not roll out a strategy like this.

1. You think it’s a silly idea that would never work.
2. You don’t feel that things are going just fine the way there are in your chamber.
3. You don’t have the bandwidth and expertise to pull off the actual program (not to mention ensure that these 20 businesses actually grow).

If you’re in category 1 or 2, you can stop reading now. Go back to whatever else it was you were doing.

If you are in category 3, then don’t let that be a hinderance or excuse any more. Post your concerns and questions below. My team and I will roll up our sleeves and help you deploy this from soup-to-nuts. (And don’t worry, it doesn’t have to cost you a dime to have our help).

Got questions or comments? Ask or comment away!