In today’s digital world, associations have acknowledged the importance of connecting with their members online. Extending your organisation’s reach online allows you to grow your audience beyond your current network.
Whether it’s to cement your position as an industry leader, or to generate revenue, your website is a crucial component of your organisation’s outreach, marketing and member engagement.
Strong branding
A membership body’s website should carry strong branding throughout. A recognisable and trusted brand is one of the most valuable assets an organisation owns.
Create a visual identity with bright colours, stunning images and unique fonts to match your branding. When brand building, keep in mind who exactly you are trying to reach. You’ll tailor your mission and message to meet their exact needs.
This is all about making your website ‘Membership-focused’.
Membership-focused
From the outset, your website needs to be membership-centred. This includes membership-focused content. Functionalities such as member logins, private pages and online forums make your members feel value for money, which in turn results in higher renewal rates.
Being membership-focused doesn’t just refer to the content. It also refers to the layout and the usability for your members. Which brings us too…
Mobile responsiveness
More and more members and prospective members are accessing the web on mobile devices. How does your site perform across multiple devices? The layout of the site may look different on devices, but the ease of use and user experience should never suffer. A responsive layout, easy to use navigation bars and concise pieces of text are all essential.
Once you’ve built your perfect website, how do you keep it fresh?
Content, content, content!
Fresh content keeps your members up to date with current news within your sector and stamps your authority as an expert. Posting new content – such as blogs, videos and animations – on social media works as an effective lead generation tool and drives traffic to your website.
Regularly updated content is also one of the algorithms used by Google when ranking websites in search results.
In an increasingly digital world, associations have recognised the need to connect with members online. Extending your association’s reach online allows you to grow your membership beyond your immediate community.
And how do you manage that content?
Forget front-end; it’s what’s behind the scenes that matters!
As well as focusing on the front-end of a website (the part that the member will see), the backend coding helps you to get more out of your website. For example, this website, built by PSP-IT Design and Development, is integrated with a CRM system which allows for these functionalities:
- Events Bookings, including automated emails with contact details
- Events Payments, including order payment confirmation automated emails
- Event Reservations, with an automated email reminding FPC staff to generate invoices
- Set up, change or delete an account – all while automatically updating the CRM system without the need for manual input
- Updating social media and providing a record of updated to the CRM system
The CRM system gives the membership body the full flexibility to scale up/down integration depending on the organisational needs.
With a good CRM system in place, you can make sure your website features all the functionalities it needs to meet your members’ needs; and helps you keep your site updated to keep them engaged.
What do you like best about your website?
PSP-IT have worked with many membership and professional bodies to develop fit-for-purpose solutions; including legacy system support, bespoke software and system integration. Find out more here. Speak to our experts: [email protected]
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