IoD membership soars as members see value
In the last five years the Institute of Directors has expanded its membership base by 11,000 people and significantly boosted website traffic.
The Institute of Directors (IoD) aims to support, represent and set standards for directors. Seventy per cent of its members run small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs). Not surprising when you consider over 90% of UK businesses are SMEs. Directors of smaller businesses join for a variety of reasons but accessing independent authoritative business information stands out as crucial.
“I have been impressed by the quality of the service and the products, which have contributed towards the success of achieving our objective.”
Catherine Snowdonhead of e-marketing, IoD
Catherine Snowdon, head of e-marketing at the IoD, explains: “Our website is a key method of communication between the institute and our members. We have 2,500 pages of content and our members were finding it difficult to identify what was available. The challenge for us was therefore to find a way of raising awareness of the information on the site and guiding members to it.
“We decided to work with BHP Information Solutions to help us achieve our objectives. Using a combination of Small Business Update (topical articles) and Directors’ Briefing (information factsheets) we have completely repackaged this section of the website.
“It is now split it into subject areas: employment, finance, marketing and so on, and we used the briefings as well as our own content to populate these areas. To drive members to these subject areas we placed relevant Small Business Update articles on the homepage. It sounds simple but it really works.
“The IoD now get 30,000 visitors a month to the website with hundreds of visitors clicking through the Small Business Update article to reach the information sections. The articles are written monthly to be topical and keep websites with SME visitors fresh and interesting.
“We also use the articles in our monthly email newsletter which is sent to 25,000 members. The features in Small Business Update have made the briefings and other IoD content more accessible and it all adds to a member’s experience of the site.
“I have been impressed by the quality of the service and the products, which have contributed towards the success of achieving our objective.”