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A mobile app isn’t just a nice-to-have – it’s now critical to meeting member expectations, enhancing engagement and simplifying your member experiences. Crucially, it also offers one of the most rapid, sophisticated, and cost-effective routes to modernisation – especially when compared with managing siloed digital channels or commissioning bespoke platforms.
Membership organisations are facing growing pressure to evolve their digital offering. While websites and email have long been the mainstay of membership body digital estate, the expectations of today’s members – particularly younger, digitally native audiences – have evolved. They’re shaped by the seamless experiences delivered by social media platforms, mobile-first apps and hyper-personalised tools.
This shift has created a digital experience gap where what members expect no longer aligns with what many membership organisations can deliver. Those expectations have been set by the largest companies to have ever existed.
The result? Missed opportunities for engagement, lower satisfaction, and increasing pressure on internal teams to bridge the gap manually.
A mobile app offers one of the fastest, most effective ways to address this. And not just any app – one that’s fully integrated with your existing CRM, LMS, online community and other digital platforms.
With all this content available from API, RSS, and headless sources, there is no reason it can’t be presented together chronologically like Instagram or Reddit. This is our approach – offer a social-style feed of everything a member should be aware of and support them with robust read, engage, register and respond experiences.
Leading with a feed not only centralises important updates but also drives repeat engagement. It mirrors the interfaces members already use daily, helping to build habits and ensure your organisation becomes part of their everyday digital routine.
Our business strategy is to offer such solutions at a fraction of the cost of what an organisation typically spends on their website.
This blog explores why mobile apps are no longer optional for modern membership bodies, and how they unlock smarter communication, streamlined experiences and lasting member value.
Your website remains a vital hub, but expecting members to navigate desktop sites or even responsive mobile versions for real-time updates is no longer realistic. Members increasingly expect interactions to be simple, fast, and in the palm of their hand. A mobile app places your organisation directly into their daily digital routine - on their smartphones.
Today, more than 83% of online time is spent in mobile apps, according to The Ultimate Guide to Member Apps 2024 (developed by Cantarus in collaboration with MemberWise). This shift isn’t just a trend – it’s a fundamental change in how people access information and interact online.
Through a mobile app, you can:
A mobile app puts your organisation in their pocket – not just on their radar, but part of their daily routine. From renewing membership to joining discussions, checking CPD progress or viewing event updates, a well-designed app makes it quick, seamless and satisfying.
It’s not about replacing your website. It’s about recognising where your members already are and meeting them there.
Email remains effective for certain types of communication, and some members may still prefer it as their primary alert channel. But it comes with limitations. Open rates are declining. Inbox overload is real. And most importantly, email can’t match the immediacy and visibility of mobile engagement when time-sensitive action is needed.
A mobile app changes this. It allows you to:
This approach unlocks a new level of agility in your communications strategy. From deadline reminders to policy changes, from new resources to live event coverage – push notifications and feed content can keep your members consistently informed and engaged.
It also enables a more personalised experience. Rather than mass-emailing all members with the same information, your app can dynamically present relevant content based on their role, behaviour, or interests.
One of the biggest digital pain points for membership organisations is disconnection. You may have an LMS for training, a CRM for records, an online community for discussions, and a portal for transactions – all operating in isolation, with different designs, and user journeys. Single-sign-on is far from unification of member experiences.
The resulting fragmentation frustrates users and drains internal resources. It creates more admin, more content duplication, and more member drop-off.
A mobile app – designed from the ground up to integrate with your existing platforms – can solve this. It acts as a central digital hub, bringing together:
For example, a member could open your app, see their CPD progress pulled from the LMS, register for a relevant event via your booking portal, and follow up with peers in a connected community – all without needing to switch platforms or log in again. This seamless experience for members significantly reduces internal friction.
Apps that connect directly with your CRM or LMS can also enable in-app functionality like dynamic content feeds, progress tracking, and member self-service, removing barriers and boosting satisfaction.
A mobile app doesn’t just help you keep pace with member expectations – it helps you stay ahead. It enables you to:
This blog is the first in a wider series exploring the role of mobile apps in the membership space. Over the coming weeks, we’ll dive deeper into key areas, including:
Whether you're just starting to consider a mobile app or looking to optimise an existing solution, understanding these building blocks will help you make the case internally and build for long-term success.
At Cantarus, we don’t just build apps – we deliver joined-up digital experiences that members love to use. With over 20 years of experience and more than 100 clients across membership, healthcare, sport, and education, we understand the challenges facing modern membership bodies – and how to solve them.
Our award-winning app platform is used by organisations serving millions of members, and our research – including The Ultimate Guide to Member Apps 2024 – helps shape industry thinking.
Book a discovery call with our team to explore how a mobile app could transform your member experience.