---
title: "Membership Hack: Free Digital Access"
id: "39328"
type: "post"
slug: "membership-hack-free-digital-access"
published_at: "2017-08-11T22:33:47+00:00"
modified_at: "2026-11-09T16:16:58+00:00"
url: "https://associationsnow.com/2017/08/11/membership-hack-free-digital-access/"
markdown_url: "https://associationsnow.com/2017/08/11/membership-hack-free-digital-access.md"
excerpt: "A new complimentary, digital membership is adding some much-needed buzz to member recruitment for the American Beekeeping Federation."
taxonomy_category:
  - "Membership"
taxonomy_post_tag:
  - "AssociationsNow"
  - "digital news"
  - "job recruitment"
  - "Membership"
taxonomy_content_format:
  - "Article"
taxonomy_role:
  - "Association CEO / Executive Director"
taxonomy_persona:
  - "Association Professionals"
---

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**How to hack it?**The American Beekeeping Federation saw an opportunity to create some buzz for member recruitment with a free one-year, digital membership. ABF’s Executive Director Regina Robuck says her members are “busy bees”—professionals or hobbyists who routinely access and use digital tools and networks. “We decided that a free one-year membership could help us grow and convert beekeepers into full-fledged members,” she says. “This promotion had very little budgeting impact and showed the value of membership with free access to our webinars, articles, member directory, newsletters, and archived content.”

**Why does it work?**The free membership sweetened the deal for those thinking about joining ABF. This recruitment offer brought in about 4,500 members, and Robuck says more than 300 became dues-paying members. ABF also saw a boost to conference attendance. “Right before our early-bird cutoff, we offered these new members a special discounted rate,” Robuck says. “Out of the 70 or so new members that registered, more than half came from the free membership category.”

**What’s the bonus?**Many of these new members have turned into ABF evangelists. Robuck says five members have gone on to become key volunteers, and many more are remaining engaged through word-of-mouth networks and ABF’s Facebook page. “Our membership has grown by more than 50 percent in one year. So, as far as return on investment, this has been a significant gain for us,” she says.

(iStock/Getty Images Plus)

[Tim Ebner](https://associationsnow.com/author/tim-ebner/)

Tim Ebner is communications director and press secretary at the American Forest & Paper Association in Washington, DC. He is a member of ASAE’s Communication Professionals Advisory Council and a former Associations Now senior editor.

[More articles by this author](https://associationsnow.com/author/tim-ebner/)

Tags: [#digital news](https://associationsnow.com/tag/digital-news/)
 [#job recruitment](https://associationsnow.com/tag/job-recruitment/)
 [#Membership](https://associationsnow.com/tag/membership/)

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