To renew or not to renew? That is the question. As a small business owner, you’re likely juggling a number of memberships in professional associations and organizations. You signed up because you thought it would be worth it to try them out and see how beneficial they might be.

If your trial period is about to renew, you’re probably looking at the renewal costs and trying to evaluate whether signing up again is a valuable proposition. You, like all of us, became a member for benefits such as access to valuable tools and resources, discounts on conferences and seminars, training, networking opportunities, and referrals.

During times of economic uncertainty, a lot of folks try to assess the value of these memberships in an effort to help their bottom line. In fact, we’ve received a number of inquiries this past year from entrepreneurs asking about the value of these memberships. Some joined associations for the networking opportunities. Others were happy to list their company in the members’ database in an effort to increase their visibility. Unfortunately, none of them were able to say if their participation generated any leads or clients.

At Single Entry Point we look at professional memberships as investments. And, like with any other investment, we carefully evaluate and measure the value each association provides to our business.

While only you can appreciate the value of your membership, there are some benefits that can be accurately measured and evaluated – referrals. For us, the number and the quality of referrals are the most important criteria for deciding to renew or not. Evaluating a professional membership from a sales perspective is especially important for the more costly associations.

Using Google Analytics to Track Referrals

To track the referrals, we employ Google Analytics. Let’s take a look at Single Entry Point’s membership in IAB Canada for 2008-2009... Sign in to read the full article.