Member Engagement: The Ultimate Guide

There are few things more valuable than a highly-engaged member base. Engaged members invest more time, money and attention into the association. This strengthens its credibility with sponsors and increases a member’s lifetime value. Poor member engagement, by contrast, undermines member retention, association revenue and appeal with sponsors.

However, assigning a concrete definition to member engagement can be challenging. Indicators of engagement vary between associations. Here, we’ll explore the definition of member engagement in greater depth, including how it can be increased and leveraged. Armed with a deeper understanding of member engagement, you can take action to deploy the tools you need, and begin tracking meaningful engagement goals in your own association.

What Is Member Engagement?

Broadly speaking, member engagement can be defined as: The process of actively building, nurturing & managing relationships with all segments of your audience to increase membership volume, value and retention.

Furthermore, engagement can take shape in a number of ways.

Examples of member engagement include:

Attending association events & conferences
Networking with other members
Purchasing association merchandise
Referring or recruiting new members
Participating in an association committees
Using an association mobile app to:
- Consume valuable content including videos and news feeds
- Contribute and participate in live discussion forums
- Interact with sponsors and members
- Join and manage committees and small groups
- Register for events
- Get timely and relevant content pertaining to members interests
- Make dues payments
- Contribute valuable data from polls & surveys

Why Is Member Engagement Important?

An abundance of studies show that member retention is strongly correlated with member engagement. In 2018, 37% of associations polled listed “lack of engagement” as the top reason for non-renewals. In 2019, 83% of alumni associations who reported year-over-year increases in member renewals had a tactical engagement plan in place. One study showed that associations with longstanding member engagement programs had 11% higher renewal rates than those without engagement programs.

The importance of engagement also extends far beyond member-based associations. Parallels can be drawn with employee engagement in business and customer engagement in marketing. In all cases, it contributes to the vitality of an organization. To that point, com

How to Set Member Engagement Goals

Because engagement KPIs (key performance indicators) can differ across associations, it’s important to pinpoint the specific KPIs you’ll need to track. To determine your member engagement KPIs, start by carefully examining the unique features of your organization. To take a more strategic approach to member engagement, consider presenting the following idea to your team: “When members aren’t doing XYZ, our association is not doing well. When they are doing XYZ, our association is thriving.” After you’ve developed an idea of your engagement indicators, set a realistic, numerical goal with a time frame to achieve it.

Example member engagement goals include:

Increase event attendance by 30% over the next 3 months
Have 75% of members download the association’s mobile app within 1 year of launch
Drive 250 purchases of branded merchandise during key annual event

With a long-term roadmap to guide your efforts, you create measurable goals to strive toward.

How to Increase Member Engagement

Historically, associations have engaged their members by distributing welcome kits, hosting community events, and providing a variety of discounts and perks. Recently, the maturation of digital media has allowed many organizations to expand their reach, engaging members across avenues like email, mobile apps and social media.

Among these new digital channels, mobile apps have emerged as one of the most powerful means for engaging members. Remember, most of your members have a full-time job; they are working 8–12 hours a day. The idea that they’ll sit down in front of a web browser to ‘check in’ on their association news is pretty much over.

With a customizable association app, you can engage your members by:

Sending push notifications for immediate, effective communication – Whether sharing important updates or announcing events, push notifications engage members more effectively than traditional communication methods, like email.
Increasing access to association resources – A well-built mobile app allows members to access information and resources on-demand, while offering a smoother user experience than a mobile responsive website.
Providing a better experience at events and conferences – Through features like location services, QR codes and digital itineraries, event mobile apps can be used to help association events run more efficiently for attendees.
Networking and participating in committees or small groups – Push the engagement and conversations online. Provide members the ability to manage and drive small group and committee participation within your mobile app.
Collecting member feedback to improve the association – Rather than mass-emailing a link to a lengthy web-based survey, you can seamlessly solicit member feedback within your mobile application.

Your mobile app can become the central place for your association information. Mobile apps help associations maximize their presence in members’ lives by improving upon existing member communication efforts. This results in stronger member engagement.

How to Leverage an Engaged Member Base

Once you’ve succeeded in creating a more engaged member base, there is a lot you can do with it. Devoted members can almost be likened to “fans,” whose brand loyalty affords a number of valuable opportunities to the association, including:

Targeted sponsorship and marketing opportunities – Members with defined interests and affiliations are attractive to sponsors who need to reach a targeted audience. Sponsors will often compete for access to a highly engaged audience; if you’ve diligently tracked engagement KPIs, you can even present hard stats when soliciting new sponsors.
Attracting more members – A satisfied member base is an association’s most effective marketing tool. Through word-of-mouth marketing and referral programs, communities with an engaged membership will continue to thrive and grow.
Improved quality of data – Engaged members are more open to providing high-quality, detailed feedback in polls and surveys, further elevating your understanding of your constituency.

The Best Solution for Member Engagement

Member engagement is a key driver of success in all areas of your association. Over time, a variety of methods for boosting engagement have emerged, from social media platforms to email marketing campaigns. Among these technologies, mobile apps have quickly taken the lead, providing associations with some of the most effective tools for improving outreach and retention. A mobile app, done right, can provide a number of effective tools to drive engagement results that a website or community portal have simply failed to do.

