The jam packed programme developed especially for membership organisations included:

• PARN’s own research into vocational learning
• Case studies surrounding both Ofqual and prior experiential learning accreditation
• A lively debate about whether or not professionals need a degree

Pixl8 will be exhibiting at another exciting PARN event later in the year, find out more about it here.

1. Maintain a professional image
Having your blog URL as part of your existing website domain e.g. www.yourwebsite.com/blog looks far more professional than if it’s hosted upon a 3rd party platform domain e.g. www.3rdpartyplatform.com/yourblogname.

2. Design consistency
It’s easier to control the look and feel of your blog if it’s hosted and developed within your existing website, so using associated templates and style sheets.  This will help maintain design consistency, and in turn assist with your brand awareness and overall marketing efforts.

3. Content management
Managing your blog through your existing CMS means you only need to learn how to use one piece of content editing software.  There’s also no need to log into two separate systems, as you’ll be able to edit both the blog and website content from the same place, using the same login details.

4. Boost SEO efforts
Hosting your blog on a separate platform, thus domain, doesn’t mean you’re doubling your SEO efforts.  You’ll be in fact halving them, as each domain will be competing against one another in search rankings!  Boost your SEO efforts by having your blog and all associated fresh content containing relevant keywords within the same domain as your main website.

5. URL recall
Maintaining a consistent URL structure, and so having your blog as being - www.yourwebsite.com/blog or blog.yourwebsite.com, is far easier for your audience to remember than www.3rdpartyplatform.com/yourblogname.

6. Categorised and related content
The beauty of managing your blog from within your existing website CMS is that it allows you to drop in blog post listings throughout your website.  By categorising your blog posts using the same category structure as other content, allows you to build up related content pages.  For example, by including a blog post listing tagged as “category 1” on a news article page also tagged as “category 1”, is likely to keep a user on your website longer, therefore increasing the likelihood of a sales / member conversion.

7. Cross selling opportunities
Having your blog within your existing website structure allows users to freely navigate between other areas of your site, without getting lost in alternative browser windows and/or navigation.  Integrated navigation promotes your services and products more prominently, and so in turn helps with cross selling efforts.

8. Security considerations
Managing your blog using your existing CMS removes the security headaches that are often associated with running online marketing efforts.  Rather than needing to police access to two different systems, you are able to instead manage all permissions from just one place – your CMS.  This way if you need to remove a user when a colleague leaves, or add one when a new member of staff joins it can be done just once for both the website and blog.

Thanks to this understanding, Pixl8 have developed a fully featured blog module that can be plugged into our WebConnect CMS solution.  A number of our clients are already benefiting from the advantages and opportunities it brings, and we are continuing to research and develop its functionality.

Please contact Pixl8 here if you’d like to learn more about our fantastic blog module or WebConnect CMS package.

The day was a great success, with almost 100 representatives attending from a wide range of trade associations.  Tim and myself were fortunate enough to have lots of thought provoking conversations with a number of the delegates around website design, membership database integration and the benefits of mobile templates.

In addition to the networking with all the delegates, the talks were really something to write home about.  John Piennar, BBC Radio 5 Live's Chief Political Correspondent was a fantastic and very comical event chair person.  Lord Heseltine’s speech was also a real treat, speaking of his opinions around how trade associations should merge to form larger more influential organisations. This way he believes they would have more lobbying powers when it comes to representing their members on new government policies for example.

If you’re a trade association and want get involved with the Trade Association Forum, check out their website here for membership details.

Yes it seems we're approaching that time of year where projects are either being planned to a delivery before the Christmas period or the client and the Pixl8 team are starting to think about that brief break before enthusiastically re-commencing after the holiday period.

Presently we're finishing off amongst other things

1. A large online membership retention project

2. A Microsoft dynamics integrated membership website

3. Two higher education college websites which have some lovely creative pieces to them

4. A mobile website project

5. A site for a London property developer

6. A video portal using brightcove.com

Pixl8 has had a fantastic 2011 and we've got some really exciting projects to work on next year plus our largest contract to date.

It needs to be a one-stop-shop information source. When new visitors click onto your website you only have about three seconds in which to capture their attention. So taking the right approach to development is crucial.
 

1) Create a winning strategy
Increase revenue through event bookings, selling training materials and publications. Increase membership with a fast renewals process and lower admin costs.
 

2) Understand the market
What do your members want? Conduct member surveys and workshops and monitor member enquiries and comments. Study web analytics to understand how the site is currently being used and whether there’s a requirement for mobile access.
 

