Driving non-dues revenue is critically important to your association’s long-term success. It helps smooth out the bumps in the financial road. When memberships are flat or declining, raising the cost of membership dues is not the answer. Bringing in non-dues revenue helps you maintain your budget during these times while allowing you to provide your members with continued value.
The latest Association Trends Study finds that association professionals report positive trends over the last 12 months and are optimistic about member acquisition and increases in non-dues and event revenue over the next year.
Read our blog for helpful strategies to generate non-dues revenue at your association, helping you hit your organizational goals.
8 strategies for driving non-dues revenue
Taking a strategic approach to driving non-dues revenue might seem challenging. Especially when you’re focused on increasing membership and retaining members (the top two most important activities in the latest Association Trends Study).
But with a few proven techniques and the right technologies to support them, you can boost your non-dues revenue in no time.
Here are some ideas:
1. Set up a state-of-the-art online store
You can sell multiple items to your members – everything from events to subscriptions to branded merchandise to training and certification courses. Building an online store that offers a modern online shopping experience can go a long way toward driving sales.
Nimble AMS includes functionality to help you set up an online store that offers a modern user experience while giving your staff flexibility on how your association sells merchandise.
For example, the Massachusetts Dental Society (MDS) uses Nimble AMS to power an online store for companies to purchase exhibit booths, sponsorships, and supplies for MDS’ Yankee Dental Congress, one of the top three dental meetings in the US, which attracts about 28,000 attendees each year from around the world.
Nimble AMS capabilities include:
- Simple, quick configuration
Your staff can configure the site easily with drag-and-drop technology and no need to write code. - A modern user experience
Members can make purchases and complete transactions in a familiar online shopping experience. Your members have become accustomed to experiences like these in most areas of their lives, and they’ll expect a similar experience with your organization. - Flexibility
Your organization can sell multiple product types and allow store visitors to filter their views so they can easily find what they want.
2. Cross-sell
One of the best times to sell a member something is when they’re already purchasing a product online. They’re in the buying mood and open to complementary suggestions of other things to buy.
Nimble AMS includes cross-sell/up-sell functionality that makes it easy for your staff to suggest items to customers by building a set of related products relevant to the item the customer just placed in the shopping cart. The related products can be events, courses, products, subscriptions, memberships, and more.
3. Get predictive
Predictive analytics allows organizations to create deeper relationships with people by predicting their interests and behaviors, and providing them with timely, relevant content and offers that boost engagement and lead to greater sales and loyalty.
Here are some ways you can use predictive analytics to drive non-dues revenue:
- Create a familiar (and effective) Amazon-like shopping experience that recommends new purchases based on past behaviors and “what other members like you purchased”.
- Improve registration for your events by using predictive analytics to determine which event locations will bring in the highest number of registrations and what time to open registration for your events.
- Increase revenue from your professional education program by predicting which members are most likely to register for a specific course or certificate program and then target your educational content by recommending relevant offerings.
- Project future fundraising results by predicting which members will donate and how much they will give.
Using Nimble AMS Predictions in Nimble AMS, you can easily get started with predictive analytics to drive non-dues revenue using these techniques. You can also consider leveraging Nimble Intelligence to gain powerful insights about your data, helping you drive revenue during your fundraising campaigns and meet your goals.
4. Make purchases easier
When customers are ready to buy, make it easy on them so you won’t lose the sale. Here are some ways that Nimble AMS helps you create a great e-commerce experience:
- Stored payment option
Your customers can check out without needing to enter their credit card information every time they make a purchase. - Account updating
You can automatically update the expiration date for stored payment methods. This way, members won’t be rejected at check-out just because their credit card date expired. - Express payment option
You can generate a unique payment URL for any order with a balance due: membership, donations, event registration, and more. Next, a bill paying page is created for easy payment by the member, their assistant, accounting department, or anyone making the payment on their behalf. - Google Pay and Apple Pay
Nimble AMS now offers Apple Pay and Google Pay, ensuring you can provide a secure and easy member e-commerce experience. With Apple Pay and Google Pay, you can streamline your e-commerce check-out experience, driving non-dues revenue and lowering cart abandonment.
5. Get creative
There are many ways to develop new non-dues revenue streams for your association. It can be about developing completely new revenue streams. Or it might just be about expanding on what your organization is already doing.
Here are some ideas to get your creative juices flowing:
- Sell branded merchandise
You’ve probably seen examples of associations selling coffee mugs, T-shirts, or baseball caps with their logo. But the sky is the limit on branded merchandising. Nearly anything you can think of can be branded for your association, so think outside the box for ideas that members will love. For example, some associations develop calendars and holiday cards that feature members’ photography or artwork.
6. Invest in your training and certification programs
In the latest Association Trends Study, two thirds of members say they’re required to take continuing education, learning, and training courses to comply with industry standards. Of those members, most turn to their employer or their professional organization for continuing education and training. The study also shows that members are interested in more learning options than their professional organization currently offers.
So, take time to review your training and certification programs. Offer new ways to engage members in a variety of year-round learning opportunities to address members’ budgets, schedules, educational and certification needs, and learning preferences.
7. Provide an online career center
Your membership base offers valuable, skilled candidates for recruiters. Employers will pay to advertise job openings on your association’s job board. Offering a job board also provides an added benefit by helping your association make connections with companies that might be good prospects for sponsorships and advertising packages.
8. Offer year-round sponsorship and advertising opportunities
You might already offer sponsorship packages for your annual conference. But why stop there? Provide integrated sponsorship packages, complete with year-round opportunities. These packages could include conference sponsorships and advertising opportunities via publications, job boards, social media, educational events, and online member community.
