4 Marketing Tips to Increase Online Member Engagement

As technology advances, the lines between physical and digital worlds are becoming blurred. For example, how often do you ask Siri or Alexa to answer a question while cooking dinner? Could you live without using your phone for music and navigation during your commute?

Technology has carved out a permanent place in our personal and professional lives, and your association should embrace it. Your association must be quick to adapt to the ever-growing presence of cutting-edge tools like AI to catch and hold members’ attention. Specifically, it’s critical to grow your online presence and engage members digitally to establish touchpoints with them in the online world.

In this guide, we’ll explore how you can inspire your members to engage with your online events, communication platforms, and educational resources to build a thriving virtual community. Let’s get started!

Promote diverse engagement opportunities.

Some members and organizations feel that the virtual format is a crippling medium. They might recall the early pandemic days of stilted virtual calls and Zoom fatigue. However, virtual spaces have come a long way since 2020.

Digital engagement can offer a wealth of events and activities that are unique to this sphere. With a bit of creativity and open-mindedness, your association can take advantage of the expanded possibilities of the digital world to diversify its virtual event programming.

For example, you might consider promoting some of the following special opportunities and their benefits in your digital marketing campaigns:

• Discounts and prizes. One way to make every virtual engagement feel more “real” is to advertise tangible rewards for participating. Discounts, prizes, and other special offers will incentivize members to participate and make the experience more immersive.
  • Benefits for members: Members will be more likely to actively engage online, providing them with both enriching experiences and free or discounted products and services.
• Digital badges and rankings. Infuse an element of healthy competition into your virtual event marketing by teasing some of these digital titles. Badges and accolades like “Event MVP” or engagement “streaks” should be available to add to personal member profiles, encouraging participants to “go for the gold” and collect as many engagement titles as they can. Award these badges and rankings for specific digital event participation actions, like asking a question or posting a photo on social media.
  • Benefits for members: Members will gain a sense of accomplishment and appreciate the recognition they receive from engaging online.
• Virtual member communities. Online membership directories can be a hub for online connection. As Fonteva’s guide explains, membership directories enhance your reputation and professionalism, facilitate member networking, streamline internal operations, and make resources more accessible.
  • Benefits for members: They’ll connect with peers and mentors, gain new skills, find advice, and feel a greater sense of belonging in the association and your industry.

These opportunities will entice your members to join in and reward them for participating, inspiring them to continue engaging with your association online.

Make engaging virtually easy and appealing.

In addition to offering a variety of compelling incentives and online engagement activities, you should ensure that participating in these virtual activities is convenient and easy. When it comes to your marketing, make sure to:

• Guide members with your CTA strategy. Calls to action (CTAs) are what drive your members to take a desired action like attending a virtual event. Make sure your CTAs are clear and action-oriented. For example, if you are trying to drive traffic to a discussion forum, use a button that says “Join the Conversation” and link to the latest discussion thread. Make sure CTAs lead to a relevant, functional landing page where members can join, register, buy, or advocate.
• Streamline next steps. The action you ask members to take should be quick and convenient. If you’re asking them to register for an online session with an industry expert, the form should be accessible on any device, load quickly, and only ask for information you absolutely need from members.
• Emphasize visual appeal. Use compelling graphics and images in your marketing messages. Make sure colors, logos, and fonts match your association’s branding to build brand recognition. Ideally, online hubs for engagement like your website, membership directory, communities, and virtual events should share this branding for a seamless experience.
• Incorporate interactive elements. To engage members more deeply in your promotional messages, consider adding interactive elements like polls, surveys, and videos. Not only will this catch members’ attention, but it will also give them a taste of some of the strategies you’ll use to engage them during your online activities.

While not directly related to marketing, enhancing your website can make your campaigns more effective. Prioritizing user experience and accessibility allows members to engage with and navigate your online content easily. Additionally, understanding what members want to see and tailoring content creation to those preferences will keep them on your online platforms for longer.

Personalize communications.

Personalizing your communications is a simple and effective way to ensure that members maintain interest and find the online engagement opportunities they will enjoy most.

Here are some of the most popular methods of personalization employed by organizations to hook their supporters’ attention:

• Address members by name. Rather than the bland, boilerplate “dear member” greeting, address each recipient by their preferred name to add a warm, personal touch. Integrating your association management system with your communication tools should allow you to pull member names from your database automatically.
• Consider the membership lifecycle. Depending on how long a member has been involved, you may need to promote online engagement differently. For instance, you’ll need to break down the opportunities and benefits you offer in more detail for newer members and offer deeper ways to engage multi-year members, like advanced learning courses. Segment recipients by new members, current members, and members at risk of lapsing, then create tailored messages for each group.
• Offer personalized recommendations. Members will have different preferences, interests, and priorities based on factors like years of membership, experience level, and more. Segment them by shared characteristics and recommend the online engagement opportunities they’re most likely to take part in. For example, young professionals may be interested in a virtual networking session or a short course in corporate communications.

Online interactions can feel less personal and more isolating, but they don’t have to. Leverage personalization strategies to convey a sense of recognition, interpersonal connection, and genuine closeness even in online spaces.

Leverage exclusivity.

Exclusivity is a tried-and-true marketing strategy. The promise of exclusive offerings makes members feel special and valued and non-members feel like they’re missing out. This can drive prospective members to engage with your association to learn more about its benefits and how to join.

Some ways to foster a sense of exclusivity include:

• Offering member-only digital resources and experiences
• Providing early access to event registration
• Giving members sneak peeks of upcoming products, services, or media
• Building custom member experiences, such as tailored learning paths

Next, you’ll need to promote these key benefits on your website, social media, and in messages to interested prospective members. Remember that comprehensive association management software is essential to facilitate these offerings as you’ll need to set up and manage features like self-service member portals.

Online interactions aren’t going anywhere. However, it’s up to your organization to optimize and package online experiences in a way that excites and inspires your members. With the marketing tips in this guide, you can continue offering valuable, personalized digital experiences to members that drive engagement and retention.