Featured
Group Demo
Get an inside look into the YourMembership software platform.
Join YM for a 15-minute demo to learn how to save staff time with an all-in-one member management system.
Here are three powerful ways to keep your association’s content fresh and relevant to drive greater member engagement.
One of the biggest benefits your association offers your members is content. Your members turn to you for the latest information and updates about your industry or profession.
Keeping your association’s content fresh is key to maintaining a high level of engagement with your members. After all, your members might tune out if the content you deliver is stale or lacks relevance to their needs.
When you have a small staff, keeping content updated might seem tough. But there are some easy ways to make sure you’re giving your members content that connects with them and is compelling and useful.
Three powerful (yet simple!) ways to keep your association’s content vibrant and valuable
1. Use marketing channels that your members are most likely to engage with.
You have multiple ways to engage with your members – from your website and social media to text messages, your online community, and print publications. Make sure you’re delivering messages to each of your members in the way they’re most likely to engage.
Here are some ideas:
- Look into research about how members engage.
For example, association trends research by Community Brands shows that the top ways members engage with their association (and their top preferred engagement channels) are email and the organization’s online community. The research also shows an opportunity for associations to communicate with members more via text messaging. - Set up a preference center.
A preference center is an online portal that gives your members an easy way to control what communications they receive from your organization and how often they receive them. It also gives you another way to gather more of the data you need to improve member communications. - Ask your members.
One of the best ways to know what channels your members prefer is to ask them directly. In your next member survey, consider asking a question about which communication channels they prefer.
2. Hit the right notes with your messages.
Sending one message to all members is not always the best way to engage with them. Make sure your messages strike the right tone and offer the most relevant information by sending more personalized messages. For example, divide your members into smaller groups based on their behavior, engagement levels, demographics, and other details so that you can send them email and text messages that are most relevant to each audience – ultimately making it more likely that they’ll read your messages and take action.
3. Keep your content updated.
To keep your members engaged, the content you point them to can’t be tired and outdated. Stale content can disappoint members, cause them to disengage with your association, and eventually fail to renew.
Here are a few tips for keeping your content at its best:
- Update your existing content. Before you start developing brand-new content, look at what you already have. Look for good content that can be refreshed, re-used, and re-purposed with a few updates.
- Brainstorm new content ideas. Consider any recent industry research you can share, and think about conducting your own. Pay attention to what your members are talking about in your online community. Ask your volunteers what topics are important to them, and even ask them to help you produce content. Consider sending a survey to your members to better understand the topics that are most important to them.
- Keep your website fresh. Outdated website content can have a negative impact on search engine optimization (SEO) and can make your association look behind the times. Keep your website content fresh by regularly adding news, event details, information about member programs, member testimonials, and more.
