Millennials are starting out their careers

Millennials are starting out their careers. They are looking for job leads and are focused on their career. Smart associations will target the next generation of members by offering:

  • student or under-30 member rates
  • member-only job boards
  • mentoring programs
  • networking opportunities/events for this group

Exware will talk about attracting the next generation in its blog over the next few months.

Here are some very specific and immediate tactics that you can implement:

Step 1:
Make sure you understand the age demographics of your current membership. Do you track birth date or age range so you can understand where your at? If your membership is older in age, you need to figure out how you can attract the next generation.

Step 2:
An easy 'win' -- offer a student or under-30 rate; however, make sure you track second year retention rates

Step 3:
ffer a members-only job board that incentivizes this generation to join. Most millennials will change jobs frequently.

Step 4:
 Leverage your experienced membership base by offering a mentorship program.

Introducing a Mentorship Program

Yes, this may sound daunting so let's start with the basics:

  • Ask your members if they want to be a mentor. If yes, in what areas.
  • Ask your student members if they need mentoring. If yes, in what areas.

Before you match your mentors/mentees, it's important that you provide guidance. For example, ask the mentees to list potential areas they are hoping to work on during the course of the mentorship. Each mentor/mentee can then discuss their list during the initial meetings. From there, the mentor and mentoree can agree on a set of reasonable mentoring objectives.

Make sure you actively follow-up with the mentor/mentee to find out how it's going. This is invaluable feedback and will help you grow the program as well as use the results and feedback to attract new millennials.

In addition, you may want to track some basic member demographics so you can monitor change. For example, age range of members and age range by membership type. This will allow you to track membership acquisition by age group -- with the goal to increase your 'under 30' stats.

What does this mean for Exware clients?

Ask Exware to how you can start tracking your membership age stats and what programs will fit with your association's goals and objectives.