Engage and attract members with exceptional experiences

Webbright
Membership
Happiness
Tips to Engage and Attract Members
by Amanda Kaiser 
www.webbrightservices.com Page 1

Webbright
Membership
Happiness
Tips to Attract and Engage Members
Are You Using Predatory Marketing Tactics With Your Members? 3
First Impressions Matter 5
Membership Experience Not - Membership Math 8
Who Should Welcome Your Members? 11
Do You Know What Your New Members Want? 13
Are You Still Relevant to Your Members Today? 16
3 Tactics for Exceptional Conference Experience 20
3 Best Practices for Exceptional Member Experience 23
Opportunities for Engaging Members Your Association is Likely to
Miss 26
How Can Associations Reengage Experienced Members 28

Webbright
Are You Using Predatory Marketing
Tactics With Your Members?
Have you ever felt great about receiving a cold call? Even if it’s an
institution that I do business with or feel afﬁnity with those calls leave me
feeling annoyed, guilty, and inconvenienced. I know that charities
champion worthy causes and use our money for research and for helping
affected families. Your university gives college-aged kids opportunities
with your pledge. Associations have to have enough attendees to make a
conference viable. We know the cause is a good one and we know that
their request is legitimate however some marketing tactics leave us cold.
I have heard this sentiment from more than one member - I became
a member and now I feel like all my association does is try to sell to me.
You can bet these folks have tuned out most of the association’s
communications.

Webbright
You have a choice. You have the choice to employ various
marketing tactics simply because they work. Or you have the choice to
use the marketing tactics that build trust, educate and leave your
members better off than they were before.
Telemarketing
On the surface telemarketing, especially to existing members,
seems like just one more tool in the toolbox. The problem is no one
welcomes telemarketing. This method has been degraded over the years
because it is a preferred channel for misleading sales people guided by
overly pushy scripts.
Its not that your members don’t want to talk to you on the phone -
they do. They just want to talk to you when they want to talk to you about
issues they care about. Interesting that some associations run
telemarketing campaigns but staff members in other departments don’t
return member inquiries. If you are trying to build long-term relationships
with members, ditch the telemarketing campaigns, and instead build the
ability to handle member inquiries quickly and with a lot of thought so
members come away from each interaction feeling cared about.
Being remarkable gives your members something to talk about. An
authentic referral is worth thousands of cold calls.
Email
Why would a member, someone who has purchased membership,
opt out of an association’s emails? Because too many messages are
clogging up their in box. Too many messages that they feel don’t apply to
them.

Webbright
Associations can annoy members with email when there’s a high
frequency, when the messages are too promotional and when campaigns
duplicate the same message over and over. If you keep blasting out
mediocre promotions via email over time you can ruin that
communication channel.
How do some organizations improve their email opens and
perhaps even make these messages something to anticipate? By being
generous. They educate their members or offer them provocative things
to think about. Only every once in a while these organizations plug their
products, services or events. But mostly they are being generous.
WildApricot’s blog is a great example. Posts are well written, timely and
relevant. It’s a work of generosity and I look forward to each new post. Yes
they do promote their posts in a variety of social media channels but they
are still saying - here are some ideas that may help you solve a business
problem or two.
Remarkable and generous marketing tactics like content marketing
are much harder and take longer than cold calling or email campaigns.
But employing generous marketing tactics helps you build trust while the
latter may actually denigrate your relationship with members. You have a
choice.
First Impressions Matter
We are super adept at making snap judgments. In seconds we can
sizeup a person, organization, thing, animal or situation. Our brains very
quickly tell us if it is good or bad and whether we should go forward or

