When it comes down to it, word of mouth continues to be the best marketing tool associations have.

Shiny new social media tools, the ability to access the organization’s website on our smart phones and direct mail are all well and good, but it’s your current members who really count. A whopping 91 percent of respondents in the 2010 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report said that prospective members become aware of the organization because of word of mouth.

Last year, the top answer was the association website (85 percent), which grew to 88 percent this year, but was second to word of mouth.

What does this mean for organizations? How can they continue to create meaningful experiences for members, thus perpetuating a growth in membership?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Your members should be your best advocates. We use word-of-mouth recommendations to make other decisions in our lives, such as choosing a restaurant or an apartment complex or school district. Your organization should be no different.

No act of customer service is too small. No personal message or note is too insignificant. When you’re caught up in your day-to-day duties, it can be difficult to remember the affect the organization has on its members’ lives.

Don’t be discouraged if your organization relies on just a few full-time staffers. You don’t necessarily need to have an arsenal of staff members to create meaningful experiences for your members. If your members are on a first-name basis with all the staff members at your organization, I bet they appreciate that. Additionally, the smaller the organization, the more personal the experience can be.

When it comes down to it, word of mouth continues to be the best marketing tool associations have.

Shiny new social media tools, the ability to access the organization’s website on our smart phones and direct mail are all well and good, but it’s your current members who really count. A whopping 91 percent of respondents in the 2010 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report said that prospective members become aware of the organization because of word of mouth.

Last year, the top answer was the association website (85 percent), which grew to 88 percent this year, but was second to word of mouth.

What does this mean for organizations? How can they continue to create meaningful experiences for members, thus perpetuating a growth in membership?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Your members should be your best advocates. We use word-of-mouth recommendations to make other decisions in our lives, such as choosing a restaurant or an apartment complex or school district. Your organization should be no different.

No act of customer service is too small. No personal message or note is too insignificant. When you’re caught up in your day-to-day duties, it can be difficult to remember the affect the organization has on its members’ lives.

Don’t be discouraged if your organization relies on just a few full-time staffers. You don’t necessarily need to have an arsenal of staff members to create meaningful experiences for your members. If your members are on a first-name basis with all the staff members at your organization, I bet they appreciate that. Additionally, the smaller the organization, the more personal the experience can be.

This just in: The Membership Marketing Benchmark Survey results were released this past weekend at ASAE and The Center’s Annual Meeting. The white paper, which is available as a 40-page PDF here (registering to get access to the PDF is easy), is the result of a nearly month-long survey conducted this spring. More than 500 association professionals (an 18 percent response rate) responded to the survey, which was:

designed to gain insight into the tactics and strategies that organizations use to recruit new members, engage new members, renew existing members and reinstate former members and to understand which tactics correlate with higher new member input, renewal rates, and overall membership growth.

I’ll be breaking down the results in a series of posts, beginning with this one.

One thing I found interesting about the survey results was the top way prospective members learn about an association: through its Web site. To be honest, I thought word-of-mouth would have been the biggest membership marketing tool. Eighty-five percent of respondents said their organization’s Web site was the primary source for reaching prospective members. Word-of-mouth did come in second, at 77 percent.

These are important points for a few reasons. It’s fair to say your association’s Web presence is the best way to reach out to new members. It’s so crucial to have a Web site that is not only pleasing to the eye, but also easy to navigate and to make sense of. We know creating a Web site can be a hassle, and your association may not have the resources to put one together in a timely manner. But whether you take advantage of our Web site and membership management solution or not, know that the way your organization is presented on the Web is key to reaching out to prospective members. Functionality and style are both important, but don’t forget how vital new and refreshing content is to your audience.

Another takeaway from that first question is that word-of-mouth is the number two way to marketing to potential members. Your members should be your best advocates. Your members should be inspired by the work your association is doing, and their faith in the organization should make others want to see what the buzz is all about. If your members don’t advocate for your organization, then what else is there? Direct mail, promotions at conferences, advertising and job boards are all great, but your members should want to help the association grow. Never discount the power of word-of-mouth marketing.

Other responses that garnered more than 50 percent included:

• Direct mail to prospects: 76%
• Promotion at your own conferences/conventions: 65%
• E-mail promotion to prospects, coworker/colleague: 61%
• Exhibiting at other conferences/conventions (not your own): 53%
• Cross-sell to members who buy your materials or attend your conferences: 52%
• Advertising in your own publications: 51%

I don’t want to discount the importance of all of the above, but think about it this way: we all take word-of-mouth recommendations on little things (such as restaurants) and big things (apartment complexes, cars and even our own jobs). Why should an association be any different?