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Breitloh

Association websites

An association site is two sites wearing one coat: a public face that has to persuade people to join, and a member area that has to be worth the subscription. Add a directory, a renewal cycle, and a committee that approves everything, and you have a job that is nothing like a brochure site.

Book a callWebsite design and build

Ten of my fifteen years were spent on enterprise platforms, mostly ServiceNow, building service and workflow systems for FTSE 100 companies, central government departments, and local authorities. Governance, approval steps, and committees are the normal case there.

A member record beside a renewal year, with reminders sent ahead of the date and the payment marked paid

Where it usually hurts

Two audiences, one homepage
Prospective members want to know what they get. Existing members want the thing they came for, in two clicks, without reading the sales pitch again. Most association sites serve one of those well and the other badly.
The directory goes stale
A member directory is only useful if it is current, and it is only current if members maintain it themselves. If updating a listing means emailing the secretariat, it is out of date within a year and members stop trusting it.
Everything goes through a committee
Copy is approved by people who meet monthly. A build that assumes fast decisions will stall, so the work has to be organised around the meeting cycle instead of pretending it does not exist.

What the job covers

  • A public site written for the person deciding whether to join
  • A member area with a sensible way in and no password reset drama
  • A directory members update themselves, with the fields your council agreed
  • Committee friendly review: staged content, comments in one place, one decision per round
  • An editor the secretariat can run without ringing me

What it has to talk to

Your membership database
The CRM stays the source of truth for who is a member, and the site reads from it. That matters more than it sounds: two lists of members always disagree, and the argument that follows is nobody's favourite meeting.
Renewals and payments
Renewal is a date, an email, and a payment, and it goes wrong at the join between them. Payments run through Stripe unless you already have something you are happy with, which means Apple Pay and Google Pay work out of the box and a lapsed member can fix it themselves at eleven at night, on a phone, without finding a card.
Events and CPD
Conferences, branch meetings, and recorded sessions all live somewhere already. They come into the site as content so members can find them, with the booking left where it works.

A worked approach, not a client

How I would approach a professional body with a member area

  1. 01

    Split the two jobs early

    Public pages and member pages get designed separately, so neither is a compromise. They share the brand and almost nothing else.

  2. 02

    Let the CRM stay in charge

    Membership status comes from the database you already run. The site asks it who someone is and shows the right thing, so there is never a second list to reconcile.

  3. 03

    Build the directory around the members

    Members edit their own listing, the secretariat approves changes if your rules require it, and the directory stays current because keeping it current is in the member's interest.

  4. 04

    Plan the build around the meeting dates

    Content and approvals arrive in the rhythm the committee actually works to, with one set of decisions per round instead of a running conversation nobody can follow.

Questions I get asked about this

The ones that come up on almost every first call. If yours is not here, ask it and you will get a straight answer.

Can members log in and manage their own details?

Yes, and it is the part that makes a directory stay useful. Members sign in, update their listing, and see anything reserved for them. Whether changes are published immediately or approved first is your rule, not mine.

Do you integrate with our membership CRM?

Yes, and I would rather leave it as the source of truth than replace it. The site reads membership status from it, so you never end up with two lists of members disagreeing about who has paid. Where there is no system to read from, that is a membership system and a separate piece of work.

Our copy has to be approved by a committee. Does that work?

It works if the build is planned around it, which is why I ask about your meeting dates on the first call. Content arrives in rounds, each round gets one set of decisions, and nothing waits on a conversation that is happening in five different inboxes.

Can we take payments for renewals and events?

Yes, through Stripe in your own account, which covers cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay without anyone needing a card to hand. That is not the same as an online shop, which I do not build: taking a renewal or an event fee is a simpler job, and it is one I am happy to do. Places on a course or a conference are a booking system, which is the next page along.

Can we run events and CPD through the site?

The listings, the programme, and the recordings, yes, and members can find them in one place. Ticketing and payment can either be built in or left with whatever you use now, and I would usually leave a system that already works alone. What matters is that a member does not have to know which system they are in.

Will members be able to search the directory properly?

Yes, by the fields your council decides matter: discipline, region, grade, whatever your membership is organised around. The reason most directories disappoint is not the search, it is that the data is out of date, which is why members maintaining their own listing is the important part.

What about GDPR and member data?

Member data stays in the systems you already run, and the site reads what it needs to show. Anything a member can see about themselves, they can change. The practical benefit of not copying the membership list into the website is that there is one place to answer a subject access request from.

Our renewal emails end up in spam. Can that be fixed?

Yes, and it is usually a configuration problem rather than a content one. Renewal notices should be sent as transactional mail from your own domain, with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC set up so receiving servers can authenticate them. Done properly, deliverability stops being the reason a renewal cycle underperforms.

What does a site like this cost to run each year?

The hosting for a site of this shape is small, often under a hundred pounds a year, and the content system has a free tier that most associations never outgrow. The costs that matter are your payment provider's percentage and whatever your membership database already costs, neither of which I add to. Most associations arrive here from WordPress, and moving off WordPress sets out what that part involves.

Can we take payments securely without handling card details?

Yes. Payments run through Stripe, so card details go from the member to Stripe and never touch your site or mine. That keeps the compliance burden where it belongs and gives you Apple Pay and Google Pay for members renewing on a phone.

Related

Tell me what you have now

Half an hour on a call, and a straight answer about whether this is the right job and whether I am the right person for it.

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