The first interactions a new member has with your organisation are critical. A seamless, engaging onboarding experience can set the scene for their entire membership journey, ensuring they feel welcomed, informed, and connected from day one.
Marketing automation is a powerful tool that allows membership organisations to deliver personalised, timely, and consistent communications throughout the onboarding process without draining your internal resources.
In this blog, we’ll explore how you can use marketing automation to create an onboarding process that saves you time and makes the onboarding process better for your members.
1. Automated Welcome Series Emails
When a new member signs up, almost every organisation sends a personalised welcome email. Is one email though enough to establish the relationship?
A well thought welcome series can introduce new members to the benefits of the membership, inform them of upcoming events, and guide them on how to get started.
What could you include in a welcome series:
- Day 1: A personalised welcome message that thanks the new member for joining and highlights the benefits.
- Day 3: A follow-up email that invites them to explore key resources (such as a members-only portal, learning materials, or community forums).
- Day 7: Highlight any exclusive events or webinars they can attend to establish early engagement. Getting the members to engage in the first week of membership establishes the foundations of a long term relationship.
Using automation tools like HubSpot, you can set up these emails to send automatically based on the member’s join date and you don’t have to worry about any further scheduling.
2. Personalizing the Onboarding Experience
Marketing automation platforms allow you to segment your members based on their preferences, membership type, or interests. This means you can tailor the onboarding experience for each member, ensuring they receive the most relevant information.
For example, you could create different onboarding workflows for:
- New student members who need to know about educational resources and networking opportunities.
- Corporate members interested in sponsorship opportunities or exclusive events or group memberships
- Long-term members who may be upgrading to a premium membership (i.e. gold membership) and need information on additional benefits.
By using segmentation and personalisation, you make each member feel special showing them that the onboarding experience is designed just for them and their individual circumstances.
3. Tracking Progress and Engagement
One of the most significant advantages of using marketing automation for onboarding is the ability to track engagement. You can monitor which emails are being opened, which links are being clicked, and which resources members are engaging with the most.
You can make data driven decisions such as:
- Identify disengaged members early on and send targeted follow-up emails to re-engage them.
- Improve your onboarding process by identifying which parts of the series are most popular with new members.
- Redesign future communications based on member interactions, ensuring ongoing personalisation.
By analysing these insights, you can continuously improve your onboarding process and make decisions based on facts and not assumptions.
4. Automating Reminders for Key Actions
Marketing automation can also help remind new members to take key actions during their onboarding journey. Some examples:
- Completing their member profile on your website.
- Registering for an upcoming event.
- Joining a social media group.
Set up automated reminder emails that encourage new members to complete these actions within their first few weeks, ideally Week 1. These reminders help build a stronger connection with your organisation early on and ensure they are making the most of their membership.
5. Continuous Engagement Beyond Onboarding
The beauty of marketing automation is that it doesn’t end after the onboarding phase. You can set up automated workflows that continue to nurture members throughout their membership journey, keeping them engaged with regular content, event invitations, and renewal reminders.
For example:
- After the onboarding series, new members can be automatically enrolled in a monthly newsletter workflow, where they receive relevant updates, resources, and event notifications.
- Members nearing the end of their membership can receive automated renewal reminders, complete with incentives to renew early.
With marketing automation, you can ensure that your members are never left out of the loop, no matter where they are in their journey.
The Conclusion
Marketing automation is a powerful tool for membership organisations looking to streamline their onboarding process. By automating key touchpoints, personalizing the experience, and tracking engagement, you can provide new members with a smooth and welcoming introduction to your organisation ,while freeing up your team to focus on more strategic activities.
By implementing these automated workflows, your members will feel valued from the beginning of your relationship setting the foundations for a long-term engagement and member satisfaction.
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