Do you know what keeps your members coming back?

Sometimes associations get caught up in trying to gain new members that you actually forget about your current members. Having your members come back time and time again is a great way to boost your association, and even grow your membership.

By Michelle Schweitz, Marketing Manager, Community Brands

So, do you know what your members want to keep them coming back?

Here are 3 tips to retain more members and keep them around year after year.

Find out what matters most to members

When a busy member joins your association, they want to feel valued and that their membership is worthwhile. Your association can deliver a better member experience by understanding what benefits your members want.

The Community Brands Member Engagement and Loyalty study surveyed more than 1,100 members of professional organizations to find out what benefits they value most. Here are the top ten important benefits.

Convey member value through content

Your members look to your association to be the leader, especially when it comes to the latest industry information and trends. Industry information and trends is a top valued benefit across all career stages and a driver of retention. Create a connection between your members and your organization through continued communication regarding the information they desire. But blasting the same content to all members doesn’t work well. Develop a strategy to deliver your association’s value with these impactful steps.

• Develop a content strategy by defining your goals, developing personas, performing a content audit, brainstorm new ideas and determine where content will live. Don’t forget to diversify your content types.
• Determine which communication channels you use such as email, online community, website, social media or video marketing.
• Segment your members and personalize your communications by sending relevant benefits to why they joined or recently showed interest in.

Provide great member service

This sounds simple but providing great member support can go a long way. Providing great member support can increase the value of your organization and make members feel welcome when they communicate with you.

Here are a few simple tips to incorporate in your association.

• Set a positive tone up-front by greeting your member on the phone, email or even on social media by thanking them for their question or inquiry.
• Listen to their needs and repeat back to them so they know you are listening.
• Make the member’s job easy by providing what they are asking. If you can’t answer their question right away, respond quickly that you are looking into this and will get back to them within a specific time frame.
• Go above and beyond by sharing step by step how the member can achieve or take action to what they are asking. If it is over the phone, send a follow-up email with the steps and a link to where this might be listed on your website.
• Make information accessible by including a link to your FAQs in your online community, from the navigation menu on your website and within your marketing emails.

Tech tip: With YourMembership membership management software, you can easily streamline your team’s day to day tasks by using a FAQ’s webpage template. Include important information that members ask for on regular basis such as how to retain a membership receipt or update their profile.

It is important that associations actively engage their members on an ongoing basis to keep your their coming back year over year. Understanding your members’ needs and providing the best experience are vital to your association’s success.

Are you looking for new ways to nurture relationships to retain members? Learn what makes your members stick around and feel like they can’t afford to leave. Watch the on-demand webinar: Proven strategies to increase member retention now.