As an association leader, your communication priorities vary from day to day. But each initiative serves a central goal: To attract, retain, and engage your organization’s membership. Along with ensuring your existing membership remains active, engaged, and connected to your mission, you need to drive interest from the next generation. If you can’t meet these goals, you’re placing your association’s long-term health at risk.
Fear not. You have an assortment of options to leverage your brand and website toward meeting these priorities. Here are a few tips on how to effectively deploy each to your advantage.
Attracting New Members
According to a 2023 study, nearly half of the workforce is now made up of Millennials or Generation Z. As Baby Boomers continue to retire at a rate of 10,000 people per day, you must ensure your association and its marketing is set up to connect with a younger population of digital natives. The following tips will help your organization do just that.
Audit Your Brand Promise
The next generation of members won’t join your association simply because one of their older coworkers did, or it has been a tradition in your industry. These new members are drawn to organizations and brands whose values align with theirs. Engage with your board and internal departments to review your brand’s identity, core values, and how they are expressed to ensure they capture who you are and what you do.
Ensure Your Visuals Reflect Your Audience
Photos on your website and brand collateral help prospective members visualize themselves in your organization. If your association aims to attract a younger and more diverse membership, the images must reflect those goals to help your target audience feel seen and welcomed.
Just as importantly, design elements such as color choices communicate subtle signals about your brand. Make sure these visual cues accurately reflect your identity to prospective members.
Express Your Association’s Value with an Animated Explainer
Your organization needs to capture the attention of prospective members, and video enables you to communicate the value of your association in a more powerful and engaging way. You can take these videos to the next level. It’s a great way to communicate complex or abstract concepts and help your brand stand out from your competitors. At Position, we’ve applied animation in projects for our clients to express information in a compelling and easy-to-understand way.
Leverage Social Proof
Members want external validation of your association’s value by hearing outside perspectives. Testimonials, case studies, and member success stories allow you to demonstrate the impact of your mission and build trust with your audience by showing that your association knows how to walk the talk. Consider leveraging photos or videos to make these assets more engaging.
Retaining Existing Members
Your current membership is your organization’s most precious resource. You can’t afford to rest on history or past accomplishments and expect automatic renewals. The following tips provide options for expressing the importance of retaining an ongoing membership.
Segment Email Outreach
Email is one of your biggest opportunities to communicate consistently and directly with your most valued audience. Given that an individual’s inbox is precious real estate, you have to justify this investment by providing your members with compelling, meaningful communication.
Instead of sending overwhelming newsletters that attempt to capture the full range of your organization’s activities, divide your content into distinct, interest-based emails (e.g., events, resources, advocacy, etc.) and segment your audience to ensure you’re delivering concise and relevant information. Survey your members and track their behavior through analytics to ensure you’re always delivering useful and engaging content.
Deliver Memorable, Branded Events
Galas, conventions, and conferences are key opportunities to connect with your membership and build enthusiasm for your association. Make the most of this opportunity by presenting an elevated experience that’s aligned with your brand and reflects its core identity.
A thoughtfully branded event, signage, digital programs, and microsites are just a few ways to ensure your next event will make members feel inspired and excited about your association. A professionally designed event that embodies your brand will ensure your members (and sponsors) remain engaged year after year.
Organize and Elevate Your Website
Your website acts as the front door and an ongoing resource for your association. You need to ensure every element is designed to engage members and serve their needs.
A cohesive, well-organized website will clearly express the benefits of membership and connect members with valuable resources. A member portal provides a great way to deliver exclusive content and underscore the benefits of joining your association.
Engaging New and Current Membership
Active and energized members aren’t just more likely to renew. They’re also better equipped to act as advocates for your association. Consider these tips for building a stronger connection with your members.
Provide Intuitive and Useful Member Experiences
Keep members coming back to your website by supplying a valuable resource of industry knowledge. Review how you’re filtering content in your resource library while also ensuring every aspect of your website’s user experience is clear and easy to navigate. Members should be at the center of how you design and curate your association website.
Seek Outside Expertise to Enhance Your Next Event
Conferences or galas that replicate the same old experience each year will grow stale among your membership. Inviting a fresh creative perspective to your event site visit will allow you to unlock new opportunities to maximize your location’s potential and keep your members engaged with your association.
Improve and Automate Member Onboarding
Attracting new members is part of your organization’s mission — but your work doesn’t stop there. Developing an engaging onboarding process that’s smooth and welcoming to new members lays the foundation for a positive and lasting partnership.
Set up a drip email campaign to guide members through onboarding by providing clear instructions for the next steps. Offering orientations, welcome packets, and personalized messages will help your newest members feel part of your association’s community from the start.
Want to know more about how your association’s brand and website could do more to connect with members? We’re ready to get started.
