One of the most frustrating dynamics for association staff is noticing that some members join but then never take another single action. They don’t read the emails. They don’t sign up for webinars. They don’t log in to the website. You may be surprised to learn this super frustrating for new members as well.
Members join with the intention of engaging. They expect they will learn something. They hope to meet others like them. Belonging might help them advance their career. Usually, they are fuzzy on the exact value they will get, but they do expect to get some value. New members are profoundly disappointed when they notice they are not getting any value. They think they made a mistake by joining, and that doesn’t feel good.
At the same time association staff know that the new member has many opportunities to engage. Why won’t they just take that first step?
But new members don’t see a way to engage. They see a waterfall of communications, but none stick out as something that applies to a new member like them and they quickly tune out all emails from the association. Or they kind of keep tabs on the communications but every time something looks interesting there is a barrier to joining in; it is the wrong time, it is too expensive, it is too time-consuming.
The key to solving this problem is engaging new members very early in their membership. I just published a new e-book with solutions for how to do exactly that. The book called, Fueling Exceptional New Member Experiences: Strategies for Member Onboarding, Engagement and Retention explains why new members do not become engaged in the associations and how you can reverse this dynamic in your association.
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