Webbright
run away. Experts say this is a survival instinct developed during the time
our ancestors were busy running away from saber-tooth tigers.
Today in the business world, the reason why first impressions are
important is because they play an important role in setting our future
expectations. An article in the Tufts Journal by Max Weisbuch illustrates
the point, “let’s assume that on your first day at a job you decide your
boss is stern. What happens then? Recent experiments have shown that
prior impressions of hostility can actually cause us to see anger on a
supposedly hostile person’s face. So even if your boss is not expressing
anger just yet, your prior impression of sternness may cause you to
literally see an angry expression on his face.” How does this play out for
associations?
Those first critical impressions become the lens that the new
members look at the association through. When a new member tries to
connect with staff and doesn’t get a response she will assume that the
association is unresponsive. KiKi L’italien (@kikilitalien) shares her first
experiences with an non-responsive association and how “without
knowing it, my membership clock started ticking”. In the same way, if a
new member joins over the phone and the staff member taking the
membership application is rushed and terse the new member may think
the staff, maybe even members, are aloof. Good or bad, the first

Webbright
experience that a member or potential member has with your
organization can set the tone for the rest of their membership.
Some organizations are great at first impressions – Disney, Apple
and Zappos for example. While all of these companies couldn’t be more
different they use similar strategies to create amazing first impressions,
they:
1. Cater to a target audience; what they offer is not for everyone
2. Solve the problem of that target audience
3. Nurture great customer service and build the culture to support
it
4. Value trust, they trust their customers and their customers trust
them
5. Create experiences for the customer, they don’t just sell product
How can an association provide more great first
impressions
1. Discover what the new member touch points are – Determine
the couple of steps that most members take to connect with your
association for the first time. Do they call? Do they register on-line?
Do they download something for free? Do they sample an event
2. Evaluate those first experiences – Try to put yourself in your
member’s shoes. Spend time on your automated phone answering
system, register on your website and observe what it’s like for a new-

Webbright
attendee at your conference. If you need more input, objectively ask
new members about their first impressions.
3. Improve impressions – Did you find any inconsistencies
between member’s first impressions and your brand promise? Figure
out solutions and ways to implement solutions to these gaps long-
term.
4. Moving to remarkable – How about delighting more and more
members right at the start? Learn from some of the best in the
business, like Disney, and highly develop one or more of the
strategies they use to create great first impressions.
Your member’s first impressions are critically important and set the
stage for the rest of their relationship with your association. While you
don’t have total control over their perceptions you can create
experiences that foster great first impressions.
Membership Experience Not - Membership
Math
I am standing at the entrance gate of the zoo with the line piling up
behind me trying to do some quick mental math to figure out whether
membership is worth it. As my young son is tugging on my arm as I figure
that family membership equals approximately the cost of three individual
trips. Quickly I scan the other nine benefits and see they don’t apply to
us. We won’t take advantage of things like $25 off of summer camp (yet)
or the 10% discount at the concession stand (often). Regardless
membership is worth it, I am pretty sure we will take more than three trips
to the zoo in a year.

Webbright
That was two years ago. I did join but they almost lost me as a
member because I was deciding to join nearly exclusively on cost.
Now imagine a different scenario. I see moms like me with kids like
mine having special, engaging and unique experiences at the zoo. I learn
how the zoo is teaching families about conservation and how this helps
kids learn to be better citizens of the world. Additionally as a member I
understand I am eligible to go to special member only events like sunset
lectures and behind the scene tours. In this scenario belonging to the zoo
helps me teach my son life skills like compassion, curiosity and a love of
learning. I decide that a person like me joins an organization like this.
Think about the difference in point of view between the two
scenarios:
1. I will join because it is cheaper, verses
2. I will join because people like me belong in organizations like
this

Webbright
Which would you rather have as your member?
My zoo illustration is not unique to this zoo, this happens with
members of associations all the time. How do you move members away
from doing that mental math? How do you make joining less transactional
and focus more on experience?
Help members solve more important problems
Our visits to the zoo solve many problems for me. Superficially, we
are active and outside – but I can get this at a playground. More
importantly, we are having fun and learning something. Most important, I
believe that experiences like this can help teach my son those life skills
that will help him be well rounded, fulfilled and giving person.
The zoo markets fun and learning but stories from higher up the list
of mom’s needs would resonate far more. You see this play out
successfully with the big brands. Harley Davidson means freedom not
transportation. Coke means youth and fun not sugar water.
You can provide the most value when you help solve your
member’s most important problems.
Provide special member experiences
Many member benefits lists read like a math equation: 10% off for
members, a $50 savings, and 1 free guest. This is hardly compelling
reading and it is not so compelling in the decision making process either.
The logic is there but the emotion is missing.

