Creating a more engaging space for your association’s members.
Associations can’t exist without their members, and it’s imperative to have a digital experience that prioritizes their needs and delivers a constant stream of value. A well-crafted website is essential for associations to thrive. It’s not just about having an online presence; it’s about creating a valuable and engaging experience for your members.
By effectively communicating your association’s value proposition throughout your users’ experiences as they journey through your site, you can attract new members while retaining existing ones. You’ll also help foster a thriving community to engage with your association through your resources, events, and other benefits that come with being a member.
Building engagement with your members through online value also reflects trust to external supporters of your association, such as funders, partners and other stakeholders. This in turn, boosts your association’s value and resources to be able to offer your members more.
By taking a member-centric approach to building your site, you’re ensuring you’re focused on delivering your members continuous value through services and benefits that align with their needs and interests.
Are you member-centric?
A member-centric website goes beyond simply listing benefits and fees on a static Member Benefits page. It demonstrates your commitment to serving your members and provides a seamless, personalized experience. It also reflects your association’s brand values in every step your members take on your site and every benefit they receive by being a part of your community.
To determine if your website is truly member-centric, ask yourself these questions:
- Does my website clearly articulate our association’s mission and values?
- Is it easy for members to find the information they need?
- Does our website offer a personalized experience tailored to member needs?
- Is there an easy way to access helpful resources and insights?
- Are there opportunities for members to engage, network, and connect with our association and each other?
- Is my website mobile-friendly and accessible?
- Is it easy to register, upgrade, and/or renew memberships?
Having a clear brand position.
A clear brand positioning and unique value proposition are essential for any organization, especially for associations. By defining who they are, what they stand for, and how they differ from similar organizations, associations can effectively communicate their value to potential and current members.
A strong brand position helps organizations attract and retain members, build trust, and establish credibility. It also guides decision-making, ensuring all marketing and communication efforts align with the organization’s core values and mission. If you don’t think you have a clear brand position and unique value proposition or are looking to update them, some specialized consultants can help you figure out how to build a better brand to engage your members.
A how-to for conveying member value on your website.
Two parts, or foundations, work together to convey member value on your website. One is your site’s overall structure or architecture, and the other is building a strong user experience. Together, these foundations create a seamless and satisfying journey that enhances member value by meeting their needs efficiently and effectively.
A good impression.
A well-designed website is your association’s first impression of potential and current members. A clean, professional aesthetic that reflects your brand’s identity creates a positive and welcoming atmosphere. Consistent use of colours, logos, imagery, and fonts reinforces your brand recognition and helps members easily navigate the site. A straightforward site architecture with clear next steps guides members through the website, making finding the information they need easy.
By prioritizing these elements, you can create a user-friendly experience showcasing your association’s value.
A great experience.
A seamless user experience is crucial for conveying member value on an association’s website. Clear and actionable steps should guide members through the membership process, from initial registration to ongoing engagement. The content should be well-organized, easy to read, and relevant to members’ interests. Robust search and filtering features allow members to find the information they need quickly. Accessibility features ensure that the website is usable by all members, regardless of their abilities. Finally, a dynamic website with interactive elements, such as animations and hover feedback, creates a more engaging and enjoyable experience for members.
By prioritizing user experience, associations can demonstrate their commitment to serving their members and building a thriving community.
Getting more as a member.
When it comes to showing your members the benefits they can expect from being a part of your association, there’s a wide variety of opportunities. Your organization might not have all of them for now, but they are a good set to aspire to.
E-Learning and Resources
This is probably one of, if not the most important, benefits for your members. Have a central resource hub or learning management system (LMS) that your members can use to further their learning. This helps support their careers, their professional development, keeping up with annual continuing education requirements, and knowledge sharing in their industry.
Member Connections
Another valuable way to convey member value is by creating a member directory. This requires careful planning and execution to ensure it’s user-friendly, visually appealing, and highly functional. Key elements include a robust search and filter system plus clear and consistent categorization of your members to allow users to navigate the directory efficiently. A visually appealing design with high-quality images and engaging descriptions can also enhance your members’s experiences in the directory. By prioritizing these factors, you’ll create a valuable tool that strengthens member connections and boosts your organization’s overall visibility.
Awards or Recognitions
Another great way (and one that appeals most to prospective members) to highlight member value is to give recognition to your members. This can be in the form of awards or showcases of your members. Your website can also be used to house the award criteria and as a portal to collect submissions. You can also spotlight members doing amazing things in their field.
Career Advice and Support
A big advantage of joining an association is often to find like-minded individuals to interact with. Mentorships are a key part of this. It’s an excellent way for new members to get information from experienced professionals who’ve been a part of the industry for years. It’s also a good way for alumni to give back to an organization that’s done so much for them in the past.
Job Board Access
Another primary way websites can showcase member value is a robust job board. Having a space where companies and members can post jobs and search for candidates offers opportunities for advancement and access to talent that might otherwise be found through conventional means.
Events and Meet-ups
An event calendar on your site is a great place to bring together members to network with peers online or through live events across different regions. The easiest way to represent this is with a proven plug-in like Events Calendar Pro to represent the different events across regions throughout the year visually. You can also create blocks stacked in a timeline. This allows for more information to be displayed but will have fewer events showing at a time and the need to scroll down to see more.
