When a new member joins your association, they want to quickly experience how membership will help them achieve their career or business goals. With an onboarding campaign that’s personalized to their goals and interests, you show new members how your association plans to deliver the value they seek.
Make your new member onboarding campaign even more personal and effective by delivering it through your association’s membership app. Via their phones, you talk with members, not at them.
The goal of a mobile onboarding campaign is to make your association a habit. Think about it: a member’s phone is always within reach, which means membership is always within reach too.
If your AMS is integrated with your membership app, you can add a new member automatically to a mobile onboarding campaign based on their membership type. Add new members to more targeted campaigns as you learn more about them. Mobile onboarding allows you to provide this personal touch at scale.
By consistently interacting with new members during their first nine months with your association, you encourage them to take baby steps toward their membership goals.
Mobile onboarding is convenient for members. They don’t have to be on your schedule. They read messages, watch videos, update their profile, and take other onboarding actions whenever and wherever they wish.
On membership applications, ask for an email address and cell number. A mobile onboarding campaign translates nicely to email and vice versa. Ask new members which they’d prefer for onboarding: email, mobile, or both. Suggest they give their inbox a break by signing up for mobile onboarding. Onboarding calls-to-action (CTAs) are easy to do in the moment or set aside for later—you’ll send them reminders.
New member onboarding has changed over the years. What started as a mailed package or binder full of handouts turned into an emailed PDF attachment with the same information overload. Now, most associations use email to deliver onboarding information, but they overlook the most obvious delivery method—a membership mobile app. Here’s how to take advantage of this convenient communication channel.
Onboarding is not about you. The new member is the focus of your initial onboarding interactions. Send push notifications or polls requesting information that helps you personalize their onboarding and membership experience. Let them know that’s why you’re doing it.
If your app is integrated with your AMS, start filling in the empty fields of their member profile. Find out about their membership, career, and business goals.
If they’re not sure, offer career resources or a volunteer membership advisor to help them identify their goals and next steps. To identify their peer group, ask about their career stage and job function.
Find out how they prefer to connect:
Eventually, find out about their organization type and size, workplace challenges, and industry topics of most interest to them. This information helps you tailor content to their needs and interests. Plus, it helps them feel understood, find value right away, and know joining was the right decision.
Adjust the onboarding campaign based on what you learn. Make sure you’re reaching out to learn something about them, not promoting something they have to buy.
Don’t assume new members did the research and know what you’re all about. They might be coming to you without a clue because their employer suggested they join. But during the onboarding campaign, you gradually introduce them to the resources that will help them get ahead.
Little by little, show them where to find the basics: online community, learning, volunteering, news, and industry partners. Don’t overwhelm them by dumping all this information at once.
Invite them to personalize their membership experience by opting in to push notifications and telling you their topic, communication, networking, and learning preferences. Explain how to update this information if their goals and interests change.
Your association vies for a share of your member’s time with other sources of news, information, and education. But your community of members is your differentiator. You want new members to feel welcome as soon as possible and know how to take steps toward being part of something bigger.
This process starts with them filling in their profile and uploading a profile photo so you and other members know what they’re all about.
Find out about the peers or mentors they want to meet. Based on their location, job function, or interests, introduce them to relevant online communities, discussion groups, networking events, components, or sections.
Ask volunteer membership advisors or ambassadors to send direct messages to new members and offer advice based on the new member’s goals and interests.
Reduce potential feelings of overwhelm by only asking new members to take only one action for each onboarding interaction, for example:
If your app is integrated with your AMS, eventually you can send personalized content recommendations based on their interests and other attributes, like their career stage.
Teach new members how to use app features:
According to the New Member Engagement Survey by Kaiser Insights and Dynamic Benchmarking, associations with the highest renewal rates followed a 3-3-6 new member onboarding schedule:
By following this schedule throughout the onboarding journey, you consistently ask questions to learn more about the new member and provide relevant information and suggestions for their next steps.
Gather feedback from new members midway through and after the onboarding experience. Adjust their journey or overall campaign tactics based on what you learn.
Mobile onboarding sets new members up for membership success. Long before renewal time arrives, they will know membership is a smart investment. Get more ideas for improving the member experience in our Ultimate Guide to Mobile Engagement.