Its seems simple enough. If you showcase value/benefit to your members, they will be loyal to your organization. Member loyalty leads to engagement and even further, renewals-two words that make any Association leader happy.


When we start diving into communication strategies and effective methods for member engagement, Association leaders immediately start to worry about resources. How will this affect their already time-constrained staff? How much time has to be dedicated from their team to make a virtual environment successful? The biggest piece of information that I like to stress is that most of these organizations are ALREADY DOING THE WORK! They are already creating great pieces of content, hosting informational and educational events and lectures, developing thriving committees and programs; the key is translating those all those efforts into a sole virtual environment-where the members have access at any time.

Recently, Marketing General Incorporated released their 2016 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report. For the 8th straight year, MGI has conducted its Membership Marketing Benchmarking Survey to analyze and track the strategies and tactics that membership organizations use to recruit new members, engage and renew those members, and reinstate lapsed members. This annual report is one-of-a-kind. It provides insight on the membership enhancement strategies that 828 unique associations-spanning individual member associations, trade associations, and associations combining the characteristics of both-are using today and whether they are successful or not.
There is a multitude of information in this comprehensive report, but here are five stats that stood out when I read the report for the first time:

​We’ve been busy. There are some that will read that previous statement and think to themselves, “Who is she kidding-I’m always busy.” And while that might be true, there is a massive difference between activity and performance. We can be efficient in a lot of things in our professional lives, without ever being effective.

​A few months ago, our leadership team at Next Wave Connect realized that it was time for a major shift in focus for our organization. Our platform had 20,000+ plus healthcare users, hundreds of communities, and ongoing engagement. But what we were missing is what our Founder, Ivo Nelson, refers to as our “edge.” What turns our software and services from a “nice to have” to a “need to have.”  We had healthcare leaders on the site, but were they really having meaningful engagement? Was our site the vehicle to help these leaders truly transform the industry? Point blank-we needed to be more effective.