The automotive sector was hit hard by the 2008 recession, with Americans and companies purchasing and leasing fewer cars. By comparison, there were 16 million new cars sold in 2005 but less than 10 million new cars in 2008. Corporate fleets were impacted with budgets cut and fleet managers tasked with more non-fleet responsibilities. It’s no surprise to see the global financial crisis also impacted the Automotive Fleet and Leasing Association (AFLA).
The Challenge
How can AFLA maintain and grow its membership, without compromising its association community and identity?
The Solution
We worked with AFLA to grow their annual meeting attendance, focusing on a targeted membership segment. AFLA leaders and staff committed to their strategic plan goal of growing a specific membership segment by 15-20% year-over-year, thereby increasing their conference registration numbers.
This was accomplished utilizing the following tactics:
- Focused outreach by membership task force volunteers to lapsed and prospective members from within this key area.
- Targeted email and printed mail campaigns highlighting key benefits most often utilized and most highly rated by membership from within this category (according to member surveys).
- Launched first-year member engagement campaign to provide 14 touchpoints to all new members in their first year to increase engagement with association events.
- Targeted social media advertising to fleet professionals on LinkedIn and Facebook
- Outreach at other industry events to encourage support of AFLA attendance
- Focus on providing relevant topics at conference, from highly rated speakers
- Implementation of speaker video review process for all conference session speakers prior to contracting to ensure quality
- Focus on overall attendee experience, as networking is a crucial component to AFLA attendees. This included swapping evening programming to allow for a better attendee experience and flow, working with sponsors to create unique experiences for receptions and activities throughout conference, elevating the golf scramble and pool social
- Adding a dedicated roundtable session to Tuesday afternoon at the conference to allow for a stronger professional development proposal by attendees when seeking approval to attend
The Outcome
AFLA has seen overall conference and membership growth, with marked increases in the targeted membership segment over the past 6 years. Growth within the identified membership segment has a multiplying impact on overall membership from all membership categories throughout the association, with more than 85% of members attending the conference annually. Overall conference attendance has grown from 376 in 2012 to 529 in 2018 (41% attendee increase) with this targeted approach, with a record number of targeted attendees in 2018 (this targeted segment’s overall increase being 19% comparative to 2012).