Are you looking for new ideas to increase association revenue? Maybe you’ve tried refurbishing your online store, improving your professional education program, or personalizing the member experience, and you’re still falling short of your association goals. Well, search no further.
Your association can increase revenue by boosting its efforts in volunteer recruitment and engagement. The truth is volunteers save associations money. The Independent Sector estimates volunteers are worth more than $30 per hour.
The Community Brands Event Trends Study found 57% of association event planners predict the number of in-person events will increase over the next 12 months. To ensure your association gets an ROI on your upcoming events, it’s crucial to invest in your volunteers. Relying solely on your staff for events puts your association at a financial disadvantage – it also adds unnecessary stress to their workload.
Imagine what your association could accomplish with the power of an engaged volunteer program. Read on to learn how to mobilize your event volunteers and help your association increase events revenue to reach its financial goals.
How innovative technology can boost volunteer engagement and revenue
Community Brands research discovered the organizations that are early technology adopters report stronger growth than others. For example, 60% of early technology adopters reported increases in the number of in-person events and the number of event attendees.
Having the right tools can make it easy to boost volunteer engagement and drive non-dues revenue. If your organization wants to create a successful volunteer experience, you’ll want to adopt modern association management software (AMS).
Look for an AMS that empowers members to browse and apply for volunteer opportunities. Innovative technology should also help your staff streamline the management of volunteer jobs and shifts, so members can easily see how much they’ve contributed to a volunteer project.
3 tips to secure sponsorships with event volunteers
Sponsorships are a key method for associations to financially support an event. Community Brands research found that nearly half of association event planners believe that the number of sponsorships will increase in the next 12 months.
When companies opt to become sponsors, they back the event in return for prearranged benefits. These benefits can be discounted event tickets, speaking opportunities at the conference, or increased brand exposure.
Having event sponsors boosts the credibility of a conference or event. Members will feel encouraged to attend an event when they see respected companies backing an event. Additionally, sponsorships are a great way to heighten event exposure through social media posts or email blasts.
If your association has well-connected members, it’s wise to secure sponsorships within their professional network, especially if it fits within your association’s industry. Here are three ways to snag sponsorships with your event volunteers:
1. Be open to new sponsorship ideas.
Ask your event volunteers about new sponsorship opportunities. Empower them to use their professional networks to find new event sponsors. Managing an events budget can be a challenge, but it doesn’t have to if your association creatively uses sponsorships. With more event sponsors, your association could reconsider its event strategy and lower the ticket price, thus boosting the number of event attendees and your revenue.
If an event volunteer has a qualified sponsorship lead, ensure event staff follow up. Try not to let your association get stuck in the past with “how we used to’s” or event checklists. Break the mold and increase your event revenue.
2. Find event sponsors through email campaigns or a monthly newsletter.
Promote upcoming event sponsorship opportunities with your existing volunteers so they can leverage their professional networks. Ensure you cover these areas in your event sponsor promotion emails:
- Explain the benefits for potential event sponsors. Will they receive discounted tickets, have access to attendee data, get brand exposure with featured logo placement, or have the opportunity to speak at a session? If you ask a company to invest in your association’s event, you’ll need to make them confident they’ll get something of value in return.
- Potential sponsors are more likely to agree to your proposal if you can show proof of success from previous events. Try sharing analytics or key performance indicators that showcase attendee engagement. You can also focus on data that demonstrates how well you promoted your event.
- Another smart way to secure sponsors is to use testimonials in your email campaigns. Highlighting attendee testimonials helps potential sponsors understand that customers value your events. Try promoting testimonials from previous sponsors to build further credibility in your sponsorship program and assure companies of their ROI when they choose to partner with your association.
3. Make sponsorships easy to purchase.
Once a company agrees to your event sponsorship proposal, you want to make it easy for them to purchase a sponsorship. Perhaps in the past, your association had all potential sponsors call your association to negotiate agreement terms and purchase the sponsorship over the phone. However, this could be a time-consuming process, potentially wasting staff resources if the sponsorship didn’t pan out.
Rather than conduct business over the phone, your association should consider detailing all sponsorship information on your event page. Include benefits for potential sponsors, KPIs, testimonials, and sponsorship price ranges. Also allow potential event sponsors to sign their sponsorship agreement and pay online.
