30 Questions to Ask to Create Chamber Member Personas png


Member personas are an effective tool to understand who you’re speaking to when orchestrating your marketing and designing your chamber programs or events. Without personas,  what you want to say, how to say it, and where to get the word out can be difficult to decide.

To create member personas that can guide recruitment efforts, you’ll want to ask questions that dig deep into the motivations, challenges, and goals of potential members.

Here’s a set of key questions that can help you derive your ideal member groups.

Grab Your Data

Alright, no one likes the word “data.” It sounds mathematical and exhausting. But without looking at it, you’re only guessing about who your ideal member is.

If you have a CMS, run a member report and sort by the following items to derive answers to the first few questions below. After that, you'll need to dig deeper.

30 Questions to Help You Better Understand Your Ideal Member

While all your members are individuals, finding the common denominators among their industries can increase the effectiveness of your marketing and help you make the most of limited resources.

Without member personas, your marketing process is like entering a crowded room where everyone is doing their own thing and shouting out all the chamber benefits. The louder and more chaotic the crowd is, the less they will hear what you’re saying—even if it’s really important and beneficial to them.

However, if you know one of the crowd members by name, and you call out to them specifically expressing the chamber benefits that best fit their business, they will be more apt to hear you and understand your message. They’ll also be more excited about your offerings because they will feel like you know them.

Questions to Understand the Business Profile

These first few questions will help you understand your most common types of businesses and their business needs.

Look at your member report to get a better understanding of:

1. What industry does the business operate in?

2. What is the size of the business (e.g., number of employees, revenue)?

3. Is the business locally owned or part of a larger corporation?

4. What are its main products or services?

Membership Goals & Expectations

The next questions take a deeper dive unto the type of business or industry they are in. You could answer these by issuing a member survey or creating a membership persona task force or committee of people in your most common member industries. Try to answer these questions based on the industry or size of the business. You’re looking for the most common answers here. Such as most insurance professionals join for networking, and they want more leads. They see attending events as a big part of this.

5. What are their primary goals for joining the chamber (e.g., networking, advocacy, business development)?

6. What specific benefits do they hope to gain from membership?

7. How do they prefer to engage with professional organizations (e.g., attending events, online resources, personal connections)?

8. What kind of educational or training opportunities would most benefit their business?

Mini SWOT Questions

Just as you might perform a SWOT analysis for the chamber as part of your strategic planning session, you’ll want to do the same to understand your most common businesses.

9. What are the biggest challenges their business faces in the local market?

10. How do regulatory or policy changes impact their business or industry?

11. What are your biggest obstacles in growing their business?

12. How do they currently address workforce development or hiring needs?

Community Involvement

A businesses’ goals for chamber membership are largely based on their company goals. Some want more customers, while others want to improve their standing in the community. Whatever their needs, it’s important to understand those who want more visibility from a marketing perspective or a more altruistic one.

13. How important is community engagement and giving back to the business?

14. Does it collaborate with other local businesses? If so, how?

15. How active is it in supporting local economic development efforts?

Marketing & Visibility

This again, requires either bringing together members of your most common member industries or asking your members directly

16. What strategies do they currently use to market their business?

17. How important is it for the business to increase visibility in the local community?

18. How does it measure the success of its marketing efforts?

Decision-Making Process

When marketing it is essential to know who you’re speaking to. It’s great that you have a relationship with Dan the Costco guy, but if decisions about membership come down from corporate, Dan may not be who you’re marketing to.

19. Who is responsible for making decisions about joining business organizations?

20. What factors are most important when deciding to renew or leave an organization?

21. What budget (if any) do they allocate for business development memberships and professional associations?

Networking & Resources

Networking is a tricky one because most chamber members say it’s important to them and yet they don’t often attend networking events.

Still, it’s important to know:

22. How often they attend business networking events.

23. What types of connections are they looking to make through a chamber membership?

24. Do they need resources or connections in areas like funding, legal support, or technology?

Industry-Specific Needs

What is going on in their industry? Are they facing increasing limits or are there environmental concerns?

25. Are there any industry-specific issues they’d like the chamber to help address (e.g., regulations, supply chain, talent shortages)?

26. Are they interested in collaboration opportunities with other businesses in their industry?

Digital Engagement

Phone calls, texts, emails…it seems everyone likes their news in different ways. Understanding your members preferences can help you communicate your message in a way they will see it. These questions are best answered through a survey.

27. How do they prefer to stay informed about industry and chamber news (e.g., email, social media, newsletters)?

28. What digital tools or platforms do they use to manage your business operations?

29. Would they be interested in digital marketing opportunities through the chamber (e.g., chamber website, social media shoutouts)?

Leadership & Professional Development

One of the most valuable things a chamber can offer its members are things they can’t do for themselves. Education and leadership fit into that category so the final question to ask them is:

30. How important is leadership development for you and your team? What types of training or development programs would help you and your employees grow?



Asking these types of questions can help segment your potential members into personas that reflect different business sizes, industries, goals, and needs, allowing you to tailor your recruitment strategy and programs to what they’ll find most appealing.

Check out our other articles on how to create member personas:

Transform Member Engagement with Chamber Marketing Personas

Chamber Member Marketing Personas Demystified


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