What are you doing right now to fulfill your member engagement strategy? When you’re marketing for associations, you may need to forget what you know and start fresh.
Here are a few tips to keep in mind.
As always, we’re here to help.Questions? Comments? Send us a message!
Read the transcription
Dawn: I am hearing from association leaders that membership engagement has been difficult for a variety of reasons.
Keep in mind that you may have up to FIVE generations in your association now. Each generation has different needs and expectations.
Knowing which channels to use, AND how often to communicate with members, can lead to challenges with association marketing plans, sponsorships and successful programming.
In fact, your member engagement strategy should be created independently from your current communications or programming. Forget what you think you know. Start fresh.
First of all, who is your ideal member? Do you have detailed personas that describe member needs, wants, dislikes or challenges to engagement? Have you analyzed a member survey or event evaluation to identify engagement challenges?
Those are some typical tools to use, but beyond that, look at demographic trends in media consumption, communication tools, socializing and networking.
If your association highlight is an annual event, for example, do you offer an event app and texting options but also paper agendas and notepads?
Are your educational offerings varied in duration while also satisfying in-person and online preferences?
At the same time, what fits your budget? Do you need to raise fees?
Yes, this is a lot to think about. So start with one area. Whether it’s member feedback analysis or a communications audit, gather your data.
Next use these facts along with research on demographic trends and ideal member personas.
Once you are ready to beta test something, try it on a small group of trusted members.
This group should represent all of your member segments or personas. Gather their feedback and make adjustments before rolling it out to the larger membership.
Research and analysis is one of our specialties here at Ingenuity along with communications consulting for associations. If you want to explore new strategies for membership engagement, I’m ready to help.
