Is your association’s website doing all it can to recruit new members and deliver a great online experience? No matter how small your organization might be, it’s time for a modern website design.
Your association’s website is one of your greatest marketing tools. It often gives the first impression a person has of your organization. It’s also a gateway for members to engage with your organization. Plus, it presents opportunities for you to drive revenue.
But to do all of these things, your website must appear relevant to your visitors. It can’t look tired and outdated. An out-of-date and poorly structured site can cause prospective members and sponsors – not to mention existing members – to leave it before you even have a chance to show them your organization’s value.
That’s why it’s time to refresh your association’s website.
Why your association needs a fresh, modern website
A fresh, modern design is a must for getting the most out of your association’s website for member recruitment and engagement. Of course, when you have a small staff, it can be easy to put your website at the bottom of the to-do list.
But your website is a fundamental tool for attracting and engaging members, so it really should rise to the top of your list. Just consider these key points:
- Your website is a great vehicle for creating brand awareness among prospective members. A modern website design strengthens your brand in your industry. With proper search engine optimization (SEO), it can also attract more traffic, giving you more opportunities to convert prospective members to members. It also provides a first impression of your organization, setting the stage for your relationship with new members.
- Within seconds, visitors will decide to explore or leave your website. A modern, attractive design helps to capture site visitors’ attention and keep them on your website longer – giving you more time to convert non-members to members and engage current members.
- Your website is a great place to highlight and provide access to the key benefits and resources your association offers. A website designed to make it easy to find what visitors are looking for will help you to convert prospects to members and keep current members happier.
- You can sell everything from memberships and sponsorships to educational content and merchandise through your website. You can also offer banner ad placements for your website. A well-designed website will optimize your ability to sell these types of offerings and drive more revenue for your association.
Top ways to refresh your association’s website
To gain the benefits of a fresh, modern website, your site must appear (and remain) relevant to visitors. Here are some top ways to refresh your association’s website – making it more attractive, more useful, and easier to use for visitors:
- Make it mobile-friendly – If you aren’t thinking about your members’ mobile experience, you could lose their attention almost as quickly as you get it. To offer a friendly and compelling experience, your website must look good and work well as visitors access it via their mobile devices.
- Present an attractive, easy-to-use design – Your website design has a huge impact on how visitors feel about your association. Your website should consistently use brand elements (such as logo, color palette, and imagery) throughout the site. It should also offer an attractive design that feels modern while making it easy for visitors to read and for you to highlight key messages.
Also, using your website should be intuitive so that visitors don’t have to search and search for what they want. A modern design incorporates best practices for navigation and user experience that makes the site easy to use.
- Keep content updated – Tired, outdated content won’t attract site visitors and can have a negative impact on SEO. Keep your website content fresh by regularly adding news, event details, information about member programs, member testimonials, and more.
- Optimize your website for search engines – It’s important to make it easy for people in your association’s industry to find your website via search engines. While a mobile-friendly website design is a good step toward search engine optimization, you can take your SEO up a notch by using best practices, such as incorporating relevant keywords and key phrases on each page of your website. Include the keywords in titles, headings, meta descriptions, and image tags for each web page.
- Offer a streamlined online store experience – Allow people to browse and pay for anything from memberships and event registrations to merchandise and donations through an online store. This approach puts your organization’s products and services in front of more people and gives buyers a convenient way to purchase them.
An easy way to refresh your association’s website
Your association’s small staff doesn’t have to tackle a big, time-consuming website redesign to have a fresh website that supports your goals for member acquisition and engagement. Using YourMembership AMS, you can easily implement the techniques in this article, and more.
YourMembership offers affordable, easy-to-use, all-in-one membership software for small to mid-size organizations. It includes membership management functionality, an online community platform, an easy-to-use website editor, and much more to help you attract, engage, and retain members.
