In the Fall of 2023, Matchbox invited the association community to participate in our survey on Exploring the Value of Virtual. We undertook this survey to research the use of virtual events and online experiences by associations. We have seen a huge amount of change in the ways associations are using virtual or online experiences to engage and educate their members and industries. The goal of the survey was to understand what is working and what is not, which online experiences are creating value or generating revenue, and the areas in which associations see potential for online experiences to increase meaningful engagement with their members and community.
The survey results were very interesting and we took some time to analyze them. We also dove a little deeper into some of the findings with focus groups, to try to better understand the results. This lead to some exciting outcomes and we can’t wait to share them with you!
Who took part in this survey?
What industry does your association serve?
The most represented industry was Medical and Health, followed by Education. Many responses in the ‘Other’ category indicated specific industries, showing the strong identification of association executives with the industry served.
We analyzed responses from the Medical and Healthcare industry and compared these to the overall responses to see if there would be any variation in the results, however there was no significant difference. Responses to questions for the Medical and Healthcare industry mirrored the overall responses.
What size is your association team?
Large associations with teams of over 50 represented 21% of respondents, with the majority of respondents working in teams of less than 50 people. 36% were in medium teams of 10-40 people and 43% were in teams of less than 10 people.
What are the main goals of associations?
What are some of your organization’s goals?
The first question we asked in our survey aimed to understand the strategic goals for associations. This would allow us to see in later questions whether the use of virtual or online experiences align with the strategic goals of the participant’s organizations.
Membership Engagement was the most common goal identified across all respondents. With high results also for Member Recruitment (3rd) and Facilitating Networking (4th), it is clear that associations are striving to provide ways for members to connect and build strong relationships with the organization and with each other.
The second highest response was Delivering Education, which is a theme that came across strongly in this survey and the subsequent focus groups. Education is the activity that is currently most closely associated with the virtual medium among associations.
Fifth on the list was Revenue Generation, indicating that revenue generation is increasingly recognized as important for associations to increase investment in the expansion of services and benefits to members and to provide funds for activities to boost the growth of the association.
Are associations open to expanding their use of virtual?
We had a hypothesis that many associations had to adopt virtual quickly to respond to the pandemic, and many did so without having the chance to learn about or explore the unique value that designing for a virtual-first experience can provide to their audience. We knew that many associations have moved to delivering education and conferences online, and wanted to see if associations were open to experimenting with new types of online experiences in other strategic areas, especially given the widely reported success of the virtual medium in reaching higher numbers and segments of association membership during the pandemic.
How might you expand your use of virtual?
We asked respondents to let us know how they might expand their organization’s use of virtual, especially if they had access to resources such as templates and best practice guides to help deliver online experiences in a number of different areas of operation.
Here, the importance of building strong relationships with members and the need to generate revenue were highlighted as being the areas in which associations would most like to expand their use of virtual. ‘New Member Onboarding’ was the most popular response, with ‘Vendor Showcases’ and ‘Volunteer Engagement’ tied in second place, for areas in which associations would like to expand virtual activities.
Which of these are of the most importance in the next 1-3 years?
Then to explore this question a little further, we asked which of these online experiences identified in the previous question would be of most importance to the association in the next 1-3 years. Here again, online experiences for ‘New Member Onboarding’ and ‘Volunteer Engagement’ were the clear front-runners. Building strong relationships with members and stakeholders was most clearly identified as being of strategic importance to associations and also being an area in which associations would like to expand use of virtual.
Exploring with a little more focus…
To understand the results of the survey more clearly, we wanted to explore in more depth some of the questions. We convened three online focus groups and in each session we facilitated an open discussion of the survey results, including exploring some of the reasons why associations are not using virtual to achieve their goals for member engagement or revenue generation. We also explored some ideas on how to make it easier for associations to create new online experiences, sharing knowledge and experience from other successful association events and reducing the effort needed to design and deliver engaging online experiences.
The feedback from these focus groups was invaluable in helping us to understand the challenges associations are facing – and also how Matchbox can help!
While associations do see the potential of expanded use of online experiences, it is difficult to launch new initiatives for several reasons. Two of the key reasons identified are the growing demands on staff time and resources and the many demands on association budgets.
While some of our focus group participants shared details of the digital-first initiatives they have implemented at their associations to engage members, whether for new member onboarding or facilitating networking, other participants shared that it can be more difficult to gain approval for new online initiatives. This may be due to a hesitancy to try something new because staff feel they may not have the bandwidth to take on new projects, or where it is more difficult to articulate the return on investment for activities like new member onboarding or volunteer engagement to the executive team or board, making it difficult to secure buy-in. These were some of the key barriers to the expanded use of virtual that were identified, regardless of the size or industry of the association represented.
Overall, the survey and focus groups showed that education is the area in which associations currently make most use of virtual. However, associations of all sizes and across all industries see potential in expanding the use of online experiences to impact operations in areas of strategic importance such as membership and revenue generation.
Here at Matchbox, these results excite us! We strongly believe in the potential and value of virtual, especially when the experience is designed to be digital-first. Having partnered with hundreds of associations to distill the patterns of successful virtual events and online experiences into best practice guides for engagement and blueprints for monetization, we are excited to work with associations that are ready to try something new and create digital initiatives to align with their strategic goals.
Want to learn more about the potential of digital initiatives for engaging your membership or growing your revenue? We’d love to hear from you.
