Amy offered some great suggestions for selling memberships at your open
house. I'll add two more:

1) Don't rely on a sign or poster to do the "selling" for you. Be sure your
membership table is manned by your most outgoing staff member or volunteer.
Choose someone who's not afraid to smile and make eye contact with passersby,
and who'll take the initiative to engage them in conversation. And ask that
person to stand out in front of the table as much as possible, rather than
just sitting behind it waiting for "customers" to approach on their own.

2) Perhaps even more important than the chance your open house provides to
sell memberships on the spot is the golden opportunity it gives you to build
a mailing list for future campaigns.

To accomplish that, use this tip from an article (29 Ways to Get and Keep
More Members) that Dana Hines of Membership Consultants wrote for
MuseumMarketingTips.com this month: Hold a free raffle for one or more museum
memberships.

Be sure the entry form asks for the entrant's name, address and phone number.
And while you're at it, also use the form to gather e-mail addresses. (Be
sure to include an opt-in line such as, "For a free subscription to the
museum's e-mail newsletter, please print your e-mail address here
.....................")

Best of luck with your open house! Let us know how it goes.

Katherine Khalife
www.MuseumMarketingTips.com

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