Member recruitment and digital
We're heading to MemberWise's Harnessing the Web 2014 on Tuesday. The event helps membership organisations and associations find new ways to deliver member benefits and growth using digital.
Why is Deeson there?
We have decades of experience in the membership sector and we're the event's online communications sponsor.
Simon and I will be presenting user experience research findings in a presentation called 'Membership Websites That Rock: The Digital Effectiveness Audit'. Emily and Dominic will also be on hand to chat about all things strategy, content, marketing and social.
So why the audit?
We've built a large number of complex membership websites over the years and we asked ourselves 'do membership organisations provide an effective journey for prospective members who are looking to join?'
The exploration of this question led us to carry out some research and the findings formed a best practice guide on digital effectiveness for member recruitment.
What problems do membership organisations face?
Membership organisations need to grow membership subscriptions, particularly if they need to increase training take-up, improve event bookings or have an ageing member profile.
People want convenient ways to update their membership details and interact with their membership organisations. This is why, for our clients in the membership sector, we focus on providing the best online experiences for their members.
New member recruitment is crucial, so it's important membership benefits are clear, easy to find and the online sign-up process isn't laborious.
The experience of the potential new member is at the heart of our research.
How did we carry out our research?
We designed an audit methodology to systematically test a sample of membership organisations, who aren't our clients or prospective clients.
This is a common way to benchmark user experience, discover areas for improvement so a range of measurable steps can be put in place to make improvements.
The audit checklist
We looked at the typical stages potential new members went through when selecting and joining a membership organisation:
- Searching for a membership organisation
- Understanding the organisation
- Finding out what membership offers
- Finding membership levels and costs
- Joining the organisation
We then assessed each of the organisations in our sample against these journey steps and applied our benchmarking methodolgy.
Who was in our sample?
We selected five high profile UK membership organisations:
Keep an eye out for the results
Simon and I will be presenting the findings of our research at Harnessing The Web 2014.
We will also be publishing a short white paper about our findings, both positive and negative, as well as a collection of tips and tricks on how to improve your membership recruitment effectiveness online.
Digital Membership Engagement is also the topic of our next Memchat event at the Gherkin on 22nd October - there are a couple of places left, so hurry and register your interest here.
Keep updated
To get your hands on the white paper when it's published, subscribe to our regular email below to keep informed.