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Membership Recruitment Campaign
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Right here, right now, on this page, is your chapter’s chance to take advantage of the year’s most rewarding opportunity to recruit new chapter members. We’re talking ROI! ARMA Internationals’ Spring Recruitment campaign is all about working together to increase membership at both the local and international levels of the organization. Send your chapter’s prospect list to chapters@armaintl.org by March 4, 2016, for the chance to earn acash prize.
THE 1 EASY STEP:
- Submit a list of your chapter’s best membership prospects by March 4, 2016 in order to qualify. Note: please see “Rules of the Campaign” on the previous page regarding the information required for each prospect.
ARMA International will send your prospects specialized marketing communications. There will be one winner in each membership size category (Small 1-35; Medium 36-80, Large 81-150, Very Large 151+) for those chapters that recruit the most new chapter members between March 4,2016 and June 30, 2016. The prizes are to be distributed after the 2016 ARMA International Conference & Expo.
Europe and Canada Chapters:
There are a few different rules due to the differing laws in your respective countries. Please click here and then open the page, “Europe & Canada Chapters“.
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If you did not already know, there are recruitment resources on the e-Handbook many of which will be helpful during the campaign. Please follow this link to the Recruitment page to find a prospects list template as well as one-page PDFs for recruiting members at your events.
At this point you may be asking yourself, “Who Are Prospects? How Do I Create a List?”
A prospect can be any number of people: a non-member who attended a meeting, someone who has expressed interest in ARMA and/or your chapter, a former member who discontinued within the past few years, or perhaps someone you know who would simply benefit from membership.
**All prospects must include complete mailing addresses (more about the campaign requirements here). For more tips and ideas, consult our updated “Building a Prospect List” document for more help identifying and pulling together prospects. Please be aware that regulations in some countries prevent some, but not all, chapters from submitting a prospect list. For questions or concerns, we recommend you refer to the laws of your governing bodies for additional guidance.
To support you, ARMA International provides Recruitment Resources on the Chapter Operation e-Handbook site, including tips on creating your prospect list and how to leverage the membership campaign using your own recruiting efforts and programming.
“Then What?”
After combining the chapter prospect lists with the leads we’ve accumulated throughout the year, ARMA will send three direct mailings to the prospects you designate. ARMA International pays for and executes the mailing campaign. In doing so, we hope to alleviate some of the recruiting work load from you, the busy chapter volunteer.
Please only submit one list of prospects to us from your chapter using the template mentioned above. Submitting a prospect list with only email addresses does not count toward chapter awards and will be disregarded. Due to CAN-SPAM Act regulations, we are legally not allowed to contact those prospects via email.
We are excited to see how our combined efforts can continue to increase membership and benefit your chapter! Do you have additional questions and/or concerns?
We are here to help!
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Due to the privacy laws in Canada and European countries, we have a slightly different system for the chapters in these regions to participate. Rather than send us your chapter’s prospect list, which is illegal, we will reimburse chapters for the expenses incurred in sending all marketing communications associated with the campaign.
How it works:
- E-mail chapters@armaintl.org stating your intent to participate in the campaign by March 4, 2016.
- We will send your chapter the specialized marketing materials to be sent to the prospective members
- Following distribution of the marketing materials, receipts for any costs for shipping, printing, etc. should be sent to the Member Services Department for reimbursement up to $.40 USD per lead.
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The Value of ARMA International Membership
The Privilege of ARMA International Membership
The Cost-Savings of ARMA International Membership
How to Join
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Approach:
• Be friendly, make eye contact, and be enthusiastic about your topic
• Shake hands and be very professional
• Use their name during the conversation
• Do what you promise
• Follow up with them after your conversation
Conversation Starters:
• Current events in the RIM profession
• Upcoming events in your chapter
• Career history
Listening:
• Be an active listener, make sure they know you believe what they are saying is important
• Respond so that they know you understand them and encourage them to keep talking
• Restate facts or things said in conversation
• Ask questions – studies show that is extremely easy for most people to talk about themselves in new situation. You never know what interesting things you will find out!
Dealing with Objections:
• Know the membership benefits so that you can communicate them
• Respond to objections by asking why they feel that way
• Do not get discouraged, it is an on-going process
Other Tips:
• Ask open-ended questions
• Use examples to explain yourself
• Introduce them to other members and colleagues
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Where to Look for Prospects?
• Past members who are not currently involved
• Colleagues who work in the records management profession
• Someone who has attended an event in the past
• Those in similar organizations who rely on resources for managing information (think legal, IT, and RIM professionals)
• Those who perform a records and information management function for smaller organizations but without a formally recognized “RIM” title
• Vendor community
• Solicit the chapter board for ideas – e.g.; people in your own organization, other related professions in your community
• Review previous chapter meetings (12 to 18 months) and note those who still aren’t members
• Past members in the last 12 to 18 months who chose not to renew
• Ask the chapter as a whole – put the call for suggestions in your newsletter, social media, etc. – whatever best fits your chapter’s needs.
Prospect List Template
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Email, Phones & Fax – The Current Landscape
To communicate effectively with your prospects (and members!) you must be in front of them in as many ways as possible. During ARMA International’s Spring Recruitment Campaign, we are asking for both physical addresses and email addresses in order to facilitate multiple forms of contact.
We do have to caution, laws regulate how businesses and organizations can contact individuals with whom they have no previous business relationship. Depending on how you, the chapter, know the individual, the regulations may be different when contacting potential members outside this recruitment campaign. It is a best practice to send only to emails you’ve attained through honest means and to provide them the opportunity to opt out.
Marketing best practices show that a combined messaging approach (both physical and email) captures member and prospective member attention better than one method alone. We respond differently to physical mail than electronic mail. While sending physical mail may seem outdated, there’s a point to be made about them changing less frequently than email addresses. As more organizations switch to electronic advertising, physical mail also gets results because it stands out. Be sure that your chapter has a plan to deal with hard or soft email bounces as part of your overall marketing approach – what happens when a message is undeliverable? Are they scrubbed from the list, or followed up on to get accurate information?
So it may seem like physical AND electronic messages to our prospects are necessary to keep them informed and to ultimately join. BUT WAIT… That’s not the entire story.
In order to email or solicit prospective members via phone or fax, legally you must have a prior business relationship. For example, a prior business relationship would be a past non-member who attended a chapter event. Beyond that relationship, the chapter must maintain an accurate system for allowing prospects to manage their profiles to opt-out of all or certain types of messages. Messages sent to a prospect after they have opted-out put the organization in legal liability for each message sent. Some of the best prospects often have no prior business relationship – but we must find a way to contact them. That is the other reason why physical addresses are so critical.
Phone messages, email and fax messages all follow similar rules. Having a prior business relationship is the key, but be sure you also have an accurate database system that will allow you to note their preferences and allow someone to opt out from any given form of communication.
Click here to access spreadsheet for tracking prospects, and be sure to make note of the opt-out fields.
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