The Value Fog: Why Your Members Don’t Understand What They’re Paying For
Associations invest a tremendous amount of energy into delivering value. They advocate for their industries, connect professionals, build communities of practice, and equip members to succeed. Yet many still hear a familiar and frustrating comment from members: “I know the association is helpful, but I’m not sure how to explain it to someone else.”
That uncertainty is more than a communication hiccup. It is a warning sign. When members struggle to articulate value, engagement plateaus ,retention suffers, and word-of-mouth weakens. The work is happening, the benefits exist, but somewhere between delivery and perception, clarity gets lost. That gap is what I call the value fog.
Why Members Struggle to Explain Value
Most association value is experienced through moments and emotions that do not always feel tangible. A member may leave a conference feeling energized and informed. Another might solve a challenge because a peer offered quick and practical advice in a forum. Someone else might feel more confident navigating industry changes because of the research or policy updates they receive.
Those are real benefits. They matter. They influence careers and improve organizations. But because they often show up as support, insight, reassurance, connection, and confidence, members do not always make the connection to their dues payment.
Another big factor is how associations describe what they offer. Too often, the message focuses on programs rather than results. Members hear about events, committees, journals, learning platforms, resource libraries, councils, or initiatives. These are excellent offerings, but the offerings themselves are not the value. The outcomes are.
When messaging centers on activity instead of impact, members get information, but they do not get a clear reason to care.
When Associations Accidentally Cause Confusion
Associations never set out to confuse members, but it still happens. A common source is internal language. What makes perfect sense to staff or leadership often lands as abstract and complicated to members.
For example, a message like:
We support a peer-to-peer knowledge sharing ecosystem through our digital collaboration platform.
It sounds strategic. It also sounds like a buzzword puzzle.
Members simply want to know:
You can get quick advice from people who have already solved the challenges you are dealing with.
Another culprit is organizing communication around internal structure. Staff live in a world of pillars, departments, and boards. Members live in a world of problems they need to solve and goals they want to achieve. When communication mirrors the organizational chart rather than the member experience, value gets muddy.
What Happens When You Focus on Features Instead of Benefits
Talking about features instead of benefits creates missed opportunity. Features describe what you provide. Benefits describe why it matters.
A quarterly journal is a feature.
Helping members stay ahead of emerging issues that could impact their careers is a benefit.
An annual conference is a feature.
Forming professional relationships that lead to new opportunities and growth is a benefit.
Both versions are correct—only one sparks loyalty. Features can be copied by competitors. The personal and professional transformation members feel when they are engaged cannot be duplicated.
Members join to get somewhere they could not get alone. When we forget to make that the center of the story, the connection weakens.
Strategies to Clear the Value Fog
The path to clarity is not complicated. It requires consistency and discipline, not sweeping reinvention. Here are several ways to make your value easier for members to explain and easier to feel:
First, start with purpose. Ask yourself: What problem do we solve better than anyone else? Every message, offering, and engagement touchpoint should connect back to that answer.
Second, simplify the language. Members do not speak in acronyms or strategic jargon. They describe outcomes in plain language. Follow their lead.
Third, segment your value story. New professionals, senior executives, and supplier partners do not share the same priorities. They should not receive the same value narrative. A single catch-all message forces every audience to translate what you are saying into what matters to them. Most will not take the time.
Fourth, tell real stories. Highlight actual member outcomes. Testimonials, anecdotes, and quick success examples are more relatable and memorable than lists of programs. Stories do the heavy lifting that bullet points cannot.
Fifth, differentiate between why someone should join and why someone should renew. Joining is about potential. Staying is about proof. Those deserve distinct messages.
Measuring Clarity and Progress
You cannot manage what you do not measure. Associations need signals that tell them whether their value story is resonating or getting lost.
Look for patterns in member behavior. Renewal trends, event registration, content engagement, and volunteer interest all provide clues. If participation rises when you tie value to outcomes, that is a strong indicator your message is landing.
You also need qualitative insight. Ask members why they renew and what they find most valuable. If they can clearly describe impact without prompting, your message is clear. If they default to broad statements like “networking” or “staying informed,” the story still needs work. Do not accept vague answers as proof of understanding. Vague answers mean fog.
Finally, test and iterate. Try alternative phrasing, A/B test campaigns, and bring small groups together to react to your messaging. Refining your value story is not a one-time project; it is an ongoing practice.
Bringing Value Into Focus
Most associations deliver tremendous value. The challenge is making it unmistakably obvious and simple for members to recognize and repeat. When you connect offerings to outcomes and speak in clear, member-focused language, you remove the fog.
Members should not have to work hard to explain the value of belonging. Your communication should do that for them. And when it does, engagement grows, retention strengthens, , referrals increase, and the association’s impact becomes more visible.
Value is not only created through programs and services. It is created when members clearly understand how those offerings move them forward. That is the clarity worth pursuing.
