How Organizations Build Community with a Membership Directory
Many membership organizations today struggle to retain members because they don’t effectively communicate the value of joining and remaining part of an organization.
According to the 2018 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report, the top internal challenge to growing membership is difficulty communicating value or benefits. The report also cites “lack of engagement with the organization” as the number one reason for members declining to renew with at 37% of respondents.
This is a major problem when the value of your core product is in question. It’s clear that membership organizations need to do a better job of proving and providing the value of membership to prospects and members.
Member to member networking, whether it leads to a business connection or professional relationship, is often overlooked as the major value proposition for membership organizations. By building an active community and fostering relationships between members organizations gain a strong selling point that they must use to drive membership.
A dynamic membership directory app included as part of a private membership platform will help to create and nurture these valuable connections; the kind of connections that will help members to understand the value of membership and help keep them engaged.
How Can Member Directories Build Communities?
1. Reduce Member Churn
It’s a challenge to maintain a strong community and foster relationships when members leave. The 2018 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report confirms that Associations often lose on average between 20% and 30% of their members each year!
A mobile membership directory app helps to reduce member churn by connecting users and creating avenues of discussion and dialog. As a result, members feel more engaged and involved in their community, increasing membership retention and recruitment.
2. Build Stronger Connections
Dynamic membership directories make it easier to find new and existing contacts across organizations of all sizes by searching by name, industry, occupation, location, and other relevant data points. Members can quickly find and communicate with who they are looking for, whether it be someone they met at the last networking event or a new connection altogether.
3. Boost Event Attendance
Before, during, and after your events, organizations should encourage members to connect using a membership directory to help facilitate discussion, build relationships, and grow engagement. A connected set of members who are using the directory will more likely show up in person because they feel more involved with the organization as a whole.
Private Membership Platforms Drive Additional Value
Member directories, when part of a full-featured private membership platform, can provide additional ways for organizations to increase engagement and retention. These apps can include unique features that websites can’t match.
Related Blog: Membership Directory Apps Are Making A Major Comeback
For example, push notifications that appear on a user’s screen can increase user retention up to 10 times. Merely sending a weekly push notification can increase retention by 200% over a 90-day period.
Additionally, once installed, a branded membership app can increase your brand’s exposure and reach. Modern consumers pick their phone up 52 times per day and if your logo is on their home screen, your brand will stay top of mind.
Membership organizations don’t need to develop these branded membership apps or membership directories from scratch. Rather than spending tens of thousands of dollars and wasting time with endless development cycles, Groupfire provides beautifully customized, full-featured membership platforms as well as custom membership directory apps to best recruit, retain, and delight members for continuous success.
To learn more about how Groupfire can help your organization reach its membership goals, request a demo today.
Sources:
- http://www.marketinggeneral.com/knowledge-bank/reports/
- https://www.urbanairship.com/blog/7-mobile-engagement-statistics-that-show-how-push-notifications-boost-roi
- https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/technology-media-and-telecommunications/articles/global-mobile-consumer-survey-us-edition.html
