ONA Camp Phoenix 2014 - Join The Club
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This document outlines Voice of San Diego's (VOSD) strategy for developing a membership program to increase revenue. It discusses researching members' needs, developing membership tiers with exclusive benefits, tracking members in a customer relationship management system, setting recruitment and retention goals, and implementing targeted communication and events to cultivate members. The goal is to establish VOSD as the "voice" of San Diego by building a community of engaged citizens through membership.
ONA Camp Phoenix 2014 - Join The Club
- 1. Catherine Green Deputy editor, Voice of San Diego catherine@vosd.org; @c_s_green
- 2. NOT GREAT
- 3. SO GREAT
- 5. VOSD STAFF CEO V.P. Director of Corporate Development Membership & Events Manager Part-Time Program Manager Managing Editor Deputy Editor 5 Full-Time Reporters and 4 Freelance Reporters 2 Paid Editorial Interns
- 6. VOSD REVENUE $1.6 million revenue this year Foundations: 38% Major Donors ($5,000+): 35% Individual Members ($35-$5,000): 15% (1,971 members) Community Partners, Media Partners, Sponsors: 12%
- 9. THE KEY QUESTIONS Do you need the money? Do you have a loyal audience who appreciates your work and recognizes that youre producing it? Do you, or can you, collect their contact info so you can email them? Can you commit to managing a relationship with members?
- 11. SURVEYS + FOCUS GROUPS News consumption habits: How often, what topics, what device? Qualities: What do they value most about your organization? What is your most popular product? What would motivate them to support you? Demographics: Sex, ethnicity, age, education, employment, income, neighborhood or ZIP code Affinities/hobbies: What do they do? What do they care about?
- 12. WHAT WE FOUND OUT People didnt understand the nonprofit news model. They didnt know how they could help. They didnt know the difference between being a member and a subscriber. We had done a great job telling other peoples stories but never took the time to craft or tell the VOSD story.
- 13. OUR STORY Voice of San Diego is a member-based nonprofit investigative news organization that gives concerned citizens the tools they need to engage in important conversations about their community. We are unlike any news outlet in San Diego because we dig deeper to uncover the truth and devote the time necessary to turn the chaos of news into a story people can access and understand.
- 14. OUR STORY, CONTINUED We believe concerned residents are the true Voice of San Diego and its their collective voice we represent in our honest and irreverent approach to reporting. We are building a community of educated San Diegans who dare to ask tough questions and demand answers. Join our community and Raise Your Voice by becoming a sustaining member today.
- 16. STEP ONE : DEVELOP YOUR BRAND + THEME Raise Your Voice membership program I am the Voice of San Diego.
- 17. STEP TWO: ITEMIZE YOUR EXISTING INVENTORY Web content Newsletters News alerts Magazine Events Access and experiences
- 18. STEP THREE: DETERMINE NEW MEMBER EXCLUSIVE BENEFITS Member Report weekly email blast from CEO Inside Scoop preview of big investigations One Voice at a Time conversation series Brews & News panel discussions VOSD Quarterly Magazine VOSD Roundtable high-level donors
- 19. STEP FOUR: PACKAGE YOUR BENEFITS Conversation Starter - $35-$100 Special delivery of: Morning Report, Culture Report, Inside Scoop and Member Report. Invitation to member events including Member Coffees and Brews & News and special recognition on our website. Inside Voice - $101-$500 All the above, plus a subscription to VOSD Quarterly magazine, free admission to One Voice at a Time and Meeting of the Minds events.
- 20. TOP-TIER BENEFITS Speaking Up - $501-$1,000 All of the above, plus a household membership and a free ad to plug your favorite cause on the VOSD website and magazine. Loud & Clear - $1,001-$5,000 All of the above, plus special invitation to a roundtable discussion and dinner with VOSD board members and the VOSD Experience member outing, sponsor VOSD memberships for local classroom or group.
- 21. PRO-TIPS Choose benefits you can easily fulfill. Dont make promises you cant keep. Assign fulfillment to someone and hold them accountable. Research and get to know members.
- 23. CATEGORIZE THE PIPELINE: FROM POTENTIALS TO MEMBERS Informed: people who read our content on the website Involved: people who subscribe to our newsletters or comment on our site Invested: people who give us money
- 24. BUILD YOUR DATABASE Make sure youre collecting and storing as much information as possible about members and potential members: First and last name Email addresses ZIP codes Affinities and content preferences Event attendance Affiliations
- 25. BUT HOW? Develop methods for capturing this data: Require subscriptions for email blasts Require registration for online commenters Require pre-registration for events Capture info at events with sign-up sheets Encourage social media followers to sign-up for special offerings Add design elements on site to entice sign-ups
- 26. MANAGE YOUR TECH WordPress: web platform Givalike: donation processor MailChimp: email provider Predictive Response: automated renewal emails Eventbrite: event registration Survey Monkey: surveys SalesForce: customer relationship management (CRM)
- 27. PRO-TIPS Hire a CRM consultant Learn from best practices Dont discount the importance of customer relationship management Maintain a clean database
- 29. RECRUITMENT GOALS Determine membership revenue goal ($230,000) Determine how many new members you need each month (60 new members) Renew existing members (80 percent retention rate) Track progress with solid metrics
- 31. TARGETED COMMUNICATION STRATEGY Potential members: Three emails per month (emotional, intellectual, competitive approaches) Existing members: 90, 60, 30 day renewal reminders We miss you expired donors Lapsed donor phone calls Quarterly campaigns (Spring, Politifest, Year-End)
- 32. USE EVENTS TO CULTIVATE MEMBERSHIP Create events that can bring your stories to life. Heavily promote events to member community and beyond to raise awareness. Include audience engagement opportunities. Encourage existing members to bring guests. Give special benefits to members: discounted or free admission, etc. Work toward more members-only events.
- 33. MEETING OF THE MINDS
- 34. ONE VOICE AT A TIME INTERVIEW SERIES
- 35. BREWS + NEWS PANEL DISCUSSIONS
- 38. WEAVE MARKETING INTO YOUR JOURNALISM Dont freak out! Remind people you are nonprofit, member-based Weave membership ask into all personal appearances Place donate option at end of articles Remind people of your impact (quarterly emails to major donors)
- 39. INCORPORATE MEMBERS INTO WEBSITE
- 40. WEAVING MARKETING INTO JOURNALISM Include pitches at the end of articles:
- 41. REMEMBER WHO YOURE SERVING The attributes of a person who contributes to political campaigns, who wants to change the world, who cares passionately about the community thats the kind of person who gives. -Evan Smith Texas Tribune CEO and Editor in Chief
- 42. Questions? Wanna chat? catherine@vosd.org @c_s_green
Editor's Notes
- Revisited survey 485 MR respondents, When asked why they havent supported Voice or become a member, 39% said they just havent gotten around to it, 38% cant afford it and 24% said its not worth their support. When asked what we could do to convince them to join, 44% said to Keep asking. Ill join eventually. 20% said we need better reporting, 16% said theyll never join.
- When did we do this first survey?
- Specifically, whats access and experiences?
- Example of VOSD Experience member outing?
- Require subscriptions for email blasts does this subscription refer just to entering their email/signing up to get the blasts, or something more?
- Marketing automation, Salesforce runs report each week, sends list to PR of ppl who are up for renewal and automatically generates those campaigns (its own email provider) they also do our goal emails. Everyone not a member, every third wed gets email blast about We need 60 new members this month.