Growth Didn’t Start With Recruiting More Members
Like many professional associations, ASTA faced significant membership challenges during and after the pandemic. Recruiting new members remained a priority, but leadership also recognized an important reality: attracting new members becomes increasingly difficult when existing members quietly drift away.
Instead of asking how to acquire more members, ASTA began asking a different question.
How could the association make it easier for members to stay?
That question shifted the conversation from recruitment to retention. As the team evaluated its membership experience, one issue quickly stood out. While members had access to auto-renewal, the renewal process itself still relied heavily on staff intervention behind the scenes. Every renewal required administrative oversight, creating unnecessary work for staff while introducing friction into the member experience.
The challenge wasn’t simply operational efficiency. It was removing the small barriers that can gradually erode member retention over time.
Removing Friction from the Membership Experience
For members, renewing should be effortless.
For staff, renewals shouldn’t consume valuable time that could be spent supporting programs, events, and member services.
After implementing Tradewing, ASTA automated membership renewals, renewal reminders, payment processing, and member communications. Processes that once required manual oversight became consistent, reliable, and largely self-managing.
The association also introduced a free introductory membership, giving prospective members an opportunity to experience the value of ASTA before committing to a paid membership. Together, these changes lowered barriers to joining while making it significantly easier for existing members to continue their membership year after year.
Membership Became an Ongoing Experience
Improving renewals solved only part of the challenge.
ASTA also wanted members to experience the value of membership throughout the year—not only when it was time to renew.
Using Tradewing as a unified engagement platform, the association supports monthly educational webinars, the Virtual String Teachers Summit, chapter communities, governance collaboration, committee communication, event registration, and resource sharing. Rather than relying on isolated systems for each activity, these experiences are connected within a single platform.
The result is a membership experience that extends well beyond an annual renewal cycle. Members have regular opportunities to learn, connect with peers, participate in events, and contribute to the association, strengthening their relationship with ASTA throughout the year.
The Results Followed
By making membership easier to maintain and creating more opportunities for meaningful engagement, ASTA began seeing measurable improvements across the organization.
Over the past three years, the association achieved 10% membership growth, reversing pandemic-era decline and creating a stronger foundation for future growth. During the same period, membership revenue also increased by 10%, demonstrating the direct impact that stronger retention can have on recurring revenue.
Operationally, staff spend significantly less time managing renewals and more time supporting members and strategic initiatives. At the same time, members benefit from a more connected experience that brings together learning, events, communities, and collaboration in one place.
Rather than treating membership as a once-a-year transaction, ASTA created an environment where members remain engaged throughout the year—and where renewal becomes a natural outcome of continued participation.
Sustainable Growth Starts with Retention
ASTA’s story demonstrates that technology alone doesn’t create growth.
Automation matters because it removes friction. Community matters because it gives members reasons to return. Learning matters because it reinforces the value of membership long after someone joins.
Together, those experiences create stronger retention—and stronger retention creates sustainable growth.
For associations facing similar membership challenges, the lesson is clear: growth doesn’t begin with recruiting more members. It begins by creating an experience that makes existing members want to stay.