3 tips to empower volunteers to promote your event
Another way to increase association revenue is by utilizing event volunteers to promote your upcoming events. Do so by strengthening volunteer engagement through an orientation about your association and specific training about the upcoming event.
With thorough training about your association’s mission and goals, event volunteers have the potential to become brand ambassadors, representing your association in their professional networks. Offer these additional resources to further empower your event volunteers:
1. Give marketing collateral.
Marketing collateral is digital or printed material including videos, graphics, newsletters, e-books, printed brochures, and posters used to promote an association’s mission, events, or services. Think about what marketing collateral best fits with your event strategy and how your event volunteers can best use the material to promote the event within their networks.
Produce the marketing materials and ensure your event volunteers have enough supplies for adequate promotion, or in the case of digital materials, know best practice tips about how to access and send digital promotional files.
2. Offer discount codes.
Who doesn’t love a discount? A great way to empower your volunteers to promote upcoming events is to offer a registration discount code. When your event volunteers advertise your upcoming events within their networks, have them offer a discount code to all members who register early.
Discount codes help to generate interest in events, ultimately bringing your association more revenue. Everyone wins with discount codes.
3. Create a social media campaign for event volunteers.
Support your less tech-inclined volunteers to promote your upcoming event on their social media by providing a ready-to-go campaign. Creating a ready-to-use campaign for your event volunteers includes preparing content like images, gifs, or video with related post copy that supports your event strategy.
Ensure you make the content easy to post and you communicate with your event volunteers where and when you want it posted. Be sure to also promote any hashtags for your event volunteers and review all the information a month in advance of your association event.
3 tips to engage non-members to increase event registration
According to the Community Brands Association research, 57% of members are more likely to attend in-person events if a friend or colleague is also attending . Given this statistic, it stands to reason if your association opened some events to non-members, then overall attendee registration would increase.
But what steps can you take to boost your non-member engagement strategy? Try out these three approaches:
1. Task event volunteers with sending invites to non-members.
The simplest way to engage non-members is to ask them to attend relevant upcoming events. Ensure the invitations are personalized by volunteers. Have your event volunteers start by inviting non-members from within their professional and personal communities.
2. Host a non-member party.
Add a special non-member event to your association’s annual event list. The focus of the event could be professional networking, the value of your association, and larger industry trends. Consider having qualified volunteers speak about the benefits of membership at your association.
Guarantee your event volunteers are ready to network with non-members and represent your association’s mission and goals. Have them listen to any non-member feedback about the event or discussion about professional interests as this can prove helpful in shaping your association’s benefits to new members.
3. Follow up with non-members.
Show your appreciation for non-members attending your event with personalized thank you notes — task your event volunteers with crafting a handwritten note.
If you’ve captured any non-member emails, send a personalized thank you email with information about your association and a call to action about joining. Send your follow-up email within an hour after your event ends to have the best chance to convert non-members to members.
3 tips to involve event volunteers in session planning
To take some pressure off association staff, include qualified volunteers in the early event planning stages. Remember, volunteers have the power to increase association revenue.
Partner with event volunteers in the following ways:
1. Empower subject matter experts (SMEs) in event planning.
SMEs can bring a wealth of industry knowledge to any conference or event. Allow qualified volunteers to create event agendas that resonate with current members. Because your event volunteers are also members, they’ll have insight into sessions or speakers that will drive registration and revenue.
Listen to this wisdom and update your event accordingly. Not only will you empower your SMEs, but you’ll also free up staff for other crucial tasks.
2. Create a volunteer committee to review sessions.
After your SMEs have created an event agenda and suggested session subjects or speakers, establish a group of qualified members to review all proposed parts of the event.
Create a rubric or method for volunteers to rate the sessions and offer feedback. If further work is needed to resolve aspects of the event, have the volunteer group collaborate with the SMEs to finalize details.
3. Have SMEs speak at conferences.
Letting qualified volunteers speak at conferences or lead event sessions is a fantastic opportunity to further engage SME members. These members will view the opportunity as a professional perk and be more willing to continue volunteering at future events.
Additionally, when other members see events advertised with their colleagues, they’ll be more likely to register to support their friends. Some members might even volunteer to work at events for the chance to speak at conference sessions.
