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Associations recruit members by promoting the power of joining a community designed to connect industry professionals with common interests. Once members join, it’s up to your association to steward member engagement and demonstrate the advantages of your community.
Cultivating engagement is a delicate balance between creating more growth opportunities, communicating with members, and stewarding relationships with them. We’ve gathered 4 tips and tools to help you cultivate long-term member retention for your association.
Managing an association requires immense organization and attention to detail. With membership management software, your association can streamline administrative tasks, marketing, and membership management.
According to Fonteva’s guide for membership management software, associations should look for tools that align with their organization’s retention goals. Here are some features to look for when choosing technology to help with member retention:
Look for features that can help you keep track of and improve member interactions and experiences. Along with refining member management, membership software can provide data to inform your plans for meetings, events, and educational courses.
When members join your association, they are excited to join a community of their industry peers, grow their understanding of the field, and gain valuable insights. To keep members engaged you can offer training, educational courses, and certificate programs.
E-learning is a popular program members can use to grow their industry skills and stay relevant in their field. Depending on your association’s industry focus, there are different types of e-learning courses available for the best interactive learning experiences.
Use e-learning courses to cultivate membership and enhance your association’s membership value by implementing different styles of courses such as:
You can incorporate gamification into your e-learning by offering digital badges or certificates of completion to further entice members. Education opportunities can improve member experiences when they provide skills or training that members are able to incorporate into their everyday work and careers.
Hosting events is one of the best ways to steward long-term members. Association events truly immerse members into the community and introduce them to their peers. As our technology continues to evolve, it’s easier than ever to host a blend of association events from in-person to hybrid to virtual events. Shifting some events or aspects of events online can also help open up availability to members who may not have the time, financial means, or health to travel.
Here are some ways to incorporate different types of events to increase member participation:
Before planning conferences or events, use your membership management software to assess popular industry topics and subject areas. You can then use this information to tailor event sessions, speakers, and panels to member interests. When your events are created with members in mind, they feel valued and will be more excited.
After your event, leverage digital badges to continue engaging members. Sharing badges on social media allows members to connect with each other and highlights a valuable takeaway from the event.
As your member base grows, their expectations and wants will too. Include regular requests for feedback in your member communication cadences to ensure your association stays on track.
Incorporate feedback requests after events, along with your annual report, and after e-learning courses to improve your association offerings. Avoid leading questions like, “How good was your experience at the conference?” Instead, ask open ended or scaled answer questions, such as:
By asking members questions about their experiences, you gain invaluable information as well and make members feel appreciated and heard. Because members join to grow professionally, it’s important to ask how their experience in your organization has impacted them professionally.
Asking for feedback is important, but it is even more important to use it to shape and refine your association and member experiences. Create cadences to read through feedback and plan how to build in member suggestions to your organization’s plans.
Association membership is an ever-evolving relationship between your organization and your members. Your organization will be able to cultivate long-term memberships if you continue to listen to members and adjust based on their needs. Members join because of the benefits your association can provide them, so remember to keep members at the center of the organization’s mission.
November 23, 2022
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