Building a membership funnel might sound like a overwhelming task, but it is one of the most important things you will ever do. Membership funnels boost engagement, lead prospects down an intentional path to becoming members, and help you retain the folks you do bring on board.
These days, it’s not enough to have a website and a business card; you need a plan that will take your potential members from A to B to C … C being a long and happy life as part of your organization. If you’re ready to find out what a membership funnel is, why it matters, and how to do it, you’ve come to the right place.
What Is a Membership Funnel?
If you want to build an online community and create an award-winning member experience from start to finish, you first have to understand what a membership funnel is.
Simply put, it is not one thing but rather a series of steps that a prospect will take on their journey from first learning about your organization to becoming a dedicated member, for years or hopefully life.
Funnels include multiple touchpoints that can take many forms, from web copy and blog posts to multimedia to in-person elbow-rubbing. It’s no easy task to convert a stranger into someone who’s willing to support your organization and pay for your services, which is why you need a clearly laid-out plan of action.
How A Funnel Works for Associations
It’s called a ‘funnel’ because it starts wide and gradually narrows. As prospects move from first discovering your organization to committing as paying members, the number of people gets smaller at each stage.
Your job, as the association, is to move as many people from the top to the bottom of the funnel as you can. The more people you can get to the spot, the bigger your organization will grow.
Membership Funnel vs. Sales Funnel
A sales funnel is essentially the same thing as a membership funnel. However, the former is dedicated to closing a sale — a goal that may or may not involve an ongoing relationship — while a membership funnel specifically seeks to turn a prospect into a long-term, dues-paying affiliate of your organization.
Why Your Association Needs a Membership Funnel
If the above definitions have not made the membership funnel’s usefulness clear enough, there are several other reasons to get on board with a membership funnel today.
Better Member Acquisition
Increasing membership is the first step to building a successful organization, and your membership funnel is geared toward doing just that. When you build a funnel, you take your various touchpoints (website, physical collateral, events) and transform them into something that is greater than the sum of its parts.
Specifically, the funnel allows you to transform these disparate marketing efforts into a systematic journey where, at every level, you ask for a little bit more from the prospect.
For example: First, you ask for their email in exchange for a free download. Once you have it, you ask for their attendance at a free virtual event. Once they do that, you send them off with a list of your membership benefits to consider, then email them at intervals.
A certain portion of people will drop off at every stage. But if you craft your funnel right, many won’t.
Stronger Engagement and Retention
Two of the most important key performance indicators, aka KPIs for membership associations, are engagement and retention among your members. A membership funnel helps you boost both.
Why? Because your funnel doesn’t just include touchpoints for prospects; it also takes care of those who’ve already signed up. Some call this the “membership bowtie,” where the funnel’s tip is the narrow part, but the longer your members stay, the more they get out of and do for your organization, thus widening the other end of the bowtie.
Smarter Decision-Making with Clean Data
Lastly, a good funnel helps you keep track of your members and their preferences. With good data, collected through digital marketing tools, you can learn important facts, such as:
- Which types of content convert prospects most effectively
- Which benefits members respond to most enthusiastically
- What types of members are most likely to share your organization with others
Over time, such information will help you refine your funnel and continue to grow.
The 4 Stages of a Membership Funnel
So what exactly does the membership funnel look like? As it happens, it takes a very specific four-stage form.
Stage 1 – Awareness
The first stage of your membership funnel is awareness. Building awareness is, if not the most important stage, then certainly the foundational one. After all, if no one knows you exist, how can you expect to draw new members?
That doesn’t just mean putting events on, either. No matter how excellent your most recent Chamber of Commerce networking event was, you’ve got to let people know how to get on board. That means:
- Creating collateral you can hand out at events or leave behind at other businesses
- Maintaining an excellent online space with lots of written and multimedia content
- Sending out surveys to current members to find out what worked for them and replicating it
It also means getting clear on your mission, vision, and values so that you can weave them through every aspect of your content and attract the right people.
Stage 2 – Interest & Consideration
Next up, interest and consideration. It’s not enough for people to know about you; they have to like and know you. At this stage, you’ll focus on deepening their engagement with your mission and thinking about whether it’s for them.
A job fair, for example, is a great place to bring in prospects whose names you’ve gathered and gauge their interest. A landing page is the perfect place to explain an event or membership benefit in-depth, to help convince them that you will solve their needs/pain points.
Email marketing is an often-used tool for interest and consideration, because you can repeatedly interact with people about a specific benefit.
Stage 3 – Conversion
Next up, you convert. If you’ve done your research and you’re ready to start signing people up, make sure you do so thoughtfully. Your membership funnel will leak too many prospects if you’re aggressive or scattered about this phase.
Instead, nurture your leads. Explain to them that only by joining and paying dues will they get X, Y, and Z … all benefits they desire. Instead of being pushy and risking unsubscribes, continue to offer prospects value.