Trust Signals and Third-party Validation
Your current members can be a powerful asset in helping you build trust with new ones. Adding testimonials throughout your site provides third-party validation of the value your organization delivers to its members. If you haven’t surveyed your membership for these things before, you can also look at it internally by writing about success stories and building case studies. Partnership highlights can also signal trust. These can be called out on your homepage with logos or as part of news updates that feature new partnerships and initiatives.
Advocacy Work Highlights
By highlighting your association’s advocacy work meaningfully, you’re signalling to your members how you’re going above and beyond for your industry. They’ll be able to see the causes that you’re championing on their behalf, creating a stronger sense of connection and hopefully igniting a sense of responsibility in them as well.
Make sure your member value is your site’s MVP.
Highlighting these benefits across your website is all good, but you need to be able to measure their effectiveness. Getting meaningful data means you can make informed choices regarding your site. Screen recording and heat mapping technologies can help determine where visitors spend their time and where they have difficulty, delivering valuable insights from your site. Ensuring you have correctly configured Google Analytics will provide the key analytics on your site that you should be looking out for.
When it comes to the specific metrics you should be focusing on, here are a few to keep an eye on:
- Traffic: Look for spikes and drop-offs in visitors to your site. This shows if your audiences are finding you and whether or not your marketing is working.
- Engaged Sessions: These sessions last longer than 10 seconds, have key events, or have at least 2 pageviews or screenviews. This shows your visitors’ interest when they land on your site.
- Monthly Returning Visitors: This is another audience-based statistic that helps you understand how often and how many of your visitors are returning month after month.
- Conversions: These include registrations for events, memberships, membership upgrades, and job postings. These are important to measure because they indicate how invested your members are.
Another, more direct way to get analytics is with qualitative feedback from actual members using surveys and feedback forms about their experience using the website. This is important for you and your members because you’ll get firsthand feedback, and they feel like they have a voice. It’s an easy way to tap into what your members are asking for and decide whether it’s important enough to add or update your site.
By continuously monitoring and analyzing these metrics, you can identify areas for improvement and refine your strategy to deliver an exceptional member experience.
Use technology to your advantage.
These technologies are an integral part of ensuring your site is easy to set up and evolve. They help ensure that anyone on your team can keep things running smoothly.
WordPress
Our worst-kept secret is that we will always choose WordPress without question when building websites. We believe it’s what’s best for a growing association’s needs. Using the built-in Gutenberg block editor ensures anyone on your team can easily add or update new content to keep a constant stream of relevant and valuable content for your members to engage with. You can also create custom post types to share resources easily.
MemberPress
This plug-in integrates with WordPress, enabling streamlined member sign-up, payment processing, and easy e-learning capabilities. It provides a complete solution for many member-based organizations looking to add courses or forums to their sites or those looking to create members-only access to content. It also saves you time and money, making you more efficient with your team’s resources. A more in-depth look at MemberPress to see if it’s right for your site’s needs.
Integrations
WordPress integrates with virtually everything. By making it more intertwined with apps and software your members already use in their everyday lives, it’s easier to remind them of your association’s value regularly. By carefully integrating the tools you already use for member communications, your website becomes the central platform to power your marketing. Examples include CRMs like Hubspot, recruitment platforms, marketing automation like MailChimp, and event management platforms.
Advanced Search & Filtering
By creating advanced search and filtering options for your website, specifically your resources, you’ll improve your members’ experience. This increased ease of access encourages members to spend more time exploring your content, leading to higher engagement. As members can efficiently locate resources that match their interests, they are more likely to return to your site frequently. Additionally, positive experiences with your search tools can foster loyalty and satisfaction among your user base.
Translation tools
Using tools like Weglot & WPML to translate your entire website in various languages ensures more comprehensive access for your members to read, understand, and engage with your content. It signals to them that you have their needs in mind,d too. This can lead to increased traffic, improved customer satisfaction, and higher conversion rates as more users can access content in their native language. Additionally, it enhances the brand’s global presence and competitiveness.
AI
Thoughtfully incorporating Artificial Intelligence can add significant value for members visiting your site. Giving your members access to chatbots 24/7 means they’ll get the answers they need quickly and easily. Your content and marketing teams can also use generative AI to create and streamline content to ensure information is readily available and refreshed, often to keep your members engaged and coming back to the site. Adding AI to your marketing automation efforts can also save your team time and energy in communicating with your members about new things.
Not a one-and-done website.
Building a successful website for your association is an ongoing process, not a one-time event. To keep your members engaged and your association growing, continuously updating and improving is essential to add value to your digital space. Continuous website improvement allows you to test new ideas, refine features, and address any issues quickly, adapting to potentially changing user needs and technologies. It helps identify and fix problems quickly, ensuring a seamless user experience. Regular updates can boost search engine rankings and keep your association’s online presence fresh and relevant.
By embracing this idea of a “neverending relaunch,” you’ll be able to create a culture of iterative development and innovation. This ensures that your website remains valuable for your association and its members for years.
