Guest Author: Tim Ebner, Associations Now
Onboarding is an essential piece of the membership engagement puzzle. While many associations have an onboarding campaign that includes targeted messages, it can be easy to overlook the value of making face time with new members.
The new relationship—is there anything more exciting, and at the same time terrifying, than getting to know someone for the first time? Associations, like people, spend a lot of time and money on the process.
Onboarding programs are tactical efforts that “show the love” to new members, says association consultant Ed Rigsbee, CAE. He recently wrote a blog post that shows what an onboarding program can look like. In his “relationship banking” approach, associations need to put in sufficient relationship currency, or deposits, to justify the member making a withdrawal.
If there’s one thing we know about associations, it’s that they’re pretty good at making those transactional deposits. According to Marketing General Inc.’s 2016 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report [PDF], a majority of associations surveyed are sending new member communications in the form of email welcomes or welcome kits.
