Solving for the New Reality of Engagement: A Holistic Member Experience

Member experience is the combination of all the interactions your members have with your organization—from the onboarding process to the way members access their benefits. Understandably, this impacts how members feel about your association. 

In an age of constant competition for people’s time, creating a good member experience means thinking holistically. Everything that makes up your association needs to work together to form a compelling value proposition that attracts members and keeps them invested. 

Why Create a Holistic Member Experience? 

Think about it: If you drive to a store in the middle of nowhere, like Walmart, you probably just go in, shop, and go home. But, if you go to a store in a thriving town center, you might stay a while, browsing other stores, wandering the town square, enjoying a local event, and even chatting with people. 

Delivering a comprehensive, interconnected journey gives members more reasons to stick around and fosters stronger relationships, leading to: 

• Increased member retention. Members are more likely to renew when they feel their needs are fully met. 
• Improved member satisfaction. Positive experiences at every touchpoint lead to higher satisfaction. 
• Enhanced member engagement. Addressing the entire member journey creates opportunities for deeper participation. 

Strategies for a Holistic Member Experience 

Several key components contribute to a seamless and engaging journey for association members.  

Personalize and customize 

In Higher Logic’s 2024 Association Member Experience Report, which surveyed nearly 400 association members, 71% of respondents agreed that personalization is important to them. Tailoring communications and content to individual members’ needs and preferences makes them feel valued and leads to better engagement. Metrics from the 2024 Association Email Benchmark Report and the 2024 Association Community Benchmark Report showed: 

• Personalized emails have 33% higher open rates and 17% higher click rates
• Communities using automation to personalize see more logins and activity 

When you use data to act on member insights and deliver targeted experiences that truly resonate, why wouldn’t they engage?  

Diversify your channels and benefits 

We mentioned how people’s attention is split between different communication channels and sources of information. Use that. Meet your audience where they are—go beyond just maintaining a website and email list:  

• Use a job board to attract people at every career stage 
• Incorporate mobile apps to make it easier for members to connect and for you to notify them about opportunities 
• Support professional development and engaging education with a learning or credentialing platform 
• Create opportunities for member involvement with volunteering and mentoring programs  

The upside of so many different channels is the multitude of ways to engage people. For example, if someone unsubscribes from email, there are other ways to reach them.  

Create interconnected experiences  

How you build your technology infrastructure directly impacts how members experience their benefits. This is why integration is so powerful—when the systems you use work together, you can act on the data you have across your association’s tech stack, and members feel they have a singular, valuable hub where they access everything. 

For example, in the 2024 Association Community Benchmark Report, we saw organizations that incorporate their mentoring, volunteering, job board, and/or chapters into their community had at least 84% more logins and 50% more discussion activity. Connecting different initiatives into your association’s community gives members reasons to engage, both with the community and with those opportunities, ultimately helping them recognize the value of membership. 

Communicate consistently  

Your visibility with members is better when you maintain consistent communication. And it’s important to personalize that communication wherever possible so it doesn’t become annoying.  

One way to do that is by using marketing automation to set up targeted email campaigns or sending specific reminders based on a member’s actions. This has a positive impact on engagement because you’re sending people reminders they actually care about. Targeted, automated campaigns have 15% increase in open rates and 10% increase in click rates over single sends.

AI can be a huge help here, saving you time with things like writing emails, managing community content, and answering community queries. 

Successful Examples of Holistic Member Experience 

Ensuring your organization is aligned around delivering a comprehensive and cohesive member experience leads to positive results. But don’t just take our word for it, learn from other associations. 

• ASAE uses their Collaborate community to boost almost everything they do—from volunteer programs, credentialing, events, and more
• Maddie’s Fund works more collaboratively by putting different member segments at the center of member programming
• SHAPE America — Society of Health and Physical Educators uses one fully integrated platform to support their community, email, events, and more, gaining member insights 

With so many organizations personalizing their experience—from commercial brands to social platforms—people expect things to be tailored to their needs. If your association doesn’t follow suit, your members may not readily recognize your value. By creating a holistic member experience, you can solidify your position as a trusted resource and keep members engaged in an increasingly digital era. 

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