I would like to know what FMCA is doing to recruit new members?

[wildebill308]

I would like to know what FMCA is doing to recruit some of the thousands of new people entering the RV lifestyle. This has been a period of unbelievable growth, with more people than ever before buying RVs of all kinds. 

Bill

[manholt]

Bill you might want to send an inquiry to Mr. Ball or Smith!

[hermanmullins]

Bill,

Dan Ball, FMCA Director of Membership and Marketing, has been working very hard with recruitment. 

You are correct about RVs blowing off the lots so to speak. Young people are looking for ways to have and enjoy their families during this time. Is it a fad? What we as RVers and FMCA members need to do is find ways to entice these folks to stay with their RV's and to join FMCA.

The best recruiting tool FMCA has is all of us. We, the members need to sell, sell sell FMCA.

Herman

 

(My favorite pitch is FRIENDSHIP, I have made friends all over the US of A that I would never had without FMCA) 

[dball]

 

Bill,

Below is a list of the high-level initiatives we either have done or are currently doing to help recruit new members.  It's important to note, our current budget confines what we can do to some degree (unfortunately we don't have a Good Sam advertising budget).  While it still needs to be approved, the Executive Board has graciously granted me a higher advertising budget for fiscal year 2021, which will help tremendously.

 

All the following efforts attempt to illustrate the value of an FMCA membership.  FMCAssist is undoubtedly a great benefit, but it does not appeal to everyone equally and we must be careful to ensure our other great benefits do not fall by the wayside.  Furthermore, and as you will see below, our message is being delivered in a variety of ways because that is how people consume information this day and age.  Speaking to a couple or small group of people at an RV show or seminar is not an accurate representation of all RVers and does not adequately cast a “wide enough net” to speak to the RVing community.  

• We send a 4-part series to prospective members.  Prospective members’ email addresses are gathered by a variety of methods: those who want a tire quote but are not yet members, those who want to download our towing guide, from RV shows – both FMCA events and others, through Facebook ads, through purchased lists, those with a free FMCA Forums account, etc. 

• Effort 1 promotes the top 5 benefits of FMCA, including FMCAssist as a numerical value and the fact it is INCLUDED with your membership.

• Effort 2 promotes the community attributes of FMCA and the countless resources available to FMCA members.

• Effort 3 promotes the “2^nd tier” benefits of FMCA – i.e. those benefits not considered on the top 5, but still bringing value to the membership.

• Effort 4 speaks to our multitude of educational opportunities.

• We send an onboarding series to new members and a “reboarding” series to members who have just renewed.  The onboarding series is a series of emails sent every other week (total of 10) to help members learn about the benefits of FMCA and attempt to clear up any confusion that may exist.  It also includes a survey in which they can ask us questions about anything as well as 2 surveys to provide us feedback on the things we are doing well, can improve upon, their understanding of the benefits, and so on.  The emails in the onboarding series are similar in nature to the prospect series but go into greater detail about either a single benefit or a select group of benefits.  The reboarding series is the same as the onboarding series minus the initial welcome email in the onboarding series.

• Over the years, we have tried [literally] several hundred variations of digital ads on Facebook, Google, Bing, Pinterest, RVillage, and numerous other digital platforms.  We have found that ads promoting one specific benefit (FMCAssist, Tires, Roadside, Magazine, etc.) have not performed well.  We have seen much better success when we promote FMCA membership as a whole.  Digital ads provide the most far-reaching and economical approach given the advertising budget we must work with.  We have, and continue to, tinker with ads as well as different age demographics, different regions of the country, different RV types, etc.  Digital ads, while they can be effective, also present challenges.  Often you have space or character limits, so the message must be short and sweet while also enticing enough for someone to click on the add.  Once they click the add they are taken to a landing page where they can learn more.  Information comes so fast and abundant these days, and people have such short attention spans, it can be a challenge to adequately explain the true value of a nuanced benefit like FMCAssist or go into great detail about the steps involved to use the tire program, to give you a couple examples.

• Over the last year or so, we have moved away from purchasing print ads.  We do not see the ROI like we do with digital advertising.  We do still however, trade print ads and have found the results to be like those of digital ads – i.e. touting a specific benefit has not performed as well as promoting an FMCA membership in its entirety.

