How to use testimonials to grow your club

Testimonials can be a great tool to attract new members and encourage current members to get more involved with your club. After all, a fellow member's recommendation for becoming a member of your club or participating in an activity is far more compelling than somebody else like you or a board member asking someone to join. 

But how do you do this? How do you collect member testimonials? Where do you share them for the greatest impact for your club? We’ll help you answer those questions in this article.

1. Determine your goals.

It’s vital to first establish why you’re collecting member testimonials. Understanding your goals will help you determine what questions to ask members to prompt the type of testimonials you’re seeking.

These are some goals club’s usually pursue while collecting testimonials:

• Trying to turn non-members or visitors of your club’s website into members.
• Attempting to promote specific benefits, such as networking, exclusive events, paidwalled information or continuing education opportunities to gain new members
• Invite current members to take advantage of specific offerings, such as an online community, sponsorships or donations.

2. Set up a testimonial form.

Send a simple form to your members asking them to share their experience with your club. You have to be transparent and explain that the information they submit might be used in the club’s website or on marketing materials. You might start by sending the testimonial form only to your most involved and trusted members to get the best responses. Using an online survey tool is a quick way to collect testimonials from people or you can very easily (in less than 5 minutes) create a simple form with Clubistry and share the link with any member you want.

As you build your testimonial form, be sure to collect key information such as:

• The member’s name, job title, and organization
• How long has the member worked in your industry
• Why the person chose to become a member
• What the member’s experience has been with your club
• What has been the most valuable benefit of being a member
• What the member would say to a person who is considering joining your club

While your testimonial form should be thorough, make sure it doesn’t take more than a few minutes to complete. Ask as few questions as possible while still gathering the information you need for a great testimonial.

3. Ask for testimonials in-person.

Your club’s virtual and non-virtual events are a great place to gather member testimonials. Attendees are often most excited about the organization while they’re learning new things and networking with other members and club staff, so it’s an ideal time to ask for their support and thoughts.

Remember with Clubistry you can very easily create the testimonial form and add it to a page like myclub.com/testimonial so you can very easily share the link with members and they won’t forget it!

Asking for testimonials at in-person events can be a good chance to get constructive feedback too. Asking members about their experience with your club gives them a chance to share anything they might find lacking – giving you an opportunity to potentially head off a membership lapse.

4. Target specific members.

In addition to gathering general member testimonials, you might also target specific members to gather focused testimonials. Let’s review a couple examples:

• Ask members who are active in your community to give you a testimonial about how they’ve benefited from participating in the community.
• Ask members who have recently attended one of your events to share their experience as an attendee or organizer for the club.
• Ask board members for their experience being in the Board of Directors of your club. This might be what tips the scales for someone considering joining your club!

5. Share your member testimonials.

Once you’ve collected testimonials, it’s time to share them with visitors and members. Here are some actions you can consider:

• Email communications – Be sure to highlight general testimonials in your email communications or any email that you send out to members or visitors related to becoming a member.
• Web pages – As you build your website following your club’s needs, there’s obviously going to be at least one page, if not more, where you can naturally add a small container or a place to showcase a specific testimonial that supports the information around it on the page.
• Social Media – Don’t forget to include testimonials in all of your social media channels. More than validation and trust, this method can help a visitor with that extra bit of motivation they need to apply for a membership in your club.

Member testimonials can be a powerful part of your club’s marketing efforts. As a matter of fact it’s highly recommended that you add them at least somewhere in your homepage. To learn more tips on how to grow your membership base, check out other articles in the Clubistry Blog.