CredSpark Association + Nonprofit Series:
The Struggle is Real
Many associations and nonprofits offer a huge variety of content, services, education, benefits, and more for very diverse groups of members across the lifespan of their membership. The struggle? How to boil all that down to showcase your organization’s relevance to each individual member based on their particular interests, needs, goals, and the point at which they are in your member lifecycle.
Today, effective audience engagement is the key factor in driving the transactions that you want like “join,” “renew,” “subscribe,” and “enroll.” And in today’s on-demand world, personalization is an expectation in the marketplace, not a nice-to-have. So what changes can associations make to enhance the experience for each member and drive the most value for (and from) your membership?
3 Ideas You Can Deploy Now That Drive Significant Member Engagement
Go beyond survey questions. Have conversations instead.
Go beyond survey questions. Have conversations instead.
Most associations and nonprofits gather some set of data from their membership. However, it tends to be one-way and very binary (think annual survey). It doesn’t have to be this way. Smart, member-driven organizations are beginning to think of member communications as individual conversations. The technology is out there to enable it and it’s inexpensive. These ‘conversations’ stoke member engagement; in fact at CredSpark, we see engagement metrics that crush traditional one-way communications (email, blog posts, articles, etc.). And that enhanced engagement drives treasure droves of member data which in turn, drives critical insights into member needs and interests.
Respond with relevance.
We challenge you to go to your website with the mindset of a new member. Where do you go? Where do you find the content, courses, events, etc. that best meet your needs? How is your voice or interests heard or understood?
Most top-notch associations showcase their expertise and depth through their content, programs, and events. But do you showcase your organization’s relevance to each individual member? We encourage clients to create member engagement experiences that surface each individual member’s interests, needs, and goals. Then, with a little assist from affordable AI-driven personalization technology, deliver the programs, content, benefits, and events that best meet those member needs, right at the time that individual member is ready for them.
Your organization’s wide array of offerings can be overwhelming. So why not showcase expertise and relevance and deliver what your audience wants, when they want it? You’ll immediately see the difference in your engagement, registrations, sales, and more.
Leverage that data.
Yes, increased member engagement provides relevance and value for your membership; but it also provides it for your organization, too. Each individual, personalized interaction you have with your members drives new data. Mine that data for deeper insights into member interests, goals, motivations, purchase intent, etc. Those insights will better inform your decision making in product/program development, member benefits, marketing, content development, member renewals, and more.
How can you leverage these ideas in your organization?
Engagement-driven communication and personalization offer tremendous opportunities for associations and nonprofits. It’s also a lot to process. Interested in ideas geared towards the goals and needs of your organization? Try CredSpark’s Thought Starter. In just 3 minutes, we’ll present you with more relevant articles, examples, and ideas based on your inputs (and you’ll see these personalization ideas we’ve been discussing in action)
