Posted by: Adam Weston
17 April 2023
How does online engagement help organisations to retain and grow their membership?
Online engagement is the process of interacting with members, supporters, or customers via digital channels such as social media, email, or websites.
The 57% of member-based organisations that do not have an engagement strategy, can benefit significantly from online engagement in the following ways:
- Improved communication - Online engagement offers organisations a fast and efficient method of communicating with their members, supporters, and customers. They can instantly share updates, news, and announcements and receive real-time feedback.
- Increased Participation - Engaging with members online can encourage participation in events, campaigns, and surveys. This helps to increase the use of services and overall participation and engagement rates.
- Enhanced member experience - Online engagement can help organisations better understand their members' needs, preferences, and interests. This understanding can be used to tailor services, events, and campaigns accordingly, resulting in a more personalised experience for members.
- Improved retention rates - By engaging with members online, organisations can target specific segments, such as younger audiences, build stronger relationships, and increase loyalty. This can help improve retention rates and reduce member churn.
What digital channels do member-based organisations use to engage their audience?
Most member-based organisations use social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. However, only 60% of them have a blog (source: MemberWise). Email campaigns, websites, and messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and Slack are also used to communicate with members, supporters, and customers. These channels provide a way to reach a large audience, provide personalised content, collect feedback, enable online registration, and communicate in real time. While the specific channels used vary, online engagement is key to enhancing communication, increasing participation, improving the member experience, and driving growth and retention.
70% of member-based organisations host a member community on public social platforms.
Over the last ten years, there has been a trend to move member communities to social platforms and away from private communities.
For example, if your community is already using Facebook, Facebook Groups could be a great option for your member-based organisation. However, it's important to note that Facebook will own your data, which may not align with your strategy.
Creating your own private community on a website forum means that you own your data and can consider new ways to extend functionality to improve engagement, such as personalising the member experience by topics. The downside is that engagement can be challenging for private communities. Developing an engagement strategy to improve the member experience and drive growth and retention can help overcome this challenge.
How can GrowCreate help?
We work with member-based organisations to deliver composable digital experience platforms to deliver your engagement strategy. Get in touch to find out more.
