When I first started taking notes for my book, The Membership Economy, I was thinking about for-profit corporations. I had been working with SaaS companies (like PayCycle or CrownPeak), subscription-based freemium companies (like SurveyMonkey and Yahoo!) and subscription-based content companies (like Netflix and Playlist.com).
But as I've started speaking and writing about the Membership Economy, and how to build loyalty and engagement through subscription, I have been inundated with inquiries from the non-profit sector. I've talked with executive directors of youth organizations, museums, and philanthropic collectives–and all of them are struggling to build ongoing participation, both in terms of financial contributions and time.
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Membership Matters While membership organizations have been around forever, especially among nonprofits–think Sierra Club, AAA, AARP, museums and professional organizations–it's enjoying a renassance as companies in all sorts of industries are rethinking and reinvigorating membership. Consumers and businesses alike want to belong. They want to be part of something ongoing, and enjoy benefits for their loyalty and commitment. Software-as-a-Service allows members to enjoy the benefits of the software without the headaches of hosting, customizing and updating it. Everything from purses to news to vacation homes can be accessed via subscription, without a hefty purchase price.
All of this innovation means new ideas and best practices for savvy nonprofits.
- The Membership Economy is Transformative Business Trend
The Membership Economy is a a transformative business trend that is changing the way all different types of organizations connect with their constituents. A transformative business trend has 4 traits:
1.Driven by major outside force.2.Ties into a timeless human need.3.Can be seen across industries and companies.4.Becomes part of the new normal.The Membership Economy leverages major technology trends including the rise of social, mobile and user-generated content, as well as the increasing sophistication of subscription-based business models to build stronger ties to users. People can autopay every month while accessing content and connecting with other members, all at minimal costs to the sponsoring organization.
- Traditional Memberships are Being Leapfrogged Many religious organizations–churches, synagogues, mosques–lament the declining membership, and blame everything from video games to the demise of the nuclear family for their woes. And yet, membership-savvy churches, such as Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church in Houston, TX are attracting as many as 50,000 physical participants each week to their services as well as hundreds of thousands of additional members who connect with the church and with one another via mobile app and online forums.
LinkedIn is trumping professional associations, and music lovers are spending more time on Pandora and Youtube than in night clubs and music stores. Museums with strong online communities, social connection and "audience participation" are growing even while the established museums are suffering declining membership.
Transformative Business Trends shake up the status quo, creating winners and losers simultaneously. If you lack a plan to be a winner, you're probably on your way to being a loser.
- The Deepest Membership Relationships Combine: Media Platform, Benefits & Services and a Member Community In Peter Murray's fascinating article, “The Secret of Scale," in SSIR's Fall 2013 issue. Murray points to 3 key elements of successful nonprofit membership organizations. The ones that scale the fastest, according to his research, combine a tech orientation with a "loudspeaker" to communicate with, and on behalf of, members; a community that members feel connected to, and meaningful discounts and benefits that are critical to members. And yet, most nonprofits lack at least one of these core elements.
- Hop on the FAST-CCs to Join the Membership Economy
Here are 6 specific techniques (I call them the FAST-CCs) that can be applied to most membership organizations to help them strengthen loyalty, engagement and even word-of-mouth recruiting on your behalf. While you don't need to use all of them, thinking about how each can be incorporated into your membership model will definitely unearth some great ideas.
- Freemium
- Access over Ownership
- Subscriptions
- Tiered levels of Membership
- Community and Communication
- Combination of Physical and Online Experience
I encourage you to give these techniques a try and to let me know how your organization evolves!
Good luck!
