How Membes Captured Mid-Market Associations with A Strategic WordPress Plugin

Membes, an association management software (AMS) company, faced a critical growth obstacle. While their built-in CMS capabilities served many smaller associations well, they were losing opportunities with mid-sized organizations that insisted on using WordPress for their websites.

The problem was more than just lost sales. When associations did attempt WordPress integrations, the results were consistently problematic. Third-party developers would underestimate the complexity, projects would stall at 30% completion or less, and the failed implementations reflected poorly on Membes’ reputation.

“We were seeing a repeating pattern,” explained Jason Morris, Membes President. “Associations would engage a developer to build a WordPress integration. The developer would look at our API docs and say ‘sure, no problem.’ But they’d consistently underestimate the work involved. Projects would drag on or stop entirely, and suddenly we’re the bad guys because the integration doesn’t work.”

The situation created additional downstream problems:

• Sales inefficiency: The Membes team spent excessive time fielding inquiries from poorly-qualified prospects comparing vastly different solutions
• Market confusion: Without clear integration pathways, associations struggled to understand what was actually possible
• Lost revenue: Mid-market associations with WordPress requirements were choosing competitors or abandoning AMS solutions entirely

The Solution  

Membes partnered with Steward to develop a production-ready WordPress plugin that would provide seamless integration between their AMS and WordPress websites. The collaboration was structured as a two-phase project designed to minimize risk and build momentum through incremental success.

Phase 1: Core Authentication and Events  

The first phase established the foundation by implementing single sign-on authentication and event management capabilities. This allowed associations to display upcoming events on their WordPress sites while maintaining Membes as the single source of truth for all member data.

Phase 2: Directories and Access Control  

The second phase added member directory functionality with sophisticated filtering options and geolocation features. Critically, it also addressed access control through an innovative approach that balanced flexibility with development efficiency.

Rather than building a complex ACL system from scratch, Steward recommended leveraging the WordPress user role system as a bridge. The plugin would sync member groups from Membes to WordPress roles, then allow site administrators to use existing, battle-tested WordPress plugins to manage content restrictions.

“This was exactly the right approach,” Morris noted. “It gave our customers the flexibility they needed while keeping our development costs reasonable. If we see patterns emerge around specific ACL needs, we can always build that functionality directly into the plugin later.”

Technical Strategy  

Key architectural decisions included:

• API-first design: All data remained in Membes, with the plugin making real-time API calls rather than syncing data to WordPress
• Modular structure: Core API access classes were separated from WordPress-specific code, enabling potential reuse for other platforms
• Third-party extensibility: Published on GitHub with clear documentation to enable agencies and developers to customize and extend functionality
• WordPress repository listing: Made the plugin discoverable to the broader WordPress ecosystem

The Results  

The plugin successfully launched in the WordPress repository, providing Membes with several immediate and strategic benefits:

Market Expansion Membes can now confidently pursue mid-market associations that require WordPress, opening an entirely new revenue tier previously closed to them.

Sales Efficiency By providing a clear, documented integration path, the Membes sales team spends less time on technical feasibility questions and more time on qualified prospects.

Channel Development The plugin serves as a marketing channel itself. WordPress users searching for association management capabilities can discover Membes through the plugin directory, while the GitHub repository signals technical credibility to developers.

Market Education The existence of a robust, documented plugin helps qualify leads by clearly demonstrating what’s possible with the Membes-WordPress combination, reducing confusion and setting appropriate expectations.

Ecosystem Growth Third-party agencies can now fork the plugin, submit pull requests, and extend functionality for their specific client needs without starting from scratch each time.

Key Features Delivered  

• Single Sign-On: Seamless authentication keeping users in WordPress rather than redirecting to Membes
• Event Management: Display upcoming events and enable registration directly through WordPress
• Member Directory: Sophisticated filtering with support for radio buttons, checkboxes, multi-select, and even free-text search fields
• Geolocation Display: Integration with Google Maps via iframe for location-based member searches
• Access Control Bridge: Sync member groups as WordPress roles for flexible content restriction
• Multi-Directory Support: Ability to display different directories (public, member-only, specialized) on different pages
• Extensible Architecture: Clean separation of concerns enabling future development and third-party customization