Getting the Most Out of Your Chamber Membership in Fall 2024

Here’s a quick secret on how to get the most out of your chamber of commerce or business association membership:

Shhhh. Don’t read it out loud. Someone might hear.

Here it is: Tell them what you need.

Revolutionary, isn’t it?

You see, your chamber of commerce or business association is filled with people who have what we like to call a servant’s spirit.

They’re there to help.

They WANT to help.

They want to see your business succeed, grow and thrive.

It’s very difficult to work at one of these organizations for any length of time without that attitude and drive… You won’t last.

So, it’s a good bet that everyone that you’ll come into contact with at your chamber or other type of business association wants to see you do well.

Too Many Members, Not Enough Time

Here’s the challenge they face, though:

Chambers have hundreds, if not thousands, of members that they’re managing.

They want every single one of them to succeed – and will go to great lengths to help make it happen.

But… the majority of those businesses do not communicate to them exactly what it is they need to succeed.

Which leaves a lot of guesswork in creating programs, events and content.

Small businesses, especially, are a bit of an enigma… Which is exactly why that’s where we spend a lot of our time at Momentum for Chambers when coaching and strategic planning.

Small businesses:

1. Don’t have a lot of time to be away from the shop/office

2. Need a lot of help and support

3. Are going a mile a minute, and might not even have any idea what they need from a chamber membership, much less think to enunciate it

4. As a result, need additional guidance to make the most of their membership

So… As Fall 2024 gets here – which you and I both know is going to go by super quickly – let’s dig into how to tell your chamber exactly it is what you need from them:

A Different Mindset

There are many reasons why companies join chambers of commerce.

Most of them are wrong.

Hate to say that, but we’re of the firm belief that joining the right chamber or business association is one of the most important investments you can make for your business.

Why?

Well, you tell us.

Chambers do a lot of things… Provide a lot of tools.

Typically, the investment for a small business is a couple hundred bucks.

And small businesses scoff at it.

We like to give some tough love: If you can’t use an established network that provides services, education and introductions throughout the year, and will answer any question you call them for, to make back a couple hundred bucks over 12 months… You need to think about your business model.

A couple hundred bucks gives you access to an incredible network that you would spend MUCH more trying to build yourself.

I will contend that nowhere else will you find the level of access and service, for the size of the investment, than you will with your chamber of commerce.

So, let’s get out of the mindset of, “I’m a small business; I can’t afford $300.”

That $300 is your entry fee to growth you didn’t know was possible.

Note: I can say all this because I live it. We’re a small business, and we just this week joined out 9th chamber. Plus, we sponsor stuff – more on that further down.

Outlining Your Membership Goals

Now, we would never advise someone who was cautious about spending $300 (or, really anyone spending money with a chamber) to do so willy-nilly, and without a plan.

Yes, if you spend those couple hundred bucks without any intent of making time and giving attention to your membership, don’t do it… You’ll be disappointed.

We want to make sure that when you write that check, or punch in that credit card, you’re also communicating with the chamber what you’re looking to accomplish.

But, as is often the case, what if you don’t know?

The chamber has many, many programs and services – how can you possibly understand which ones will get you where you need to be?

Well, first… You need to know where you need to be.

This is a concept that gets very real in our Member Value Workshops that we do with chambers: that many businesses, especially small businesses, don’t have growth plans.

Forget, even, the chamber, here – they have no growth plans at all.

They have growth hopes, but no actual strategy to get there.

Your chamber investment should be a part of your overall growth strategy.

Where are you spending money elsewhere, on everything from marketing to social media to hiring to vendors to even your physical location?

All of those things should (a) complement each other; and (b) be pointing to your company’s growth goals.

When you have those goals, THOSE are what you bring in to the chamber when you sign up for your membership.

“Here’s what we need to accomplish here.”

Then, let the chamber team figure out how their products and services can best serve you.

Fall 2024: Steps to Take to Optimize Your Membership

Just a tip: As we get into fall, your chamber team gets incredibly busy.

Lots of events are crammed into September after the kids go back to school and vacations are over.

October is a great time for the bigger programs, now that people are back in business.

And, November, everyone tries to jam in their events before we start losing people’s attention for the Holidays.

That’s, of course, in addition to everything else your chamber’s team needs to do – it’s a whirlwind three months.

So… Now is the time to communicate with them what you’re looking to accomplish the rest of the year and into 2025.

The goal is to put your membership value in the back of their minds, so that it will be ever-present.

Chamber staff talk to so many businesses on a daily basis… You want them thinking about you to make a connection to.

Here’s how to approach:

(1)     Be mindful of how busy they are going into September – be cordial and appreciative in your outreach

(2)     Request a short meeting with your chamber rep to discuss “Fall 2024 and 2025”… Let them know you’re already thinking forward about your long game (i.e. membership renewal)

(3)     Have your goals outlined for them… Focus on action

Sample E-mail Outreach

Here’s how we’d proceed:

Dear Sally:

It was great to see you at the Summer Mixer earlier this month. What a fantastic event!

As we look toward the fall and into 2025, we’re thinking about ways to make the most of our chamber membership, and I was hoping you might have a few minutes to discuss. If you had time, I’d enjoy the opportunity to swing by the chamber, or meet for coffee. I don’t need more than 15 minutes of your time.

