How to motivate residents to use their HOA website

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Abigail Guevara • • 8 min. read

How to motivate residents to use their HOA website

An HOA website is an essential asset for all HOA community residents. Interestingly, even though an HOA website is an excellent resource for important information, residents may still need encouragement to use it.

It’s very important that residents engage with their HOA website so they’re knowledgeable about developments and be involved in their community.

Now, if an HOA website is so useful, there must be reasons why residents are not using it as they should.

Let’s look at why residents may not use their HOA website.

Top 5 reasons why residents don’t use their HOA website

As Board members, you can address many of the reasons why your community members aren’t using their HOA website if you know what they are. These reasons may include a combination of the following:

1. Residents don’t know about it
If they are new to the neighborhood, a resident may not even know that there is an HOA website. Moving is very involved and there is a lot of paperwork and small details to think about.

2. They expect things to remain the same
On the other hand, residents who have been there a long time may be used to the old ways of getting the information they need, such as calling Board members, waiting for paper announcements to be delivered to their mailbox, asking the neighbors for information, and so on.

3. They are nervous about technology
We are in the technology age. While you may think residents would be happy to use a website to get the information they need, you might be surprised to know that people don’t always embrace new technology. It takes time. People tend to fall into the following categories of adopting technology. These categories are:

  • Innovators (2.5%)
  • Early adopters (13.5%)
  • Early majority (34%)
  • Late majority (34%)
  • Laggards (16%)

In a chart form, it may look like this:

So, if you understand that there is a technology adoption curve, you’ll realize that residents will start to use their HOA website at different times and with different frequencies. You may see the usage numbers look something like the chart above.

4. They have a poor user experience
When a website is not user-friendly, residents get turned off and feel that using the website is more of a bother than anything else. Additionally, most people check websites on their cell phones, so the website has to look great on mobile phones, tablets, and computers.

5. They don’t know how it makes life easier for them
Residents may not know all the helpful features their HOA website offers to make community living more convenient.

These are just some of the reasons why residents are not maximizing the use of your community HOA website.

As a Board, there are several solutions you can implement to address these challenges. 

Let’s explore them from the beginning.

Ways to encourage website usage

If the community HOA website isn’t used by residents, then that is wasted money. It also can become a point of contention between the Board and residents because the Board will post information on the website and residents still won’t visit the site to get it.  

So, what are some of the things you, as a Board, can do to lead residents to use their HOA website and boost engagement?

Raise awareness about your community HOA website

Make it exciting. If you are launching a new HOA website, create a stir leading up to its launch. 

Use a coming soon announcement
Send a community-wide email with a date that lets residents know in advance when they can expect to see the launch of their new HOA website. Make it a bit of a teaser, with some images of the web pages and bullet points of how they can benefit from using the site.

Make it personal
Once the website has launched, send another reminder email, “Welcome to your [Insert community name] HOA website”.

For example, it could read something like this:



Dear [Insert resident name],

The Board of Directors is pleased to invite you to use your new community HOA website representing [Insert name of community]. The site showcases the appealing qualities of our HOA community. It also provides you with HOA information and documents at your fingertips. You’ll appreciate all the useful features, such as the ability to reserve HOA  amenities on line at your convenience.

Learn more by visiting [www.exampleHOAwebsiteaddress.com]

Advertise a little
Whenever your community has meetings and events, take the opportunity to promote their HOA website. Consider having magnets made with the website address, so they can put it on their fridges. Tell residents what important Governing Documents and announcements they can find there to perk their interest in visiting the site.   

If you already have a community Facebook page, make sure to include your HOA website address there. You can even post a bit of information there with a link back to the HOA website for full details.

Take a bit of a hard line…but be nice

If residents are used to getting information directly from the Board or delivered to their mailbox, stop providing information that way. Make a point of directing them to their HOA website when they ask for documents or updates. You can also help them by letting them know where, on their HOA website, they can find the information they need. You can even pull it up on the website for them and show them where it is.

If the Board stops operating in the old way, residents will follow suit.

Make it fun

Who doesn’t like a little contest with a prize?  For example, tell residents to take and submit photos of something they like about their community, like a community garden, neighbors getting together, or a community event. Then they can submit the photos to the Board which will publish them to their HOA website. You can publish one winning photo every month for 12 months, and each winner gets a gift card.  

This is a great way to build community, keep residents coming back to their HOA website, and encourage them to contribute to their own HOA website.

Show residents all the conveniences of using an HOA website

Don’t be shy about promoting HOA website benefits by highlighting the features.

Make sure to inform residents that their HOA website offers:

A single hub for important information
Their HOA website is the one place they can go to get all the information they need. New updates are highlighted so they’ll always know what’s new.

Timely announcements
Residents can get updates as soon as possible. When they visit their HOA website, they can find important information on the first page of the member-only portal.

Online payments
Residents can pay fees conveniently online from the comfort of their homes. There’s no need to leave the house to drop off a check or bring cash to the Board’s office.

Maintenance request tracking
Resident maintenance requests won’t get lost in the shuffle. If they submit it through their HOA website, they’ll receive a ticket number and status updates about their maintenance request.

Increased community engagement
Through their HOA website, residents can connect with their neighbors using the Member Directory, register for community events online, and even buy and sell items through the community Market Place.

Hold an in-person /online tutorial  
Referring back to the technology adoption chart, if you find residents are not engaging with the website because they are uncomfortable using the features; consider holding an “HOA website features hour”. The Board can host one quick meeting a week and invite community residents to attend. Residents who are unsure how to use some of the features can be shown, and they can ask questions.  You can also record a short video on how to use a feature and post it online, with the feature for additional instructions.  

Sometimes, it just takes a little extra time and information to get residents comfortable using their HOA website.

Make it a pleasant experience

When residents visit their HOA website, make sure the content they are looking for is easy to find, and the copy is current. This will give them confidence in the site and a reason to keep coming back to it.

Additionally, ask residents for feedback on the site by using the Surveys feature. It’s a great opportunity to keep improving your HOA community website based on residents’ needs and wants.

Resident content contribution

Welcome content contributions from residents. You may have some creative writers in your community. Members can contribute articles of interest, with approval by the Board, before posting them to their community website.  

Residents will be interested in seeing what their neighbors wrote and visit their community HOA website more often.

Driving resident engagement to your HOA website

Residents will always benefit from having an HOA website, but they’ll need to visit it and use it regularly to reap those benefits.

As the Board, you can drive their interest by first understanding how people adopt new technology, recognizing that engagement can come in waves with some residents jumping on board early and others later.

Additionally, try implementing these strategies:

1. Give residents advance notice about the launch of their HOA website.
2. Stop sharing communication as the Board did in the past; start sharing it through the HOA website.
3. Entice residents with a little friendly competition.
4. Highlight all the conveniences their HOA website offers.
5. Have a meeting explaining how to use features if necessary. 
6. Ensure the information on the website is always up-to-date.
7. Invite residents to contribute to their HOA website.

All of these strategies will encourage community residents to adopt their HOA website.