• We attend most of the major RV shows.  As many of you know, when you have the time and an attentive audience to explain in detail the value of FMCAssist, they see the value.  The problem, however, is the limited reach RV shows provide.  For a 4-day show, for example, how many visitors do we have at the FMCA booth?  100, maybe a little more on a good day.  Compare that to the cost to attend that show.  On average, the cost per acquisition for an RV show is well over $60.  Compare that to the average cost per acquisition for a digital campaign, which is around $15.  That is not to say RV shows do not have value too.  They bring a level of exposure that is difficult to quantify.  That’s why, even if we are unable to attend an RV show (usually the smaller ones) we have tried to at least have a presence – such as an ad in the program, donating a door prize, or a sponsorship.

• We encourage and incentivize members to spread the word and help recruit new members and try to provide the resources available to make it easy – the Member Recruitment page.  We have run different promotions to try to entice peer-to-peer recruitment, such as being entered to win a $100 VISA gift card for recruiting a new member(s).  Most of those have had mediocre results.  Again, peer-to-peer recruitment has value, but like the RV shows it does not reach a large segment of RVers when the majority of FMCA members have no interest in recruiting.

• We have arrangements and partnerships with companies like Grand Design, KOA, RV Trader, Passport America, Harvest Hosts and continue to try and add more partnerships.  These partnerships generally involve messages being sent on FMCA’s behalf.  Messages that again tout specific benefits as well as the entire membership as well as providing blog content and anything we can do to help increase exposure for FMCA on their platforms and to their audiences.

• Similarly, we currently work with “social media influencers”.  These are people (many of them younger) who have a digital presence in the RV space – be it social media, blogs, podcasts, or all the above.  While we have not struck an agreement with all of them, we have had conversations with over 75 “influencers” and are always trying to recruit more.   

• We are working with Affiliate partners as well (note: there is some overlap between our affiliate partners and social media influencers that we work with).  Affiliate partners are, again, folks with a social media presence who tout the benefits of FMCA; the difference being we pay them $10 for any new member who joins FMCA and uses the affiliate’s unique promo code (for tracking).  Currently we have 15 active affiliate partners and are always trying to recruit more.

• We have, and will continue to, attempt to bring more RV dealers to participate in the complimentary membership program (COMP) in exchange for discounted advertising.  The COMP program is a great way to get in front of new RV buyers who may be overwhelmed with all there is to learn.  The challenge is, the message is not always being delivered by us, so you could have a sales person who says the wrong thing, doesn’t sell it well, or is simply not interested in promoting the program because he/she is more focused on the sale of the actual RV.  Much like our member recruitment initiative we do our best to help shape the message and provided resources where needed.

• We created The Mile Marker (monthly e-newsletter) and Tech Talk (quarterly tech-centric newsletter).  We have both a member version and a prospect version – the prospect version includes offers to join.  The Mile Marker is more lifestyle-oriented while Tech Talk is related to the technical side of RVing.  Both provide fun and rich content an provide opportunities to teach both existing and prospective members about the benefits of FMCA.

• We recently added the Benefits of Belonging campaign to Family RVing magazine.  Each month there is a 2-page, eye-catching spread in the magazine that shows in-depth the value that particular benefit brings to an FMCA membership.

•Direct Mail campaign to 20,000+ RV prospects.  Includes two postcard efforts and a digital advertising effort running alongside with FMCAssist as a leading benefit.

• We have been guests on multiple podcasts to help spread the word.

• We have sent press releases touting the benefits of FMCAssist/FMCA and that we now allow all RV types

• Will continue our ongoing efforts to survey all members to gain insights into their needs, wants, values, etc.

 

I could go on, but hopefully this answers your question and gives you an idea of the different initiatived we have undertaken.  Not bad for a marketing department of 2, but obviously I'm biased 😉

 

Thanks,

Dan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[djsamuel]

Dan,

Is there a web page set up for us as members to copy the link and post it on our own Facebook page or email to others?  The content would be similar to the digital ads you mention but would be available to members to send to others.  Additional digital advertising of the same content FMCA pays for; not a replacement but free further distribution of the ad.

Edited July 6, 2020 by djsamuel

[dball]

djsamuel,

Here is the link to our member recruitment page, in which we've tried to provide resources for those members who want to help FMCA recruit new members: https://www.fmca.com/recruit-new-members-earn-rewards

And here are a couple landing pages and promo codes if you (and anyone else) would like to share:

-Military Veterans discount (promo code: VETERANS18): join.fmca.com/veterans18

-Another offer for $10 off a new membership (promo code: SAVE10NOW): join.fmca.com/save10now

Thanks for your help and let me know if there is anything else you need!

