Your organization is nothing without its members. You need to keep your member network engaged and growing, and to do this you’ll need to offer the right benefits.
A good member benefit offering helps make a difference to your community, which makes it easier for your organization to achieve its goals.
It’s essential that your network adds value to members. This can be done in many different ways. And the more types of benefits and value you provide to your members, the better.
In this guide, we’ll cover some of the most useful member-benefit ideas that all kinds of organizations can use. Use these member-benefit ideas to offer more value to your community in order to grow your organization more efficiently.
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What Are Member Benefits?
Member benefits refer to the advantages members gain by joining an association, community, or organization.
If you want people to join your organization they need to get something in return, There are various perks, services, and special access that members of organizations could receive.
Any good membership network needs to provide benefits both ways. If the network is only set up to benefit the organization running it, then you will struggle to attract new members and keep them engaged.
Offering the right member benefits plays a major role in the success of your network.
Why Are Member Benefits Important?
Whatever kind of organization or network program, offering good member benefits provides three main advantages.
Attracts New Members
A good member benefits program acts as an incentive for new members to join your network. The more appealing the benefits are, the easier it will be to attract and grow your membership network.
Improves Engagement
By offering the right member benefits, it will be far easier to keep your current members engaged and interested in your network. Instead of just joining your network and forgetting about it, offering the right benefits maintains their interest and gets them actively engaged in the network.
Retains Members
Offering adequate benefits gives you a higher chance of retaining members. It increases the chances of members staying for longer and renewing their membership each year. Without sufficient member benefits, you’ll have a hard time keeping members interested in your network.
Six Member Benefit Ideas to Improve Your Network
While every organization and network differs, here are a few member benefit ideas that can help you improve engagement and attract new members.
1. Offer an Online Member Community
Having a convenient online member community is the first and most essential benefit that your network should offer. Members shouldn’t have to wait for events to be able to connect with each other. Instead, they should have access to a dedicated member community platform where they can always network and interact.
Your online community platform should provide a space where members can return to find helpful resources, develop strategic connections, discover information on events, industry news, and more.
Having a valuable online community platform will provide a digital home for your community. This makes it easier for members to stay engaged, and it can help you boost member acquisition.
By providing a space for easily accessible virtual engagement, your network will become a lot more appealing.
2. Offer Mentoring Programs
Beyond just expanding their networks, many members join organizations in the hopes of accessing a mentorship opportunity. This could be from the perspective of a mentor or a mentee.
A mentoring program is an excellent way to empower individuals and offer greater opportunities for professional growth. It’s an excellent way to attract new members and keep engagement levels high.
Set up an online mentoring program where mentors and mentees can connect and engage with each other. With the right community platform, members can find and connect with mentors based on their interests and expertise.
Professional development is a major membership benefit, and offering an easily accessible mentorship program is one of the best ways to achieve this.
3. Offer Engaging Events
Events remain one of the most important member benefit ideas. Your organization should be using events to provide engaging, valuable experiences for your audience. These events can be both virtual and in-person.
Use events to educate your members, share valuable information with them, and let them engage with each other. Provide a resource library alongside virtual events, encourage Q&A sessions, discussion threads, and try to engage your audience before, during, and after the event.
By offering engaging community events, your members will have more interest in what the events offer. This provides them with more value and entices them to stay, and encourage others to join.
4. Offer Member Directories
Directories can take on various forms and can be made accessible to members only.
Members can use directories to make it easier to find connections in their field and build relationships. This assists networking, outreach, and is an important member benefit to creating a more engaged community.
Members can browse your directory to find connections, speakers for their event, freelancers to collaborate with, potential new job candidates, guest contributors, and more. Having an easily accessible, searchable directory will save members a lot of time and effort, and make it far easier for them to grow their network.
5. Members-Only Job Boards
Providing access to exclusive job boards and listings is an appealing member benefit for many professionals. You could make job listings available to the public, but only make applications available to members. This provides inspiration for new members to join.
Exclusive member job boards will help you attract more engaged, relevant professionals. Having active job boards is also a great way to attract a younger community, as they are more likely to be starting their careers, making a switch, etc.
6. Share Valuable Member Content
A major reason why members join a community is to learn something new and develop their professional skills and knowledge. Using your network to share valuable member content is a great way to keep members more engaged and interested.
Member content can come in the form of newsletters, monthly or quarterly publications, regular videos, blog content, a podcast, or anything else that lets you share valuable information.
The more types of content you have to offer, the more you will be able to engage and interest your members. Use your online community to share this content, and create a space where you can facilitate discussion and engagement around this content.
Offering valuable content is an essential member benefit for any network.
Summary
There are many different member benefit ideas and strategies that you can use to attract and retain professionals. While these may differ between networks and organizations, the most important thing is that you add enough relevant value to your network.
The best way to achieve this is to use the right member platform. With a user-friendly and easily accessible online community, sharing member benefit ideas becomes much easier.
Aluminate Community Builder offers a modern, powerful member platform to help an organization/professional association achieve its goals. An effective solution like this will help you to add maximum value to your network. Why not get in touch with our team today to see Aluminate Community Builder in action?
