I have a good friend that I see too infrequently. When we do see each other, we have lovely, interesting, far-ranging conversations. If time were not a constraint, these conversations could continue non-stop for days. But time is always an issue. We schedule one-hour morning walks, and those walks often stretch to two-hours. Because we run overtime so often, I think we book our walking “appointments” less often than if we stuck to the hour. I know that when I see my friend, it will be at least a two-hour commitment, which is tough to fit into a busy schedule.
Everyone’s schedule is busy. Mine is. Your’s is. Your members’ schedules are crazy busy too. I don’t know one person that isn’t zinging here and there, trying frantically to get it all done. Because we are all so time-starved, we notice how long things take and may decide to steer clear of things that take too much time even if they are good for us.
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you have heard me talk about the 3-day to the 3-week window of opportunity. It is the rough time frame that new members are most interested in learning about the association. It is the time when they will read our emails, try a benefit or two, and take our phone calls. From the time they join to about three weeks after they join is the time we have to get them on the path to engagement. This window is also when members discover how much time the association will cost them.
Committing to an association requires time. 1-3 days for a conference and more with travel. A few hours to a half-day for a chapter meeting (because of travel). Hours for an online conference. Hours to read the research. An hour for most webinars. It takes time to read white papers and articles, watch online courses, or talk to a consultant. Some benefits are super time-intensive, like academies, and some are quick, like a short article that takes three minutes to read.
If the first three emails new members receive, link them to long-form content and day(s)-long events a member may assume that the only way to extract any value is to trade in a good chunk of their time. Precious time, they might not be able to give up right then. So they start to ignore messages from the association because of the assumed significant time commitment.
If, however, if most of the first three emails link new members to short-form content; content that is high value, but quick to digest, members may take the time to engage, even if only for 4 minutes. In 4 minutes, they get a bit of value, and that makes them interested in the next email that comes along. This time they spend 7 minutes scanning a white paper. Perhaps within the first three weeks, they also watch an hour-long webinar.
I like to tell clients to make their early interactions with members frictionless. Stack some quick, free, and valuable messaging early in your new member onboarding program to get new members primed for greater engagement later.
If new member engagement is top of mind for you, participate in the New Member Engagement Study today and get access to the onboarding habits of your peers. This research a partnership between Dynamic Benchmarking and my company, Kaiser Insights LLC. Click here for the survey.
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