Your members are always evolving. As members raise their standards, associations must meet them with new offers and solutions. With the help of innovative association management software (AMS) and an understanding of the latest trends, you can go above and beyond for your members.
Learn more about what your association members want in 2025 and discover how to meet your members’ high expectations.
What do association members expect in 2025?
Members have different expectations than they did just five years ago. The following are some of the top interests of today’s members and the factors that will determine whether they’ll remain part of your association:
Career advancement and learning opportunities
Today’s members expect associations to help advance their careers through networking and learning opportunities. They want to connect with association members and establish meaningful relationships that serve them personally and professionally.
- Members are always looking for career insights within their industry. According to the latest Association Trends Study, nearly half of all surveyed members identified that job opportunities and help with career advancement were the most important membership benefits. However, only 14% and 28% of the surveyed association professionals prioritized job opportunities and help with career advancement.Realign with your members’ expectations by finding career center software that seamlessly integrates with your association management software. Look for innovative job board technology, career pathing resources, career coaches, and placement services to boost member retention and loyalty.
- Individuals join associations for professional development opportunities and certification requirements. Association Trends research reports that 51% and 50% of members stated certification and credentials and training opportunities were top association benefits. Once again, association professionals and members are misaligned on prioritizing learning benefits, with only 37% of association professionals valuing certifications or credentials, and training opportunities.
Show you value the member experience when you offer an innovative learning management program (LMS) that provides on-demand webinars, webcasts, self-paced courses, and videos. Ensure your LMS integrates seamlessly with your AMS, so all your data is centralized, helping you offer a better member experience.
- Personalized and meaningful events
How much does your association prioritize events? According to the latest research, 64% of association professionals prioritize events, meetings, and tradeshows. However, only 34% of members value this benefit.To ensure your events continue to deliver value to your members, consider rethinking your meetings and conferences. You can try viewing your events as a channel to deliver as many benefits to your association members as possible. For example, at your next conference, try offering career related events like job fairs, resume reviews, and networking opportunities.Take your events to the next level by conducting routine surveys to guarantee your programs deliver what your members want and to determine whether your events continue meeting your members’ needs. To further personalize member programming and take event management to the next level, integrate your AMS with event management software to maximize your ROI, meet event goals, and save your staff time.
Why do association members join and what makes them stay?
The latest Association research found that member loyalty metrics have remained strong and steady since 2019, with member loyalty metrics currently at 90%. Despite solid loyalty metrics, more than half of members whose membership dues are paid for by their company today say that they would reassess the value of their membership or leave if they had to pay their own dues.
Just like in past Association Trends studies, there continues to be a strong correlation between technology and member loyalty. Members who view their professional organization as an early adopter of technology are more satisfied and connected with the organization and are also more likely to promote the organization. Members that view their professional organization as a laggard are significantly less likely to be satisfied, feel a connection to the organization, and promote the organization.
There also continues to be a link between technology adoption and member engagement with 39% of members saying they engage with their association every day or at least once a week. Members who are most likely to engage once a week or more are those who consider their organization an early adopter of technology.
Members choose to renew their membership with your association because you meet and exceed their expectations. If someone feels that an association doesn’t serve them, they’ll be less inclined to remain part of it.
What areas can associations focus on to meet the expectations of their members?
So how do you begin to meet the high expectations of today’s members? It begins with understanding what your members value most and then delivering that value.
Here are a few tips to get you started:
1. Consider the member’s point of view
Walk a virtual mile in your members’ shoes by creating member journey maps. Journey maps tell the full story of being a member and illustrate the experience from their first interaction to ongoing engagement, to a lifelong relationship. Members take different pathways throughout their membership lifecycle, and it’s critical to fully understand each one because it’s not a given that members will continue to renew, especially if their companies stop paying their membership dues.
Think through each stage of membership across different age groups, career stages, and engagement levels to help map out their experiences with your organization. Then, identify areas for improvement. Consider starting with the most common areas identified in the Association Trends research, which include online training, certifications, and job opportunities.
2. Reevaluate your value propositions
The last thing you want is to have members move in the opposite direction on the loyalty spectrum. It can be very beneficial to conduct member surveys and create focus groups. They can help identify the following:
- Common obstacles your members face daily.
- How the association can assist with those challenges.
- What tools are necessary for success.
Also, consider your member’s experience and expectations. Listing out potential pain points and adding new value propositions can often help ease those challenges. Take time doing so with your member events, meetings, and conferences to offer more value and drive more interest in this important benefit. Try offering more value to your existing events by viewing them as channels to deliver additional membership benefits like continuing education, career advancement, and networking opportunities.
3.Utilize your data
Collect data and content preferences and use them. Members now expect organizations to collect information to personalize their experience.
Are you communicating with your members enough and through the right channels? Leverage your association management system and marketing automation tools to:
- Collect useful data.
- Let your members know how you are and will be using the data.
- Send targeted messages at the right time to deliver a better, more personalized member experience.
4. Leverage Artificial Intelligence
Whether you’re leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) yet or not, your members are! Members are adopting AI in their work more than association professionals and are optimistic about how it can help associations create and recommend content.
AI should be a vital feature in your association’s tool kit. Your organization can use AI to enhance the member experience, increasing personalization and streamlining manual processes.
- Here’s how your association can implement AI to meet member needs:
- Embrace chatbots to elevate member services.
- Boost non-dues revenue with recommendations AI.
- Improve membership renewal rates by leveraging past member data.
- Increase efficiency with generative AI to recommend and create content.
What insights can you gather from your AMS to understand what your members expect?
Having an AMS on your side is very advantageous for your association. Having this powerful system can help you rethink what technology can do for your association. Rather than limiting your AMS to just a single purpose (for example, member management), it’s important to realize your AMS can empower your organization to do so much more.
With the right AMS, your association can gain meaningful insights into the following:
- Accounts
- Donations
- Events
- Engagements
- Members
- Payments
Nimble AMS software solutions allow associations to utilize their data for predictive analytics that support continual improvement in member retention and engagement. Leverage Nimble AMS to configure pre-built reports and dashboards to make your organization a data-driven and member-centric organization.
You can foster association member connections better when you have a trusted partner and intelligent solutions on your side.
