And The Grand Lodge of Ohio
So, here I am on Twitter this morning, checking out the latest ‘knock down, drag out’ fights on that platform, when what did I spy, but a post from the Scottish Rite NJ.
Dragging my attention from some guys verbally bashing each other, I decided my time would be better spent reading something good from the Scottish Rite. So, I opened its article about the Grand Lodge of Ohio.
And boy, I’m glad that I did!
By now, Masons everywhere must be familiar with the beafreemason.org campaign that was launched by the Scottish Rite NJ for the benefit of Freemasonry throughout North America.
In Lodges big and small, throughout the continent, we have received inquiries from men wanting to learn more about our Craft. Over 120,000 inquiries according to the Scottish Rite.
But, let’s be honest. As a whole, we do a horrible job with these inquiries. Before anyone shoots the messenger here, let me say that yes, I do know that some Lodges, indeed some Districts do handle these inquiries well. But most fail miserably. How miserably? Well, according to the Scottish Rite’s article 83% of these inquirers never even hear back from a Mason.
That’s a problem.
Please excuse my language, but that’s a really big frigging problem.
For every 100,000 men who ask about Freemasonry, we apparently ignore 83,000 of them.
Let’s say that half of those 83,000 men are qualified to become Freemasons, and actually want to become Freemasons. That’s 41,500 potential Masons we have completely ignored. How much stronger would Freemasonry be in North America if we had 41,500 more Masons? Young, energetic, and excited Masons?
Ignoring these men is idiotic on our part.
But, here I was, reading about the Grand Lodge of Ohio, and what did I see but that they have apparently (using Grandview) created an Email Marketing Funnel to ensure that in their Jurisdiction these men are not ignored.
How awesome is that!
If you don’t know what an Email Marketing Funnel is, don’t feel badly, I’m a proud luddite myself. But for some reason I ran across a discussion of these things some time ago. You can learn just what one of these Funnels is, with examples at:
Learn What An Email Marketing Funnel Is, And How To Make It Work
If a man makes an inquiry in that Jurisdiction he receives an email a week, through Grandview, for nine weeks. Emails designed to provide him information about Freemasonry, and further his interest.
You can read all about what the Grand Lodge of Ohio is doing with this system at:
How The Grand Lodge Of Ohio Is Driving Membership Growth Online
I know that a lot of enterprises use Funnels like this to sell things like trainings and memberships, but I had never thought about the possibilities of using these tools within Freemasonry, particularly as an effective means of ensuring that all those who inquire receive the information they hope to have about our Craft.
I think that there is much that we can learn from the methods being used in Ohio, and I hope that Grand Lodges, even individual Lodges, consider following Ohio’s example. As society continues to move more and more online, our Craft must follow suit lest we become irrelevant.
Tens of thousands of new Masons would move us very far along the path towards Legendary Freemasonry. We must engage, instead of ignore, these inquiries flooding into our Craft.
There's two sides to that coin. Let's stipulate that as a Fraternity our efforts to engage with inquiries have been spotty. However, I've found that in the majority of cases where we do a good job, after a few contacts the prospect ghosts us. So yes, let's to a better job but let's also be realistic and not let ghosting discourage us.
Before moving to Maryland I was the secretary of my Ohio lodge. I can attest the system works and provides my lodge with a stream of potential new members. I checked this morning and my lodge has six prospects at various stages of contact. Each lodge in Ohio appoints one or two prospect managers for their lodge to make contact. Grand View allows you document your contact efforts for each prospect, so their is a record of what has been done.
My lodge invites prospects to the dinner prior to a stated meeting and offers additional opportunities for meeting one-on-one to answer questions and provide information.