An IRgA Convention dinner from years past...look at all those happy members!
IRgA is approaching 100 years of age (yes, we’ll be celebrating the Centennial in 2027!) and while many IRgA members have come and gone over the decades, there are also many who joined long ago and renew their membership every year.
We wanted to know why people remain members, and what new benefits they might enjoy, so we surveyed membership last week. Here are the results of that survey.
Clearly, the News Matters
The first question listed six key benefits of membership and asked respondents which of them they use and how much they value them. The number one benefit? The IRgA Today newsletter and website. Half of the respondents chose the top ranking, “This is valuable to me and I use it regularly,” for this information source, and nearly all the rest selected the next highest ranking, “This is valuable to me and I use it occasionally.”
So the biweekly newsletter and website – which includes news about IRgA members and the reprographics industry in general – is an important benefit. An open-ended question later in the survey asked members why they remain members, and several said they do it to remain informed.
“I belong to the IRgA because it’s a valuable source of information relating to our industry,” one respondent wrote.
The next most important benefit, according to the survey, are the educational webinars. About 75 percent of respondents said this is important and that they watch the webinars – either live or recorded – often or occasionally. Recent webinars have included those about growing your equipment sales business, the scanning market, media prices and artificial intelligence.
The third most valued benefit is reports/white papers. The IRgA has produced a number of these over the past few years, including white papers on financial ratios for the industry, reprographics back-end software comparisons, and competing with large chains. About 64 percent of respondents said these reports are important and that they use them often or occasionally.
In-person events, such as the IRgA Workshops that we have held since Covid, was next on the list. About 50 percent of respondents said these events are important and that they attend them often or occasionally.
The forms library and the construction signage templates rounded out the choices, and most respondents said they are glad these resources exist but that they don’t use them often.
Does Marketing Matter?
A separate question in the survey asked members if they know that IRgA markets the online member directory via advertisements and Google AdWords targeted at the AEC industry. The majority said they are aware of that, but aren’t sure that it helps their business. Another 30 percent said they were not aware that we’re doing that.
Despite this sentiment, there’s no doubt that the marketing effort has driven traffic to the IRgA directory: In the past 12 months, 42,000 people have visited it. How many of them found a repro provider on the directory is unknown, of course, but at least they’re looking.
Committee Formed
IRgA has a new membership committee that is already meeting to discuss ways to retain existing members and recruit new ones. If you would like to join the committee, or if you just have some ideas that you would like to suggest, please contact Ed Avis at ed.avis@irga.com