Membership

Tuesday Buzz: Make Member Sign-Ups Easier

Don’t lose potential members because of a cumbersome application form. Simplify your membership process with a few key tweaks to your site. Also: Avoid magical thinking while planning projects.

The last thing any association wants is to lose potential members because of an overly complicated application form.

The MemberClicks blog shares a few ways to make your application forms as user friendly as possible.

The company’s Callie Walker suggests starting with making the application page incredibly easy to find. There should be links on your home page, as well as on most other pages throughout your site.

Be sure to ask simple questions. Don’t exhaust applicants with a ton of open-ended questions. Instead, use multiple-choice questions when possible to make applying easy. And break up the form into sections so applicants aren’t initially turned off by a wall of text.

“It’s important to note that what may seem easy or intuitive to you may not be easy or intuitive to your potential members—and the latter is what matters most,” Walker writes.

Check out her post for more.

Time Management

Are you planning your project timelines correctly?

Amanda Kaiser from Smooth the Path says there are two mindsets when it comes to association time management: magical thinking time and buffered time.

Magical thinkers plan projects as if nothing will go wrong—no mistakes, no curveballs.

“This kind of scheduling is bound to force the project team to work during their discretionary hours and overrun the budget,” writes Kaiser.

She suggests you adopt a buffered time mindset. Factor in additional time for things like learning, preparation, and mistakes.

“With a buffered time planning approach the project team has the time to be more thoughtful and organized,” she says.

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(iStock/Thinkstock)

Raegan Johnson

By Raegan Johnson

Raegan Johnson is a contributor to Associations Now. MORE

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