In short, this fall we’re looking to:

(1)     Build more relationships with lawyers, bankers, etc., who are good referral partners for us

(2)     We’re thinking about doing a display table at the October Business Expo, and could use some guidance from you on what would be effective

(3)     We’ve created a new virtual training program, and I’d like to talk about how the chamber can help us tell people about it

Understanding you’re super busy, I appreciate your time, and look forward to connecting with you.

Yours, Craig

This will put you in a position to get the meeting.

Then, if your business growth goals are clearly outlined, the chamber can help you navigate.

Help Us Help You!

Here’s the interesting thing: While this may seem like an imposition on the chamber staff – a small business taking up their valuable time – they actually love it.

Back to where I started at the beginning… When you have hundreds, if not thousands, of members to take care of, you try to create buckets of content and service to take care of as many of them as possible.

Your chamber’s workforce development agenda, initiatives, programs, etc. for example, fulfill the needs of a large percentage of chamber members, because most of them need workers, which are becoming increasingly harder to find.

Benefits programs (incl. health insurance, where available), general business advocacy, a consistent schedule of networking events… These are all services that provide value for a wide swath of members.

But, for many members, that “big picture” stuff isn’t what drives them feeling as though they’re getting value.

They want hands-on benefits.

They want individual attention.

In truth, $300 a year is a small price to pay for an organization taking on the role of advocating for your business community (which you benefit from), but I get it… I’m a small business, too, and I do ask the chamber for specific things when we join.

What’s nice for the staff is that while there may be hundreds of members who aren’t into the big picture stuff, you are enunciating to them exactly what membership value means to you.

That’s a massive help to them.

Because the odds are, if they’re able to help you in the way you’ve told them you need, your renewal is a no-brainer.

Freeing them up to figure out what hundreds of other members need!

A Note About Sponsorship

We are consistently encouraging companies small, medium and large to take a good look at chamber sponsorship opportunities.

In fact, our clients – and we, at Momentum, ourselves – sponsor a lot of things with chambers?

Why?

You can spend a great deal of time, money and effort trying to identify and reach your target audience.

Whether it’s on social media, through direct mail, cold calling… However you do your outreach… Your best results come from your behind-the-scenes targeting for “A” prospects.

With chambers of commerce, well, they’ve already collected your target audience for you.

You need manufacturers? Sponsor the manufacturing events.

Do you target small businesses? Spend your time and money engaged with any small business programming the chamber does (Check out our Niagara USA Chamber Small Business Expo on November 13 – and get a vendor table for just $200!).

Need lawyers, bankers and accountants, like in our sample e-mail above? Take your pick of chamber events. They’re there.

Typically, within your chamber of commerce, you’re going to be able to find your target audience, collected and wrapped up with a bow for you.

Sponsorships Can Be for Everyone!

Many small businesses look at sponsors on chamber events and see the biggest companies in the community… It’s intimidating, and you think you can’t play.

But, look harder.

Many chambers offer different levels of sponsorship to make them investment more accessible for any size business.

You may be able to find the “Coffee Sponsor” option for an event where your target audience will be assembled for a couple hundred bucks.

Vendor tables at larger networking events.

Or, a session sponsor during a half-day seminar.

They exist.

And, if they don’t, you are ALWAYS free to go to your chamber rep and say, “I have $XX to spend, and I’d like to reach this audience.”

If there’s no sponsorship option already created, they will create it for you.

Sponsorships aren’t just for the “big guys”… You can play – and they are some of the best marketing ROI you’ll find out there.

Enter AI for Membership

Everything I’ve said above comes from nearly 20 years in the chamber business, as a staff member, member, consultant and board member.

I have great admiration for chamber of commerce staff, who, like I said, have to take care of hundreds upon hundreds of members, while doing a host of other things – including being able to find an answer for any question they’re asked.

I say it all the time… Chamber staff would take care of every company in their membership, personally, if there was enough time in the day.

But, there’s not.

Which is why we took the entire concept to the next level with the development of the Momentum AI Platform for Chambers.

On our platform, chamber members can enter some information about themselves and their growth plans, and our proprietary AI algorithm – based 100% on “the Momentum way of doing business” – sends back a customized, personalized, AI-generated strategy to make the most of their membership.

That strategy is not for a chamber of commerce membership… It’s for the specific chamber they’ve joined, provided that chamber has subscribed.

Why’d we do this?

Because the more information a chamber can gather on its members, the better a job they can do serving them.

And, the more chamber members have guidance, and feel empowered, the more they’re going to engage.

The platform launched in May, and has been incredibly well-received across the U.S. and Canada as we roll it out.

Our hope is that through the rest of 2024 and into 2025, more and more chambers will learn more about their members through the power of our AI.

Note: If your chamber’s not signed up yet for Momentum AI, steer them in our direction. We’ll give a personal tour of the platform!

Let’s Get Your Membership Moving

I’m not kidding when I said now is the time to do this.

We’ve all been through Septembers, Octobers and Novembers.

We know how quickly they go by.

Send a note to your chamber of commerce today.

Let them know you’re in it to win it, and want to make the most of your membership.

Tell them what you need.

They’ll be there for you.

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Everything we’ve said above is exactly what we do for our clients at Momentum. See the merits of a well-thought-out strategy for your memberships, but don’t have the capacity to put one together (much less, implement)? Schedule a 15-minute Zoom with us – let’s talk about how to make this all work for your business’ growth.