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Anyone who takes to the air frequently with commercial airlines is probably familiar with the benefits of having status in a frequent flyer program. In my own case, a loyalty program can certainly influence my decision making process in purchasing airfare, particularly for longer flights. The benefits of these membership programs go beyond racking up bonus miles for free flights, but really help where it counts. For example, if flights are "unexpectedly" canceled, it is much easier for an elite member of these programs to get on the next available flight. Additionally, if you fly frequently enough, many programs shower perks on you such as free upgrades, use of their first class lounges while waiting at airports, and so on.

At the end of the day, a frequent flyer, frequent guest, or other loyalty program is a form of a membership model. Membership in United’s Mileage Plus, or American’s AAdvantage have multiple “levels” that you can earn as you participate with the airline. For each level, certain exclusive perks are provided. To maintain status, you have to continue to fly a certain amount each year.

Why not implement “elite” levels, or a similar concept in the association world? Many members are actively involved with their associations. Keeping track of their engagement level, and directly rewarding them for the behaviors that are most important to the association could create a direct behavior/reward model that is beneficial to both sides. In the case of airlines, “bonus” miles are often earned when you purchase a full fare ticket. In the association world, certain types of activities are of greater benefit to the association and its community than others (and they change over time).

So, what about the incentives to get people to actively participate the way you want them to. In the case of airlines, priority on standby, upgrades, and free flights are nice perks. In the case of associations, there are many other benefits that could incent people. For example, I know of one of our large clients running a program that recognizes people based on their “level’ at the annual conference, and has a Chairman’s Ball for the top tier of members based on their engagement. In other instances, an organization might simply recognize those members on their web site, or at events with a special label on their badge.

Different incentives speak to different people, so there is no universal recipe. However, the idea of directly linking benefits with desired behavior is a model that can work well in nearly any context. Type your content here...

A recent discussion within Aptify’s User Community on trial memberships sparked my interest in exploring this topic with a broader audience and thinking about how trials might tie into previous topics on this blog including Predictive Analysis and Member Engagement Scoring models.

Trial offers are fairly common in the membership world. But just how good are trial memberships in terms of bringing on new members? The simplest answer to this question might be sought by looking at a simple initial conversion ratio. While this number may tell the early part of the story, it is very important to evaluate the trajectory of that member over a longer period of time. As an example, how active is this new member in other areas of the association – a measure of their overall engagement. Furthermore, how likely is it that the member will renew in Year 2, 3 and beyond?

Are there patterns that can be used to predict what might make one individual more likely to convert past a trial, get active, and then becoming actively engaged? The technology is out there to help with both the predictive analytics question as well as creating a method of “scoring” engagement levels. The question of when to offer trial memberships is a great example that should leverage both of these concepts.

Consider it this way – if you can find a few defining characteristics that help assess if a prospect will go from trial to member and beyond there would be many applications. It would be great to build those characteristics into your core operating processes. Imagine a scenario where your AMS (for staff and on the web too) automatically determined the probability of “success” based on several factors and then selectively (and automatically) offered trial memberships to individuals or groups that fit the model.

As I mentioned in earlier posts, none of these modeling techniques are perfect, but they often do reveal interesting trends. At a minimum, they are worth a hard look. If one or more model is good at predictive work for your organization, find ways to use it frequently and in nontrivial ways.

In my experience, quite a few association executives have a difficult time describing how they would categorize their “best” members. One of the reasons this is a challenge is due to the fact that association/member relationships are incredibly multifaceted. They are therefore much harder to quantify in value than a typical vendor/customer relationship. Since members are so much more than customers, their activities within an organization need to be considered along with more traditional metrics such as years of renewal and financial transactions.

The concept of tracking and acting on the level of member engagement is increasingly becoming a hot topic with executives I speak to. The goal is to define an aggregate score that incorporates data from a variety of activities into a singular measure that can easily be evaluated. Just as examples consider factors such as:

• Meeting attendance
• Earning/Maintaining Certifications
• Committee positions
• On-line forum moderation
• Social networking involvement
• Speaking assignments
• Authoring articles in a journal
• Financial Activities/Impact(Buying Products, Renewing Dues/etc)

Each association is different, so the weightings tied to each activity type need to be different. Additionally, the approach to weightings may change over time based on the strategic plan of the organization and its areas of focus.

Once you have a conceptual framework for defining engagement levels, use the information. For one thing, make sure that whatever system you are using to manage the data displays the engagement score prominently to users. Additionally, leverage this engagement score in your marketing and outreach as well as throughout your service delivery when considering the level of prioritization you afford to each inquiry. As I mentioned in a prior post, you can use this type of information in a predictive analysis effort quite effectively too.

Most importantly, experiment with different models and stay agile so that you find the approach that suits the characteristics of your organization best.