Are you looking for ways to boost your association membership online? If so, you’re at the right place.
If you have a membership site online for your association but aren’t getting enough sign-ups, then it’s important to take steps. How about using a few helpful marketing strategies to create compelling reasons for people to join you?
You may be the official association for a profession, but that does not mean that you’ll automatically have a large online membership. People will be active on your site and sign up when you build a great site and have the right content in place. Besides which, you also need to maintain your membership rate as well as get sign-ups. How do we do that?
Let’s dive in! Here’s what you need to improve your association site’s membership rates.
Work With the Right Tools
The start to boosting your membership and maintaining it lies in creating smooth user experiences. The right tools allow you to create these experiences. Some of these tools are:
A membership plugin: Using a membership plugin on your WordPress site will allow you to create a full-fledged association website. A good membership site plugin will help you manage registrations, distribute content, and carry out essential activities.
Email marketing services: Sending automated emails will help you communicate with your members. You’ll be able to send onboarding emails, newsletters, and drip email campaigns. Integrating an email marketing service will ensure your association members never miss important information. And that you never fail to keep them informed.
CRM: Customer Relationship Management tools help you build a 360-degree view of your customer. You’ll get information that will help you personalize content to your members and send user-relevant information. Your association members will appreciate emails that address them by name and other forms of personalization – which leads to more engagement.
Analytics: It’s important to track KPIs such as site traffic, conversion rates, email open rates, and other metrics. When you have clear data about how your website is performing and how your members interact, you’ll be able to leverage this information.
Optin forms: An optin form appears at the appropriate time as a way to keep people longer on a page. Using an optin form allows you to collect leads before they leave a page. You can create a popup offering a lead magnet such as an ebook to compel people to sign up. Another strategy to leverage is FOMO or the Fear of Missing Out. Create a time-sensitive offering such as a discount or a free report for members who sign up within a specific time frame.
Create Gated Content
The most appealing reason for a person to join an association site is for exclusive content.
Creating relevant, fresh, and informative content needs to be at the core of your association membership site. Since your content will revolve around your members’ professions or common interests, it’s already relevant. You can offer industry-related content in different formats so that you create variety.
What are some content formats that are engaging and interactive? Let’s take a look.
Podcasts: Offering content through podcasts is a great way to keep your members in touch with industry news on the go. People often listen to podcasts and audiobooks as they move, which helps them save time and multi-task.
Expert interviews: You can offer your members relevant industry-related information by creating audio, video, and even text-format interviews. It’s an interactive and conversational manner of communication. You’ll even be able to leverage the power of influencers by interviewing significant leaders in your field.
Video content: Today, video content is a must for any organization. People find videos to be the most engaging type of content. It’s also easier to consume on mobile phones which are widely prevalent. Create videos as part of your content marketing strategy to engage your association members. Webinars are also a type of live video content that you can use to share information, conduct interviews, and more.
Discussion boards: By creating a forum or a discussion board, you’ll provide members with the ability to connect with peers. This is one of the key roles of an association. By creating a place for peer-to-peer communication you give association members the ability to network.
Educational and training material: You can use a membership or a Learning Management System to create online courses. Training that improves your members’ skills is a valuable offering that people will sign up for.
These are just a few of the examples of the types of content you can create. Other content that associations typically provide are white papers, newsletters, and industry reports.
The key is to create regular and relevant content. Without content, your association members have little reason to sign up for your association website.
Exclusive content creates a feeling of importance. As an association, you also need to protect, promote, and distribute relevant information that benefits your members – making content the key cornerstone of your site.
Add Easy Payment Methods
Associations typically need to collect dues, donations, and other types of payments. You can offer your members greater convenience by creating a single place for all relevant payments to be made.
It’s easy to do with a membership site plugin as you’ll be able to integrate with major payment gateway providers. Make it easy for your members to pay their annual dues, to donate, or to pay for an event or conference ticket by setting up payment options on your site.
The convenience it offers alone is often compelling enough to boost sign-ups. To make it even more convenient, ensure that your site is mobile responsive and that you add a mobile payment solution.
Boost Your Membership Associations Effectively
An association membership site can offer your members a number of benefits. When building your site and creating your marketing strategies, think about what your members need.
They’re looking for content and opportunities that maintain and further their careers. As an association membership site, you need to create a single online presence that offers these benefits.
You can do that by building a platform that performs a number of functions to help people who belong in your associations. We’ve looked at ways content, tools, and discussions can be leveraged to assist your members.
Go ahead and use the tips given here, and you’ll soon boost the numbers of your association membership site.
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