With shake-ups in many industries, the future of professional and trade association memberships is unclear. As your members scramble to secure and advance their careers, you know your organization’s offerings could help them. As your members scramble to secure and advance their careers, you know your organization’s offerings could help them.

So why aren’t your members engaging?

Every association is unique, so why one organization experiences low member engagement might differ from another. To help your organization diagnose the cause behind its engagement struggles, we’ll look at three common reasons associations struggle to connect with members.

Reason No. 1: Misaligned Offerings

Members are unlikely to engage with your association’s content if it doesn’t align with their interests. Here are a few reasons it may no longer resonate with members:

Confusing marketing. Logically, something in your association’s membership marketing convinced your current low-engagement members to join your organization. However, there may be a disconnect between promises in your marketing and your actual benefits. If you notice a significant turnover of new members, this might be the cause of your low engagement.

Outdated content. As your industry evolves, your content should evolve alongside it. Check your content engagement metrics. If you see offerings that previously had high engagement drop off in recent years, a refresh may be in order.

Changing member interests. Your association will attract a diverse audience and its interests will likely shift over time. Survey your members to learn what types of content they want to engage with and adjust your offerings as needed.

Solution: Review your current benefits, compare them to other associations in your industry, and survey your members about their interests. If your benefits aren’t consistent with the rest of your sector or your members’ professional priorities, it’s time to update your content.

Reason No. 2: Low Benefits Awareness

Members won’t engage with your content if they are unaware of its existence. A few reasons this can occur include:

Lack of onboarding. New members often need guidance to understand how to engage with your association. If you lack a dedicated onboarding strategy, such as an email series or virtual meeting, newly acquired members may not know how to take advantage of your association’s offerings.

Poor marketing. Again, initial marketing can have long-term impacts on member engagement. If your first sales push doesn’t adequately explain what your association offers, members may not know what benefits to look for.

Low communication. When your association rolls out a new program or publishes new content, do you let your members know about it? If not, members who don’t regularly check your membership portal may never learn about it.

Solution: Assess your marketing and communication strategy. While you shouldn’t over-communicate with members, under-communication often results in low engagement. Ensure your members know what your association has to offer by sending short, routine messages highlighting recent offerings. This might be a newsletter, community alert system, or special promotions for new major benefits.

Reason No. 3: Inaccessible Offerings

Sometimes, members may be aware of and interested in your association’s offerings but find it challenging to engage with them due to:

Limited content. You will likely see poor engagement if you only provide a handful of limited-time engagement opportunities. For example, associations that host only a few in-person events a year may see engagement lapse from individuals with busy schedules or those who are unable to travel.

Websites that aren’t user-friendly. Ensure all online content is accessible and intuitive. Consider implementing support features that can answer questions and help guide members through your website if you regularly receive questions or support requests related to your website and technology.

No dedicated online hub. If your association spreads its content across multiple platforms, it’s easy for members to miss offerings they would otherwise be interested in because they simply don’t know where to access them. Tradewing’s guide to community management platforms specifically advises against using free social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn to host your online community due to the way they divide member attention.

Solution: Conduct a focus group to test your association’s accessibility. Ask individuals unfamiliar with your website to perform various activities, such as messaging another member or accessing a specific program, and record their journey. If they encounter significant issues, note their problems and consider how you can rework your member experience to solve them.

Answers May Be Closer Than You Think

Low engagement can lead to high member turnover. Fortunately, discovering the cause of your problems may be as simple as speaking to your members or looking at your data. Identify commonly cited challenges and tackle them head-on to turn engagement around.