According to a new report, association professionals are entering 2025 feeling optimistic about membership and revenue, but are looking to improve their technological savvy to better engage with their audiences.
Marketing General Incorporated’s 2025 Association Outlook Report, published last month, is based on responses from nearly 300 association professionals surveyed last September. Overall, they see positives in the coming year, with 63 percent of respondents anticipating membership growth and 74 percent expecting increased member engagement.
But respondents expect to have to invest to earn those increases: A majority of professionals say they intend to spend more on member marketing (56 percent) and new technology (53 percent).
“Probably the biggest a-ha [from the report] is a real focus on technology and using that to increase operational efficiency,” said MGI Senior Vice President Tony Rossell. “The level of sophistication that is required by associations now to manage their marketing and membership is really exploding, from data analytics to digital marketing to artificial intelligence. There’s a big learning curve ahead for associations.”