For instance, consider a membership drive. Send out a truncated version of your newsletter or ebook; tell that that if they sign on, they can read the whole thing (and every one you put out after).
Stage 4 – Engagement & Retention
Unlike the membership bowtie, which sees a widening on the other side of the spout, the membership funnel stays narrow. The idea is that those at the very bottom—the members who stick around for the long haul—represent a small but powerfully dedicated core.
So don’t dust off your hands and call it good as soon as you get a new member; this is the most critical time to make them feel welcome and ensure a long-lasting and productive relationship. Instead of moving on and trying to get new prospects in the door, make sure you take a moment to send out a welcome email to those who’ve just arrived.
If you don’t have time, that’s fine. You can delegate this task to another staff member, or you can use automation to welcome new members as soon as you get their signup information. Just make sure you tailor it enough so that it doesn’t feel canned. Proper segmentation can really help here.
You must also make sure that you offer great membership benefits, from continuing education to networking to events. That way, they’ve got a reason to stick around and you’ll face fewer wandering eyes.
Key Elements of a High-Converting Membership Funnel
Let’s take a quick look at which elements you must include in your membership funnel.
Lead Magnets That Attract the Right People
Lead magnets are pieces of content that offer value, which you give away in exchange for email addresses that let you communicate with people later.
Landing Pages That Convert
A landing page is a long-form web page that explains exactly why your organization will meet the prospect’s needs. It usually includes text, video, images, and testimonials and is separate from the main architecture of your site.
Email Workflows That Nurture
Email workflows are a key part of the membership funnel. They create specific touchpoints between you and your prospects at automated intervals, which makes the interaction look organic and non-spammy without you having to do any work.
Thank You and Onboarding Touchpoints
Once you sign someone up to your membership list, you must make sure to send out a thank you email and onboard them carefully. That way, they’ll understand how to use your product and engage with your community.
Data Tools to Track and Improve Funnel Performance
It’s not enough to put out good content. If you want to know what’s working and what’s not, you need data and analytics at every stage. Make sure you’re using software that offers just that.
How to Build a Membership Funnel for Your Association
Next, let’s take a quick step-by-step look at what’s involved in building a membership funnel.
1. Know Your Ideal Member
You don’t want just anyone to join your organization. People who don’t align with your mission or need your benefits will just bounce away later. Make sure your membership funnel is geared toward the right folks.
2. Map Out the Funnel Stages
No guesswork. Map out your membership funnel’s approach and content at each stage, then slot new content in where it will do the most good.
3. Create the Right Content at Each Stage
A funnel thrives on lots of content. Even an event like a job fair can count as content, because it gives prospective members something to sink their teeth into. Just make sure you craft a good event brief upfront so that prospects know why they should come to the event and, once there, they feel like it delivered on your promises.
4. Automate Where It Matters
A good membership funnel is a pretty hands-off affair. Once you create content and insert it into the correct stage of the funnel, put it on auto and let it go.
5. Review, Refine, Repeat
Use data at every stage to see what works. Remove anything that falls flat and add more of what sells, then keep going. It’s a numbers game, so don’t get discouraged if you’re slow to start … you’ll get there!
Common Pitfalls (and How to Avoid Them)
Too many organizations focus on member or donor acquisition. While “acquire, acquire, acquire” isn’t the worst motto, and it certainly is a good starting point, it’s not the end of the road.
Here are a few of the most common pitfalls and how to avoid them.
Focusing Only on Acquisition
Acquisition is important, as mentioned but it’s not everything. Your membership funnel also needs to take care of the people who’ve already signed up. Ideas include:
- Member incentive programs that clarify what you do for them
- Benefit-driven activities for members that make membership fun and meaningful
- Survey questions that help you determine what works best
Neglecting Onboarding and Retention
Yes, you have great benefits, and yes, people are going to love being part of your organization … as long as they can figure out how to do it.
However, many nonprofits and membership bodies make the mistake of assuming that people will intuitively figure out how to download resources, sign up for events, or use their portals, and that’s not necessarily true. The tech-savvy might, but there are still plenty of tech-challenged folks out there.
Thus, your membership funnel must include onboarding and retention facets. Make sure people know how to use your site and access their benefits, and make sure you’re always offering something new to keep them engaged.
Skipping Data Review and Funnel Updates
Software requires updates, and skipping it means your site will become glitchy and less fulfilling for your members. Don’t do that.
Similarly, data requires review and analysis. It’s not enough merely to collect it; if you leave it at that, you may miss valuable insights that could help you avoid member churn.
Final Thoughts
Ready to build a membership funnel that drives real growth for your organization? The right tools can make all the difference.
MemberClicks helps you turn interest into action—with clean data, smarter automation and a better member experience from start to finish. Book a demo today.
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