Webbright
Give me experiences that I never will get as a non-member. Teach
me things I can’t learn otherwise. Help me meet people that I may not
have crossed paths with. Create special member experiences and you
make membership special.
Want to move membership from a transaction to an experience?
Take the financial calculation right out of the equation and add some
emotion instead. What can you do that will help members feel they want
to belong?
Who Should Welcome Your Members?

Your members want to matter. They want to be respected. Many of
them also joined with the intention of belonging to a community. The first
impression your members have of your association will stay with them for
the lifetime of their membership. For all of these reasons and more
developing a strategy to whole-heartedly welcome your members can
significantly improve the value you deliver to them.
Great first experiences with your association put members on a
path to learning, openness, collaboration and sharing. Welcoming
members is another great way to provide a great first experience.
Before you get started watch how other professionals in other
industries welcome customers. Wait staff, hotel reception, car services
and others, especially in high-end service-oriented industries can give
you interesting ideas for your member welcoming plan. In addition watch
when welcoming goes wrong. A greeting can be flat, mechanical or
insincere and possibly do more damage than good.

Webbright
Are you thinking about how you can welcome your members? Here
are some ideas:
When do you welcome members?
When members first join let them know you are glad they are a part
of the association. Perhaps a few weeks later connect with them to see
what their biggest challenges are and guide them to resources that can
help.
Welcoming is not just for new members. Welcome long-time
members when they participate in the association in a new way. ‘Tim
thanks for following! Good to see you again and so glad to see you here
on Twitter.’
Welcoming is not just limited to members. Welcoming sponsors,
exhibitors and speakers to your conference and events shows you care
about the extra effort they are adding.
How do you welcome members?
Often the first communication a new member of an association gets
upon joining is a receipt. If this is the case for your association how about
changing that important first communication to a more valuable message
like the best 3-5 ways to get started?
In addition to welcoming members you can also go out of your way
to welcome conference, event and online event attendees. In-person
event attendee welcoming is pretty straightforward but welcoming online
event attendees? Are you wondering how to do this? Check out the

Webbright
association Twitter chat, #AssnChat, Tuesdays at 2PM ET to see how host
@kikilitalien does it.
Who should welcome your members?
Tone matters. Some greeters want to process members and
attendees. As an attendee approaches the registration desk they ask the
perfunctory ‘name?’ Others naturally play the role of the host. ‘Welcome!
How was your trip?’ they will ask. Members and attendees love the host
who is interested in them! Select, train and show staff and volunteers how
to be a great host.
Watch out for the blahs
The hard part of welcoming, especially when you have many
members, is to be genuine and enthusiastic. Over time and with mass it
becomes too easy to build policies that become automatic thus mostly
meaningless.
How do you make members feel they matter? Genuinely welcome
them to your association.
Do You Know What Your New Members
Want?
We love engaged long-time members. Engaged long-time
members feel they belong. They ﬁnd afﬁnity. They want to give back.
Engaged long-time members tell their friends. They totally believe
in the association’s mission and can clearly and with passion articulate

Webbright
what the association does to help them. Long-time members leverage
the resources of the association. They understand how to navigate the
association and which resources are most important to them. Starting a
new project? They turn to the association first. Long-time members will
give you the benefit of the doubt. Typo, president blooper, email mistake
--no matter, one mistake doesn’t detract from many great years.
New members, on the other hand, are not at all like that. New
members have not yet formed an emotional bond with the association.
There’s no feeling of belonging –yet. There’s no engagement – yet.
Perhaps there’s just a low level of affinity – so far.
New members probably won’t tell their friends
These new members may still fear they made a mistake. Perhaps
becoming a member was a waste of money? New members don’t fully
understand the association’s value yet. Additionally they have not made

