Enhance Onboarding With Your Association's Mobile App

Onboarding is an exciting time. You’re welcoming new members into your fold, and it’s a great opportunity for your association to make a strong impression and help them see the value of membership early on. However, traditional onboarding processes can feel burdensome, especially for busy professionals. Fortunately, there is a more convenient, accessible way to onboard new members: your mobile app.

With app-based onboarding, you can offer a welcoming experience that is always within reach. It’s a fast, flexible, and integrated welcome that saves time for both your team and your members.

In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about mobile app onboarding, including:

• Mobile App-Based Onboarding: FAQs
• Advantages of Mobile App-Based Onboarding
• 5 Strategies for Mobile App-Based Onboarding
  

Let's begin by discussing what mobile app-based onboarding is and why it's useful for associations like yours.

Mobile App-Based Onboarding: FAQs
What is mobile app-based onboarding?

Mobile app-based onboarding is the process of guiding new members through their initial experience with your association via a dedicated mobile application, rather than relying on traditional methods such as physical orientation packets, email chains, or desktop-only portals.

App-based onboarding breaks the welcome experience into manageable steps that are accessible directly from a new member’s smartphone or tablet. Elements can include, but are not limited to:

• Self-paced setup: App-based onboarding allows members to complete their profile, set communication preferences, and upload credentials on their own schedule.
  
• Interactive guides: Walkthroughs, checklists, and video introductions to highlight key association benefits and features are easier for new members to access when it’s convenient for them.
  
• Instant connections: Direct access to peer directories, discussion forums, and event registration helps new members get to know other association members.
  
• Push notifications: With a mobile app, you can easily send new members notifications about onboarding steps, such as reminders of upcoming events and gentle nudges for completing profiles.
  

App-based onboarding is most effective when it takes place in your organization's existing member engagement app, as new members can transition directly out of onboarding into long-term involvement. This also allows your association to facilitate both onboarding and core membership activities without investing in an additional platform.

Why should we switch to app-based onboarding instead of email sequences?

App-based onboarding offers a better user experience and engagement rate than most traditional methods, as well as better data and insights. While traditional email sequences can feel passive and static because information is shared in a top-down fashion, mobile app-based onboarding allows members to interact by customizing their profiles, reacting to, and commenting on onboarding posts.

Engagement is also higher with app-based onboarding due to its convenience and standout nature. By contrast, emails frequently get buried, marked as spam, or ignored in a flooded inbox. Printed onboarding packets, on the other hand, are prone to getting lost or damaged.

Plus, using your association’s mobile app for onboarding enables you to track in-app behavior, module completion, and other actions performed by members, so you can get a clear view of which of your activities are driving engagement.

How do we use our association’s mobile membership app for onboarding?

The actual process for using your association’s mobile app for onboarding depends on your specific onboarding plan. As a first step, you may want to prompt new members to log in and complete their profiles. You can send a welcome message either by posting on your association’s main membership feed or by sending messages to new members’ emails.

Use your app’s features to help members discover your association’s available resources. For example, you may publish onboarding checklists in a dedicated “For New Members” folder.

You can also use your app to facilitate conversations among new and existing members through searchable member directories, one-to-one messaging, and community discussion forums. These avenues build relationships that extend beyond onboarding and make new members feel like they're truly part of your association. 

Advantages of Mobile App-Based Onboarding

While mobile app-based onboarding might seem unconventional, shifting to this approach offers several advantages, including:

• Higher engagement: Push notifications and interactive mobile features capture attention more effectively than crowded email inboxes. Members are more likely to open alerts and complete onboarding steps when they can interact directly from their phones.
  
• Personalization: Rather than relying on automated content feeds, you can set up groups by join date. Staff can then tailor outreach by creating different variations of resources, news, and notifications and publishing them directly to the corresponding target groups to ensure relevant visibility.
  
• Enhanced peer connections: New members can join a network with peers and join interest groups through access to member directories, chapter discussion boards, and messaging tools.
  
  
• Reduced administrative overhead: With a unified app, your team can spend less time manually sending email follow-ups, processing paper forms, or tracking member engagement across disconnected systems.
  
• Real-time analytics: Apps provide clear visibility into member behavior through in-app tracking. You can see opens, views, and likes across your news feed, forums, messages, and events sections.
  

To maximize the impact of your mobile app-based onboarding and kick off a seamless member journey, ensure every request prompts members to take just one immediate action, such as completing their profile, taking a short survey, or saving an upcoming event to their calendar.

Strategies for Mobile App-Based Onboarding

Association members’ needs continually evolve, and so should your approach to meeting them. Modern professionals require on-the-go engagement, including during onboarding. Let’s look more closely at some strategies you can implement to transform your onboarding experience with your mobile app.

Personalize communications

Use your mobile app’s early touchpoints, such as quick surveys and polls, to gather insights into your new members' career goals, business priorities, and preferred ways to connect (online communities, local events, etc.).

Once you know what drives them, tailor your outreach to match their specific profile. Based on their group memberships, they’ll see content that aligns with their needs. By leveraging your mobile app to deliver timely and intentional communication, you’ll show new members that your association genuinely understands their specific goals and that you’re there to help them, which builds trust early on.

Facilitate peer relationships

When members are starting out, they might not feel immediately comfortable reaching out to other members. Make the process easier for them by empowering your more experienced members to initiate contact through direct messages—even a brief welcome message goes a long way!

You can also create targeted group chats that let new and experienced members meet who are part of the same local chapter, committee, or professional interest area. Pair these with dedicated discussion forums where members can ask questions and share industry insights.

By proactively building these connections, you’ll help new members integrate faster and feel like an essential part of your community.

Create continuous touchpoints for re-engagement

To prevent new members from slipping away after their initial setup, use your mobile app’s broadcast features to build ongoing visibility and offer multiple entry points back into the community.

Post high-value source materials, announcements, and key discussion roundups across your main notification channels.

With this, you give new members multiple opportunities to interact with your association, lowering the risk for complete disengagement.

Gamify the experience

Turn the onboarding process into an engaging, interactive journey by introducing light gamification elements into your in-person onboarding activities within your mobile app.

You can set your system up so that attendees can get higher on a leaderboard by scanning QR codes. To make the experience rewarding, tie these to tangible value. For example, members in the leaderboard can unlock perks such as exclusive resource downloads, registration discounts, or public recognition in member leaderboards.

Wrapping Up: Additional Resources on Mobile Apps for Associations

A mobile app like Clowder gives your members a seamless way to connect with your association while empowering your team to manage functions such as engagement, communication, and onboarding all in one platform. More than 150 professional communities trust Clowder's native mobile apps to support their new member onboarding process and long-term engagement—will your association be next?

To continue improving your mobile strategy, in the meantime, explore these resources:

• Member Engagement Software: How to Choose the Right Platform. Considering leveraging a software to engage your members? This guide contains comprehensive information to help you make a decision.
• Association Mobile App Engagement: The Basics + 7 Strategies. Learn strategic ways to engage your members, from catering to their needs and soliciting feedback.
• Mobile Event Apps: FAQ + 12 Top Picks for Associations. Your mobile app can also be used to facilitate events. Discover the best platforms here.