Countering The "Must Participate" Perception

THE ALL TOO COMMON PROBLEM

“We keep hearing from cancelling members that they are not renewing because they didn’t have time to attend anything. How can we do a better job of communicating that they don’t have to attend events to gain value from their chamber of commerce membership?”

THE SOLUTION

STOP telling them that they do have to attend events! Do a quick mental evaluation of your chamber communications. How many times per month does a chamber member receive a message about an event via mail, email, text, website, social media, face-to-face, etc.?Now ask yourself how many times that same member receives a message about economic development successes, advocacy activity, etc. My guess is they are hearing a lot more about your events than anything else you do.Even if you are actively trying to communicate the value of a chamber of commerce membership beyond your events, the shear volume of event promotion you do could be sending a passive but very strong message that your members are missing out if they can’t attend. You have to change your communication strategy.Establish some balance in your messaging. Make sure you are giving, at minimum, equal time to the real work of the chamber. Try to reserve at least one communication tool that is “hands-off” for event promotion. They won’t know what you are doing unless you tell them, and they won’t hear what you have to say if your message gets lost in a flood of event promotion.