Webbright
the emotional connection of affinity, engagement and, best of all,
belonging. Until they understand the value and form an emotional bond
they won’t spread the word for fear of being wrong.
New members may not use what you offer
They don’t know the full breadth of what you offer so they may not
turn to you first. Of course this perpetuates the problem, the less they use
your website and other resources the less familiar they will be with what
you offer.
New members will not give you the benefit of the doubt
When new members find it hard to locate resources and
information they will quickly assume you don’t have it and go somewhere
else. If they get a terse staff member on the phone they think ‘well, they
must all be like that’. They carefully read the first handful of email
promotions and if neither the product nor content applies to them they
stop reading. Perhaps joining was a mistake after all?
The same way the clothing label ‘one size fits all’ really means
‘doesn’t fit anyone’; ‘new member’ only means newly joined. New
member is not a target segment. New members have different
worldviews, different goals, different problems and different opinions
than long-time members and perhaps from each other. Most associations
are complex and ‘one-sizing’ new members is a recipe for disaster.
Want to see some data around this issue? Check out Naylor’s
Association Advisor blog post: Associations Still Trying to get by with
One-Size-Fits-All Messaging.

Webbright
Serve new members by segmenting them
Rather than serve up the same product, resources or content to all
new members try to segment them as quickly as possible. This can be
difficult because you don’t want to inundate new members with
questions. However a few well thought out questions can point you
toward their most pressing problems and help you understand their
professional goals.
You may find that you need to segment your membership around
industry or profession. Perhaps segments like new-to-the-profession,
new-manager, or new director make the most sense for your members.
There are a million ways to define your key member segments so
start by focusing on the key need areas, their problems or goals. New to
segmenting? Keep it simple focus on 2-3 key segments because you will
notice that moving from one audience to two segment will double your
workload.
Once you’ve defined and segmented new members create
messaging, content and maybe even products with their needs in mind.
When they get marketing messaging that meets their particular needs
their affinity and engagement, in your association, will grow.
Are You Still Relevant to Your Members
Today?

Webbright
Seemingly overnight, technology and customer preferences can
change our need for formerly popular goods and services. Think about
the fates of: Smith Corona typewriters, Kodak cameras, and the five-and-
dime giant Woolworths. For the folks working in these companies, in the
last few years of their existence, it must have seemed like customer
allegiance suddenly flipped but, was that really what happened?
After Kodak went bankrupt 2012 we learned that the staff had
fielded customer research on digital photography years earlier. The
results of that research said digital photography would be the future of
photography and the research even indicated when digital photography
would fully take hold. Not all organizations have the ability to hire a
research firm to field a multi-million dollar piece of research but there are
still ways to tell if you are relevant to your members or if you are on the
downward spiral.
Is Relevancy a Key Topic at Your Association?

Webbright
Relevancy seems to be on the minds of many association staff. I am
not sure what the average age of professional and trade associations are
but I suspect many have been around 40 years or more. Even if your
association has been in existence for only 10 years it is worth a look to
see if you are still relevant. Technology and industry trends can change
significantly in even a couple of years, just ask the music industry folks.
Before you work to become more relevant you first should
determine if you are still relevant and why.
Learn if There Really is a Problem
Use your data to figure out if you have a problem. Are revenues
declining? Are you making budget? Are members switching from
profitable services to unprofitable services? Which benefits are they using
less? Which revenue making offerings have been harder to sell? How
about email opens, when you measure apples to apples, how are those
stats? Has members’ time spent with you declined? Do they spend less
time doing their research on your site? Are they less willing to participate,
contribute or volunteer? Are fewer members coming to your events and
spending less time while they are there?
Use your data to determine shifts. Are your members aging? A
decade ago was the mean member age 40 and today it is 50? Has your
geographic spread changed? Is there industry consolidation among your
members? Has one member segment grown or held steady while others
have declined? Explore all the things that may have changed or shifted.
Still Relevant or Less Relevant?

