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Association Success Story | Association Insights

Results
Within six months of launch the eStudent brand, we have
more paying eStudent members than we had free student
members in all of the previous year.
The 2013-2014 membership year saw 1,675 paying eStudent
join the IBMS – exceeding the 1,052 total of Free Associate
members for the previous year, and exceeding our eStudent
recruitment target by over 200%.
Rather than a predicted first year loss of £5,325 in the first
year of the eStudent offer, we achieved total cost saving of
£24,792.
We have also expanded our membership base into nonIBMS accredited Universities, with over 15% of our eStudent
members from non-accredited Universities compared to 0%
under the Free Associate offer.
We have succeeded in diversifying the year groups of
student members of the IBMS. Under the Free Associate
offer 96% of student members were in their final year,
however, under the new eStudent offer only 60% of
student members are in their final year at University.
This diversification provides opportunities to generate
further income through eStudent membership renewals as
students progress through their courses.
We have also expanded our international reach to areas
where the IBMS has not traditionally had overseas
branches, including; the Philippines, the Netherlands,
Belgium, Kenya, India, Malaysia, Portugal and Malta.
Sheffield Hallam University was impressed by the eStudent
offer, purchasing group membership for all their first year
Biomedical Science BSc students.
eStudent promotional postcard

Since opening for joining for the 2014-2015 membership
year, we have seen a 17% increase in eStudent joiners
compared with the same time period last year.
We have also seen two additional Universities purchase
group membership of their students (Lancaster and
Coventry), with Sheffield Hallam increasing their purchase
of group membership, leading to 135% growth in the
number of eStudents whose Universities have purchased
group members on their behalf.
With no development costs to account for in our second
year of the eStudent offer we look forward to achieving
even greater cost saving than in 2013/4.

What you would do differently
Build in a longer lead time for the testing of the new online
systems and database additions.
Dedicate more staff resources to developing content for
the offer.

Conclusion
The IBMS eStudent brand extension has delivered a
substantial cost saving, grown and diversified our student
membership and provided a platform to build a strong
relationship with our student members.
Within six months of launch the eStudent brand, we have
more paying eStudent members than we had free student
members in all of the previous year. The eStudent brand
has also delivered growth in students from non-IBMS
accredited universities, overseas students and students in a
wider range of year groups joining the IBMS.
The development of an appealing, low cost eMembership
that can be rolled out across our membership categories
also enables the IBMS to keep pace with technological
developments and offer members their preferred methods
of communication and publication access (as reported in
surveys on IBMS member benefits and communications).

To see feedback from this project, visit
www.associationsnetwork.org/SuccessStories

www.associationsnetwork.org

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