http://www.membershipmarketingschool.com/

Membership Marketing School, 4/2 Cawarra Road, Caringbah (2026)

17/09/2026

Sometimes the worst thing an association can do is recruit more members.

When membership growth stalls, the natural response is to increase acquisition. Launch another campaign, spend more on advertising, create a new joining offer and push harder for leads.

But if existing members are not using their benefits, engaging with the community or seeing enough value to renew, why would new members have a different experience?

A strong campaign may deliver an impressive number of new joins. If members continue to leave at the other end, the team is working harder and spending more simply to replace them. Some of those new members will also leave disappointed, making them much harder to attract again in the future.

You cannot fill a leaking bucket by pouring faster.

Sustainable membership growth will always require both retention and recruitment. When retention is weak, the order matters. First, understand why members are leaving, fix the parts of the experience that are falling short and rebuild the value of staying. Once retention is healthy, acquisition has a much stronger foundation.

Would your association be willing to slow down acquisition to fix retention first, or would the pressure for immediate growth make that impossible?

15/09/2026

Strategy looks very different when you are responsible for the results.

It is easy to recommend a marketing strategy when you are not the person who has to make it work. Some of our best consulting insights come from the unglamorous, everyday work of running association marketing.

We still get excited about a catchy email subject line and a good performance report. We like working out what captured attention, where people dropped out of the journey and what we should test next. We enjoy watching event registrations come in, seeing social audiences grow, and finding the weak point in a campaign that is not delivering.

At MemberBoat, our work spans strategy and implementation. We write the strategy, then help associations put it into practice. For some long-term clients, we have become an extension of the team, and in a couple of cases, their whole marketing department.

That everyday involvement keeps us close to the reality behind every strategy. We help fill events, improve renewals, plan campaigns, strengthen member journeys and change course when the results are not there. We learn what teams can realistically implement, what survives busy periods and competing priorities, and what produces results over time. We test our thinking in association environments with limited budgets, legacy technology, stretched teams and boards expecting growth with minimum investment.

Our work also gives us a much broader view of the sector. Through Membership Marketing School (powered by MemberBoat), workshops, speaking engagements and conversations with association leaders around the world, we hear the questions teams are asking and see the patterns emerging across different markets, sectors and organisations.

Close enough to the work to understand the reality and connected enough to the sector to see the patterns. That combination keeps our advice practical, current and grounded. It is also why we will always be happy to lose ourselves in a good email report. The detail keeps the strategy honest.

If your association needs extra marketing capacity with strategic thinking built in, we are always happy to have a conversation. Reach out or book a chat here 👉https://zurl.co/x7aTs

13/09/2026

Leadership can be relentless, full of meetings, deadlines, and the constant drive to deliver. Rarely do we stop long enough to reflect, reset, and reignite our purpose.

Olena Lima CAE will be speaking at Answers for Associations Leaders Retreat this year, a transformative, three-day experience exclusively for association leaders who want to step back from the day-to-day grind and reconnect with what drives them. Their vision, purpose and people.

📍 Samphire Hotel, Rottnest Island WA
📅 Monday 26th October 2026 - Wednesday 28th October 2026
🔗 Learn more and register: https://zurl.co/4knBe

If you're leading an association and looking for space to think bigger, this is where that conversation happens.

09/09/2026

What does sustainable growth look like when member expectations are changing faster than many association models?

Olena Lima CAE recently sat down with Answers for Associations' In Conversation With to talk digital transformation, member experience and the choices associations need to make now.

The discussion unpacks why automatic belonging is declining, why acquisition alone won't solve membership growth, and how AI will amplify the systems and processes already sitting underneath the member experience.

A key takeaway 👉 before trying to grow membership, understand where the member journey is weakest.

Read the full article by Answers for Associations on what association leaders should be focusing on over the next 12 months here: https://zurl.co/c4cnh

08/09/2026

How much of your association content should stay behind the member-only wall?

It is one of the questions we hear most often from association teams. Share too much with non-members, and they may wonder why they need to join. Share too little, and they may never see enough value to become interested in your community.

We like to think of member content as the blockbuster, while public content is the trailer.

Members get the full experience through in-depth research, practical resources, expert conversations, professional connections and opportunities to participate.
Prospective members see carefully selected highlights that demonstrate the quality of what is happening inside the community.

A good trailer gives you enough to become interested without revealing every plot twist.

In this short video, Olena Lima CAE explains how content can guide new members towards quick wins during onboarding, maintain engagement month after month and remind people of the value available through their membership.

We also explore how strong member content can be repurposed for acquisition. A popular webinar could become a short highlights video. A valuable research report could become a public executive summary. A lively member discussion could inspire an article that shares a few useful insights while keeping the deeper conversation within the community.

Before creating something new, look at what your members already value most. Your next successful acquisition campaign may already be sitting in the editing room.

Learn how to do this across everything your association creates. Explore our Association Content Marketing Blueprint course today 👉https://zurl.co/FgdX3

07/09/2026

Ready to flex your marketing muscles and harness your association's power? Welcome to the Marketing Bootcamp, an AuSAE Open Access Webinar designed to simplify membership marketing and deliver engagement strategies that work. While we won't ask for burpees, we will push your marketing mindset to new heights.

Hosted by Olena Lima CAE, this session introduces a membership marketing framework tailored for associations to build relationships with current members, attract and recruit new ones, optimise MarTech and operations, and foster inclusive environments that value diverse perspectives.

