Member Engagement Software Keeps 35% More Members Engaged [data]
Posted by Joshua Paul on Thu, Jul 28, 2011 @ 04:14 AM
In the Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report soon to be released by Marketing General, associations report that on average 10.2% of their members stay engaged with the association on a public social network and 8.7% of their members participate in an association’s private social network.
An analysis across Socious association customers found that associations using Socious member engagement software keep an average of 45% of the membership engaged; 35% more than public or private social networks.
What is Member Engagement Software?
Member engagement software is a results-oriented online community platform for associations and nonprofit membership organizations that combines tools like online communities, event management, email communication, blogs, forums, listservs, file libraries, and other social technology with an organization's public website to impact membership growth, retention, and revenue.
How Does Member Engagement Software Compare to Other Membership Marketing Options?
According the data in The Membership Benchmarking Report, member engagement software keeps more members engaged than any other membership management or marketing activity. See the following comparison:
- Over 2 times the member engagement of an annual convention
- Over 2 times the member engagement of a professional development meeting
- Over 4 times the member engagement of a certification program
- Over 4 times the member engagement of a webinar program
- Almost 4.5 times the member engagement of public social networks (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn)
- Almost 5 times the member engagement of volunteer opportunities
- 5 times the member engagement of book or directory sales
- Over 5 times the member engagement of a private social network
- Over 6.5 times the member engagement of an insurance program
- Over 14 times the member engagement of a young professionals program
What Does This Mean for Your Membership Management Strategy?
An engaged member can mean a lot of different things to different organizations. The good news is that it is all positive. Common benefits that associations see as a result of increased member engagement include:
- New member acquisition
- Advocacy and legislative success
- Higher member retention rates
- More referrals
- Increased fundraising
- More volunteerism
- Increased event attendance
- Higher product sales
- Profitable vendor programs
The ROI of Member Engagement
For this example, let’s assume the following (you can do your own analysis to determine the value or score for a member who is engaged with your organization).
- An engaged member is worth $2,000 (this could be points or dollar depending on how sophisticated your analysis is).
- A non-engaged member is worth $1,000.
- Your organization has 5,000 members.
If you didn’t have any engaged members, your revenue would be $5 million ($1000 per member x 5000 members). If your member engagement strategy only involved an annual conference, over the course of a year, your organization would bring in a little over $6 million, since 21.6% of your members would participate and 78.4% would not. If you only implemented a private social network, your revenue would only reach$ 5.4 million; only 8.7% of your membership would be engaged.
However, if you used member engagement software to plan and create an online member community, the data tells us that your organization would bring in $7.25 million. Using the assumptions from this example, this associations would see between a 100% and 1300% increase in profit compared to any of the membership marketing activities listed in the chart above.
Member Engagement Takeaway
The right strategy for your association is really a matter of value for your members and return on investment for your organization. Some activities, like an annual conference and public social networks, should be part of you member engagement strategy. However, when organizations have to choose between different options, the data from this report is very important.
Associations can choose to engage their members only on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Or they can buy a private social network from one of the companies the sells them to associations. However, the level of engagement and, in turn, return on an association’s investment, is going to be much higher with member engagement software, than with any other membership marketing program.
What would keeping 35% more members engaged mean for your membership, revenue, and advocacy goals?
Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments below.
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