Web traffic may be your associations largest asset! Do you know if it is? For most association websites, members only represent somewhere between 0.1 – 5% of the total website traffic. That should make you think. Who did you design your website for again? Most association leaders don’t realize that members are such a small percentage of visitors. Check yours quickly. Go to your Google Analytics. Look at the number of Unique visitors a year. Then calculate it as follows: Members visits as a % of total visits = the total amount of your Members/Website Annual Unique visitors.
Why do so many non-members visit an association website?
The simple answer is that they find interesting content through search. Let’s start by looking at where they go on your website, not just the top individual pages visited, as those will likely be the events, awards, news and similar pages (main navigation titles). However, these top pages together probably only represent about 20% of the total pages read on your site. Instead, try to understand what type of content they are looking at. This is not always easy unless you have structured your content correctly to show as categories through the URL’s i.e. content types such as Bio’s, firm information, members projects, news, articles etc. If you have set your site up in this way, you will see that people are actually going to the content about your members, their projects and their firms. Visitors are, in general, looking for either vendors or professionals to work with or learn more about (awareness). I’ve tested this and it’s a fact. They are trying to make the decision of who to work with, or learn more about members, their firms and their work.
Are you helping them to learn more about your members easily and efficiently or is your website set up more like a digital brochure to talk about your association and potentially attract new members?
If it is not set up to solve your website visitor’s needs, you are probably missing out on the main digital benefit that you can create to deliver higher value for your members.
You can quite easily test this idea by setting up a survey on your site asking people to say who they are: members, potential customers of your members, students, etc. Just ask them two questions. Did they find what they were looking for and ask what that was.
From this research, you can start to look for commonalities. Groups of peoples searching for similar r things and create personas for them that you can use when thinking about how to correctly structure your content for them.
Your website is an asset, potentially your largest asset. It attracts an audience multiple times more than most of your individual members or their corporations. It is the main way that people outside of your association find you. How are you using that asset to create value for your members?
Most strategy work is about knowing who you are serving and focusing your resources on effectively meeting their needs rather than creating a shopping list of all the things you could do (which is brainstorming). That is why good strategy is so hard. It is very difficult to make the decisions to cut back the things you do to arrive at the one thing that is vital for your members success.
Corporations that offer digital services are among the most valuable on the planet. Why? They generally do one thing well. They connect people to the correct relevant information efficiently.
In general, and sadly, associations are the opposite. They connect people to information rather ineffectively. Search optimization helps draw all those visitors to your site. They are coming for specific content. The challenge is that most of these visitors are never going to be members and that is OK, because you have multiple goals to meet as an association, like connecting your members to potential clients, promoting the profession and its good work, promoting sponsors and supporters, etc. When you go to google.com, you have to hunt to find information about Google because the main reason for their website is not to learn about google! It is to find information. The page is user centric and single purposed. It’s the same for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. On an association’s website, most of the visible or easily navigable content is about the association and what it does. Is that the right way to satisfy and make the best use of 95% of your traffic?
That might be a step to far for now, but we need to start thinking much more deeply about the needs of the 95% of visitors to your site who are not members and what content they need to be connected to. The more effectively we do that, the more value we will create for our members wanting to get connected and earn respect and recognition for what they do ( at least what is published on you site!)
Traffic can be a valuable asset, if treated with respect and careful content structuring. New people come visiting every day. Most don’t return. That is probably the best indicator that their needs are not really being well met.
Traffic to your website is potentially the biggest asset that you own! Use it or lose it!