The 5 Most Common Mistakes Associations Make

Written by Bruce Namerow , President & Founder of Interactive Strategies

(3-5 minute read)

Many of the challenges that associations face online are common problems that have resulted from decades of organic growth and lack of long-term digital strategy.

Here are 5 of the most common mistakes we see associations make and how we can help you solve them.

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Too many websites and systems.

Most associations have more than one website and many different systems to support it. There’s the meeting site, a marketing campaign site, an initiative launched in 2019 and sometimes dozens more. We typically hear it was easier to create a new site rather than add to the existing one. The results is a myriad of different websites and technologies that harm the user experience, reduce search engine rankings and increase long-term maintenance costs. Any modern website should offer a centralized, flexible content management system (CMS) and a component-driven design that make new site pages easier and less expensive to create – all while helping provide a more cohesive brand and user experience. ?

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The site is organized around departments, not users.

When you look at your site’s navigation, does it resemble your association’s org chart? This is an easy trap that many associations fall into. The problem is that users don’t think like internal departments. They may need information about a particular topic, but they don’t care if it was created by the education or the events team. Our number one goal when developing a site’s architecture is to improve the user experience by aligning your user’s needs with your own.

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Valuable content is locked in a journal platform or magazine.

Many associations publish a highly valued journals or magazines that reveal the latest research and trends in the profession or industry. Too often that content is on a distinct publishing platform at a separate domain, so members have no reason to visit the main site and interact with your other valuable resources. Instead, associations should integrate their journals and magazines on the main website. If that’s not possible, we recommend pulling in such content via an API and showing it on relevant pages to add value. At a minimum, articles should also appear in the search results of your main website.

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Giving away too much for free.

One of the biggest challenges when building a new website is deciding what’s free and what is behind the member paywall. It’s common for associations to give away valuable resources, so site visitors don’t have a reason to sign in or join. We challenge associations to think strategically about their value and how to leverage it toward membership. When gating, we recommend allowing non-members to see the first couple of paragraphs or a summary of the content so they know what they’re missing and are encouraged to convert to paying members.

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Lacking a governance plan.

As associations grow, they often begin letting people across the organization update the website without enough centralized governance. As a result, there’s often ?editorial strategy, a cluttered user experience, and the organization’s mission gets lost. Creating a governance plan will give your website a clear content strategy, editorial structure and workflow.

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If you’re interested in hearing more about how your association can benefit from our 20 years of digital expertise, please reach out to us! We’d be happy to explore ways to improve your organization’s digital presence.