Are you ready to elevate the member experience?
Do you want to provide even more value for your members?
Do you want to be efficient in your membership experience strategy?
If you answered "yes" to any of the above, we’ve got some gold here for you.
We all know that the membership experience is crucial to member retention, and ultimately it drives the culture of your association.
But, a great member experience doesn’t just happen! You have to be intentional about crafting a great experience.
It starts with just a few simple tips.
Top Tips For a Great Member Experience
Personalize When Possible. Whenever you can, use someone’s name. Whether that’s at an in-person event, a thank-you gift, an email newsletter, or some other engagement. Using someone’s first name shows that you care for them as an individual and that their involvement is valued in the group.
Member Connections. Build a membership directory to make it easy for members to connect and network. Remember, one of the biggest value-adds you provide is the group of like-minded people within your association. People join for many reasons, but one big one is to meet others like themselves. Make it easy for people to connect and showcase their own expertise once they are a member.
Get Schooled. One simple way you can over deliver is by providing a wealth of content to your members. Sharing articles, podcasts, videos, and webinars for members only is a great way to over deliver to your members. You can make this even more robust by allowing other members to be part of that content creation, giving the member an added benefit, but also giving value to the association at large!
Member-Only. People join your association for the exclusive features that come with being part of the group. The best way you can do that is by ensuring you have regular member-only events and member-exclusive content. The more member-only material you can offer your group, the more value (and perceived value) your members will feel.
Email Opt-Ins. Remember when people wondered if email was dead? Boy, were they wrong! Email is still the home base for all working professionals and many prefer to get bite-sized content around specific topics and sub-topics with email. Give your members an opportunity to opt into specific email lists based on subject matter. You can pull evergreen content to share on an automated drip, so that any time someone joins that list, they get a preset sequence of emails. Then, if there are newsworthy items that come out, you can always segment updates based on the lists someone is subscribed to.
Gratitude! A simple thank you goes a long way. Be genuine about it, but regularly seek out opportunities to thank people. Specific mentions of gratitude are also helpful. When someone feels seen for the thing they did or supported, it adds not only to the experience, but the loyalty to the group at large. For example, when someone makes a donation, make sure they are recognized and thanked.
Study Others. You never know where you’ll get inspiration. That’s why we recommend looking at others who are focused on great experiences and seeing how they apply ideas to their own industry. We guarantee you’ll learn something new!
Have Some Fun. Many associations are full of professionals, so often we think everything has to be 100 percent buttoned up. The reality is that most people want to have fun in what they’re doing, even if it is professional. You don’t have to dress up in a banana suit to make things fun, but you can add in moments of entertainment and interaction to elevate the experience.
Amazing member experiences don’t happen by accident. It isn’t rocket science, but it does require a few intentional steps to ensure your members get more value than they ever imagined possible and an experience they want to write home about. Elevating the member experience is something that happens every day, in every interaction with your members. Simple steps can go far to keep your members loyal and engaged.