How Well Do You Really Understand Your Members’ Time?

Your members’ time is their greatest asset. To inspire members and prospects to consistently choose your association, you first have to understand how they’re investing and engaging—not just how you wish they were.

The Misconception of Member Engagement

We all carry a romanticized notion about engagement. As if members are waiting, ready and eager to commit hours each week to read email newsletters, participate in webinars, and explore new offers. But that’s not reality. Just like you’re splitting attention across competing responsibilities, your members are balancing work demands, personal obligations, family needs, and their own health and wellness. Even the smartest, best-intentioned association professionals often overestimate how invested their members really can be.

Take weekly emails as an example. Maybe your Monday morning email sees decent open rates—but is it generating real action? Or are your members opening quickly, skimming, and then instantly moving on to their first meeting of the day, never truly absorbing your message?

We’ve seen this happen before. One client discovered that their members, busy healthcare professionals, were only available on Fridays. Another association we interviewed found that engagement peaked on weekends and evenings. While Monday morning emails were once considered the best time to connect, this reality has shifted. That long-standing habit of sending emails on Mondays was actually limiting opportunities for deeper engagement. 

But if you’re not continuously testing and asking the right questions, how will you ever find this out?

Too many associations are relying on data from months ago, automatically assuming what worked then will work now. But life—and work—continue to shift. People’s routines change drastically, and their availability and preferred engagement times change with it.

The Shift in How to Measure Engagement 

The key question to ask is no longer, “Are members opening our emails?” It’s now about actionability and usability. Is engagement actually happening as a result of your outreach? What times, formats, and methods create true, actionable engagement—especially among the busy majority who aren’t responding to typical midday communications?

Instead of sending yet more emails into the busyness of mid-morning inboxes, ask yourself: Would evenings—after dinner, family time, and exercise routines—be more effective moments for relaxed, intentional engagement? Could Sunday night, when people’s thoughts naturally shift toward planning the week ahead, be the perfect window to connect? Finding these pockets of attention means your association can become a welcome ally.

Doing this means committing to ongoing experimentation. Test emails sent Sunday night versus Monday morning and measure what’s driving increased registration, deeper content interaction, or stronger membership renewal intent. Regularly poll your members in quick, lightweight surveys about their preferred times and channels. Segment your audience not by assumptions, but by actual behaviors—by what they’re really choosing to engage with now, in 2025, and beyond.

The Key to Member Engagement 

In short, understanding your members’ limited time shouldn’t feel like guesswork or habit. The end result means respecting your members’ realities, and thoughtfully integrating your message into the times they truly have available.

At Rottman Creative, we help associations shift from noisy assumptions to impactful realities—creating outreach that fits naturally into your members’ lives. Let’s replace guesswork with targeted, intentional engagement that works in the real world. Let’s Talk >

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