Learning Outcomes:
🔹 Participants will apply a membership marketing framework to analyse their marketing and engagement strategies, identifying opportunities for improvement in member recruitment and retention.
🔹 Participants will design customised and actionable plans to optimise their marketing processes and leverage MarTech tools for enhanced efficiency and member engagement.
🔹 Participants will analyse case studies to identify strategies that address diverse member perspectives and create pathways for meaningful participation across member segments.

📅 Wednesday, 14 October 2026
⏰10:00 AM - 11:00 AM AEDT
👉 Register here: https://zurl.co/3RSLw

06/09/2026

We are excited to be hosting roundtable discussions at the Sydney Leaders eXchange this coming Thursday, 10 September, hosted by Associations.

One of the things we enjoy most about Leaders eXchange is the opportunity to have honest conversations with leaders about the opportunities and challenges shaping the future of the sector.

We'll bring a few fresh insights and ideas, but as always, the real value comes from the collective experience and wisdom in the room. Every event leaves us with new ideas, fresh perspectives and plenty to think about. We can't wait to see what Sydney has in store!

🎁 Want to know how healthy your membership really is? Everyone at our discussion table gets access to our online membership health calculator to measure and lift performance, plus a complimentary copy of the Membership Growth Workbook.

📍 Sydney International Convention Centre
📅 Thursday 10 September | 8:45 AM to 3:30 PM
🔗 Learn more and register: https://zurl.co/qkALC

03/09/2026

A strong reputation may earn attention, but it no longer guarantees member loyalty.

Today, associations are competing with more than other associations. Businesses have recognised the value of professional education, events, content and community, while members’ expectations are being shaped by the seamless, personalised experiences they receive from platforms such as Spotify and Uber.

Those expectations follow members everywhere. They influence how people judge your website, emails, events, joining process and renewals. Every unnecessary step, irrelevant message or difficult interaction costs more than a little patience. It costs time, trust and, eventually, engagement.

That is why associations need to think beyond ROI and consider ROT: return on time.

Members are asking whether an experience is worth their attention, helps them move forward and makes good use of their limited time. A strong member experience answers those questions by making it easy for people to achieve what they came to do, whether that is joining, booking an event, finding useful information or renewing their membership.

The real test is not how much value your association offers on paper. It is how easy you make that value to find, access and use. Even excellent member benefits can go unnoticed when members have to work too hard to reach them.

As a practical next step, choose one common member task, such as joining, registering for an event, finding information or renewing, and complete it yourself from beginning to end. Where does it become confusing, frustrating or unnecessarily time-consuming?

We’re passionate about helping associations create seamless experiences that respect members’ time and make their value easier to access. If your team is reviewing its member journey, reach out and let’s discuss where the biggest opportunities may be.

👉Book a meeting with us: https://zurl.co/8YE1v

01/09/2026

We're heading to Melbourne this coming Thursday, 3 September, for Answers for Associations: Association Leaders eXchange! 🎉

The pace of change facing associations continues to accelerate, making opportunities to connect, share experiences and learn from peers more important than ever.

Olena will be sharing some recent insights and observations on what makes a future-ready association, and she's just as keen to hear what's on the minds of leaders from across Victoria.

Some of the best thinking happens between sessions, over a coffee, mid-conversation. That's the part we look forward to most!

🎁 And a little something for everyone at our discussion table: a complimentary copy of our Membership Growth Workbook, plus access to an online membership health calculator to measure and lift performance. The workbook was a great success at recent industry events, and we're bringing it back for more!

📍 Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC)
📅 Thursday 3 September | 8:45 AM to 4:00 PM
🔗 Learn more and register: https://zurl.co/CUBK9

01/09/2026

Associations often tell us that members no longer want to volunteer. We think we sometimes reach that conclusion too quickly.

Of course, people are busier than ever, long-term commitments are harder to make, and many younger professionals have not grown up with the same culture of formal volunteering.

Yet across many industries, we still see people who are eager to contribute, particularly when they care deeply about their profession and can see how their involvement will make a difference.

The challenge is that many associations continue to offer a very narrow version of volunteering. Join a committee, commit for a year, sometimes longer. Take on broad responsibilities before you have had the chance to discover whether the experience is right for you.

That is a significant first step for a busy member.

Micro-volunteering can create a much easier way in. A member might review a resource, welcome people at an event, contribute to a short-term working group, share a case study or mentor someone for a single session. These smaller opportunities allow people to contribute without immediately signing up for a long-term role.

At the same time, members need to know what opportunities exist, where they might fit, how much time they will need to contribute and whether their skills are suitable. They need an easy way to express interest and enough support to feel confident once they begin.

Volunteering needs its own intentionally designed journey:
Awareness → Consideration → Conversion → Onboarding → Engagement → Advocacy

Contribution and involvement is one of the most powerful stages of the broader member journey. It gives members the opportunity to help create the value of the community, shape their profession, build relationships and strengthen the association for others.

And when volunteers have a positive experience, they become your best volunteer recruiters, future committee members, board candidates and ambassadors.

Before deciding that your members do not want to volunteer, ask yourself:

Can members easily find the opportunities available? Do you communicate them regularly throughout the year? Can people see exactly what is involved and how much time it will require? Do you offer different levels of commitment? Can someone express interest in a few minutes, or does the process feel like applying for a job? Could a member get involved without already knowing someone on the committee?

If you want more volunteers, start by following your own volunteering pathway as if you were a member trying to get involved today. You may discover that willingness is only part of the challenge.

What needs to change to make volunteering easier for today’s members to say yes to?

Membership Marketing School

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