Common approaches to member engagement research.

Member Research Best Practices

We often get asked about the best way to approach membership research. Can I just do a short online survey? Or do I need to do some qualitative too? Are focus groups or interviews better? What are the benefits of different approaches?

Well, the answer is: “it depends”.

It depends on your objectives. It depends on the type of members you have. And it depends on your budget, both financial and time.

But here’s the good news: most associations use a mix of strategic research and ongoing tracking surveys to monitor and improve member experience. Let’s break down these two approaches.

1. Strategic member engagement research

Strategic research is usually conducted before you start strategic planning, to make sure your members’ voices are guiding your decisions.

This type of research provides a deeper look into what motivates members, addresses key challenges, and allows you to develop targeted strategies that align with their needs. It is ideal if you want to understand what drives member engagement and satisfaction. By correlating data like service awareness, usage, and engagement with satisfaction and loyalty metrics, you can pinpoint exactly what matters most to members.

It often includes in-depth interviews or focus groups to gather qualitative feedback, along with surveys for quantitative data.

• If you are an industry association and your members are busy executives, they might be more willing to participate in one-on-one interviews than a survey.

• For professional associations, getting members together to share ideas in an online focus group is usually a fantastic way to understand what matters most to different groups of members.

  While this process takes a little longer – around three months – the results are well worth it. You get richer insights that can guide impactful programs. Alternatively, a well-designed survey with open-ended questions can provide a more budget-friendly, quantitative approach.

Key benefits of strategic engagement research include:

Identify key drivers of member engagement

Strategic member engagement research ensures you understand exactly what motivates members to engage with your association and recommend membership to others.

Address specific member challenges

Talking to your members about the external pressures they face ensures you understand members’ pain points and can collaborate to design relevant advocacy, services, and strategies.

Develop targeted engagement strategies

Gain insights on different member segments, their unique needs, and engagement profiles to create targeted strategies that boost satisfaction.

2. Ongoing tracking surveys

Continuous tracking surveys provide associations with long-term insights into member satisfaction, engagement, and loyalty. Regular monitoring of these metrics allows associations to identify trends, evaluate the impact of initiatives, and highlight areas for improvement.

Typically, tracking surveys are introduced after a larger strategic research project and are often simpler to conduct, focusing on a smaller set of questions. This makes them quicker and more cost-effective, and so they are often conducted annually. Even though they’re less intensive, tracking surveys are vital for monitoring your association’s performance and understanding shifts in member sentiment.

Here’s what ongoing tracking can help with:

Monitor trends over time

Track how member satisfaction and engagement change year by year, identifying progress and areas for improvement.

Measure the impact of initiatives

Ongoing tracking surveys measure the impact of specific initiatives or programs on member satisfaction and engagement, which can be used to refine existing programs and develop new initiatives that better meet member needs.

Identify improvement opportunities

Annual engagement surveys can identify areas where you can improve member satisfaction and engagement. For example, tracking metrics such as Net Promoter Score can identify members who are at risk of leaving so you can take targeted actions to retain them.

Conclusion

Both strategic research and ongoing tracking surveys are essential tools for improving member engagement and satisfaction. Strategic research offers in-depth insights into member needs and preferences, while ongoing tracking surveys let you measure and monitor progress over time.