How to Out Competition the Competition

Carolyn asks, “How do you market membership when your association focuses on a subspecialty and may not be, in all likelihood, the profession’s primary association (for the majority of members)?”

There’s an association for everyone. In fact, there are many associations for everyone! So, how do you engage members when they might be splitting their attention between your association and one or two more? What do you do when the other association is much larger, with more staff, significant budgets, and incredible resources?

Surprisingly, large associations struggle with engagement, too. Wait a minute… doesn’t large mean bigger budgets. And bigger budgets are better, right? Well, not always. Their large size can actually work against them. (Noele Flowers wrote about how online community size impacts engagement, which applies not only to associations’ online communities but also to associations themselves. Like the 90-9-1 rule, which says, “On average, 90% of members are lurkers who consume content but don’t contribute, 9% are intermittent contributors, and only 1% consistently create content.” This rule is true for many large online communities, and I suspect the same is true for many large associations. While smaller associations may have many more active users because members “feel more personally connected to the community.”

If your association is smaller, you may have more opportunities to engage! Here are two strategic options you can try to differentiate.

Out Value the Competition

What problems, challenges, or goals does your subspecialty of members have that the primary association is not solving? Is there a hole in their benefits offering that you can fill? Or is there something your niche member segment needs that the primary association is delivering in a general way? Keep asking what your members need, which will help you offer super valuable solutions to your members. Value is important, AND it is only one half of the engagement equation.

Out Experience the Competition

Experiences are the other half of the engagement equation. The primary association may be huge. Many medium-sized to large associations have a hard time personalizing membership. How do you get each individual member the information they need today? With thousands or hundreds of thousands of members, it is tough to connect with each member and challenging to connect members to each other. Belonging and feeling like part of a community can be more challenging for members of larger associations. Perhaps smaller associations have a built-in competitive differentiator?

The latest New Member Engagement Study results showed that smaller associations were much more likely to offer personalized, individualized, responsive concierge-style service than large associations, giving them the edge in engagement. Think:

• phone calls

• monthly onboarding events

• fully moderated online community

A smaller membership could mean that you can offer AMAZING customer service. You can build a staff culture that is so personable, kind, and helpful that members want to interact with your association.

Whether you find the edge in value or experience—or better yet, both, your organization can become the small but mighty association that your members 😍.