Whenever we talk to members, the majority will endorse their membership organisation and are broadly happy with what it does for them (perhaps surprisingly, this is the case amongst most lapsed members as well).
Virtually all the members and ex-members we speak to also say that they would recommend membership to others but, in reality, very few ever actually do so.
One key reason is that this potentially powerful “sales force” often remains latent and needs energising and motivating. Also, it frequently lacks the tools and support required to convert peer group communities into active members.
Most membership organisations do in fact have plenty of potential, and willing, ambassadors and advocates amongst their membership base, but they need to be mobilised and given the coaching and tools to do the job.
This is why traditional one-off “member-get-member” campaigns are largely ineffective. Also, these generally involve incentives, and the suggestion that you need to reward members to bring in a new recruit can easily give out a misleading and counter-productive message.
We coined the phrase “one4One” some years ago to describe our approach to developing recruitment ambassadors to complement existing marketing and sales activity. We implement practical and proven tools and techniques which deliver consistent additional growth for or clients.
Our One4One projects are a highly cost-effective recruitment channel and offer a simple proposition - which is easier; 1 person attempting to recruit 1,000 members, or 1,000 members recruiting one new member each.