Are you looking for a cost-effective way to do member segmentation and target marketing? With our program, YTheyJoin™, there is an option for those wanting to do a test drive before implementing it on a larger scale.

YTheyJoin identifies nine types of members based on their professional needs and motivations and it starts with a one-page survey that we call a tagging form that goes to all members. For those wanting to do a test drive, you can distribute the form only to new members.

New members have the least ties to the association and may be the most likely not to renew membership at the end of the year. Intervention is essential! Include the tagging form with the member application or welcome-aboard packet and the new member immediately sees that you want to meet their specific needs. The form asks them to spend 100 points on the various association services that they consider the most important.

With this info we can identify nine types of members including Mailboxers, Relevant Participants, Shapers, CompShoppers, Cognoscenti, Boosters, Altruistics, Doubters, and Non-Relevants. Each new member is identified with a 3-digit code that goes into your data base. You also receive a Pie Chart that shows which member types dominate your association, a Summary of the Implications, and our Workbook with marketing ideas for each member type.

Now you know what each member wants and you can do very effective target marketing and communications!

Call for a quote and more information. 703-772-5263 Or e-mail us at AllegianceResearch@gmail.com

Dr. Dale Paulson, President of Allegiance Research Group, finds that target marketing, even when using snail mail, can be fifteen times as effective as mass mailing, or more.

Recently, a large mass-mail company conducted a study of the effectiveness of mass marketing/direct mail to prospective members in the past three years and found the following: one to three mailings showed a response rate of 1%; four to seven mailings, 1%; and eight to ten mailings, less than 1%.

I suppose this demonstrates that assns should use less mass mailings but my question is “With such abysmally low response rates, why do mass mailings all?” It is marginally successful, wastes money, and turns off the large majority of people who receive the mailing and throw your brand into the trash basket.

Contrast this with a strategic, targeted mailing to lapsed members that Allegiance Research Group did for an assn. The members were considered lapsed after they failed to respond to four mass mailings by the assn. Then the assn asked us to apply our YTheyJoin™ system to this problem. Dr. Paulson invented this system to identify nine types of members based on their professional needs rather than traditional demographic categories. For example, Cognoscenti want specialized info not available elsewhere, and Altruistics believe in your mission and want a legislative voice. Then we write distinct renewal letters for each member type.

Fortunately, when these lapsed members belonged to the assn they had completed the YTheyJoin form where we identified their member-type. We used this info to write the letters and, after receiving one targeted letter, many of these lapsed members joined the assn again. Here are the results, and notice how much higher they are than the 1% results from mass marketing.

    Response Rates for Renewing Lapsed Members with Target Marketing

Shapers 23% renewed; Relevant Participants 20% renewed; Altruistics 13% renewed; Cognoscenti 12% renewed; Mailboxers 8% renewed; Boosters 6% renewed; and Other three categories 11% renewed.

Free Offer-If you want to see how this would work for your assn contact us and we will code 100 of your members at no charge. Call 703-772-5263 or e-mail AllegianceResearch@gmail.com

Our anniversary is here and to date we have worked with over 100 national associations! This includes membership, readership, and compensation surveys as well as the YTheyJoin™ member segmentation and target marketing program (formerly called Allegiance and developed by Dr. Dale Paulson in 1991). We would like to thank the assn community and here is a partial list of our clients. For a more detailed list please visit our Web site at www.AllegianceResearch.com

American Assn for the Adv of Science

American Chamber of Commerce Execs

American Coll of Healthcare Execs

American Diabetes Assn

American Industrial Hygiene Assn

American Inst of Architects

American Soc for Trng and Dvlpmt

American Soc of Appraisers

American Soc of Assn Execs

American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Inst

Assn of Otolaryngology Admins

Assn of the U.S. Army

Family, Career and Community Leaders of America

Infusion Nurses Soc

Int'l Assn of Amusement Parks/Attractions

Museum Store Assn

Nat Assn of Housing and Redev Officials

Nat School Boards Assn

Nat Soc of Prof Engineers

Population Refer Bureau

Soc for Human Resource Mgmt

Urban Land Inst

Here are three more success stories from the YTheyJoin™ program. This program identifies nine types of association members, codes them, and enables you to do target marketing that is personal, timely, and very cost-effective.

Conference Promotion – An assn wanted to spend money more effectively on conference promotion so they designed different letters and resonant statements for the various YTheyJoin categories. Then, extra mailings and color brochures were sent to the categories most likely to attend while postcards were sent to the categories least likely to attend. The savings from this strategy was over $30,000 and it also resulted in increased attendance.

Publications – YTheyJoin strategies can help you strengthen ties to the assn with the member types having loose ties such as Mailboxers. Here is an effective and simple strategy to remind Mailboxers that you are meeting their needs: at the end of the calendar year, send them an “Annual Index of Articles” that were in your magazine or a “Preview of Articles” for the upcoming year.

Flip the Message – An assn with physicians and nurses as members found that they had different YTheyJoin profiles. Physicians were dominated by Cognoscenti then Altruistics, while nurses were dominated by Altruistics then Cognoscenti. As a result of this finding, the assn wrote renewal letters to physicians that emphasized access to specialized info followed by helping patients; and they flipped this message for nurses. As a result of these targeted messages, member renewal rates increased. The assn also used this strategy to market publications to physicians and nurses and book sales increased.

There are many more good ideas in our YTheyJoin Workbook. For more info please e-mail AllegianceResearch@gmail.com or visit the Web site at www.YTheyJoin.com or call 703-772-5263.

The YTheyJoin™ member types and related codes enable you to do much more powerful, sophisticated, and efficient marketing. It is targeted, personal, timely, and very cost effective. It tells the member, “We know what your specific needs are” and explains how you are meeting these needs and expectations. It also helps you deal with unexpected surprises that occasionally arise for an association whether it is public relations or proposed legislation, and it can also help you sell products. Here are some real-life success stories from associations that use YTheyJoin.

Finding Members – an assn decided to send renewal letters to lapsed members based on their YTheyJoin categories. For example, the letter to Relevant Participants emphasized upcoming meetings and speakers while the letter to Cognoscenti emphasized new publications. They got a positive return of 8% to 22% (rates varied by YTheyJoin member types) resulting in unexpected revenues of $23,000.

Averting Disaster by Mobilizing Quickly – a national assn needed to mobilize quickly to stop proposed state legislation at the committee level that would negatively impact its members. They did this by identifying all the Altruistics in that state who then contacted legislators and this coalition was successful in its mission. Now this network of Altruistics is managed by assn employees who regularly keep in touch and spur them to quick action when needed.

Board Relations  – The YTheyJoin pie chart is all it takes to show your board what the members are really about! It dramatically shows the unique distribution of member types in your assn. An assn dominated by Boosters and Altruistics is very different from an assn dominated by Mailboxers and Shapers. The board of one assn asked why conference attendance is usually 15% of members rather than 30% and the YTheyJoin pie chart revealed the answer. It showed that the member types most likely to attend were close to 15%. Mystery solved.

Read three more success stories in the next blog article!

There are many more good ideas in our YTheyJoin Workbook. For more info please e-mail AllegianceResearch@gmail.com or visit the Web site at www.YTheyJoin.com or call 703-772-5263.