If member engagement were a heartbeat, how strong would your association’s pulse be?

For member-driven organizations, engagement is not just another metric — it’s the lifeblood of your organization. It’s a real-time indicator of your association’s health, signaling whether your members see true value in what you offer or are quietly disengaging.

Enhanced engagement is closely linked to overall membership growth and higher renewal rates, illustrating active participation's vital role in supporting membership expansion and retention. Yet, for many associations, member engagement is stuck in neutral — coasting along without gaining momentum, or worse, quietly losing ground.

Community Brands’ 2024 Association Trends Study raises a critical concern: unengaged members are significantly less likely to renew if they bear the cost of membership dues. While surface-level loyalty metrics may appear strong, they mask a troubling reality. The study reveals that more than half of the members whose dues are currently covered by their employers would reconsider their membership or cancel altogether if they had to pay out of pocket. This puts associations at serious risk of membership lapses, underscoring the importance of delivering ongoing value to members to secure renewals.

Yet, according to Association Adviser’s 2024 Association Benchmarking Report, nine in 10 associations rely most on events to measure and drive member engagement. However, overreliance on events as a proxy for engagement is a precarious strategy. Event attendance might provide a brief spike in engagement, but it doesn’t guarantee sustained interest throughout the calendar year.

To keep members engaged, associations must foster continuous, personalized interactions that resonate with individual member needs and interests.

ASAE’s Jenny Nelson states, “Trusted and relevant content is the core of the association value proposition.” Nelson emphasizes that “Recent ASAE Research Foundation studies point to members’ high expectations and shifting needs for content in the future, making a holistic content strategy even more valuable.”

Likewise, Marketing General Inc.'s 2024 Membership Marketing Benchmark Report underscores the importance of content for members, finding that a significant motivator for new members to join associations is access to “specialized and/or current information.”

Offering targeted and relevant content reinforces the value of membership and enables continuous touchpoints throughout the year, keeping members engaged and strengthening their connection to your association.

Most associations have a communications team. While content marketing and a well-honed communication strategy may overlap, their goals and approaches are distinct.

Communications professionals tend to focus on managing the flow of information and maintaining an organization’s reputation. These are essential tasks in any organization. But they don’t necessarily achieve mission objectives or drive organizational growth.

Content marketers, on the other hand, rely on techniques such as storytelling to drive specific business outcomes, like recruitment, retention, and revenue growth. They focus on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, consistent content to attract and engage their target audience. In other words, they develop and execute a content strategy.

ASAE defines content strategy as “the planning and judgment for the creation, publication, dissemination, and governance of useful, usable, effective content across departments and functional areas.”

When done so strategically, associations can leverage content marketing as a tool for both member acquisition and long-term engagement.

Publishing an occasional report or a guide for members may be appreciated by your members, but that does not constitute a strategy. Associations need a strategic approach beyond one-off efforts to build meaningful and sustained engagement.

The following five steps will help your association create ongoing, personalized interactions that capture and sustain member attention and build long-term loyalty.

1. Develop a member-centric content strategy

Associations should shift their content focus from organizational updates to addressing their members' and prospects' specific needs, challenges, and interests.

By thinking like a content marketer, associations can:

• Create personas to understand the diverse segments of their membership.
• Identify key pain points and craft content that offers solutions or actionable insights.
• Use analytics to guide content creation, ensuring it’s relevant, timely, and valuable to different member groups.

2. Diversify content formats and channels

Traditionally, associations have relied heavily on newsletters and webinars to disseminate information. However, content marketers use a wide variety of formats to reach different audience segments. 

By thinking like a content marketer, associations can:

• Experiment with blogs, podcasts, videos, infographics, and social media content to engage members on their preferred platforms.
• Distribute content across multiple channels, such as email, social media, and websites, to increase reach and engagement.
• Ensure content is optimized for mobile, given that many members consume content on the go.

3.  Leverage data and analytics to drive decisions

Associations often rely on annual surveys and anecdotal feedback to gauge member interests, adhering to tried-and-true methods that have served them well in the past. Content marketers, on the other hand, continuously analyze performance metrics to identify changes in informational needs, and they optimize their strategies accordingly.

Associations can benefit from adopting a data-driven mindset by:

• Tracking content engagement metrics such as click-through rates, time spent on articles, social shares, and member reader panels.
• Using analytics to understand which types of content resonate most with current and prospective members.
• Continuously refining content based on performance, focusing on the formats, topics, and delivery channels that generate the most member engagement and recruitment results.

4.  Create a content funnel aligned with the member journey

Associations often rely on traditional methods to engage members, focusing on delivering information or updates without a clear strategy for nurturing deeper connections over time. Content marketers design content to move audiences through different stages of the "buyer’s journey," from awareness to decision-making.

Associations can leverage content marketing by:

• Creating content for every stage of the member journey — from attracting prospective members to engaging new members and nurturing long-term loyalty.
• Offering valuable, educational content upfront (e.g., blog posts, white papers) to attract potential members, followed by more targeted content (e.g., member case studies or exclusive event invites) to convert them into members.
• Using gated content to capture leads and nurturing those leads with relevant follow-up content.

5. Leverage third-party content to enhance member value

Associations don’t need to be the sole source of content for their members. By tapping into the knowledge and experience of credible third-party experts, they can expand the breadth and depth of their content offerings for members.

By thinking like a content marketer, associations can:

• Curate and share industry reports, research papers, guides, etc., from reputable third parties to provide fresh, authoritative insights for their members.
• Offer members access to thought leadership from outside experts, boosting engagement by connecting them with a diverse range of ideas and perspectives.
• Create revenue-generating sponsorship packages that syndicate high-quality, relevant articles, webinars, or white papers from advertisers that align with the interests of key member segments.

More than 125 associations are using Lead Marvels’ digital Resource Library platform, which uniquely leverages the content marketing tactics outlined above to drive sustained member engagement in several key ways:

• Deliver member-centric content. A Resource Library enables associations to deliver targeted resources that address specific member needs and pain points without straining limited internal resources. Whether it's industry reports, webinars, or white papers, members can access valuable, up-to-date information year-round, ensuring continuous engagement beyond events.’



• Diversify content formats and channels. Our Resource Library platform allows associations to distribute their existing materials, like webinars, blog posts, infographics, videos, and other downloadable resources to members in a searchable, user-friendly ecosystem. This expands the reach and lifespan of content, keeping members engaged on the platforms they prefer while reinforcing the association's value as a trusted knowledge source.



• Track analytics to optimize content strategy. The user-friendly analytics dashboard embedded in a Resource Library allows associations to track member interactions, offering insights into what content resonates most with different member segments. This data-driven approach helps associations refine their content strategies, delivering more of what members value and driving deeper engagement.



• Syndicate third-party content for efficiency and revenue. A Resource Library offers the unique advantage of syndicating third-party content, bringing in thought leadership and expertise from across the industry. This not only broadens the range of available content but also positions the association as a gateway to essential industry knowledge, fostering long-term member loyalty while also generating a new source of non-dues revenue.

To learn more about how a Resource Library can help your association drive engagement and boost member satisfaction, schedule a demo today.

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