In Part 1, we talked about the need for membership organisations to work harder and faster to demonstrate their relevance and value, to retain members and entice back those who have left, in order to safeguard revenues and drive business growth.
Now we will continue to explore the different avenues available to membership organisations to maximise member benefits and value to ensure member engagement, retention and growth.
6. A preference for microlearning
Bear in mind that your members will want to access your content anytime, anywhere on any device. Traditional eLearning catalogues requiring desktop access are often dated and a general source of frustration.
Members prefer bite sized, microlearning – content designed for mobile consumption. Mix things up by offering a varied blend of content including videos, podcasts and infographics, together with micro-courses. Ensure the content has been built to support mobile.
7. Offer a mobile app
Apps for Android and iOS devices can significantly improve the overall user experience for members accessing your offerings from their devices. Ideally, your apps will also support your member’s CPD logs, enabling them to record CPD activities without leaving the app. Mobile is perfect for many scenarios. e.g. take a photo of a course completion certificate and have that automatically generate a CPD record.
Use the apps to deliver regular membership updates, personalised content tailored to specific members’ career aspirations. Use a combination of push notifications and CPD progress nudges at carefully considered intervals for example when members fall behind targets – all to help increase engagement.
8. Get social with your learning offerings
Develop and expand your online community by offering social learning solutions and let your members interact with one another while accessing your digital libraries of content. For example, let them like, share and comment on the content you’re providing.
9. Encourage planning and progress tracking
Equip your members with the tools they need to plan, record and track their CPD. Encourage your members to spend some time at the start of the current CPD cycle (often aligning with the membership year for example) to plan and consider specifically which skills or competency areas that they should focus on with their learning activities for the forthcoming period.
Ideally, your CPD tools will then allow them to continually track progress against plan. Visual charts showing progress coupled with reports let your members see tangible evidence that their learning is on track.
10. Consider gamification and rewarding achievement
Gamified learning experiences tend to suffer from bad press and they divide opinion. There is a balance to be struck, but with careful considering, elements of gamification really can provide encouragement for members and can motivate them to stay on target throughout the year. Simple elements such as visual progress trackers that show your current progress against your specific target (often based on points, numbers of reflective statements logged, or learning hours logged) can serve to encourage.
Also consider rewarding members when they achieve set targets e.g. a certain number of learning hours logged, a specific CPD points/credits target reached, or a set number of reflective statements logged – depending on which model is appropriate for you.
Summary
There’s never been a more important time for membership organisations to emphasise the importance of their learning and CPD offering and the value that membership brings.
Embrace digital and work harder and faster than ever to deliver value to members, entice back those that have left, safeguard future retention and drive business growth.
Agylia is a UK learning technologies company providing a fully integrated learning management system (LMS) and CPD platform, and mobile learning Apps to membership and not-for-profit organisations.
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