5 Video Content Strategies for Engaging Association Members

Since members are your association’s bottom line and main revenue source, it’s crucial to keep them continually engaged in your activities and offerings. However, with their busy personal and professional lives, it can be challenging to find the right ways to maintain their interest in your association outside of meetings.

That said, with a little creativity and digital prowess, you can leverage one of the most powerful tools for member engagement: video. From storytelling to engagement to education, there are many goals your association can achieve by strategically creating video content. In this guide, we’ll review these top video use cases for associations:

• Welcome Videos for New Members

• Educational Webinars and Workshops

• Behind-the-Scenes Event Content

• Member Spotlight Stories

• Regular Updates from Leadership

As we review these video strategies, consider your association’s current media production expertise and how you could incorporate video into your current digital approach. Remember, you can create high-quality video content just by using a smart device, or, if you have a higher budget, there are video production experts available to help.

1. Welcome Videos for New Members

Joining a new association can feel overwhelming even for the most seasoned professionals. Knowing how to welcome new members can make a big difference in helping them feel integrated into your community from the very beginning. You can make a genuine welcome video for new members by:

• Using a warm, inclusive tone. Even if you represent a professional association, you should still promote a positive membership environment by producing a friendly, optimistic welcome video. Use bright colors and, if featuring videos of people talking, smiling faces!

• Featuring key leadership and staff. Show that everyone’s excited about the new members by featuring snippets of staff from across the organization welcoming them. 

• Providing a clear onboarding overview. If you intend for your video to be the first resource your new members see, give an overview of your onboarding process to reduce confusion and stress.

Throughout your welcome video, include elements of your brand. For instance, you could overlay your logo and say your slogan at the end of your video. This can help excite your members and build a sense of community even before they attend any of your events. 

2. Educational Webinars and Workshops

One of the main reasons members join your association is for high-quality educational opportunities. Integrating video into your teaching strategy can help you stand out from competitors and engage your members with valuable content. Try integrating videos into your educational strategy by offering:

• Webinar/panel discussions with thought leaders in your field

• Online prerecorded lectures

• Virtual professional skill workshops 

Offering educational material in a video format helps you not only engage members internally but attract new members to join as well. Fifty & Fifty’s guide to nonprofit digital marketing suggests leveraging snippets of your video material on digital channels such as social media and your website to boost member acquisition. 

3. Behind-the-Scenes Event Content

Your association’s events present major member engagement opportunities for your team. Consider creating video content to highlight interesting aspects of upcoming events that your members wouldn’t experience simply from attending. For example, let’s say you’re hosting a silent auction. You could leverage behind-the-scenes footage to:

• Interview organizers and members. Your association members likely don’t have the chance to meet all of their peers just by attending your events. Produce video interviews of fellow members and staff so your members can get to know new people. 

• Reveal the impact of the event. For instance, if your auction is benefiting a certain cause or your own association, you can describe its impact and how the proceeds will be used. This also presents an opportunity for you to implement a call-to-action to donate or simply share the message on social media.

• Show interesting facts about the items. Building hype around your items can get your members more interested in participating in your auction and forming connections through the event. 

Whether you’re hosting an auction, a conference, or a casual barbecue, including this type of video content can help members feel more connected to your community and encouraged to participate in more events. 

Member Spotlight Stories

Your members are the fabric of your association, so allowing them to connect will make a big difference in your community’s vibrancy and genuine appreciation of each other. Spotlighting members via video can serve as an engagement strategy and a way for you to show appreciation for your loyal members. Follow these steps to source featured members:

1. Send out a survey to members asking if anyone has an impactful story about their time with your association.
2. Pick the members with captivating stories and set up a time to interview them.
3. Interview them, asking about their favorite memories of the association, any advice they have for new members, and more related questions.
4. Include the most compelling parts from the interview in a short-form video segment.
5. Post the video to your social media profiles, website, and other channels.

Throughout the process, stay transparent about the purpose of these videos. Ensure that your interviewees know where you intend to post the footage and respect their privacy if they request certain elements to not make it to the final cut. 

5. Regular Updates from Leadership

Depending on your association’s size, members might not get to see upper leadership often due to their administrative duties. However, it’s important that they trust your leadership to continue involvement with your association. You can leverage video to help members get to know your leadership team by:

• Producing “meet the leadership” video interviews.

• Allowing leadership to create videos updating members of association news.

• Hosting live Q&A sessions where members can ask leadership for professional advice or other inquiries.

This use of video allows your members to interact directly with leadership and provide feedback, allowing you to align your association activities and benefits with member preferences.

Wrapping Up

Membership retention is more efficient and cost-effective than member acquisition. Leveraging video can boost retention by helping members feel like part of your community and by adding dimension to your digital outreach.