Dan

[djsamuel]

22 hours ago, dball said:

djsamuel,

Here is the link to our member recruitment page, in which we've tried to provide resources for those members who want to help FMCA recruit new members: https://www.fmca.com/recruit-new-members-earn-rewards

And here are a couple landing pages and promo codes if you (and anyone else) would like to share:

-Military Veterans discount (promo code: VETERANS18): join.fmca.com/veterans18

-Another offer for $10 off a new membership (promo code: SAVE10NOW): join.fmca.com/save10now

Thanks for your help and let me know if there is anything else you need!

Dan

Thanks Dan.  I hesitate to use the recruit new members page to send to potential members since I want them to realize that I do think membership is valuable, and I'm not doing it to get the $10.  The web page you listed (join.fmca.com/save10now) is a good summery of the benefits.  I have started posting that one.

Thanks again.

Doug

[fmcastaff]

On 7/5/2020 at 7:29 PM, WILDEBILL308 said:

I would like to know what FMCA is doing to recruit some of the thousands of new people entering the RV lifestyle. This has been a period of unbelievable growth, with more people than ever before buying RVs of all kinds. 

Bill

Bill,

One other thought to add to Dan’s post. Our acquisition has really suffered with the dues increase passed late last year. It was done to fund our FMCAssist premium increase from the provider. Acquisition is down about 30% from last year. So all the things Dan listed that worked last year is not working this year. People simply are not willing to pay 85 dollars to join like they were before. We are trying our hardest to grow FMCA!

[wildebill308]

On 7/6/2020 at 8:00 AM, dball said:

Similarly, we currently work with “social media influencers”.  These are people (many of them younger) who have a digital presence in the RV space – be it social media, blogs, podcasts, or all the above.  While we have not struck an agreement with all of them, we have had conversations with over 75 “influencers” and are always trying to recruit more.   

Who or which channels are you talking to on Youtube? What kind of deal are you talking about? (you can PM me if you don't want to make it public.) I don't see very much FMCA content on Youtube and this seames a prime landing spot for full timers and newbies. 

Bill

[wildebill308]

1 hour ago, smithy said:

Bill,

One other thought to add to Dan’s post. Our acquisition has really suffered with the dues increase passed late last year. It was done to fund our FMCAssist premium increase from the provider. Acquisition is down about 30% from last year. So all the things Dan listed that worked last year is not working this year. People simply are not willing to pay 85 dollars to join like they were before. We are trying our hardest to grow FMCA!

Yes maybe we arn't doing a good enough job of explaining that yes you can join GS for 29.00 but you have to buy the travel assist for an extra 69.00 or a total of 98.00. or get both for 85.00 from FMCA. The number of people who remember the old price will be gone soon.

Bill

[fmcastaff]

9 hours ago, WILDEBILL308 said:

Yes maybe we arn't doing a good enough job of explaining that yes you can join GS for 29.00 but you have to buy the travel assist for an extra 69.00 or a total of 98.00. or get both for 85.00 from FMCA. The number of people who remember the old price will be gone soon.

Bill

Bill,

When we survey members, we ask what other clubs they belong to. If they indicate GS, we ask why they joined. Top two are campground and Camping World discounts. I don't believe our numbers are down because people are joining GS and signing up for their travel assist program. 

[manholt]

Dan, I have not seen FMCA on UTube...I see it all the time on  FB.  

We have, for as long as I remember, advertised FMCA as a whole and feel we should continue that.  

Smithy, you can't use the past 8 months+ as a benchmark against previous years!  

Bill, I remember and don't plan on being gone, anytime soon!  I have 53 years of Class A's, my wife has 37 years!  

I don't remember the cost of membership in FMCA back in 1967, but if you take inflation into consideration,  the cost of $85 today, would probably be the same! 

 

[whiteeagle]

If I read these thread posts correctly, I believe I remember that FMCA had positive membership growth about 26 of the 28 months prior to the vote of around 12% of the membership which resulted in change of the focus, purpose, and mission of FMCA - then followed by membership decrease in every month since except maybe a couple ?  Certainly, conditions have changed in past 6 months but prior to that, world was booming.... Maybe sensitive and not PC but most folks I speak with around the country attribute the decline and lack of new interest in the new FMCA to the change. So be it... we are now what we are without that recognition of uniqueness.

