Most association websites are built like libraries. Lots of information. Lots of links. Lots of dead ends. And when visitors leave, they leave anonymously, with no name, no email, no way to follow up.

That means tons of traffic, but very little engagement or resulting revenue.

The Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) wanted to change that. With Website Engagement, they turned anonymous clicks into identified prospects and guided those prospects to either join right away or stay in a nurture path until they did.

In just a few weeks, that shift generated over 3,800 conversions and $304,240 in membership revenue.

The Solution

Step 1: Capture Intent on the Website

When a visitor lands on AMA’s site (no matter the page), they don’t see a wall of links. They see a single, friendly question: “What brings you to our website today?”

With four simple choices:

• Become a Member
• Renew My Membership
• Find a Club Near Me
• Where Can I Learn to Fly?

This shift did two powerful things:

1. Captured names and emails before the visitor disappeared.
2. Gave people an immediate next step based on what they wanted

Step 2: Continue the Conversation with Email

AMA didn’t stop at the click. Every response triggered an automation inside PropFuel:

• Redirect to the right page
• Add contact info to PropFuel’s database
• Enroll the visitor into an email nurture sequence

So, when a user clicks “Join or Renew”, they are redirected to the payment page, receive an email, and are automatically enrolled in a campaign tailored to their action.

If they select “Find a Club” or “Learn to Fly”, they are redirected to the relevant section of the AMA website and added to a campaign specific to that choice. Shortly after, each campaign follows up to ask whether they successfully found a club or learned to fly. If the response is “No”, an internal alert is sent to staff, prompting direct outreach to provide assistance.

The experience felt personal because it was personal.

Step 3: Watch the Results Pile Up

The numbers in just a few weeks are hard to ignore:

Key Outcomes

• 14% engagement rate (vs. the typical 1–2% for pop-ups)
• 7,416 contacts captured (email + name)
• 3,803 conversions = $304,240 in membership revenue

This wasn’t just website engagement. It was website + email + automation working together to guide people all the way from first click to conversion.

Why It Worked

Most associations try to capture everything at once: join, renew, donate, sign up for the newsletter. Visitors get lost.

AMA flipped it. They didn’t assume what visitors wanted. They just asked.

That one question made the experience feel like a conversation, not a transaction.

The Bigger Picture

AMA’s experiment shows something powerful:

• People don’t mind engaging — they mind friction.
• If you remove friction and guide them, they’ll act.
• And when they don’t act right away, automation can still bring them back.

That momentum didn’t just continue, it accelerated. In just three months, AMA’s conversions more than tripled from 1,200 to 3,800, while membership revenue grew from $114K to $304K. What began as early traction quickly became sustained, measurable growth.

AMA’s results show how a small digital shift can create a big impact: more engagement, more members, and more revenue.

What's Next? 

Thinking about how to better engage website visitors?  Talk with our team to see if this could be your next move.

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