Your association’s onboarding process can determine whether a member stays for only a few months or many years to come. After all, first impressions matter. When members join, do they feel like just another face in the crowd? Or do you take the chance to celebrate them as a valued addition to your community?
Recruiting new members requires time, energy, and resources. A strong onboarding process is key to ensuring your efforts pay off. Let’s walk through five tips that improve the onboarding experience for members and pave the way for long-lasting relationships with your association.
People join associations for various reasons. By understanding these reasons, you can tailor your onboarding process to meet their expectations and interests. To do so, iMIS recommends building member personas that capture the personality and motivations of those who join your organization.
For example, a cybersecurity association might have a member persona that looks like this:
To provide an onboarding experience that someone like Alexia would appreciate, the association might create an “early career toolkit” with resources related to certification pathways, mentorship programs, and networking events.
The sooner your new members feel like a part of your association’s community, the more likely they will stick around. Build a solid foundation for lasting member engagement by sending a sincere, personalized welcome message immediately after they join. At a minimum, this should be an email from a senior leader at your organization addressing the new member by name.
To take your welcome efforts to the next level, consider:
If your members are scattered across various time zones, use videos to make welcome messages and introductions feel more personal.
To inspire your efforts, let’s look at a strong approach from the Exhibition and Convention Executives Forum (ECEF), organized by the Lippman Connects team. To facilitate virtual introductions, they collected more than 100 self-introduction videos from attendees and published them in an interactive web-based gallery for people to explore before, during, and after the event.
Allow new members to tap into your association’s benefits and resources immediately. Clearly highlight the value of their membership and outline easy steps for leveraging available opportunities.
In an email series following your welcome message, you can include:
If your website and membership management system are connected, you can use each member’s online engagement history to learn more about their interests. For example, you may be able to track the pages they visit and links they click to figure out which member persona applies to them and which resources are most likely to resonate with them.
Many people join associations to be part of a community of like-minded individuals with similar goals and interests. Help new members spark connections right away by providing various low-pressure opportunities to interact.
For example, you could organize:
Plan plenty of virtual and in-person social events that new members can pick and choose from. By providing options that appeal to diverse interests and preferences, your association can deliver value from day one and keep members engaged for many years down the road.
While implementing onboarding best practices can go a long way toward increasing engagement and retention, remember to tailor your association’s process to the needs and goals of your new members. One of the most effective ways to do so is by directly asking members themselves.
After onboarding, send new members a quick survey to gather feedback and unlock new opportunities to innovate. For example, you could include questions such as:
Compile the information you collect into your member database and look for common areas of feedback that you can address. When you implement their suggestions, let your members know to demonstrate that your association values their opinions.
After you’ve made a strong first impression through onboarding, maintain momentum and engagement by sharing tailored content, providing ample networking opportunities, and helping members feel like an important part of your community.
To encourage members to renew year after year, eCardWidget recommends implementing appreciation strategies such as eCards, milestone awards, birthday celebrations, and thank-you videos. In doing so, you regularly remind members of all the value and support they receive from your association.
