Guest Post: Ernie Smith, Associations Now
When someone joins an association, they’re often looking for a path forward as a new member—a little help to find their way, a compass that they can follow.
Associations can offer that help—or they can be a little more passive and do something minimal.
But doing the minimum at the beginning might just cost them the chance of keeping that member around. A 2018 report from Dynamic Benchmarking and Kaiser Insights [PDF] found that associations that implemented an effective onboarding strategy were able to increase their member retention from 62 percent to 68 percent.
Plus, there are other benefits that come from stronger onboarding, including more usable feedback, more detailed information about members, cleaner member databases, and easier identification of potential volunteers.
“Immediate value received upon joining prompted a high level of life-long engagement,” the report stated.
In other words, a little TLC goes a long way. So what does that engagement look like? A few ideas for effective member onboarding upgrades:
