Is Your Join Page Recruiting the People You Need?
This is the first in a short series I’m calling Who Are We Actually Inviting?
Over the next few posts, I’ll be looking closely at what male and lower-voice choir websites really say about recruitment, membership and the future of our sector. I have spent the last few months examining those sites systematically, and the findings raise some important questions for every committee.
These next few blogs are based on a systematic check of the official websites of UK male and lower-voice choirs, which identified 153 accessible active sites, found that 20 of them contained no usable recruitment information at all, and then closely analysed the 133 pages that did invite new members to see exactly who they were speaking to and how the route into membership was described.
Of the accessible active websites examined, around one in eight had no usable recruitment content at all. Some domains simply no longer work. A handful now redirect to unrelated commercial or gambling content or serve blank pages. Others are live but offer nothing beyond a contact form or a polite sentence that new members are “always welcome.”
Even among the sites that do try, the picture is uneven. Roughly half of the eligible recruitment texts we analysed were minimally characterised — little more than a rehearsal time, a venue and a vague invitation to “come along if you fancy it.”
The rest construct very different prospective members.
Some pages speak to the hesitant novice who is worried he can’t sing or can’t read music. Others address the latent singer - the man who enjoys a good tune in the car but has never thought of himself as a chorister. A solid minority speak to the achievement-oriented musician who wants challenge, standards and performance. A further group lean heavily into social motivation and fellowship.
These are not the same people. They need different reassurances, different next steps and different pictures of what belonging looks like.
Contrast is everything. Carlton Male Voice Choir’s 'Join Us' page runs to several screens of clear, structured information. It answers the questions people actually ask: Do I need to audition? What does it cost? Can I miss the odd week? Is there an age or background barrier? It offers a prospective-member period, a 1-to-1 mentor, learning tracks and a staged route onto the concert platform. It names diversity, neurodiversity and sexual orientation without fuss. It treats the newcomer as an intelligent adult who needs information before he will risk walking through the door.
Now compare that with the far more common homepage statement: “New members always welcome. Just turn up on a Tuesday.” Or the slightly longer version that adds “no experience necessary” and stops there. One page is doing the hard work of making membership imaginable. The other assumes that a prospective member already understands how choir works and feels confident enough to take that first step alone.
The difference is not about word count. It is about who is being invited. A page that assumes prior knowledge and existing confidence is, in practice, recruiting people who already look and feel like the current membership. A page that anticipates anxiety, explains the first six weeks and shows multiple reasons for joining is opening the door wider - without lowering the eventual musical ambition.
We often say we want younger, more diverse, more committed singers. Yet many of our public-facing pages still speak most clearly to the man who already understands the culture, already feels comfortable in the room, and already believes he belongs. The rest are left to fill in the blanks themselves. Most never will.
So here is the diagnostic question every committee should ask, preferably with the website open in front of them:
Who does this page actually speak to?
If the honest answer is “people like us, who already get it” then the page is not recruiting. It is confirming.
Four things you can do now
Open your own Join / Membership / Home page and read it as if you have never sung in a choir and have never set foot in a rehearsal room. Note every assumption it makes about knowledge, confidence or motivation.
List the three questions a nervous newcomer is most likely to ask. Check whether your page answers them clearly within the first screen or two.
Identify which “imagined singer” your current text speaks to most strongly — the hesitant novice, the latent singer, the social participant or the achievement-oriented musician — and decide whether that matches the people you actually want to attract.
Give one committee member the job of rewriting the opening 150 words so that a complete beginner can see a clear, low-risk next step. Bring the draft to the next meeting.
Recruitment does not begin when someone walks through the door. It begins the moment they land on your website. Make sure the person you are inviting is the person you actually need.
