When association professionals were surveyed for the 2024 Membership Performance Benchmark Report, their top concerns were:
- Increasing member engagement
- Addressing digital transformation challenges
- Improving diversity and inclusion
- Managing budgetary constraints
- Recruiting and retaining members
One member benefit that will help ease these concerns for your association is a membership app. A year-round mobile app is an affordable way to reach all your members while improving engagement and retention. To get the most out of your app, you need a mobile engagement strategy that encourages members to download and use the app.
How to make your membership app indispensable and increase downloads
To give you a jumpstart on developing your own strategies and tactics, we came up with examples of mobile engagement strategies that apply to most associations.
- Help members find and connect with each other
- Guide members to education that helps them acquire the skills, knowledge, and credentials needed to advance their career or business
- Share the latest news and best practices
- Deliver resources to use on the job
- Keep them connected to the association for future engagement
- Remind them of association deadlines, like renewal
Now, let’s look at tactics that will help you implement each of these mobile engagement strategies.
#1: Help members connect
According to research, the main motivation for joining associations is to connect with other professionals in the same field. Members want to meet and develop relationships with peers, industry veterans, and prospective employers and clients.
Your app’s online discussion forums get this process going. When members want to find a specific type of member or get more information about a fellow member, they turn to the app’s member directory.
Members get to know each other through your app’s direct messaging and group chat tools. These channels play a valuable networking role in the weeks before and after conferences, courses, board or committee meetings, and event volunteering.
Industry partners—members who supply products and services—appreciate the marketing opportunities offered by a membership app. They can keep their name in front of members year-round, instead of only a few days during a conference or trade show, by purchasing advertising in the app’s buyers guide or on-screen banners and splash pages. Meanwhile, you’re generating a new stream of non-dues revenue.
#2: Provide educational resources
The other top reason for joining an association is education. Members seek education programs that help them acquire the skills, knowledge, and credentials they need to advance their career or business. Your association’s membership app delivers education to your members’ hands, whether they’re at work, commuting, or at home.
📱On a membership app, they can:
- Watch a webinar or participate in a group discussion
- View a series of microlearning videos on complying with a new regulation, using a specific tool, or handling a workplace scenario
- Complete online course modules
Offer self-assessments to help members get started on their educational journey. Display learning pathways that show which competencies they need to acquire and programs they need to take to achieve their career goals.
With the app, members can easily access your education calendar and catalog, bring up their credit card, and register for programs and events.
#3: Share the latest industry news and best practices
To become indispensable to members, do what they don’t have time to do: find and deliver the latest industry news and best practices.
Many associations don’t take advantage of one of the most valuable member benefits: content curation. Don’t wait for your competitors to discover this way into your members’ inboxes and hearts. Do it first and deliver curated content to your members’ less cluttered phones instead.
#4: Provide job-related resources
What do your members need to refer to regularly or occasionally while at work? Identify those resources and keep them on your membership app.
Do they need to look up federal or state regulations, codes, or standards? Instead of lugging around a huge, printed publication that quickly goes out of date, keep this information constantly updated on your app.
Do they need templates or sample language for business documents, such as contracts? Store them on the app.
#5: Remind members of association deadlines
The third most common reason for not renewing is forgetting to do it. The top two reasons are lack of engagement and lack of value, which your app also helps you address.
App notifications remind members to renew their memberships and credentials. You can also remind members about deadlines for:
- Conference housing
- Event and educational program registration
- Awards nominations and applications
- Committee service applications
- Microvolunteering opportunities
- Conference session and abstract submissions
- Grassroots political action initiatives
#6: Create a personalized marketing strategy
A membership app is the online home for member engagement. But you’ll need an app marketing strategy to encourage members to download and use it until it becomes a habit. The more you understand your members’ preferences, pain points, and interests, the more you can show your app’s value to them.
Use the app to demonstrate your interest in members’ opinions and needs. Send polls, feedback surveys, and one-to-one or group messaging via the app.
Your membership app comes in handy during new member onboarding. Find out about the new member’s reasons for joining, job needs, and career or business goals. After members renew, ask them to quickly update their member profile, membership goals, and interest inventory. Direct new and renewing members to relevant resources and activities based on their membership goals.
App data lets you know who’s using the app, how they’re using it, and who isn’t using it. Review data by member segments, for example, career stage and membership tenure. In app marketing campaigns, let different segments know how the app can be useful to them at work.
On our client success page, hear association professionals share how the Clowder membership app helped their organizations significantly improve member engagement and increase non-dues revenue.
