My team recently conducted growth strategy benchmarking research with North American professional and trade associations, and the findings got us talking. An astounding 61 percent reported never conducting research with nonmembers or conducting it less frequently than every five years.

This number stands in stark contrast to their research with members: 77 percent of associations reported surveying current members at least every five years. The contrast in these numbers is surprising because your association’s future lies with your nonmembers.

This may sound counterintuitive—surely members are the driving force for any member-based organization—and of course, member involvement and input are absolutely critical. But growth hinges on understanding those outside your organization but inside your potential market.

Associations that have answered the “why not?” by intentionally connecting with nonmembers at least every three years are nearly twice as likely to report significant membership growth as those that do not conduct nonmember research (39 percent vs. 20 percent). When associations ask nonmembers why not, the answers unlock growth in ways that cannot be achieved by only speaking to the “usual suspects.”

 

The High Value of Nonmember Perspectives

When staff, volunteers, and board members believe they intuitively know what members need because they ARE members, or talk regularly to members, they’re at risk of being inside a bubble and engaging in “inside-out” thinking. And it’s a big problem. Even associations engaging in regular member research don’t escape the trap—surveying members and hearing from the engaged few is its own kind of bubble.

Inside-out thinking leads to an echo chamber effect that can ultimately stunt association growth and create an expanding divide between those inside and those outside the bubble. This is dangerous because it is outside the bubble where future membership and revenue growth truly lie.

The Outside-In Solution

The first step in finding your “outside-in” perspective is to know who your potential future members are. These could include:

• Never members
• New to your region
• New to the profession
• Existing members who are contemplating not renewing
• Lapsed members who may consider rejoining
• Students in your pipeline
• People in aligned professions who may join you in the future

Invest In Finding Your Future

Members In many cases, associations don’t conduct research beyond their current membership because nonmembers can be hard to reach. This is a reality of nonmember research, but they are findable, and the additional effort yields a significant payoff.

Here are some field-tested methods to conduct nonmember research:

• Start with your own database. Associations typically sit on a treasure trove of data about their future members. Who has lapsed? Who didn’t convert from student to full member? Which nonmembers have contacted your association for information, attended your events, gained your certifications, followed you on social media, or subscribed to your newsletters?
• Leverage your connections: Stakeholders, partners, academia, and others in your ecosystem may be willing to help. Provide them with copy that they can easily drop into a newsletter or article describing ways nonmembers can share their perspectives.
• Leverage your members’ connections: Your members often work alongside nonmembers. Arm them with information about your research and your interest in a broad range of perspectives. In some sectors, employers can also be an excellent way to reach nonmembers.
• If budget permits: Paid advertising and incentives can go a long way to drive participation and interest.

Be Prepared to Make Changes

Getting outside your bubble of engaged members and volunteers should lead to uncomfortable questions, impassioned debates, new ideas, and the challenging, or even abandonment, of “sacred cows.” It’s the whole point of the exercise. Equip your organization with effective decision-making processes and change management strategies before you engage in research that will challenge the status quo. There’s nothing more demotivating than participating in research that feels potentially transformational but leads nowhere.

Taking an intentional approach to nonmember feedback primes associations for this kind of data-informed, transformational decision-making. Of the associations in our research that report conducting nonmember research at least every three years, 75 percent say they rely heavily on member data for strategic decision-making, compared with 57 percent of associations that do not conduct regular nonmember research.

Answer the “Why Not”

Before your association’s next value proposition review, strategic planning exercise, or new service launch, ask yourself these important questions:

• Have we stepped outside our bubble to truly understand the “Why not?” What do our nonmembers know about us? Why have they left or not joined? And what would it take to gain them as members?
• Have we quantified our nonmembers and gained a firm grasp of key membership metrics, such as churn and nonrenewal rates?
• Do we have clarity about where our future members will come from and who is most likely to join or engage with us?
• Can we confidently describe our value across different member segments or sectors within our trade or profession?

If your answer is “no” to any of the above questions, pause and invest in an outside-in approach to listening to the voice of your future member. It will pay dividends for the long-term resilience of your association.