How to Measure Member Engagement and What it Can Do for Your Organization 

Measuring member engagement is crucial for associations, unions, and other membership-based organizations. It helps to understand which members are engaged and which aren’t, so you can put that knowledge to work.   
 

Let’s examine why you should measure member engagement, what it takes to initiate engagement measurement, and how you can utilize those measurements to enhance interactions with your members.   

Why Measure Member Engagement? 

Measuring member engagement helps you to understand and improve how well your organization engages with members. It involves establishing engagement metrics around member behaviors that represent low and high engagement with your organization. Then, you can apply scores to each member, giving you an idea of which members are least engaged, which are most engaged, and which are in between. You can then use the information to increase member engagement and interact with members in different ways based on their level of engagement.  
 

According to the Association Trends Study by Momentive Software, increasing membership, improving membership retention, and developing or improving member engagement opportunities are top priorities for membership organizations. Measuring member engagement can help achieve each of these goals. 

How to Measure Member Engagement 

Measuring member engagement involves several key steps. It’s essential to note that, while for-profit retailers have been measuring customer engagement for decades, membership organizations have different priorities than corporations. Therefore, you must consider other factors besides simply the amount a member spends to measure their engagement. 
 

A straightforward approach to measuring member engagement is to identify the behaviors that indicate high levels of engagement. These are known as key performance indicators (KPIs). KPIs should be closely aligned with your organization’s strategic goals and vision. For example, KPIs might be:  

• Length of membership  

• Number of committees served on  

• Number of events attended  

• Number of education credits earned  

Define three to five KPIs. Narrowing these down can often be the most challenging aspect of the project, but it’s helpful to start with only three to five, as large numbers of KPIs can make tracking more difficult.  
 

Next, assign a weight to each one based on the relative importance to your organization. Usually, a scale of one to 100 is helpful. For example, you could have a total of 100 possible points to award a given member, ranging from 0 (no engagement) to 100 (fully engaged). Given that, you can allocate your total of 100 points among your KPIs based on their importance.  
 

For this example, you might assign a possible total of 15 of the 100 points to “the length of membership” KPI. Then, you might decide that 0-3 years receive 5 points, 4-5 years receive 10 points, and 6+ years receive 15 points.   
 

Once you’ve assigned points to your KPIs, you can calculate a total, or “score,” for each member.   

Putting Member Engagement Scoring Data to Work 

With your membership engagement measurement system in place, you can better understand trends with your members and start putting these insights to use. For example: 
 

• Re-engage members before they lapse. Identify low-engagement members and automatically target them with a re-engagement email campaign. 

• Move members to the next level. If you notice a pattern of increasing engagement among a group of members, consider cultivating them for additional opportunities, such as volunteering, speaking at an event, or serving on your board. This approach helps to deepen engagement with your current members. 

• Convert non-members to members. Member engagement scoring extends beyond your current members to non-members. For example, identify non-members with moderate engagement scores and target them with messages about how, by joining, they can gain access to members-only content and events, as well as save on events or other activities they’re already participating in. 

• Identify potential donors. Find members who have never donated and have high engagement scores. These can be excellent donor prospects because they’re clearly passionate about your organization. Target these members with a specific fundraising ask.