People have never needed the support of a community more than they do today. Membership organisations have the ability to bring people together, help them feel part of a like-minded group of individuals and offer valuable information. While this is an opportunity to shine, it is also a period where those that do not connect with their members will fall by the wayside. Today’s message is simple; be relevant, be useful, offer value or wither away.
The organisations that get 2020 right can look forward to a long future, but those that keep up business as usual will see renewal rates falling and their members finding new homes.
At Think we know that the messages we produce need to be continually evolving, from the selection of channels that we use to the language that we employ. The needs of members are changing, so the way that we provide value has to keep pace. As the ramifications of Covid-19 continue to reverberate through society, membership needs to be more than a ‘nice to have’. It needs to be one of the things that defines who your members are.
In a recent poll of membership organisations, we looked at the things that organisations are doing more of, the things that they have cut back on and the channels that they have launched for the first time. In the following charts we see an accelerated pivot to digital channels, with more content being produced in email, online and through audio-visual media such as podcasts and video. At the same time, 95% of organisations are continuing to produce print magazines but see these as only part of a much bigger picture, where the frequency of print reduces in line with an always-on approach to digital.
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