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Association Success Story | Association Insights

ASSOCIATION SUCCESS STORY
Project
Growing your membership, delivering a highly valued
service and saving costs with tailored eMembership

Categories
Membership

Dates
October 2012 to October 2014

Association
Institute of Biomedical Science (IBMS)

Members
Over 20,000 biomedical scientists, support staff and
students, mainly in the UK and the Republic of Ireland; with
a growing international membership.

Project team
Sarah Holman, Head of Communications (lead); Lynda
Rigby, Head of Membership and Marketing; Sandra Shevlin,
P.A to Executive Head of Marketing and Membership; Annie
Densham, Membership Officer; Daisy Mortimer, Membership
Officer; Becky Gerrish, Membership and Marketing Officer,
Alex Cochrane, Website Manager.

Objectives
IBMS eStudent membership was developed to:
»» Save costs (staff time, print, postage etc.)
»» G
 row and diversify student membership (expanding into
non-IBMS accredited universities and overseas)
»» Increase uptake of IBMS student membership by first and
second year undergraduate students
»» D
 evelop an electronic category of IBMS membership
(this supports an additional organisational objective by
facilitating the growth our international presence and
membership)
»» D
 evelop a strong sub-brand appealing to young members
and meeting their needs (via support, information, grants
and prizes, convenient electronic communication etc.)
»» Identify and communicate better and more regularly with
a student audience, building a long term relationship with
the organization
Following a market sizing exercise and a detailed
breakdown in costs associated with the Institute’s Free
Associate student membership, our first year targets for
our new eStudent product were set at:
»» 550 eStudent paying £10 membership fees

These targets were developed to ensure that the cost of
student membership to the IBMS would be close to neutral
in the first year - aside from the offer’s development cost
of £5200 – even with significantly lower uptake than the
Free Associate offer. The cost saving target was developed
through the elimination of print and postal costs by
switching to electronic student membership.
These targets would allow the eStudent o ffer to start
generating income for the IBMS in its second year of
operation.

Introduction
IBMS free student membership required intensive staffing
resources, incurred substantial costs and was limited to
students on IBMS accredited degree courses. The IBMS had
limited control over marketing messages and limited direct
communication with student members.
By developing an online only, paid for student membership,
the IBMS Membership and Marketing Team have been able
to deliver substantial cost savings, grow and diversify our
student membership and provide a platform to build a
strong relationship with our student members.

Background
Previously IBMS student membership was limited to
“Free Associate” membership - offering one year of
free membership and only available to students at IBMS
accredited universities, with the option to continue in
membership as a paid Associate member.
The majority of students delayed taking Free Associate
membership until their final year of study meaning we lost
up to 3 years of potential Associate membership fees from
students.
Attrition amongst Free Associates was poor, staffing
resources required were intensive and print and postage
costs were substantial. The IBMS also had limited control
over marketing messages and limited direct communication
with Free Associate members.
In order to address the issues of a costly student
membership offer with a high attrition rate and to offer a
wider group of students a cost effective offer that would
better meet their needs, the Membership and Marketing
Team proposed an online only student membership; IBMS
eStudent membership.
IBMS eStudent was designed to be an electronic only
membership category of the IBMS - developed in
conjunction with biomedical science students – providing a
branded microsite, tailored content and regular electronic
communication.

»» T
 he cost of the student membership to the IBMS reduced
from £18, 894 to £5,325

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