Have you ever noticed the Twitter flurry before the conference? A few attendees will start leaving tweets here and there.
“I am packing for Orlando!”
“Made it through security and the fight is on time; here I come!”
“Can’t wait for today’s awesome keynote to kick off this conference.”
These attendees are excited! They cannot wait for the annual meeting. They are so excited about the next few days; they are telling the world. Wouldn’t it be great if members felt this way every day of the week? At some associations, members do feel this way, and your members can feel like this too.
In this case, organization size is not holding associations back. It is also not lack of budget or staff. It is not our technology. The only thing preventing our association from becoming the top of mind resource, the organization members are trying to figure out how to become more engaged with, and the one members rave to their colleagues about is….
Simply, understanding our members better.
Deeply understanding members is at the root of it all. There is not another thing that will sustainably drive awareness, engagement, and retention more than understanding our members. Understanding our members helps us stay in lockstep with our members. It is our understanding of them that guides the organization’s strategy. It is our understanding of them that leads to new offerings that they need. It is our understanding of them that helps us tell the stories they most want to hear. It is our understanding of them that helps us design the website and systems they will find easy and useful.
Exponentially increasing our understanding of members grows our empathy muscle. When CEOs understand members more, they find it easier to advocate for the association with the board. Our understanding of members pushes us to put their goals ahead of our own. We become better and better at creating value and experiences they want.
When we truly understand members we are forced to act in ways that prompt members to join, drives them to engage, and pushes them to unhesitatingly renew. We can do this at your association, we just need to understand members better.
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