by Hunter Flynn | Sep 14, 2021 | Blog, Elevate
You’re always looking for ways to boost the revenue of your association. While membership dues can account for a big chunk of your organization’s income, they won’t cut it on their own.
A 2016 report from ASAE found that membership dues accounted for 45.4% of the revenue of trade associations, and only 30% for professional associations. That’s a far cry from the 1950s, when dues made up nearly 96% of the revenue for your average association.
Successful associations know how to make the most of non-dues revenue. Today, we’ll give you some concrete ideas for diversifying your organization’s revenue streams, the way we know best.
Events and Education: The Bread and Butter of Non-Dues Revenue
In the association space, events are well-known as a great way to offer your members a valuable experience, and to earn more non-dues revenue, too. The chances are good that you already utilize a combination of in-person, virtual, and hybrid events to earn more from sponsors and exhibitors.
If you have a learning management system, you might be monetizing courseware, too. An LMS can play a significant role in maximizing profits for associations big and small. Unlike your typical one-time event, an online learning platform is a lasting source of non-dues revenue.
An event is a point in time, but your LMS is perpetual—unless you integrate them. Running virtual and hybrid events through a learning management system lets them live on, generating revenue indefinitely.
Bringing these two elements together—events and education—opens the doors to new revenue streams. The possibilities are nearly endless, but here are some ideas to get your gears turning.
Virtual Exhibit Halls
This portion of your event microsite is where sponsors can really shine. Give each sponsor a virtual booth that they can use to distribute resources and chat with attendees.
Sponsor Page on LMS
Your LMS presents a great perpetual sponsorship opportunity. Add a permanent sponsor page into your learning platform so they can enjoy continual exposure.
Conference Revenue
Conferences and other events can be big money makers. Charge for attendance however you’d like. Generate more revenue with advertisements, booth sales, and sponsorships.
Session Sponsors
Allow your sponsors to lend their support to the sessions that most closely align with the goals and objectives of their organization.
Sponsored Webinar Content
Your sponsors recognize the potential for exposure that comes with webcasts and similar virtual events. Offer a compelling webinar sponsorship package for greater ROI.
Public Webinars
Opening a webinar up to the public is the perfect way to net more attendees, exposure, and revenue.
Premium Content
More monetized content in your LMS means more revenue. Offer plenty of supplemental, premium content such as videos, podcasts, and ebooks.
Conference Exhibit Halls
At in-person events, exhibit halls are a tried-and-true way to let your sponsors connect with the community. Your sponsors will love a strong presence at both your virtual exhibit hall and your in-person one!
Certifications in Your LMS
Nothing can motivate people to engage with your LMS like a concrete reward. Monetizing the required courseware for certifications will add a new source of revenue.
LMS Branding
Design your LMS not only to match your own branding, but also to incorporate the logos of your generous sponsors.
Sponsor Slideshow
Consider adding a slideshow to the sidebar of your LMS. It can rotate through the names and logos of your premier sponsors.
Sponsored Messages
Inject messages from your sponsors throughout your online education initiatives. Place them before, during, or after webinars, courses, and events.
LMS Subscriptions
Have you considered monetizing your LMS with a subscription model? This is a great way to earn continuous ROI with your online learning platform.
Speaking Opportunities
At your next virtual, in-person, or hybrid event, see if your sponsors would be interested in presenting live. They might prefer this to a pre-recorded message.
Boost Non-Dues Revenue with CommPartners
At CommPartners, we help associations generate revenue with a unified approach to events and education.
Our award-winning LMS, Elevate, forms the foundation of our approach. Purpose-built by associations for associations, it’s the perfect home for your education strategy, and a great source of non-dues revenue, too.
Events are just as important to what we do. We offer more than just a virtual and hybrid event platform; we become a part of your team with our managed services.
Are you ready to diversify your revenue streams with a unified approach to events and education? Get in touch with Meghan Gowen at meghan.gowen@gocadmium.com. Keep up with us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
by Julie Ratcliffe | May 21, 2020 | Blog, FaceBook Live
As you transition your on-site event to a Virtual Conference, it is important to consider how you will include the sponsors and other revenue opportunities your organization was counting on while providing a resource center for attendees. In a previous post, we touched on how to monetize your Virtual Conference, including integrating a Virtual Exhibit Hall into your Virtual Conference. Exhibit Halls can be converted to an online format easily and can be just as informative for attendees.
Designing Your Exhibit Hall
A Virtual Exhibit Hall is a home base for all your sponsors. The exhibit hall and each booth can be personalized, depending on the needs of your organization and sponsors/exhibitors. Before designing your Exhibit Hall, identify what features and customization you will be offering to sponsors/exhibitors in their booths.
PDFs, links, or any other resources that would typically be provided to attendees can be housed here. Video and photo assets like commercials or instructional videos or even photo albums can have a dedicated section apart from the downloadable assets and links, all within the individual booths. Going virtual doesn’t mean you lose all the exhibit’s visual and branding opportunities; sponsor logos can be presented in a carousel or posted in various positions around the conference site. Informational and educational posters can be displayed in each sponsor booth, or you can show them all in a collection on a separate posters page
Additional booth features include options for exhibitors and attendees to interact. In each exhibitor booth, there can be a dedicated section for exhibitor staff to “man” the booths and network with attendees via a chat feature. A successful virtual booth should be customized to match the sponsor/exhibitor branding. Have them submit logos or supporting images for greater brand presence.
