Member engagement can be harder to measure in trade associations than in professional societies. But that doesn’t mean it’s not vitally important.

Why do some members leave an association while others go on to become board members? Why are some people passionate, vocal advocates for association membership, while others don’t even bother to open emails?

It all comes down to one thing: member engagement.

Associations exist because we know that we’re stronger when we’re part of a team. Good things happen when talented people come together to share knowledge, compare best practices and make connections, which is why associations work so hard to acquire members.

Every association website has a public section and a members-only section.

The public section of the site is essentially a marketing tool. It exists so that passers-by can get a flavor of what the association has to offer, and hopefully it will tempt people into taking a closer look.

How do you know if your association management strategies are working? How can you track the return on investment in marketing, content creation and IT infrastructure investment?

It all comes down to member engagement. Are you connecting with members and making them feel like they’re getting value for money?

Engagement is the ultimate metric of your efforts. It soars when your strategy is working; it plummets when you need to make changes.

The only problem is: how you actually go about assessing engagement?

In association management, even seemingly small changes can have unexpected consequences.

For example, imagine your IT team upgrades a database so that your website runs faster. They make the change, test the website, and discover that everything has gone according to plan.