We help associations double their member engagement.
We have been working with associations for over 10 years, and during our time, we have discovered that associations often need help with their marketing and digital strategy. So we designed our services to help associations with both their digital strategy and the tools they need to increase their member engagement. We have a number of strategy workshops that can help clients create an effective digital plan and double their member engagement.
We also have a product called Member Lounge, which is one of the quickest ways for associations to build an engaging member community. Our product and workshops were built directly from client feedback. We have spoken to hundreds of associations, and we have distilled the biggest challenges that they are facing in terms of member engagement and membership growth. Our workshops and the product are a direct reflection to solve their problem.
Tell us about yourself?
Originally, I was a software engineer who has always loved technology and has a passion for creative work. I realized that building apps and websites gave me a creative outlet in a way that can meaningfully help clients.
In our early days of the business, we helped a number of non-profit organizations build their membership websites. As we worked with our non-profit clients more and more, we realized that our skills were best suited for building membership websites for associations. What really excited us was the value we could provide to associations by boosting their member engagement through the membership portals we created. We truly believe that technology should be used to improve lives and create meaningful connections between people, and our product Member Lounge does exactly that.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
You need to surround yourself with good mentors and good advisors. Learning from them can solve a lot of business problems quickly. We can learn on our own through trial and error, but a lot of business problems have already been solved, and good mentors and advisors can provide invaluable guidance. I think having worked with some key mentors has really helped us speed up our business growth. So the one piece of advice I would give myself if I could go back a couple of years is to surround yourself with top-notch mentors that you can get access to and actually use their advice.
What problem does your business solve?
We help Associations double their member engagement with our product Member Lounge, which is one of the quickest ways to build an online community and resource portal for associations. Our tool automates membership marketing for association executives and team members, allowing them to concentrate on their content and operations. By taking marketing responsibilities off their plate, they can devote their time and expertise to do what they are best at.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
I’ve always wanted to use my digital and technology skills and all my skills for a good cause in an industry that I can feel proud of. I want to look back and know my work has had a big, positive impact on people’s lives. I want to help the highest number of people that I can during my time on Earth. Being able to work with associations who are serving every single profession improves their careers and consequently brings more value to this world. So we are excited to play a small part in the association’s journey to help their members better.
What is your magic sauce?
Our secret sauce is a mix of a number of things. To start off, we have a very deep understanding of our clients and how they work in the association world. We developed this understanding through listening carefully to our clients and collecting their questions over time. We have a bank of thousands of client questions that we use to guide our product and services. We have focused our membership portal on member experience front and center in our product Member Lounge. In our workshops, we show a demo of our product too, and whoever has seen the demo is very impressed. The Member experience is one of the highlights of our product. It makes it easy for members to find resources by finding their desired content in less than 20 seconds.
There are so many association management tools out there, but the limitation is their focus more on managing the back end. There are tools that build member portals too, but what sets us apart is our unwavering focus on member engagement. We’ve designed our tool to put member engagement on autopilot, making it super easy for associations to share content with their members. We still manage the back ends, but our main focus is on providing a top-notch member experience. So, if any association is truly committed to improving their member experience and taking member engagement to new heights, they absolutely need to check out Member Lounge.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
In the next five years, we want to be the leading provider of membership communities for associations. We are already a top leader in the industry for creating educational content that helps associations improve their digital strategies and effectively engage their members. In the next couple of years, we want to take our content to new levels and reach a broader audience. We also have big plans to expand our product. We want it to cover every single aspect of association member engagement, making the lives of association managers and executives a whole lot easier. We want to provide them with seamless ways to connect with their members and create an experience that’s unparalleled. It’s all about making a significant impact in the association world and ensuring that everyone benefits from our expertise.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
We saw an opportunity to help associations address their challenges in terms of technology awareness and understanding of marketing. As a result, we noticed that a lot of associations haven’t fully grasped their potential in how much they can truly achieve through their membership and the resources that they already have.
So in order to educate associations better, we have developed workshops that enable associations to realize their true potential. Our workshops begin by focusing on their digital strategy, and once they have a solid grasp of strategy, we guide them toward growing member engagement. This is where our product comes into play. Associations can explore what we offer and leverage it to build a thriving online community and a rich resource portal. And even if they don’t buy our product, we are more than happy to just teach them something valuable.
How can people get involved?
We work with professional associations to double their membership engagement. So if you’re a business leader at a professional association and you’re at a point where you think you truly want to grow your membership and member engagement, please reach out to us. You can reach us at www.grype.ca and book a quick 15-minute call.
You can also attend our educational webinars and live podcasts with industry leaders and experts.
Grype podcast – www.grype.ca/podcast
Grype webinars – www.grype.ca/events2
Grype blog – www.grype.ca/blog