Don't know the economics overall about the magazine costs but have heard it's expensive and costing FMCA tons of expected money in past few years.... read here that FMCA doesn't find hard copy ads for membership very effective anymore .... suspect same is true for vendors and with new broader scope, the FMCA magazine is now one of many in the general RVing world.. 

The other thing I notice in all the information above is the absence of any information or strong support of CHAPTER membership...as a huge friendship benefit to joining FMCA   .I have been  hoping to see significant changes in this area because for past several years, the support of Chapters has been slow in growing -.. The "chapter" fairs are a good thing -  minimally effective when scheduled on day 1 of a rally even before all attendees get in, scheduled for about 1-1.25 hours in a small very crowded venue, and  competing with other scheduled hyped events for the attendees.  The Chapter "Block Party" was to be a good thing .... These events should be one of the top 2 or 3 purposes of a rally... given premium time and bookings.... Many of the new RVers are looking for a group to be a part of... opportunity to be together far more often that once or twice per year a thousand or more miles away... and at cost of several hundred dollars less each event.

My point... Could be wrong but suspect that if membership was looked at, those belonging to an active Chapter have considerably more retention of FMCA membership than those not members of a chapter.

.

[fmcastaff]

2 hours ago, manholt said:

Dan, I have not seen FMCA on UTube...I see it all the time on  FB.  

We have, for as long as I remember, advertised FMCA as a whole and feel we should continue that.  

Smithy, you can't use the past 8 months+ as a benchmark against previous years!  

Bill, I remember and don't plan on being gone, anytime soon!  I have 53 years of Class A's, my wife has 37 years!  

I don't remember the cost of membership in FMCA back in 1967, but if you take inflation into consideration,  the cost of $85 today, would probably be the same! 

 

Here is our Youtube channel. We have 7,100 subscribers and hundreds of videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/fmcaonline

There have been 10 full months since the dues increase. We have only had 2 out of 10 months with positive membership growth. Before that, at the old dues rate we had 33 out of 35 positive months. This is a disturbing trend that needs to be taken seriously. 

[manholt]

2 out of 10 months, is a dismal performance if we did not have COVID-19, shelter in place, travel restrictions, no National Rally's, no Area Rally's, no Chapter Rally's, group restrictions, rioting, indiscriminate killings, etc.  Did I miss something?

As if that is not enough, we now read, thanks to WHO, all about China's outbreak of "The Black Death!"  Been going on there, since it came out of a Mongolia Lab, in Nov. 2019!  

The only disturbing trend, is that people are not thinking, understandingly so, about FMCA or anybody's membership!

Edited July 8, 2020 by manholt

[wildebill308]

2 hours ago, smithy said:

Bill,

When we survey members, we ask what other clubs they belong to. If they indicate GS, we ask why they joined. Top two are campground and Camping World discounts. I don't believe our numbers are down because people are joining GS and signing up for their travel assist program. 

I was simply pointing out that it was still cheaper to join FMCA with the benefit package than it was Good Sams with the same level of protection.

By the way what are you doing to increase the number of discounts at different campgrounds? I see very little FMCA presence at places I have stayed. I think this is an area that could be improved. I never see any posters,or any on site advertising for FMCA. What about developing some "Point of sale" type promotional material/displays. 

40 minutes ago, smithy said:

Here is our Youtube channel. We have 7,100 subscribers and hundreds of videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/fmcaonline

I hope you arn't trying to impress us with those numbers considering your last video got 86 views since June 29, 2020. Yet little home done channels like All about RVs got 46,657 views since Jun 27, 2020 and has 113K subscribers. https://www.youtube.com/c/AllAboutRVs/videos

You might add them to your list of “influencers” you are talking to. 

Bill

 

 

 

 

 

[fmcastaff]

14 minutes ago, WILDEBILL308 said:

I was simply pointing out that it was still cheaper to join FMCA with the benefit package than it was Good Sams with the same level of protection.

By the way what are you doing to increase the number of discounts at different campgrounds? I see very little FMCA presence at places I have stayed. I think this is an area that could be improved. I never see any posters,or any on site advertising for FMCA. What about developing some "Point of sale" type promotional material/displays. 

