...on finding and keeping new members! Hi I’m Marianne Jordan and I, along with fellow ex-Harpenden Circlers Janet Coull Trisic and Caroline Sammon set up St Albans Circle in June 2008. We managed to attract and keep 13 new members in a year – how did we do this? Firstly, you have to WANT new members, keep this your main focus with everything you do. Potential members need to know you exist, they should be excited by the things going on and get a warm reception when they pluck up the courage to attend. The following is how we did it, including suggestions from the other clubs in Area 21 on what has been successful for them.
Diary/events - Plan your diary a year in advance (meeting nights). This is important as when you have followed all the advice in the publicity section below, you will be inundated with enquiries and won’t have time to sort this out!
- Intersperse with weekend social events, especially when there is 3 weeks between meetings, assuming you meet on 2nd & 4th Wednesdays. These can be added nearer the time.
- Our most successful events have involved Abba or chocolate. Sing-a-long-a-Mama-Mia, Abba tribute band, chocolate tasting evening, “girls night in” with S&TC film and chocs.
- Other successful evenings have included: facepacks & cocktails, belly dancing, celebrity themed quiz, pottery painting, pole dancing, table tennis, secrets quiz, pimms’n’puds, garden games, think pink (pink presents, pink food, pink quiz etc), aromatherapy/reflexology demonstration, life coach talk, Italian cookery class, table tennis tournament.
- Intersperse with easy things like restaurant, cinema, bowling, pub quiz, video night, X-factor final night, Eurovision party etc.
- Have a major fundraising event – good for publicity and attracting new members (see below)
- Don’t forget to include all the annual events, Area Rally, Ladies Night, Regional Lunch etc.
- Include all community events, Race for Life, Santa’s Float, Carnival etc.
Publicity - Get your own website.
- Have a dedicated email eg enquiries@yourwebsite
- Keep an up-to-date list of your upcoming events and plenty of fun photos. Use keywords such as: social club, women, yoga, things to do, new to the area, meet new people etc. Nearly half our new members found us this way. www.stalbanscircle.org.uk
- Consider having your own club logo, makes you look more successful/permanent, you are then able to brand everything: diary sheets, leaflets, T-shirts etc
- Link website to NALC website and keep submitting updates/articles to National.
- Local government websites club listings, e.g. Hertsdirect.org (county council), stalbans.gov.uk (district council)
- Facebook/Twitter. Set up your club as a person and as a group. Embed link into website.
- Local papers what’s on section
- Articles in local papers – see Janet’s “Working with the Media ” (We got about 5 enquiries from each article that was published)
- Leafleting – every time you come in contact with the general public (Santa’s float, Carnival etc), target areas with young children eg new housing estates
- NCT – advert in local magazine, leaflet in Nearly New Sale pack, yahoo group posting etc
- Netmums website meet-a-mum section
- Talk to everyone you know about what you are doing eg neighbours, hairdresser, beautician, work colleagues, school mums, toddler groups, exercise class etc
- Business cards. Get these printed for free from various websites and give out to the above!
- Posters on notice boards in schools, gym, cafe, town hall, local shop, tourist info centre, volunteer bureau etc
- Advertise and/or write an article for other local publications eg town council newsletter, local estate agents’ guides to the local area, free school magazines etc.
- Local area websites eg aboutmyarea, upmystreet, thingstodonearyou, allaboutstalbans etc
- Wikipedia! Add your website link to your town’s External Links.
- Googlemaps - register your club, use “various venues” as your address, but will need someone’s postcode, preferably whoever lives nearest the centre of town!
- Have a stall at a school fair/community fair etc
- Don’t use the same advert for everything – target your population i.e. new to area, escape from kids, take part in fundraising etc
Managing Prospects - Reply immediately to any enquiries (i.e. within 24 hrs), whether by phone or email. If you are going on holiday get someone else to cover this.
- Give a brief description of the next three things coming up.
- Offer to pick them up, and therefore get their phone number! This will give you a chance to probe them afterwards to see if they like it/see if you want this person to come again.
- Make sure there is always something interesting going on i.e. add in a cinema night if there is only a business meeting in the near future.
- Give them a paper copy of the short diary sheet and info on your club/Ladies Circle (see examples)
- Follow up the next day – someone to email (whether it be membership person or chairman) to say how lovely to meet you, our next event is...etc
- If they are not keen, don’t push it. Save your energy for someone who is enthusiastic. We had a total of 50 enquiries over the year, but this translated into 13 new members, so clearly it was not everyone’s cup of tea.
- On their second or third event give them a membership form and agree when they will be inducted! (We got four in one night after a pole dancing lesson following by drinks at the pub, people started swapping mobile numbers so I just got out the membership forms and everyone filled them in there and then... magic!)
- The moral of this story is – always keep copies of membership forms and diary sheets on you!
Getting new members involved - Talk to them!
- Find out their interests and get them to arrange an evening e.g . demonstration of aromatherapy, table tennis tournament, night out at salsa club, toddler soft play visit etc
- Swap mobile numbers – always makes people feel popular!
- If all else fails, see what film they want to see at the cinema!
- If someone is not sure if they will get on socially with your group, they are more likely to respond to a charity fundraiser or community event e.g. painting/gardening makeover of local old folks home etc. This sort of half day event provides lots of opportunities to get involved at various levels, get to know people and become inspired!
- Find out what charity things they have done in the past, get their advice on how to do it.
- Race for life – volunteering or running. Plan a club training programme to run in the event.
- From the start explain that everyone takes a role in the club, so find out what side of things they would be interested in helping with.
Chairman - Keep track of everything. You will be constantly on the email, but it will be worth it. Send emails before and after every meeting/event, reminding everyone of what is coming up.
- If you personally are not dealing with all the enquiries, make sure the person who is doing it is keeping you up to date on what is happening, so you know when someone has been to 3 events and can agree a date for their induction.
- Discuss with other members whether you need to add any extra social events etc
- Start/maintain good relationship with RT, Tangent, Area etc. Ask for their advice/help.
- Keep a track of which events will be worth doing press release for.
If you only have a few members - Ask your friends to come along to an event, as a personal favour to you, just to help the club look more popular until you have gained a few new members. Reassure them that they are not expected to join.
- Borrow members from nearby clubs to boost your numbers, especially young and enthusiastic members.
- Stay positive – no one wants to hear you moan about how you only have 2 members. Just remember St Albans grew from 3 to 16 members in their first year following the above advice!
- Consider doing a “re-launch”, revamp your website, get a new logo, do a launch night and press release, change the way you do things and tell prospectives that starting from now, the club has revitalised and is doing really well and has been really successful so far.
|
