The 5 Best Ways To Recruit More Members To Your Club

Members are to clubs what being spooky and adorable is to bats, an essential ingredient. No matter how well-organised or well-funded your club is, it would simply not exist without its members. So, ensuring that you keep the members you have and continuously recruit new ones is key to your club’s survival. 

We have talked about how to keep your club members and ensure they continue to renew their memberships in the past. Today, however, we will cover five easy ways to recruit new members to your club. 

Also, if any of you are doubting the cuteness of bats, here’s proof. 
 

 

They are just adorable goth puppies with wings. 

1. Offer Gifts & Discounts To Increase Your Club’s Member Numbers 

Adding an extra incentive can be a fantastic way to give people the extra push they need to sign up for your club. This could be as simple as members getting 10% off event tickets or club merch. You could have exclusive events, merch and activities that only members can see or purchase. If it made financial sense, you could offer your members a welcome pack when they sign up or renew their membership. 

Obviously, all of this depends on your club’s budget and how much your membership costs. If it only costs a member $20 to sign up for a year, then forking out any amount on a welcome pack would likely consume too much of your club’s budget. However, if your members pay a couple of hundred dollars a year in membership dues, offering a gift upon sign-up could be a great idea. 

Ensure that the gift is something relevant to your club, too. If your club is heavily event-focused, make their first event free; if you have a cycling club, maybe they will get a free club hat and drink bottle. Find something that’s in your budget related to your club, and a lot more people are going to be tempted to sign up for your club. 

 

 

Also, offering a discounted membership price for existing members who renew their memberships can go a long way in encouraging people to sign up and stay signed up.

2. Make Signing Up To Your Club As Easy As Possible

People like to do things the easy way. In fact, it might be the only way people actually like to do things. It’s why people Google ‘the easiest way to bake scones’ or the easiest way to paint a wall. No one in the history of ever has Googled ‘the hardest way to do anything’.

You need to ensure that signing up for your club is as easy as possible. People should be able to sign up from their phones while half-watching TV or sitting on their toilets. You can do this by making links to your sign-up page easy to find on your social media and website and in the footer of any emails you send to non-members.  

Upon clicking the link, users need to be able to complete a simple form, pay for their membership, and receive approval within minutes. If you don’t have a digital system that can make this a reality, you should look into getting one.  

Member Jungle is one such option, but we are far from the only game in town, so do your research and work out which is best for your club. 

3. Embrace Technology To Get Your Club New Members

Your website is the first impression many prospective members get of your club, so you need to ensure it is as good as possible. It should be well-designed, good-looking, work properly, and be easy to navigate. Anyone who stumbles onto your website should be able to tell instantly where everything they need is.

For example, this is a bad website design. 

 

  

It is way too busy, with too many clashing colours, no white space for your eyes to rest, and a menu that looks hard to navigate. The second this website opens, I’m clicking out of it, and so would 9/10 prospective members. 

 

On the other hand, here is a good website design for Oasis Day Spa. 

 

 

Muted colours that work well together, lots of white space, includes their social media feed so they aren’t having to double up content and a simple, easy-to-use menu. This is the sort of website that makes a great first impression and will get people to stick around and become members. 

Whether it's true or not, the logic is, 'If you can't even make your website look good or work well, what's the chance your club does?'.  

4. Advertise Your Club To Get More Members

You have to make sure people know about your club and all of the benefits you offer; you won't get new members signing up if no one knows who you are and what you offer. So you need to get your club out there and in front of people with advertising. 

Your advertising doesn't need to be revolutionary, expensive, or culture-defining. No one is asking you to be De Beers and trick the world into thinking diamonds are rare, valuable, or have anything to do with marriage.

 

 

Posting pictures of your members having fun at your club events on social media is going to be an awesome place to start. Social media is a very powerful and free marketing tool that you really should be utilising. 

If you are financially able to do so, paying for targeted social media ads is a great bet. The same goes for advertisements in magazines and on websites related to your club's field of interest.

But don't turn your nose up at free social media posts and word of mouth; those will always be the key to getting your club in front of new members.  

For more on this, check out The Best Social Media To Use To Grow Your Club For Free.

 

5. Members-Only Content To Grow Your Club 

One effective way to recruit new members to your club is by providing exclusive access to member-only resources in a member-only area. By doing so, you can attract new members and keep existing ones engaged by encouraging them to sign up to access content not available to the general public.

Whether it is tips and tricks, a magazine, events, or merchandise, it doesn't really matter as long as it adds value to your club.  

How Else You Can Grow Your Club’s Membership

Those are just a few ways you can attract more members to your club. For more information on how to attract new members and ensure you don’t lose your current members, please read How To Stop Losing Club Members. 

If you are looking for more info on how to ensure your club’s website looks as good as it can, please read How To Stop Losing Club Members.