How do prospective members first connect with their local chapter? Some of them use the chapter website links on your site, and others find their way via Google. The chapter website plays an important role in recruiting new members, attracting attendees, and keeping existing members up-to-date on chapter news and events. But maintaining a website means more work for volunteer leaders—and so much can go wrong.
Welcome to the sixth post in our series on chapters in crisis. In these posts, we assume chapters are subsidiaries, a situation that brings more risk to National, but also supposedly provides more control. Even if your components are independent, you’ll benefit from the advice we share.
So far, we’ve covered financial mismanagement, financial fraud, federal and state compliance issues, cybersecurity, and data privacy. Chapters can now accomplish more than ever thanks to technology, but that same technology also creates new risks. Let’s dig in.
THREATS TO A CHAPTER WEBSITE
Nowadays, an organization’s website is the first and lasting impression for prospective members as well as existing members, customers, revenue partners, local press, policy-makers, speakers, and the public.
Usually, the people in charge of the website are busy volunteer leaders and/or staff, not digital marketing or IT experts. Their primary focus is elsewhere, so it’s easy to get lax about updating the site with new information, removing old information, and fixing broken links or lackluster copy.
If the website was a DIY project or designed by someone’s relative, it may not be secure or set up correctly for Google’s web crawlers. A site that’s poorly designed for security, speed, search engine optimization (SEO), or mobile responsiveness will rank low in Google search results.
Other challenges with chapter websites include:
- Branding that’s not aligned with National’s.
- Lackluster membership marketing copy, for example, a boring list of membership features, not benefits.
- Poor functionality: members can’t join or renew online, can’t register for an event online, and can’t access contact information for fellow members.
But, hey, at least they have a website, that’s a plus, right? Not always.
You might get a call one day from a prospective member. He went to the local chapter’s website but ended up on his internet provider’s “You have entered an unknown web address” page instead. What’s going on?
Most likely, the chapter didn’t renew their web domain and it expired. Their website is gone. Oh brother.
DEALING WITH CHAPTER WEBSITE DISASTERS
If you encounter an expired website domain, consult this information on the ICANN website. Hopefully, a URL seller hasn’t grabbed the domain out from underneath the chapter. We heard a story at the Association Component Exchange (CEX) about a chapter who tried to renew their domain one day after expiration but it was already too late. A URL seller wanted $5,000 for it, so the chapter had to start all over with a new domain.
If you’re dealing with lousy website copy, triage the situation. What absolutely needs to be fixed, updated, or deleted? Work with chapter leadership to delegate these tasks to a competent volunteer or outsource them to a virtual assistant or marketing professional. Don’t rely on leadership to handle it; they obviously don’t have the time.
You might need a plan to get the website “up to code.” The website must meet National’s branding expectations. More importantly, it must be secure, speedy, SEO- and mobile-friendly, and provide the functionality everyone expects.
Volunteer leaders don’t have the skills to do these tasks themselves—unless they do this type of thing for a living. Later in this series, we describe how to help chapters hire contractors and firms for projects like this, for example, provide a website vendor checklist so chapters know what to look for.
So what’s the root cause here? Is the lousy website a result of a lack of money, time, skills, or interest? Answer that and you can figure out a sustainable long-term strategy.
HOW TO HELP CHAPTERS PREVENT WEBSITE DISASTERS