Improving member engagement leads to higher retention, increased member satisfaction, and membership growth for your association. But to maximize member engagement, you need an effective engagement strategy. Let’s look at what member engagement is, why it’s important to your association, how to measure it, and how to develop a membership engagement strategy.
What is member engagement?
Member engagement is the level at which members are involved with your organization. But it’s important to think about member engagement as more than simple participation.
Any member can like social media posts or occasionally open emails, but genuinely engaged members are emotionally invested in your association. They see your association as a necessary and rewarding part of their careers and their lives. So truly engaged members are those who are connecting with your organization by talking to your association staff, reading news and reports from your organization, participating in discussions in your online community, attending events, volunteering, and doing other high-involvement activities.
Why is improving member engagement important?
Working to improve your membership engagement is important because engaged members:
- Stay with the organization longer
- Are more likely to refer new members
- Spend more on association products and services
- Are more likely to attend association-sponsored events
How do you measure member engagement?
Measuring member engagement is important because it allows you to see how well you are doing at engaging members. But it can be complicated.
It helps to consider multiple touchpoints to determine how members are (or aren’t) engaging with your association. Here are some helpful data points to measure for each member:
- Touchpoint engagement – These are direct interactions with association’s staff, especially member-initiated conversations.
- Activity engagement – These are the number of times members do things like renew their membership, attend conferences or webinars, purchase publications, or register for courses.
- Marketing response – This metric measures the frequency with which members do things like open your emails, click on links, and engage with your ads.
- Social media participation – This includes how often members like, share, and comment on your association’s social media posts. It can also help to include participation in online member communities in this metric.
- Benefit usage – This data point tracks how often members do things like redeem offers or opt in to member perks.
This information can provide valuable insights into how and when your members interact with your association. It can also uncover member engagement trends that can inform your membership program strategy.
How do you develop a membership engagement strategy?
To build a successful member engagement strategy, it’s essential to first understand what your members want. The content and services you provide members should be timely and relevant to your members.
Start by looking at member engagement data. For example, association trends research by Momentive Software consistently shows that job opportunities and help with career advancement are among the most important member benefits. So, emphasizing career development resources is a smart approach as you build your member engagement strategy.
Next, consider directly asking your members what they want. A good approach is to conduct member surveys and analyze member responses. Here are some examples of types of questions to include:
- How often do you look to association resources for help in solving problems?
- What types of association resources do you find most helpful?
- How connected do you feel to this association?
- What would make you feel more connected to this association?
Finally, begin to develop a member engagement strategy that aligns with your member engagement metrics and the information you’ve gained about what your members want. Here are some ideas for how you might engage members:
-
Make new members feel welcome.
New members may begin their journey interested in your association but may find it challenging to get involved. So, go beyond sending a basic welcome email or letter introducing the association and then waiting for the new member to take the initiative. To really engage new members, make them feel special by sending a welcome kit including a branded gift, like a branded T-shirt or mug, to show them the association values them. It can also help to call new members directly as part of the welcome process. Ask them why they joined the association and what they aim to accomplish through their membership. This information can help to inform the steps you take in your engagement strategy.
-
Promote key member benefits.
Professionals join your association for various reasons, including professional growth, connections, news, events, and learning. If your association offers any or all of these options through your association membership packages – remind your members. Use multiple touchpoints, including banner ads on your website and in your emails, posts via social media, and spotlights in your online member community to keep key benefits top of mind with your members.
-
Optimize your online member community.
If you don’t already offer one, set up an online member community to provide an easy way for members to connect with each other and your association. If you do have one, be sure to set up discussion groups for hot topics in your industry or profession to give members a timely and relevant way to interact. Also, use your online community to make announcements about upcoming events, offers, and opportunities to alert them to more ways to get involved with your association.
-
Provide valuable career resources.
Offering comprehensive, easy-to-use career resources can turn your organization into a go-to career development source for your members – a sure way to get members more engaged. Careers offers job board software that makes it easy to set up an online job board that allows members to find jobs that match their prior search history and personal qualifications, which can increase member engagement and retention as well as site traffic. An online job board can help provide incredible value to your members as well as boost your non-dues revenue.
In addition to job board software, YM Careers offers several other career solutions to help professional associations engage members, including:
- Career Planning Portal – This portal offers a wide variety of resources for members to research and develop their career plans. This feature is included with every YM Careers job board and provides a wealth of high-value resources, including career insights, professional advice, and career mapping.
- MentorBoard – Create networking opportunities for your members by connecting them to mentors within their field. Users will gain valuable information about career development from qualified professionals while getting to know other organization members.
- Events and career fairs – The YM Careers team can manage an entire career fair or other career event for your organization.
Learn more ways to engage with your association’s members.
With the right tools and approaches, your online career center can help improve member engagement for your association. Learn more about how YM Careers can help your association create a robust online career center that helps you get members more involved: Request a demo
