Membership market research
Insightful Research is one of the UK’s leading membership market research companies. We help professional bodies and societies to fully understand their members' needs and motivators by conducting research that challenges assumptions and tests ideas.
"I have been most pleased with how well you have understood the organization and what is important to us!"
The Royal Society of Chemistry
For over 12 years, we’ve conducted membership market research for some of the most established professional bodies and societies, gaining the insights they need to develop and optimise their membership offers, qualifications and CPD programmes.
More about us
As an accredited member of the Market Research Society, we’ll design a bespoke membership market research process that’s designed around your organisation's goals and objectives. Our approach and methodologies adapt to each project. After we’ve conducted the research, you’ll receive all the findings and clear recommendations in a detailed report.
Case Studies
"Jill and the team very quickly got under the skin of our organisation, which is quite complex and unusual. We felt very confident in the expertise and experience she brought to the task, and Insightful's final report was extremely, well, insightful!"
Association of School and College Leaders
Our professional networks
MemberWise
MemberWise is a professional network of 8,000+ membership and associations professionals.
Membership Research Society (MRS)
The MRS is the world’s leading society for a professional body for research, insight, and analytics professionals.
FAQ about membership market research
What is membership market research?
Membership market research helps you understand your members' needs, expectations and motivators. It involves collecting feedback and insights from current, lapsed and potential members so you can make more informed business decisions about your professional body. Using various methods like surveys and interviews, we gather data to help you improve member satisfaction, develop CPD programs and grow your membership base.
What are the benefits of membership market research?
Gaining insight from your members helps you make data-backed decisions rather than relying on assumptions or educated guesses. For example, our insights may reveal the main reasons why people choose not to renew their membership, allowing you to change your offering and improve retention. If you run a CPD programme, we can research members' learning needs and any gaps in the market.
Who do you work with?
We work with professional bodies and membership organisations across the UK, from small specialist societies to large national institutions. Our clients include trade associations, chartered institutes, professional bodies, learned societies and membership associations. As well as with membership organisations, we also work in the education sector. Clients include schools, local authorities, universities and academic publishers.
When should I conduct market research?
Some of the times when market research is helpful are when you're looking to develop new products or services and when you see a change in the market, such as decline in member numbers. You should also conduct market research when you’re looking to make changes to your current offering. This might be when setting next year's membership fees, reviewing your professional education portfolio, developing new member benefits, or reviewing your events programme. It's also useful when exploring new member segments or benchmarking your performance to similar organisations.
How long does membership market research take?
Timeframes vary by project as each organisation is different, but on average a project can last between 8 weeks to 3 months, or longer. Our process typically looks like this:
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Planning and set-up - define objectives, agree participant profile and design the research approach
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Recruitment - finding participants
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Fieldwork - talking to participants and capturing insight
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Analysis and report writing - making sense of the data and delivering results
This post on how long it takes to conduct market research explains more.
How much does membership market research cost?
Costs vary depending on your project's scope and requirements. Key factors include the time needed for project management, research design and participant recruitment. Plus, you’ll need to budget for participant incentives, moderation time and analysis. When you choose to work with Insightful Research, we provide clear pricing with costs broken down by category in your proposal. Our post on how much education market research costs, while geared to the education sector, gives you more idea on costs.
How do you find participants for market research?
We typically engage your existing member database to find willing participants, or we can explore other methods of recruitment if you need to gain insight beyond your existing membership. At times, when searching professional audiences, we may use targeted social media ads on Linkedin. Before beginning your project, we’ll discuss ways to find—and incentivise—suitable participants.
Read more about sourcing participants for your membership market research.
What methods do you use when conducting membership market research?
Our methods include online surveys, interviews and focus groups. We tend to use multiple methods on one project. For instance, we might use surveys to track member satisfaction, then follow up with interviews to understand the nuances behind the answers. We also run online communities and analyse existing data like membership records. Each project needs different approaches, so we'll recommend the right mix to get the insights you need within your budget and timeline. We use similar market research methods for the education and membership markets. This post on education market research methods goes into more detail.
How can we help?
If you would like to ask our advice, book a
no-obligation 30 minute consultation with us to discuss your research requirements or to simply have a chat and find out more about what we do.
Alternatively, use the briefing form to start discussing a new project, give Jill Elston a call on +44 (0)7703 462179 or email us jill@insightfulresearch.co.uk