Our Approach to Membership Needs Something Radically Different

Do you feel your organization has been creating SO much value for stakeholders like members, exhibitors, and volunteers, and still, they don’t engage? Frustrating, isn’t it😖?!?

This people-are-hard-to-engage-trend is happening because humanity is changing. What is the big shift that is impacting us so much? Time! Everyone feels busy, impossibly busy.

Our attention is occupied every second of our lives. We used to wait in line at the grocery store or in a doctor’s waiting room, and now we can pull out our phones and catch up on texts, emails, or posts. When we are busy, every moment of every day, we feel busy. And we ARE busy.

People don’t have much extra time these days—there are many obligations like family (kids, eldercare, home maintenance, etc.). Work takes up lots of time for most folks, especially as the lines around work and family life blur and can make us feel ‘on’ all the time. Societal expectations push everyone to ever higher goals, keeping us on the hamster wheel of busyness 24/7. When we are not busy working, we have fun going to festivals, checking things off our infinite bucket lists, and deciding between nearly limitless activities, movies, books, and options for spending our “relaxing time.”

Your stakeholders, members, potential volunteers, attendees, and sponsors have a ton of priorities, so they may feel too busy to engage with all your organization is offering.

What do we do? How do we engage people when our environment, society, and even humanity is changing?

Well, we need a new way to engage people!

Over the last ten years, I’ve conducted and meticulously collected results from 477 one-hour interviews with members from different types of associations (trade/professional, small-large, local-global). While conducting those research studies, I realized a profound insight. When I asked members about the value of their membership, they usually didn’t mention the benefits, events, or content the association provided; they talked about their experiences. Engaged members would explain how, at a chapter meeting, a current member welcomed them and introduced them around. Or the person staffing the registration table was so kind and thoughtful that it got them off to a great start. Or how a staff member called them to personally welcome them to the association, which was unexpected.

I heard some bad stories, too. Communities seemed cliquish—the group’s reservedness was palpable from the very start. Not knowing what to do with their new membership or being overwhelmed by the list of benefits. And feeling like a “wallet” (too many non-dues revenue promotions too soon after joining.)

Through hundreds of stories, I came to understand that what engages members is not just value but also experiences.

Associations offer value like benefits, events, and content, and wrapped up with each point of value are lots of experiences. Examples of experiences are how people are welcomed at registration, to a virtual event, or to your online community.

Every time we deliver value, we provide many experiences, too. We can plan, cultivate, and curate those experiences and make them positive experiences. Positive experiences are memorable and engaging. The good news is that positive experiences don’t have to bleed your budget dry or take a ton of your precious time. Warm smiles, kind words, and a friendly tone are delightful and can even be surprising.

Are warm smiles enough to cut through the clutter and grab the attention of your super busy and time-strapped potential members, new members, core members, volunteers, and other stakeholders? Well, it is a great start! And you can keep building your focus on experiences.

Here is a simple way to prioritize experiences. Start asking, “How do we want members to feel?” For example,

·      How do we want new members to feel a few days after they join?

·      How do we want website users to feel when they see our home page?

·      How do we want potential volunteers to feel when considering a volunteer role?

Pose and answer this question often. Each time, decide on a few emotions you’d like your stakeholders to feel. Ground yourself by thinking of these emotions, and you’ll start thinking of positive experiences you can provide.

Providing positive experiences can be a team effort, so ask the “How do we want [insert stakeholder group here] to feel” question at your next staff, board, or committee meeting.

A focus on positive experiences is so important to the health of associations and their member communities I’ve made it my mission to help everyone become CEOs—Chief Experience Officers, that is! Your staff and your volunteer leaders can become CEOs, too. Would you like to learn more about creating a thriving member community? Check out Elevating Engagement, your new handbook for budding CEOs. You Go, CEO!

This article first appeared on page 50 of Associations Evolve: 2024 & Beyond, along with over 50 articles from our community’s top thought leaders who contributed articles on topics spanning from AI to membership to events and much, much more! Download your copy here.