Webbright
Your current data or survey results can tell you that there is a
problem but cannot tell you why you have a problem or what to do about
it. Additionally without knowing the why we can trick ourselves into
thinking that some external force is to blame and there is nothing to do
about it. The economy is bad, competition is moving in or there’s a
decline sure, but we might rebound any day, right? Answer the why and
you’ll know for sure how much your organization’s relevancy is in your
control.
To ﬁnd out the why and the what to do about it you need to use a
different kind of exploratory research method, again, your data can’t help
you here.
When I conduct member interviews my favorite set of questions
revolves around:
1. What are your biggest professional problems?
2. What problems does the association solve for you?
When the answers to these two questions widely differs I know I’ve
hit upon the reason engagement is declining. Tons of detail around
members’ current problems gives us the building blocks for how to solve
their problems.
Don’t let your association become irrelevant over night. Frequently
determine if you have a relevancy problem and if you do, talking to
members will help you ﬁgure out why and what to do about it.

Webbright
3 Tactics for Exceptional Conference
Experience
Our fate is sealed from the start. The moment members walk into
the conference area and ﬁnd registration they unconsciously start
deciding if they are going to like it. Do they like the conference and by
association our association? As one event professional told me, if
registration is less than perfect for attendees the whole conference will
be less than perfect.
There is just one goal you need to achieve at registration to ensure
an exceptional experience. It is an unconventional goal. The goal is:
attendees, particularly new attendees, must walk away from registration
with a clear idea of what to do next. When they know what to do next
there is no confusion. There is no sense of being left out, alone, or the
only one not in-the-know. When they know what to do next they feel in
control and have a sense of purpose.

Webbright
Related article: First impressions matter for associations too!
This one goal is tricky, however, because to reach it you need to do
three tactics well.
Flawless Administration
All preregistered attendees must have a badge with correct and
complete information and if they do not, it is made easy and fast for them
to correct it. Registration staff must be able to put their hands on
attendee badges and other personal information within seconds. Bags
and other materials are stuffed and at arms length so they can easily be
grabbed without a thought. Why put so much thought into the
administrative part of registration? So staff and volunteer hosts are freed
up to be exceptionally attentive.
Engage the Personal Touch
There’s a huge difference between saying, “name?” and asking
“how was your trip?” How we welcome attendees matters. Since we have
ﬂawlessly executed the administrative part of registration our hosts are
free to attend to the member. When these hosts are super welcoming
and kind you have made a great impression. To go the extra mile though,
make sure that everyone knows where they are going next. Does a
member look wide-eyed and lost? Help her.
I know, this can be super tough, particularly when lines build up and
there is a wait. But, ﬁrst timers will feel better if they get some special
attention so they know what to do next. Here are a few ideas:

Webbright
1. Add a small mark to first-timer badges so registration hosts
know they are first timers and take an extra few seconds to tell them
about the conference, what not to miss and where to go next.
2. Post new-attendee greeters right near registration and direct
new-attendees to them for a quick orientation and any questions.
3. Attach a 3-5 item list of what not to miss while at the conference
along with suggestions for what to do first tailored to the needs of
new attendees and new members.
 
Related article: Membership experience not membership math
Advanced Planning
Before the program is set make sure there is something for
everyone at the start of the conference. This is particularly critical for
newbies. For those new members and new attendees who are traveling
alone they likely don’t know ANYONE. It is daunting to spend a largely
social couple of days with strangers particularly when it seems like
EVERYONE already knows EVERYONE.
The association I used to work for recently instituted a new attendee
orientation. It was one part orientation and one part networking and
helped these new attendees feel like they started the conference already
recognizing some friendly faces. Additionally, at the start of the
conference everyone had a place where they belonged: new attendees
met others at the orientation and learned how to navigate the
conference, manager-level members were in the pre-conference