When it comes to transitioning an Exhibit Hall from in-person to virtual, it just requires some creativity. Use this guide to see how easy it is to transform your on-site Exhibit Hall to a Virtual Exhibit Hall.
Make it Interactive
Once you’ve designed the perfect virtual hall to display your sponsors/exhibitors, the next step is to make sure your attendees interact with the page and the exhibitors. Sponsors are an important part of the vitality of your conference and learners should engage with them. Unlike at an on-site event, where exhibitors are confined to Exhibit Hall hours, your Virtual Exhibit Hall will be open 24/7. Use these tips to encourage activity on your Virtual Exhibit Hall:
- Chat Feature: Whether it’s instant messaging or a discussion board, provide ways for attendees to interact with sponsors.
- Scavenger Hunt: Organize a scavenger hunt around the entire Virtual Conference website leading attendees to the Virtual Exhibit Hall. You can make higher-level sponsors a required stop on the scavenger hunt!
- Credits or Certifications: Offer your attendees a certificate or credit opportunities if they network or interact with sponsors or exhibitors.
- Giveaways/Specials: Encourage your sponsors to offer specials or product giveaways when attendees visit their booth.
- Surveys: Include a survey on your expo page.
- Forms: Embed a Contact Me form to grow your subscriber list.
Including a Virtual Exhibit Hall can be a creative solution to include sponsors, provide more educational resources, and deliver a community-building opportunity. Create a stronger learning community with an interactive Exhibit Hall.
Click here to learn more
To learn more about Virtual Exhibit Halls, contact marketing@commpartners.com
by Kate Ratcliffe | Apr 9, 2020 | Blog, FaceBook Live, Uncategorized
Going virtual doesn’t mean that you lose everything that an on-site event has! A lot of what you had planned for your on-site event can still occur online, it just may look a little differently.
Here are six ways you can maximize sponsorships and attendee revenue in a virtual platform:
Exhibit Halls
In your conference website, a virtual exhibit hall can be built out to house all the resources a sponsor wants to distribute to attendees. In each “exhibit booth”, the sponsor can upload PDFs, videos, company descriptions and links, and other resources. The exhibit hall will be open 24/7 – giving even more exposure for the sponsors that originally intended. The “exhibit booths” can also be upgraded to allow chat room style discussions between attendees and staff from the sponsoring organization. Your sponsors will get maximum and continual exposure to your attendees and will serve as a resource for attendees throughout the conference with having to have a booth “maned” the entire time.
Branding and Logo Opportunities
Because you are building this virtual conference site from the ground up – you have the ability to make an al a carte sponsorship of nearly any page on the website. Have a poster session? Offer this page a sponsorship add-on, with their logo in a prominent location on this busy web page. Giving an option for boosted exposure on commonly used pages on the virtual conference exposure is another way the sponsors can ensure they are getting ROI.
Commercials or Pre-Produced Videos
Sponsors could upgrade their commitment level to include a commercial or pre-recorded video to play before or after a session in the virtual conference. All the sponsor needs to do is provide the video ahead of time and it can be queued up! This gives the sponsor the attendees undivided attention, as they are preparing for or concluding a session. You can also chose to have that video as a permanent part of the archived recording, which means evergreen exposure for the sponsor!
Session and Speaking Opportunities
There are numerous ways to offer speaking opportunities to your sponsors in exchange for financial support. You can offer an entire session to sponsors, or you can create a while section of your agenda dedicated to sponsors giving presentations! Allowing the sponsors to present gives them the feeling that they may miss of being in front of human people. It give a human interaction to a virtual setting.
Attendee Access Fees
Just as you would charge a registration fee for an on-site conference, you should be charging a registration fee for access to the virtual event. You can also break the access into per day or per session registrations if that suits your conference model better. You can also charge for access to various, high-profile discussions or resources. Attendee fees should not necessarily be less for a virtual conference, because while you are eliminating food and venue costs, you are now gaining hosting and technology costs.
Subscription Fees
Allowing your content to live on in an LMS is a smart move. You are able to continually add to your archive through the years of events and house more resources for 24/7 access. Just because an attendee paid for the conference does not necessarily mean they should receive access to the archives for an undetermined amount of time. You could restrict access to archives and other resources to those that choose to purchase subscriptions to your LMS platform. Entice your attendees to subscribe by offering exclusive content in the subscription model only.
Whether you are going virtual from the onset or rescheduling an onsite event, the conversation about monetization is important and necessary. There are many ways to drive revenue for a Virtual Conference, and these six options are only scratching the surface! Have any other ideas on how to boost revenue in a virtual format? We would love to hear from you at marketing@commpartners.com
Click HERE to see all the episodes from Going Virtual with Kate!
