Membership Based Organization

By Bryan Long, Relationship Manager

Is your chamber of commerce or business association website doing all it can to promote your members? Could you be improving member retention, generating more leads for members, producing more revenue, or even increasing event attendance with a more powerful website and online membership directory?

The single biggest reason businesses join your organization is to gain more business.  Through networking, professional learning opportunities and the exposure gained...

WebLink recently launched a brand new iPad app designed for associations and chambers of commerce using the WebLink Connect membership management system to conduct mobile commerce by accepting credit card payments for new memberships, current member invoices and event registrations when away from your office. The WebLink iPad app has only been out a few days, but the feedback has been amazing!

By streamlining the interface and workflow, we've created a intuitive tool for sales teams, events staff...

By Chad Bouslog, Membership Management Specialist

About 45 days ago, I was just like a lot of you reading this blog today. In fact, today, I’m probably similar to a lot of you as well, being human and all. But 45 days ago, I was introduced to WebLink International.  I wasn’t actively seeking new employment opportunities, so I probably wouldn’t have considered myself as a “hot lead” for the sales world.

Just the same, not every association or Chamber of Commerce that comes into contact with WebLink...

By Matthew Bugnacki, Membership Management Specialist

The What:

Recently my family and I were invited to a friend's house for breakfast. One of them asked if I would be writing another blog post for WebLink. I mentioned I would be writing one on dashboarding…silence…blank stares...I decided more information was needed. As I paused and searched for the best way to explain what I was writing about I asked myself whether or not this even applied to him; he’s a professional photographer. It did. In...

What is the one thing your Chamber of Commerce website can't do? Lose a prospective member of course!

If your website is the 24/7/365 salesperson it's supposed to be, you need to make sure there is no chance a prospect is going to walk away because they can't find your join button. This button will lead your site visitor to your defined target page to be a member. The resulting page can also serve as a sales pitch to why they should become a member and what the ROI is for membership.  Here is an...

By Mike Lobue, Membership Management Executive

If you are involved in technology decisions for your association, more likely than not, you’ve engaged with multiple vendors, each providing a separate technology solution. You’ve probably talked to a company that provides an association management software solution, while engaging with another that will handle your association website needs and another for your mobile app and so on. All the while being promised all the systems will ‘talk to’ and...

By Rory Beall, Membership Management Executive

When is the last time you reflected on your association’s membership management technology? Have you ever? Frequently, associations find themselves too busy preparing for the next big event, looking to add their next member or keeping existing members happy to do a thorough self-assessment of how they maintain their most important asset, their association membership database. Event history, financials and profile information of members,...

By now, you're probably sick and tired of PSY's Gangnam Style video. But after watching this video become the first in history to hit 1 billion views in December 2012, it's hard not to take notice of the explosion of online video. While your Chamber probably won't aspire to go viral on this scale, online video can have a tremendous impact on new member sales, member retention, and member engagement in your Chamber.

A recent infographic from SundaySky and research from comScore showcase the video...

Recently, my son was helping me with his homework (yes, you read that correctly!) and it made me think about ways that business associations and chambers of commerce can solve problems with their data.

His 5th grade class is learning pre-algebra using tokens and dice to represent the Xs and the Ys to help them "break down" the equations into manageable chunks and ultimately lead to the solution.  Being in my mid 40s, it took me a while to grasp the concepts, but once I did, it made understanding...

By Chris Landis, Vice President, Finance and Operations

As a decision maker in any organization, one of the most important decisions you make for the health and success of your association is related to the tools and technology in which to invest. Whether you are leading a Fortune 500 business, a professional association or a local Chamber of Commerce, the choice you make will have lasting implications on your staff, your budget, and the way you run your organization.

As an association management...

By Matthew Bugnacki, Membership Management Specialist

Recently, while I was walking with my ten year old son around our neighborhood, we discovered a tree house that seemed to be falling out of its respective tree. The tree house was not uncared for. In fact, some of the boards seemed new while some seemed a bit worn with age. My son easily identified that there was a substantial problem with the tree house as it looked warped and about ready to collapse. This led to some very...

By Terry Dwyer, CEO

As 2013 begins, it is the perfect time to assess your association, set new goals and plans to lead your team, as well as your members, to success in the new year.  I use this time of year to quietly think through where I, as CEO, can have the greatest impact. This effort can take real discipline since, if you are like me, you might want to make sure “all the important items are included.”  Most of us will lean toward making this list too long and, as a result, find ourselves...

By Joe Scaggs, National Sales Manager for WebLink Digital Media

Recently, The Schapiro Group, an Atlanta-based strategic consulting firm, released a national survey of 2,000 adults that indicated significant benefits for businesses active in their local Chamber of Commerce. The full results of the survey can be viewed on the ACCE website, but I’ll try to be helpful and cover a few of the highlights for small businesses.   

When a small business is active in a Chamber of Commerce:

• Consumers are 49%...

At WebLink, we've long said that Chambers of Commerce were the original social networking platform and involvement in the business social scene is crucial for your organization.  As the pinnacle of your local business community, your Chamber should always look for additional ways to engage your audience and measure your results. This list features super helpful social tools that make the most efficient use of your time communicating and engaging the businesses in your community.

While engaging...

Business associations and chambers of commerce spend precious time and money recruiting new members and trying to retain existing members.

But some members are naturally more inclined to renew based on how they feel about your association BEFORE they join.  You'll create greater chances for success at renewing these members if you can identify them before they join so you can:

1. Capture details needed to demonstrate value in your membership management database
2. Try to "convert" them to a type of...

It's that time again where we all reflect on our successes and failures of the previous year and create a list of things we promise we're going to do differently in the next year.

I'm feeling great about 2013 and excited about what the new year will bring at WebLink. My optimism remains despite the fact that I just Googled 'New Years Resolutions Success Rate' and found that according to a 2007 study by Richard Wisemen from the University of Bristol, 88% of resolutions fail.

On the brighter side,...

The user experience of your association website reflects who your organization is, what it has to offer members, and represents your credibility in the industry. If it is hard to navigate, difficult to understand or isn’t engaging, you can count on any traffic you have driven to your association website to go somewhere else. How can you improve the user experience of your website? Here are five proven methods for doing just that.

1. Integrate with your membership database software. Nothing is worse...

Increasing website traffic to your association’s website can mean more member sales, improved member retention, and increased non-dues revenue for your association. With the right visitors to your website, you'll achieve your goals and have happier members. Though there are dozens of methods that promise to help you to increase website traffic, we recently did an analysis of our client websites and found the following 8 best practices.

In fact, we found that on average, our clients experienced a 6...

By Beth Gannett, Membership Management Specialist

At the ASAE Membership Marketing Conference last month, at a session based upon association website design, they took an informal survey.  The question was posed to the room asking when the last time each organization had redesigned their website.  Most of the associations in the room said they hadn’t made a significant design change to their site in five years or more! If it’s time for your association to think about a new website design, here...