When was the last time you updated your association or membership website’s content strategy?
High-quality web content engages current members, helps recruit new ones, and enhances your organization’s brand and reputation. Refreshing your content approach can turn your website into a more valuable resource and better communicate your mission to a wider audience.
It may seem overwhelming to think about overhauling your content approach, but you can start creating better online content in just a few steps. We’ll explore these five tips for developing more engaging content:
- Set quantifiable goals.
- Take inspiration from other organizations.
- Create member-centric content.
- Emphasize consistency.
- Incorporate engaging multimedia elements.
The key to better web content is authenticity. When you remain true to your brand and message, you can develop stronger online relationships with audience members. Keep that in mind as you incorporate the following tips.
1. Set quantifiable goals.
Setting quantifiable goals helps you determine if your content is actually valuable for site visitors. By tracking content engagement, you can determine which types of content are most appealing to your audience.
Set goals surrounding your website metrics and analytics. This allows you to make data-driven decisions when adjusting your strategy. For example, you might set goals to increase the following metrics:
- Time on page
- Conversions (such as the number of event sign-ups or new member registrations)
- Returning visitors
- Blog post shares
- Top viewed posts
Set a timeline for your goals to track progress effectively. For example, you might roll out your content improvements alongside a CMS upgrade, such as switching from Drupal 9 to 10. Or, you might set benchmarks, such as running metrics reports every month for six months, to see the impact of your new and improved content.
A clear timeline with regular check-ins will keep your team on task as you improve your strategy.
2. Take inspiration from other organizations.
Don’t be afraid to borrow ideas from other websites that catch your eye or inspire you.
Depending on your association’s purpose, you may review other trade or professional association websites to see strategies used by similar organizations. As you review these websites, pay special attention to:
- Unique web design elements or interactive content
- Engaging blog content
- Navigational structure
Note the most intriguing elements and figure out how you can adapt them to your association’s goals and brand.
It can also be helpful to review websites from other sectors to stay updated with general web design trends and best practices. For example, Kanopi’s roundup of top nonprofit websites provides examples of several best practices in action, such as accessibility and compelling storytelling. Apply these principles to your association’s content to better appeal to visitors’ needs and interests.
3. Create member-centric content.
Your association’s target audience is current and potential members; your web content should reflect that. Centering members in your online content creates a positive user experience and showcases the benefits that your organization offers its members.
Develop better member-centric content with the following ideas:
- Provide valuable educational resources. Your current and prospective members turn to your organization as a thought leader in your industry. Help members stay informed about advancements in your sector by providing comprehensive educational content. This could include blog posts recapping recent reports or studies, webinars, certification resources, e-learning modules, mentorship opportunities, or career advice.
- Emphasize member appreciation. Your members are the heart and soul of your association, and your content is a great place to show appreciation for their involvement. You might create member appreciation blog spotlights where you interview members about their involvement with your organization or their professional development journey. eCardWidget’s member appreciation guide also recommends creating appreciation videos from your staff to give a personal touch to your gratitude messages.
- Ask members what they’d like to see. If you’re wondering what your members are looking for from your web content, just ask! Send a member satisfaction survey to understand what types of blog posts and other web content they’d like to see more of. Also, ask what members like the most about your current content so you know what strategies to continue using.
- Gather user-generated content. User-generated content is any content that your audience members produce. This could include photos or videos they take at events, podcasts they participate in, panels they host, etc. Ask members to send in this content to share on your website to promote the amazing work your members are doing in your industry. Provide an online forum or message board for members to share content and celebrate their successes.
Consider developing audience personas to help create targeted content. Audience personas are representations of distinct groups within your audience that share certain traits. Each persona should have unique characteristics, such as general demographics, employment information, and reasons for joining your association.
After developing your personas, you can create tailored content that resonates with their interests and needs. Consider each of your primary audiences and strike a balance by creating a variety of content targeted to each group.
4. Emphasize consistency.
A consistent content strategy will maintain your website’s professional look and ensure that it remains a valuable resource for members.
Prioritize consistency in these areas:
- Branding: Ensure all content adheres to your brand guidelines. Keep logos standardized, use uniform fonts and colors, and maintain a consistent brand voice.
- Content creation process: Develop a standardized process for drafting and editing blog posts. Follow SEO best practices, such as optimizing your content for specific keywords and optimizing your blog post titles and meta descriptions.
- Posting schedule: Maintain a consistent blog posting schedule depending on your capacity, such as three times a week or four times a month. This will keep your blog roll fresh and up to date.
Document your content creation guidelines and share them with your marketing team so everyone is on the same page. Assign clear roles in the process, such as who will write blog posts or gather user-generated content, who will edit your content, and who will manage posting and sharing your content on social media.
5. Incorporate engaging multimedia elements.
Leveraging a variety of multimedia elements in your content offers many benefits. Primarily, multimedia content tends to be much more engaging and memorable. Also, you can appeal to multiple learning styles by offering more than one content type. Multimedia content is more likely to be shared on other platforms and can help your content’s SEO rankings.
In addition to your written text, add intrigue to your content with multimedia elements such as:
- Quizzes
- Polls
- Images
- Infographics
- Videos
- Podcasts/audio stories
If your website doesn’t currently support a variety of content types, consider switching to a more blogging-friendly platform, like WordPress. WordPress supports multimedia elements such as videos, quizzes, and polls. Plus, you can easily make your content more accessible by easily adding alternative text, captions, strong color contrast, and keyboard navigation options.
A general rule of thumb is that it’s time for a website redesign if your site is outdated, stale, and inflexible. The same applies to your content strategy. With these tips, you can keep your content fresh and engaging while ensuring that you continue to meet members’ needs.
