Events, educational courses, and exclusive networking opportunities bring members to your association. But many associations similar to yours likely provide equivalent benefits. How can you stand above competitors and grow your membership?
The answer is to improve your membership value proposition. Essentially, your value proposition is the unique benefits and opportunities your membership offers.
In this guide, we’ll explore five unique ways to elevate your membership value, explain how these benefits engage members, and suggest software you’ll need to implement them.
Constantly creating new content is a full-time job, and many associations struggle to keep their members engaged between major events. You can fill these gaps by putting the power in your members’ hands with user-generated content.
User-generated content is any content that your members produce and share with one another. This might be an opinion piece they’ve written, a discussion question they pose to the rest of your community, or a video they co-created with your association. When members feel empowered to produce and share this content, they can have insightful conversations with the rest of your community, feel strengthened creatively, and access an endless trove of content thanks to other members’ efforts.
You can encourage user-generated content by providing members with tools for producing and sharing content. For instance, you might make various educational resources available for their research and interpretation. Plus, be sure to spotlight any high-quality projects your members create to inspire others.
Launch an online community to give your members a place to share user-generated content and connect with one another.
While live events and activities are incredibly valuable, most associations can only host a handful of in-person events each year. By featuring an online community on your website, members can stay connected all year long, providing uninterrupted opportunities for networking.
When it comes to creating an online community, some small associations turn to free social media sites like LinkedIn or Facebook. While these platforms can host your community, Tradewing’s guide to community management platforms shares a few reasons why associations should instead opt for professional hosting tools:
Your online community can easily become a major hub of information and value for your association. Post updates about upcoming events, share new offerings, and promote written and video content to keep your members engaged, no matter where they are.
At professional and trade associations, members will only find your content valuable if it’s up to date with what’s happening in their day-to-day careers. As such, all educational courses and industry-related content should reflect current trends and best practices.
To keep your members up to date, you’ll first need to educate yourself and your content creation team. Double the Donation’s guide to member engagement recommends a few ways to keep your finger on the pulse of your sector:
By keeping up with the latest trends in your field, you can ensure your content is valuable and useful to members. Survey your audience to learn what topics they would like to see you cover and start brainstorming ways to provide them with the information they need.
Your members lead busy lives, and making your association’s membership more accessible will increase its value. Innovative associations are experimenting with launching mobile apps. This approach enables supporters to tune into your community, engage with your content, and access their benefits on the go.
Many community engagement tools provide apps, and you can also always work with a web developer to design an app specifically for your association. When you do, consider what online and mobile-friendly features you can add to make the app experience enjoyable.
For instance, you might experiment with gamification features to reward engagement and encourage members to check in with your community regularly.
If you’re hesitant to invest in an app, at least ensure your association website is mobile-friendly. Responsive design tools will automatically adapt your pages to fit various screen sizes, but it never hurts to assess your mobile experience by checking it with your smartphone. Ensure buttons are large enough for members to navigate your interface and images and graphic elements are properly sized to avoid dominating limited screen space.
Your community is one of your association’s most valuable assets. In fact, many professionals join associations specifically to network, which means having a wide and varied member base increases value for all members.
You can grow your member base by marketing to new audiences. Review demographic information for both your membership base and your industry as a whole. Is your member community representative of your sector, or are any audiences missing? Are there any groups you could help bring into your industry?
For example, if many of your members are older, more established professionals, consider launching an outreach campaign focused on young job seekers entering your field for the first time.
To reach new members, you might also need to reassess your current marketing strategies, as missing audiences likely aren’t on your usual platforms—otherwise, they would see your message!
For instance, if you’ve primarily relied on in-person networking and traditional media to attract new members, you might launch a digital campaign that includes using a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy for associations. This approach involves making your website easier to find online and is useful for bringing in a broad audience of internet users seeking benefits like yours.
To increase your membership value, your association needs to make your benefits accessible, relevant, and creative. You can keep up with this demand and set your association apart from competitors by empowering your members to connect with your offerings and each other, making it easier for them to see the value of your benefits and share valuable content themselves.
With over 20 years of experience of product marketing experience across a range of industries—including marketing, finances, and nonprofits, Lomesh has founded and lead product strategy teams for multiple thriving nonprofit software companies. With a focus on innovation today, Lomesh aims to provide software solutions that help associations thrive in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.
