The autumn months can be a busy time for professional membership associations. Conferences, events, training sessions, board meetings, and year-end preparations all compete for attention. Amongst all the activity, your member communications can either become a powerful connector or get lost in the noise.
A little forward planning in the coming weeks can make sure your content stays relevant, timely, and as valuable as ever as we approach the end of the year.
Map Key Dates
Identify big moments for your association between now and Christmas, both for your organisation as a whole and for your members. This might include upcoming events, industry milestones or even your annual general meeting.
Building your communications plan around these dates helps you to focus on what’s most relevant, rather than having to find new news to react to each week.
Create a Balance
Not every message needs to be a formal update. Create a mix of content that showcases your member’s achievements, highlights industry updates, and offers useful resources. If every email you circulate reads like a business report, engagement will dip fast.
Aiming for a healthy split between “need-to-know” updates and “nice-to-know” stories will strengthen your engagement channels.
Don’t Limit Yourself
Newsletters and email bulletins are great but it’s worth varying your communications channels. Update your member portal, conduct quick polls and utilise social media, whether that be via a public facing page or private member group.
Circulating your communications across various channels will help to reach your member’s different preferences and keep things fresh.
Two-Way
The most effective member communications aren’t just a news broadcast, but posts that invite conversation. Include call to actions, surveys, and opportunities to share feedback. Doing this not only makes members feel involved but gives them a chance to provide insight to shape your future plans.
Review and Adjust
Utilise the tools you have to assess how members are consuming your updates. Features on mass mailers allow you to check the open rate of your emails, and social media platforms allow you to look into the analytics of your posts.
Check in each month to see what’s landing well, and what might need a tweak moving forward. This avoids wasting time on content that isn’t hitting the mark and will help you to respond to emerging priorities.
How We Can Help
Having structure in your communications plan will create more impact, strengthen relations between management and members, and help to make people feel more informed and valued. Although we appreciate that comms management is no small task!
At Cygnul we work in partnership with our clients and are seen as trusted advisors to the Board. We can undertake the full range of membership, secretarial and bookkeeping services as well as offering advice and support to associations around the UK. If you want to explore how these services could help your organisation, please get in touch with us.
