PLUS · Member Communications & Engagement

Finding the real reason members weren't engaging

The Situation

In 2022, PLUS shifted from a paid to a free membership model. Anyone who had previously been a customer or engaged with PLUS was converted to a member automatically — many without realizing it. I was hired in May 2022 with a clear mandate from the CEO: engage the full membership. I reported directly to the CEO with a lot of autonomy to set direction, but I inherited real constraints — no increased budget, one staff member, and a marketing function that had sat vacant for eight months before I started.

Discovery

Before touching a single campaign, I dug in. I worked with peers across the organization to understand how things actually ran, reviewed email metrics and what was being sent, tracked how incoming marketing requests were being fulfilled, reviewed event survey results, and pulled attendance and chapter records to see who was actually engaged with PLUS.

What I Found

The clearest pattern: most member communications talked about what PLUS wanted members to do, not why it mattered to them. There was no consistent value proposition running through the emails, the website, or event marketing. I decided fixing that — the core message, not just the channel mix — was the highest-leverage move available.

The Approach

I had full autonomy to make changes internally, and it wasn't a hard sell. I streamlined messaging for a cohesive feel across email and web, brought videographers on-site at events to produce recap and testimonial videos, and worked with a marketing agency to define three brand pillars in collaboration with stakeholders — then wove those pillars through every piece of communication to keep the brand consistent.

Internally, I started with just my one marketing coordinator, which made the concurrent website redesign workload difficult. That coordinator eventually moved on and I hired a replacement, then later brought on a consultant for social media and execution who converted into a full hire — growing the team over time. The hardest internal alignment was with the events/conference committee, who had their own ideas about marketing content. I earned a seat in their strategic planning meetings, and the VP of Events began working with me directly rather than around me.

Iteration

There was no single big failure to recover from — this was continuous refinement. I regularly reviewed email metrics and trends to inform updates, added a monthly event email plus a separate bi-monthly event-related communication, and introduced audience segmentation by location (for chapter events) and by professional line (PLUS covers multiple liability lines — D&O, cyber, health/medical, and more) so members received relevant content instead of a single blast. I also had to make judgment calls, balancing stakeholder requests for one-off event emails against events with historically low attendance.

Results

The tone and segmentation changes drove a 75% year-over-year increase in email open rates. I also oversaw event marketing strategy and execution for the 2023 Symposium Series — PLUS's largest-ever attendance, with 2,100+ members across four events — and supported a website redesign that lifted average monthly active users roughly 27% year-over-year.

The underlying approach: rather than throwing more budget or more emails at the engagement problem, I dug in to understand what members actually wanted and how they wanted to be reached — then built the solution from that.