How much content should membership organisations make available?

Many membership organisations invest significant sums creating quality print and digital content – then often choose to publish it in a print magazine or an area of their website that only members can see. Others choose to publicly share and promote their content.

Here at CPL, we work with a number of membership organisations and publish content through a variety of channels. In recent years, many of our clients have undertaken significant changes to their publishing strategies.

Finding a balance between publicly available and private content can pose challenges to any organisation seeking to position itself as an industry voice and grow membership figures, whilst simultaneously retaining existing members and ensuring great value for its membership.

We undertook some research to evaluate how content is being used ­­– and how approaches to managing and developing content are shifting – during a time in which digital activity is on the rise, and expectations towards content and its availability are changing.

CPL’s managing director Mike Sewell presented these findings earlier this year at the MemCom conference. If you didn't attend MemCom but would like to receive a copy of the report, please download it below. 

Mike Sewell also spoke on a panel at Marketing Week Live, and discussed key trends in image-based content, editorial content and video content, as well as some of the key points brands should be considering when developing their content strategy.