3) Focus on the user
Your goals to increase revenue and membership should drive the design and the way information is displayed on the website. Users should be able to find relevant content quickly and easily. Consider mobile access for convenience.
 

4) Design to cross-sell
The way people navigate on websites is changing. Users select links and stories to gain information on areas of interest. Tag all content to category or topic lists relevant to all audiences in order to cross sell events, training materials and publications.
 

5) Integrate your website and membership database
All membership data should be stored in one place to provide members with a personalised, comprehensive service whether they are on the website or using email.
 

6) Personalise pages
Use category or topic lists to create specialist interest groups and web pages relevant to individual roles and areas of interest.
 

7) My Association
This interactive members’ area should deliver personalised content to specific members and promote a sense of belonging. It’s a hub for advice, ideas, news and profiles and should include a members’ search facility, supplier directory and history of member activity and purchases.
 

8) Provide a public platform
Encourage interaction from supporters and the general public as well as members. Provide a platform for them to share expertise and experience. Include comment boxes for feedback, forums and group collaboration features.
 

9) Put admin and services online
Membership renewals, new member applications, event management and bookings and purchases – get the admin online, integrate it with the member database and save money. Make training courses and CPD (Continuing Professional Development) available online too through podcasts and videos.

10) Create a social media strategy
Use Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to raise the profile of your association and its business goals and drive more potential members to your website.

1) Not recognising the benefits of a fully integrated website and membership database.

2) Underestimating the time it takes to create and tag all content prior to go live.

3) Not dedicating someone with the right skills and experience to manage the website.

4) Underestimating the cost and resource savings of moving services like renewals online.

5) Not budgeting for on-going investment to ensure the website evolves with the organisation and changing requirements of its members.

It’s also important that associations brief their web development partner fully on their background, philosophy, audiences and aims and business objectives.  “As web developers we need to know as much about the association as possible,” explains Gavin Thorne.

“It’s this knowledge that enables us to suggest new ideas for site design and functions that not only meet the organisational goals but will deliver the right benefits to members and other users.  “In addition to technical expertise and a flare for design and creativity the best web development partners will provide proactive advice and support on your online marketing strategies, search engine optimisation and e-mail campaigns to maximise effectiveness and revenue generation for the business.”

To ensure you provide your web developer with a comprehensive brief, contacts us to grab a copy of Pixl8’s handy checklist.

If that isn’t already enough, we’ve confirmed our presence at two further membership events in the coming months:

NFP Technology
Thu 29th September, Business Design Centre, London

PARN - Future-proofing your Professional Body
Thu 10th November, Woburn House, London

Please try and make it along, and we'll be more than happy to assist in any website or mobile questions, along with demonstrations of our membership focused products and services.

Also Sue Froggatt, a leading membership sector trainer and consultant will be holding another one of her fantastic seminars around retention and recruitment, please see details below:

100 Great Member Recruitment and Retention Ideas
Thu 29th September, Bloomsbury Hotel, London

The changes also introduce new powers for the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office), allowing fines to be given when the law has been broken.  Although the new directive came into force at the end of May 2011, the ICO have advised they will not enforce the new regulations until May 2012, providing additional time to make changes in order to comply with the new rules.

For those non-techie people, cookies are packets of data sent between a user’s web browser (e.g. Firefox or IE) and the server which is hosting the website being visited.  There are various types of cookies used for a variety of functions covering:

• User sessions – Tracking website usage in an anonymous form e.g. Google Analytics
• Authentication – When logging into a member area on a website
• User’s preferences – Saving language settings when visiting an international website
• Shopping cart contents – Storing items in a basket as the user continues shopping

However, although cookies may be useful on a number of levels, they may be used in malicious ways such as to track user activity and collect personal data including passwords.  This is the reason why the laws around cookie usage are changing.

Currently the ICO accepts that the directive is fairly vague and is a “work in progress” so it may be some time until specific rules are laid out.  At present, recommendations include asking all site visitors for their permission to store cookies, along with the inclusion of a privacy notice, detailing which cookies are being used for what.  It is worth noting that some cookies will be allowed under the directive, when they are essential to the running of the website.  Other possibilities are that the browser vendors themselves may be obliged to include cookie warning features in their latest versions, but again exact details of requirements may not be known for some time.

For further details in how Pixl8 can assist in making your website compliant, please email us.  For additional up to date news, please visit the ICO website here.