Webbright
workshops and the long-time members, a close-knit group would
convene by the pool or lounge.
If registration has traditionally been a largely administrative function
see what happens to your members’ conference experience when you
change it from an administrative duty to more of a host/greeter role.
3 Best Practices for Exceptional Member
Experience
Who is in charge of providing an exceptional member experience
at your association? Is it the director of member experience? Is it member
services? Is it the membership manager? Marketing? Business
development?
How about every staff person? Certainly every single member
facing staff person impacts member service and our members’
experience. It used to be easy to deﬁne member facing but now, with
digital, member facing has expanded.
Who is member facing? Whoever answers their phone and talks to
a member; this includes member service but also the research
department, accounting and more. Member-facing also includes all the
media that touches members: print, video and audio so marketing and
editorial are member facing as well. Conference teams and professional
development staff touch and connect with members. Finally and
relatively new to associations is the digital face of the association; IT is
becoming member facing too.

Webbright
This may scare some of us. We may think that the member
experience is our responsibility not IT’s. Or we may think the member
experience is not our responsibility when in fact we touch members.
So what does this mean for us?
"Every staff person can enhance member experience."
Related article: 3 Tactics for Exceptional Conference Experience
Whether face-to-face, over the phone, by email, online or in print
we staff impact member experience during every single touch with our
members. These touches add up to an overall feeling about the
organization. Mostly positive experiences and our members don’t
hesitate to renew. It is important that we consciously cultivate great
member experiences and we do this by:
1. Solving Problems – Members have big problems to solve. They
have challenges that make their job tough, time-consuming tasks that
take attention away from strategic planning or changes in their

Webbright
environment that upset their status quo. Members also come to us
with small problems: a vegan option at the conference, unable to log
in or they stopped receiving emails. Big or small, the way we respond
to their problems signals to them what kind of organization we are.
What are members looking for? They need solutions, staff
responsiveness and in some cases being a proactive staff who has a
deep understanding of them, their company, their industry, their job
and/or their problem.
2. Being Generous – When asked about what a non-profit
professional association means to them, members often reply “they
are not in it for the money”. Instead, members think, associations are
built on the principle of doing a great job. When we staff are
generous with our time and the resources of the association,
members are impressed. When we impose policies that protect the
association from the members and develop poor new products in a
attempt to find a revenue stream trust erodes.
3. Communicating Well – Some of us have a way with words….
and some of us don’t. I remember leading an association website
redesign with a partner that staffed with programmers from India. By
and large this was fine but every once in awhile we would learn of a
very obscure error message that was badly written even sometimes
harshly written. Members want us to communicate using their words.
They want us to communicate with empathy. They want us to
communicate in a way that respects their precious time. Finally they
want us to communicate. Unreturned phone calls and not responded
to emails are sadly common in the association industry. Nothing
makes members more crazed than to take the time to reach out and
not get a response.

Webbright
Opportunities for Engaging Members Your
Association is Likely to Miss
What truly separates associations from our for-
profit competitors besides the non-profit
designation? For-profits are churning out some of
the industry’s best conferences. For-profits are
offering online-communities and other ways to
network. For-profits are developing educational
opportunities and certificate programs. They are
getting into benchmarking research, publishing
guides and sending out newsletters. They are
engaging members.
If they are going to do what we do, we need to
out do how we do what we do! When I talk to members of association
and ask how they feel about non-profit professional associations, they
feel overwhelmingly positive. They have the impression that associations
are more objective, more passionate about the profession and helping
members and they put their mission ahead of the money.
With all these positive feelings you would think that associations
would be highly competitive with for-profits, but when we look at the
turmoil in the association community we know that is not true. So what is
going on?
Even for the associations considerably engaging members,
members indicate there are two areas for continued improvement:

