Exploring year-over-year membership / subscription

At a recent board workshop for a professional association we discussed membership and different ways to look at membership in order to help us understand how to grow it. Remembering some work I had done a few years back with a performing arts client I proposed that it is worth looking at the cumulative number of members over several years. Typically, we look at the total number of members - or subscribers - as an annual figure and then we pay some attention to churn (new members acquired minus non-renewing members). Growth occurs when this churn figure is positive, so that more people join than drop out in a given year. Churn rates also make clear why the first task in a mature, established organization is usually retention, keeping members/subscribers year after year. High rates of retention mean that growth can be achieved more readily (as long as you have not captured your entire market that is);  they also mean that your marketing efforts should become more cost-effective as retention should cost less than acquisition. .

When we look at a wider time span, for instance 5 years or 10 years, we gain a different understanding of the degree to which an organization has reached and engaged its market. Is the annual figure and the cumulative 5-year figure very close or is it much larger?

If it is very close then you are basically stable, without worrisome loss or solid growth year-over-year. If you wish to grow in this scenario then you need to focus on acquisition strategies to accelerate growth.

If the 5-year cumulative figure is much larger, then you might need to think not only about acquisition but re-acquisition. Re-acquisition means re-engaging with people who have made up their mind already about the value you provide by rejecting it for some reason. Re-acquisition is quite a different task, requiring different strategies, tactics, messages and channels. Because these people are not a blank slate relative to your organization, and because they have developed firm beliefs about your organization and have perceptions founded in their personal experience, I tend to think that re-acquisition is fundamentally more difficult than gaining a brand new member, subscriber, customer.

Strategically this dynamic, however, is well worth considering in light of your total market potential.

Re-acquisition may indeed be a critical effort to ensure an organization's sustainability in the long-run. IGiven the nature of re-acquisition, strategies and tactics designed to re-engage likely run their course over 3 to 4 years. The focus would have to shift back to true acquisition at that time because those you wish to re-engaged either have or really are not going to have their minds changed unless something else happens in their world.

In both cases, retention driven by creating value and a mutually beneficial and meaningful relationship with members remains paramount.