Association Q&A: Web Strategy

Is responsive web design important for our association mobile strategy?

Responsive web design is critical to your association’s success. That’s a strong statement, but it is so true. Responsive web design refers to the ability of your website to respond to the user’s device, be it a computer, tablet, smartphone or other mobile device. Without responsive web design, your association members and prospects will be forced to continually […]

Which domains should our association register?

The question of which domains your association should register seems far more obvious now than it did during the early days of the internet. In fact, most associations have a fairly stable set of domains that they have registered and used for several years. However, while your association may be content with your current set […]

Should our association home page be for members or non-members?

When web sites were first created, the home page was almost always geared completely toward members. Over time, those associations with important external audiences, such as potential customers, the press or legislators began to incorporate information that was important to these those non-member groups. Now with the greater sophistication of association members, the question is […]

How often does our association need to update our web site?

Association web sites seem to fall into three camps: those that are updated daily or almost daily, those that are updated every few weeks, and those that are rarely updated. Are associations that update their sites on a daily basis clearly doing a better job than the other associations? Not necessarily. When considering the proper […]

Should our association convention have its own separate web design?

Giving your association convention its own separate web site design has some advantages and disadvantages. Here are a few to keep in mind. Advantages of a separate design for your association convention web site area: – If the association convention has a slightly different look each year, but your web site is not redesigned yearly, […]

Should we personalize the content of our association web site?

The short answer is “yes.”  Personalizing the content of your web site is an excellent way to improve the value that you offer to your members. Moreover, personalization has been shown to improve response to offers. That said, the expense of personalizing your association web site has to balanced by having something truly valuable to […]

How should my association segment our member-only areas?

Member-only areas of association web sites increasingly contain compelling, wonderful tools and resources that are true member benefits. Given their highly desired content, one might wonder whether – and how much of – that content should be exposed to non-members. There are essentially four different philosophies: 1) Expose nothing specific. Instead, summarize the content in […]

Should our association establish a second association web site?

Association web sites have limitless potential.  They can contain as many pages as the staff can create, and they can cover every topic that is important to every association audience.  So why would an association ever need to have a second web site? There are several possible reasons: – The association may have a very […]

How does the association convince members to link to our web site?

As a member, placing a link to your association’s web site on your web site might be a nice point of pride.  However, it could also seem like a mistake if you are a member of trade association. Why would linking to your association’s web site appear to be a mistake?  Because trade association web […]