Webbright
member service (depending how you deﬁne member service they really
mean customer service) and the second area: innovation.
Related article: How to prevent association extinction: Association
Success Stories
Opportunity #1: Member Service
Members would now like a high level of customization. They have
problems, which they view as unique. They would like answers to these
problems without having to spend a ton of time researching the answer
themselves. How does your association answer this? Maybe we can solve
this with better site navigation and features or, maybe with problem-
oriented member segmentation or, maybe with a more consultative,
account-management focused member services department.
There will are a lot of factors for any association trying to implement
a higher level of customization such as association size and member
expectations so another association’s answer may not be ours. Bottom
line our members are more and more time starved. They are being asked
to do more with less. They hope that someone understands their
problem and can just solve it.
Opportunity #2: Innovation
Association innovation may mean technology but it doesn’t have to.
Perhaps a better way to describe innovation when talking about the
wishes of our members is to talk about the changes they would like to
see. Changes that would solve their problems enhance the profession or
protect their industry. Innovation can be found in member services, as in
the above discussion. Innovation could be in determining ways to identify

Webbright
and invite younger members who have discovered best practices to
share them.
And yes, Innovation may be new services delivered online or in an
app.
Related article: 5 Proven ideas for providing member value through
your website
How Can Associations Reengage
Experienced Members
There is a divide among associations. Some associations fully
engage those members who are mid-way or more experienced in their
career. But they struggle mightily with attracting younger members. This
is not the problem for all associations, but it is essential to know what new
members want.

Webbright
Many associations focus heavily on members who are new to the
profession, new to their role, or new to the industry. The association ﬁlls
knowledge gaps with training and support gaps with networking. Talk to
these new members and they will tell you that it was at a New (title here)’s
Conference they realized the full value of the association. Because of the
association and their association training they have the resources,
information, contacts and maybe most important thing, the conﬁdence to
tackle their new role.
Where does this leave long-time, experienced members? Ask them
and they will tell you the conference seems stale. The topics are recycled.
The same speakers speak. Conference content feels trivial. Been there,
done that. Can’t we talk about the real issues? The issues that affect
seasoned professionals like me? When the focus of the conference and
association is too 101, members become unengaged. Eventually,
wandering away, missing meetings, getting less and less value all the
time. If we are lucky they recommend the association to their staff. If we
are unlucky, interest in the association dies altogether.
Perhaps the association still serves members past the new stage.
Maybe the organization is still of value during members mid-career years
but then value starts to trickle off.
So how can associations reengage experienced members?
Related Article: Don't Treat All Members the Same
Create a Forum

Webbright
Long-time members usually have created their own strong network
of professional contacts. But they don’t know everyone. In fact their
network may be fairly homogeneous. These long-time members are still
facing issues in their professional lives, in their industries and in their
workplaces. Meet their needs by creating a forum that prompts long-time
members to discuss those big weighty, maybe complex problems that
don’t get discussed by new members. In a forum they will get a diversity
of opinions not just recommendations from a few friends.
Help Them Contribute
After a decade or more in the profession many long-time members
have tremendous knowledge. They’ve met some big challenges. They are
the perfect teachers for new members. The trick is inviting them to
contribute and helping them ﬁnd the opportunity that serves them the
best. Perhaps they are comfortable with leading a session or sitting on a
panel. If public speaking is not for a strong skill for some, maybe they
would like a more one-on-one environment like mentoring? Do they like
writing, how about contributing an article? Invite long-time members to
contribute and give them opportunities that appeal to them.
Solve a Problem
Just because long-time members have been around the block a
few times doesn’t mean they don’t have challenges they are struggling
with. Ask enough members, what keeps you up at night? And soon you’ll
understand their speciﬁc and unique problems in enough detail you can
start to help them solve those problems.

Webbright
Do associations take for granted that engaged members will
continue to be engaged long into their association membership? It
seems that after a while interest tails off. How can we keep up the
momentum?
About Webbright
Webbright is a Wild Apricot value added service provider. We
specialize in website development for membership organizations. Our
services include website migration to the affordable, all-inclusive Wild
Apricot platform, website design, consultation, and training. For more
information, visit us on www.webbrightservices.com.

Engage and attract members with exceptional experiences

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (18)

Similar to Engage and attract members with exceptional experiences

Similar to Engage and attract members with exceptional experiences (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Engage and attract members with exceptional experiences