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Association websites range in size, from big city CoWorking or Shared Office Space websites to local neighborhood associations trying to market the local businesses in the neighborhood and drive growth.
But no matter the size, they all must contain the following 14 items to help drive membership and traffic and provide valuable information to community members and visitors.
Great Design
It is no secret that trust and perceived value increase when a website’s design and usability improve. Association websites are no different, and some would argue that a great design helps build trust in and value for the community.
Research from Stanford University shows that 46.1 percent of the over 2,500 people studied say a website’s design is the top criterion for deciding whether a company is credible. Make sure your website has:
- Clear and sharp images
- Consistent layout
- Easy to read and consistent typography
- Well-defined color schemes
The site must be built upon a responsive framework to ensure your website looks great and functions flawlessly on any device.
Making sure your website’s design, structure, imagery, and content portrays trust in your association is key to building a great reputation for your association (generating new memberships) and the community it was built to be the face of. Bill Ross, CEO of Linchpin SEO
Easy To Use CMS
Your content management system (CMS) is the backbone of your design. This framework needs to be easy to use, search engine friendly, and include the functionality needed to provide everything your community will need to engage with your website and each other.
Your CMS:
- It should include all the foundation SEO elements—this helps search engines understand your website and contributes to its ranking within Google.
- It should include an easy-to-use publishing platform, which will be important for anyone publishing content on your website.
- Include key functionality—This includes the ability to categorize content, an easy-to-use directory, eCommerce, event listings, etc. We will discuss these more below.
Organized Directory With Map
We have seen a directory organized in many ways—alphabetically, by category, or by date of membership. Each of these organizational structures has its pros and cons for users and the directory’s management.
Alphabetically – this may be the easiest to set up and manage, but from a user standpoint, it makes it difficult to find a specific type of business.
By category – This may be difficult to manage due to categorization limitations, but it’s the best option from a user standpoint.
Date of membership – This may be the least effective for both users and management as it can be difficult to manage, and users don’t have any insight into its logic.
Member Profile Page
The member profile page gives your community members a centralized location to market themselves and help website visitors learn more about their small businesses. Member profile pages should include, at minimum, the following six items:
- Company Logo
- Images of the Local Business
- Location Map
- Business Description
- Business Services
- Contact Information
These member profile pages can also be used to help earn links for your association by sending out a badge for the local business to put on their website that points back to their profile page.
Membership Page
A well-structured and in-depth membership page will help tell the association’s story and provide enough information to drive new membership. The membership page should, at minimum, include the following five items.
- History of the Association
- Why Someone Should Join
- Testimonials
- List of Board Members
- Local Small Business Resources
Integrated eCommerce
A key to making the sign-up process as simple and seamless as possible for new members is having an integrated eCommerce experience. This means the new member can sign up and pay simultaneously.
Neighborhood Map
Having a centralized location that anyone visiting your neighborhood can use to learn about businesses and landmarks will help drive community engagement.
Events Page
Your events page is important for helping connect your community through local events. These can be events your association organizes or your community members are putting on.
Email Integration
Growing and managing your email list is key to keeping your community members up to date on the community. Marketers consistently ranked email as the most effective tactic for awareness, acquisition, conversion, and retention. Remember, you have just 3-4 seconds to grab your readers’ attention and interest them enough to open and read your email. So, a good use of email marketing for the CoWorking or Shared Office Space would be to showcase the following:
- Events going on in the community
- Priority announcements for your association
- New members
- New businesses are coming to the neighborhood
- Local real estate
If you send out an email blast, ensure you fulfill its maximum potential by including relevant images. According to Hubspot, 65 percent of users like emails that are mostly made up of images, while only 35 percent prefer their emails to be text-heavy.
Advertising Strategy Integration
Having a way for local businesses to advertise on your website and within your other marketing channels is a great way to drive revenue growth for your association, which can then be used to improve your website or put on additional events to help connect community members. Advertising can be integrated into your:
Website – use banners, event sponsorships, map sponsorships, or sponsored content to help market your community members.
Email – spotlight members or sell banner placement within your email marketing.
Social Media – you can sell mentions and spotlights of local business members.
SEO
Let’s not forget one of the primary channels users will use to find your association and your member’s content – after all 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine.
Ensuring you have the foundational elements in place is a great starting point for any website trying to increase organic traffic.
Making sure you choose a web design company that integrates SEO throughout the design and development process is key to getting the most out of your website. When searching for a company to design your website, make sure you ask them key questions to gauge their skill set when it comes to, what we call, SEO Web Design. This will ensure search engine optimization is built into the design for maximum baseline value. – Bill Ross, CEO of Linchpin SEO
Professional Photography
Psychologist Jerome Bruner has uncovered some interesting studies. At the same time, people only remember 10 percent of things they hear and 20 percent of what they have read, around 80 percent of people remember things they see or do.
Having photographs of your community, including the businesses, people, and key landmarks, will bring your neighborhood to life.
Encourage business owners and users to submit their photos of the neighborhood or photos taken during events – maybe even win a prize for the best photo.
Blog
One of the biggest benefits of blogging for your CoWorking or Shared Office Space website is the ability to attract high-quality leads. If you consistently publish valuable content, you’ll be surprised how much your membership leads will skyrocket.
The other major benefit of blogging on your website is the increased ability to gain local links that will help earn rankings with the search engines. Companies who blog receive 97% more links to their website.
If you lack the resources to create in-depth content consistently, you might want to hire community members to help write content based on their skill sets.