Show Notes
Most associations lose student members for the same reason: the school email stops working right around graduation, and there's no way to tell if that person entered the field, changed paths, or landed a job that already qualifies them for full membership. But that's only half the problem. The bigger issue is usually invisible: students spend years getting the exact same newsletters, announcements, and promotions as practicing members, dealing with problems they haven't encountered yet. By the time graduation arrives, there's no relationship left to convert.
Brittany Lancor, Senior Marketing Manager at PropFuel and former association membership professional, walks through two real campaigns that fix this from both directions. The first builds relevance from day one of a student's membership, asking what they actually want instead of assuming. The second confirms graduation timing and employment status, so the upgrade ask lands at the right moment instead of on a fixed date that may not mean anything.
During the session, she covers:
- Why treating students like smaller professional members backfires, and what to ask instead
- A 9-touch onboarding sequence that routes each student to only what's relevant to them
- How one association got 91% of students to hand over a personal email address before graduation
- Why the upgrade ask should follow the job, not the diploma, and what the response rates look like at each stage
- How to turn staff and board skepticism into buy-in using students' own words