Content thrives when it is elevated by expert voices. Nowhere is this truer than for membership organisations. After all, membership organisations bring individuals around a point of interest to create a hub of specialism and learning around which content can be built.
However, experts come in different guises, and marrying them with content that engages members and builds their affinity with an organisation calls for careful management.
Three expert groups all bring different strengths to the table. These are external experts, internal experts, and members themselves. When used together, the impact on attraction, retention, engagement and sentiment can be compelling.
Here’s how Sunday has produced expert-led multimedia content for each group.
Leveraging reputation
External experts will elevate membership content by delivering world-leading thought leadership that reaches across sectors.
By convening like-minded individuals in one place, membership organisations already have in-built pulling power for external voices and opinion. And these external collaborations can help demonstrate reputational value to members and beyond.
But this needs careful selection. Only certain voices and values will align with a membership organisation, resonate with members, and deliver content that meets wider strategic goals.
External expertise in action
ICAEW’s ‘The New Boardroom Agenda’, was awarded the PPA IPA ‘Campaign of the Year’. The multimedia content campaign, which ran 2022-23, informed ICAEW members about their role in upholding corporate governance in a fast-evolving world.
Alongside written and podcast content, the campaign produced three short films that brought to life corporate governance issues through personality-driven stories. One highlight was Guy Singh-Watson, founder of organic farmers Riverford, who shared why he sold the business to employees at a fraction of its market value.
Although not an ICAEW member, Guy spoke of member concerns around leadership behaviour and succession planning from an informed point of view, offering relevant insight from his decades in business.
Demonstrating value
For membership organisations to succeed, members must feel confident that their interests are being well-represented. Internal expertise is often underutilised in achieving these goals, but by creating opportunities to showcase internal experts in content, members receive sources of insight, as well as greater transparency over how the organisation operates internally.
The benefits go beyond an organisation and its members. Visible experts are effective experts. And the right content shaped around internal experts will empower organisations to advocate and lobby for members on a wider stage.
Internal expertise in action
Climate change is the biggest challenge of our time. From funding green technologies to helping businesses comply with new regulations, finance professionals will be at the heart of society’s transition to a green economy.
That’s why we built a content series around ICAEW’s attendance of COP28: ‘Making COP Count’. We worked with ICAEW director of sustainability, Richard Spencer, to create multimedia content that explained the impact of COP28 on the accountancy profession and how ICAEW is upskilling members around sustainability.
As well as educating members on their professional responsibilities, the content series showcased Richard as ICAEW’s leader on sustainability and as someone who members can confidently come to for advice on the topic.
Celebrating members
Members are the lifeblood of any membership organisation and are valuable experts in their own right – well-placed to educate and inspire fellow members.
Member-focused content is not only valuable for the membership community, it also helps frame organisations as collaborative networks that celebrate individual success, driving sentiment and affinity with the brand.
It all demonstrates the reciprocal nature of membership organisations: when members inform content, content will better inform members.
Member expertise in action
Who better to celebrate diversity and inclusion at a membership body than the members themselves? As part of our multi-award-winning ‘Welcome Inclusion’ campaign for ICAEW, they did just that.
By bringing together members for an in-person diversity workshop, we produced a range of short films that explored inclusion and the workplace, sharing the business benefits of diversity as well as personal stories of tackling discrimination and intolerance.
The member-focused content enabled ICAEW to walk the talk on diversity and inclusion – one of its strategic objectives for the decade – by showcasing its values as an inclusive organisation as well as its influence in driving a more inclusive financial sector.