01/04/2022

Make Your Association More Inviting to International Customers

Start by reviewing everything that is public-facing

Virtual events and other online services are increasingly bringing international customers to associations. However, if organizations aren’t prepared to handle international demand, these prospects often experience obstacles and don’t stay engaged. Associations that wish to open their doors to a global audience must ensure their brands, events, people and operations are inclusive and user-friendly to the world.

Brands

Start by reviewing everything that is highly visible to the public, including your website, social media, communications, marketing and online forms. Among the steps to take:

• Display photos and symbols on your sites that are globally diverse and inclusive.
• Where appropriate, provide links to conversion tools (e.g., measurements, temperatures and currencies) that will help non-U.S. customers.
• Replace dropdown fields in surveys restricted to a single country (e.g., a list of U.S. states or ethnicities like African-American) with options that represent countries worldwide.
• Eliminate country-specific pre-formatted fields (e.g., 10-digit phone numbers) and allow for the use of accents and special characters in registration forms.

Please select this link to read the complete article from ASAE's Center for Association Leadership.