I hope you arn't trying to impress us with those numbers considering your last video got 86 views since June 29, 2020. Yet little home done channels like All about RVs got 46,657 views since Jun 27, 2020 and has 113K subscribers. https://www.youtube.com/c/AllAboutRVs/videos

You might add them to your list of “influencers” you are talking to. 

Bill

 

We are working on our campground network as we speak. It is a harder sell than you think. GS can say we have 2 million members, so campgrounds are very eager to hang up flags and offer discounts to their members. 

I was simply pointing out that we do have a YouTube channel and we put videos on it. Our marketing department consists of one person responsible for all of the social media efforts of FMCA. We are doing great with very limited resources in that area. 

I am going to make an assumption regarding All about RVs. The guy in the video looks fairly young. I am guessing a good portion of their viewers are younger and in the digital age. A good portion of our membership are not young and living in the digital age. Cannot say I am shocked with the disparity of subscribers and views.

Their focus is on views and Youtube advertising dollars. Our focus is on acquiring and retaining dues paying members. Two totally different business models.

 

14 minutes ago, WILDEBILL308 said:

 

 

 

 

[wildebill308]

7 hours ago, smithy said:

We are working on our campground network as we speak. It is a harder sell than you think. GS can say we have 2 million members, so campgrounds are very eager to hang up flags and offer discounts to their members. 

What exactly are you doing for the campground owners? What incentives have you offered them? Have you offered them a $10.00 bonus for signing up new FMCA members? What about something for the employees? What about a contest between campgrounds in a area or state? 

7 hours ago, smithy said:

A good portion of our membership are not young and living in the digital age.

Exactly why you need to recruit younger people with a younger audience. 

8 hours ago, smithy said:

Their focus is on views and Youtube advertising dollars. Our focus is on acquiring and retaining dues paying members. Two totally different business models.

No I don't think they are that far apart. You are trying to get Views that lead to donations (dues) from people joining FMCA. You want "Followers" so you can charge more for advertising.  They want donations on patreon. I am pretty shure if you grew the FMCA chanel you could get revenue from it to. 

Bill

[zimmeral]

I see a lot of "push" marketing methods, but I see little evidence of a strategic marketing plan.  

FMCAssist was seen as a membership boosting mechanism and the panacea for all of FMCAs problems.  The appeal of FMCAssist is to those over age 65 - the demographic that is ageing out.  FMCAssist also appeals to those who travel with their RV.  If you are under 65, you think you are invincible and will not need FMCAssist.  If you don't travel more than 100 miles from home, you don't think you will need FMCAssist, so what is the benefit.

I have yet to see a coordinated, strategic marketing plan from FMCA higherups.  Who are the target groups we seek to reach for new members?  What are the needs of these prospective members?  How can FMCA meet the needs of these prospective members?  How is FCA perceived by those target groups?  If we had some focus groups of towable owners, younger RV owners, campground owners, dealers - what would they say their needs are?  It is not what we think their needs are - it is what they say or perceive their needs to be.

FMCA wants to reach out to towable owners, but it is still the Family Motor Coach Association (just going by FMCA).

The key to effective marketing is discovering the needs of the target group and finding ways to meet those needs.  Effecting marketing is not finding ways to boost our membership to solve our financial problems.  You can't keep doing the same things with the same people, and expect to get different results.

I am a member of Good Sam because 1) discount at Camping World stores and 2) discount at campgrounds.  There is no strong tie to the company, it is strictly a business decision.

I am a member of FMCA because it is an association of members who share similar interests.  Association vs. feeding a for-profit company/owner.

This marketing approach was the key to my professional success and separated me from others.

 

[wildebill308]

Good luck geting a straight answer.

Bill

[f442485]

wildebill308, I was going to say that

[wildebill308]

I will let you. 

Every time you make a suggestion or propose something that they didn't think of they run and hide. and I am being argumentative?  See the July 8 post, 10 days ago and no response from D.Ball or smithy.

zimmeral, welcome to the forum. You are right.

[manholt]

Yes, welcome back...first post in 6 years and it's a "Bullseye!"

[rayin]

I wonder if FMCA could push another product offered by Seven Corners, travel insurance for individual RVers. I watched a presentation on TV this morning by  Seven Corners General manager. Having travel insurance would have been nice for the now-cancelled conventions.

[rossboyer]

That insurance has been available for members for, I think, as long as we have had FMCAssist. But I don’t know if the rate was less for FMCA members. I purchased it for our trip to Alaska and  back. Back then I think it was $1.30/person/day.