While making the leap to mobile may feel like a challenge for some organizations, expert app builders like MobileUp can help the process feel seamless. With a full suite of mobile tools, highly customizable user interfaces, and a proven track record of serving the association industry, MobileUp is the perfect partner for keeping your members informed and engaged. Now is the time to adopt mobile technology and send your member engagement rates soaring.

Why Is Having a Member Engagement Strategy Important?

A member engagement strategy is vital for your organization to retain all members. Member engagement is a two-way investment between both parties. They want to feel connected and appreciated through your organization, and it’s your job to provide them with a continuous, valuable experience to strengthen their profession.

An organization has little to show without its members, so make them the spotlight. Provide members with the ability to engage through events, networking, committees, small interest groups, and sharing of relevant content.

Remember that effective member engagement is an ongoing process that requires a commitment to understanding your members and adapting your strategies to meet their evolving expectations and preferences. By consistently demonstrating the value of membership and actively involving your members in the association’s activities, you can foster a vibrant and loyal community.

What Makes a Member Engagement Strategy Successful?

Many things can support a member engagement strategy and make it impactful. At the end of the day, you are looking to attract and retain members, so you’ll want to do as much as possible to make sure your strategy is successful.

A few characteristics of a successful member engagement strategy include the following:

Active Year-Round: Staying relevant to your members is crucial in retaining them. Maintain communication to build a welcoming environment within your organization. Publishing relevant content, events, etc., that are coming up at any time of the year is a must. Don’t be silent for too long, and keep your brand in front of all members all the time.
Member-Centric: A personalized member-centric strategy means catering your organization’s strategy to your members’ needs and desires, ensuring an enjoyable and valuable experience by providing rich and relevant content that is easily accessible. To build a relationship with them, monitor their interactions with your interfaces and adjust as needed.
Two-Way Communication: Traditional member communication has relied on one method of push emails over the years. As data shows, email communication and engagement continue to fall. It is critical that members have alternative options to receive and send communication both to the sponsor organization and directly to other members. A communication best practice should include email, notifications, in-app messaging, feed, and email.

6 Strategies for Improving Member Engagement with a Mobile App

There are many app engagement strategies to keep members returning after their initial use. Here are 6 strategies to improve member engagement with a mobile app:

1. Omni Channel Communication

No one channel of communication provides the results every association is looking for. Email. push notifications, feeds, in-app messaging, and SMS are all good tools that should be used. Each of these might have different use cases that will deliver the results you are looking for, but all of these should be a part of a comprehensive communication strategy.

2. Events

Bringing members together out of the office provides great opportunities to build and strengthen personal relationships and meet new members, speakers, and exhibitors. Providing a cost-effective way to publish and present event materials and a comprehensive event experience for all attendees is a must with today’s mobile technology. Besides saving printing dollars, attendees can receive any last-minute program changes instantly and not have to carry around a heavy and incomplete binder.

3. Personalize User Experience

When using a mobile app, there’s much opportunity to personalize the user experience. Adapt the app’s functionality based on user preferences, actions, and demographic data. Even something as simple as using their first name in notifications can personalize their experience. Providing relevant and unique experiences increases member engagement and persuades them to return to your app.

4. Surveys and Feedback

Feedback to any organization is essential in staying relevant. Providing all members the ability to quickly provide feedback through an app delivers more results and, thus, more engagement. From responding to posts (member or admin) within a feed, contributing posts to a group, or receiving a notification with a link directly to a survey within the app gets timely and rich feedback that every organization would love to act upon.

5. Recognition

Use the app to recognize awards, achievements, milestones, etc., of your members. Whether presented in a complete story or a simple announcement, both the recipient and other members will enjoy the sharing of information. This recognition usually leads to other members reaching out and networking with other members. It is human nature to read about someone else, social media has made this mainstream. Recognition is not only timely in a mobile app but is most likely to be consumed in a mobile app.

6. Resources

Content provides value to membership. Easy access to content provides even more value. Ensure that essential content that provides value to members is accessible with one click. Members trying to dig around web pages is not a great experience and becomes discouraging after a while. Embed this content within the app or provide a simple one-click-away opportunity for members to gain immediate access. Using the communication channels mentioned above, inform members of new content and watch engagement increase.

Now that you know why mobile apps are essential for engaging your members, it’s time to start building an app for your organization. Some of the above mentions are only available through mobile technology today. We invite you to learn about MobileUp’s platform, and when you’re ready to start building your customizable interface, we’re here to assist.

Engage Your Members Better With a Mobile App

The benefits of creating a mobile app are clear, but the company you work with to build your association app will make all the difference. You need an expert with a firm grasp on the association market and the intricacies of app development. Take the guesswork out of creating an app by utilizing a partner like MobileUp. With an innovative, customer-focused platform tailored specifically to the association app market, MobileUp has helped associations of all shapes and sizes enhance their member experience with a mobile app. MobileUp apps are easy to implement, highly configurable, and extremely cost-effective. Whether your association is just beginning to explore the potential of a mobile app or hoping to revamp an existing one, MobileUp can show you how to take your association to the next level.