The COVID-19 pandemic is very likely to be having an impact on most, if not all business operability. In these uncertain times, a vital consideration for professional membership and awarding organisations is how can they continue to operate when often the main source of revenue is obtained through high value face to face events from conferences, seminars and workshops or paper-based examinations.

Organisations are required to think outside of the box and should consider the following:

  • Different ways in which their products and services can be diversified and delivered to make them attractive and accessible to members
  • Strategies to recoup lost event revenue

Here are 8 improvisations that you may wish to consider:

Deliver virtual events: The first improvisation and probably the most obvious one is to deliver workshops, training courses and seminars virtually. There are lots of different video conferencing software platforms that can do the job, including Zoom, Webex, Go to Meeting Webinar, Microsoft Teams and Zoho.

Running workshops and seminars virtually and at a reduced cost could see less refunds processed, and likely lost revenue recouped. If your organisation was due to hold a large conference, can you pick out the key themes and split these up into a series of webinars that will deliver value to your current members? Promote these webinars through social media and create an email marketing campaign, targeting both current and perspective members.

If you have a preferred webinar provider and could benefit from integration with your CRM get in contact with us!

Heavily promote CPD Activities: Generate campaigns to incentivise people to sign up for membership. If your target audience are likely to be working from home, they will have spare time that would usually be taken up on their commute to work – incentivise them to use this time to complete CPD activities to improve their own knowledge and career prospects and provide a good mix of paid and free learning materials.

Firm up your member value proposition and identify key revenue generators: Are you providing membership benefits that are of value to your members? Understanding and asking them what they value most should inform your decision making around this area. Within the current climate, firstly identifying the key revenue generators (which in most cases will be membership and qualification income) and then heavily promoting these to current and prospective members is key.

Use event materials to generate further revenue: Have you created materials specifically as value adds for your conference? Content such as statistical industry trends and help guides could be used in other ways to incentivise delegates to download for a small fee.

Deliver paper-based qualifications online: Do you have the capability to move paper-based exams easily online? If you already have assessment management software readily available for some exams, you should consider delivering paper-based assessments virtually, so that qualification revenue can still be redeemed. Speak to your CRM provider about the integrations in place with assessments providers – moving to online assessments may be easier than you think!

Provide an option for donations: Professional Membership and awarding organisations yearly conference is usually their main source of income, and some organisations will be obliged to honour contracts for event venues and contractors associated with the event. Within your communication to members to notify them of the cancellation of events, you should provide opportunity for a donation online to help you to recoup some of the lost revenue.

Increased use of text messaging: Targeted messaging directly to your members device will play an important role in interacting more pointedly. Understand what matters to members based on their preferences and point them in the direction of the targeted message. Our partner ClearCourse company InstaGiv are offering a free SMS keyword and 100 outbound SMS messages to any UK registered charity. Sign up here

Ensure payments can still be taken: Keeping cash flowing is vital to the continued success of your operation, but payments can often be reliant on bank transfers and PDQ machines. Increase the opportunities for taking payments by making use of BACs Contingency services. Our partner ClearCourse company, Clear Direct Debit are offering free Bacs contingency service for three months, giving organisations the peace of mind that there will be no charges until July 2020. Find out more