For membership-based organizations, specific member management systems and software are crucial to business operations. Oftentimes, these systems will offer data-tracking capabilities–allowing admins to understand more about their members’ behavior.
Member Management Systems provide organization and oversight to a company’s member body.
Membership management as a whole is not a one-size-fits-all system. Instead, membership management is defined in different ways depending on the organization’s needs, and what is driving their business.
Member-based organizations (such as associations, non-profits, political parties, and more) often drive value in a variety of ways. These are often known as KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators.
The metrics that determine the value of associations and other membership organizations can vary. These Key Performance Indicators may include:
Understanding your organization’s unique KPIs are crucial to determining the health of your business at a given moment. Plus, they reveal the most crucial data points your organization should be tracking.
Most member-based organizations rely on membership management software to track this data and provide insights into their numbers.
In some cases, organizations might not even know what their main driver of business is. Meaning, their KPIs are inaccurate.
“The data you gather can help you understand what is really driving your business forward. Then, you can focus on tracking and responding to that data,” says Dan Kasprow, ACGI’s Chief Technology Officer.
That being said, the most important part of data tracking and analysis is determining the most important data to track. This is the first, fundamental step in membership management: understanding what drives your value.
From there, you can really make your data work for you.
Data management in membership software includes a class of tools that let you gather data in one place, analyze it, visualize it, and gain insights from it to make decisions.
Here are three tips for transforming your data into results.
For member-based organizations, it’s easy to focus on a singular, obvious metric: membership.
How many members do we have? How many members did we get? How many members did we lose?
Often, organizations lose sight of their existing members’ behavior, satisfaction, and engagement. And in reality, these behaviors of members already in the organization tend to be the most valuable.
This is because once somebody is already in the group, you can get them to generate a lot of non-dues revenue. For associations and other member-based organizations, they’re target audience tends to be small.
By nature, membership-based organizations are semi-exclusive, targeted groups. So, it comes down to this: there are a limited number of people out there qualified and willing to become a member. However, there is an unlimited number of potential conversions within the organization for those who are already members.
With membership management software, you can segment your member base to see which groups were bringing in the most revenue and in what areas. Plus, you can determine how engaged members are and what resources you should further invest in.
Membership management is moving further and further towards hyper-personalization. This means using artificial intelligence and data collection to personalize the member experience within your organization.
Today, data can be so granular, and companies are looking to use it effectively. With that in mind, data can be used to steer membership experience–providing members with the best possible offers.
For example, some of your members may have joined for the community aspect or events. Others may take advantage of access to resources. Ideally, you will be able to personalize membership experience to these interests. This can also drive unique product offerings to meet member needs.
Overall, this level of personalization drives huge levels of value and increased engagement for members and constituents.
One of the most worthwhile aspects of your data–and arguably the best way to make it “work for you”–is in its presentation.
Software works to track a lot of data. But it’s no use to you sitting in an unorganized chart. While valuable, large swaths of numbers make it overwhelming and difficult to draw insights from.
Great membership management software will provide your data visually.
This could look like:
This level of presentation makes data not only accessible, but sharable. This means valuable data can be clearly and quickly shared across your team. Then, members can work to drive decisions from this data.
If you are a membership manager navigating data, you will often need to run any changes or ideas by another team member, usually your senior. And these changes need to be backed by data–or there’s little chance they’ll be approved.
ACGI’s membership management tools ensure interactive, visual data reports. These reports are also configurable, allowing you to really engage with and personalize the data.
Data visualizations can include metrics such as:
ACGI Software’s membership management solution, Association Anywhere, has comprehensive, enterprise-class data capabilities.
If you already know what segment is driving your business, you can measure it closely. If you’re unsure, you can gain insights into your most crucial metrics.
Above all, ACGI Software is configurable–meaning it can be shaped to your organization’s specific needs.
“With ACGI, you can slice, dice, and visualize all of your data in a singular place. It’s powerful,” says Kasprow.
ACGI allows you to discover what’s important and build custom reports and data visualizations that showcase your findings. From analytics, group management, business insights, and decision-based data–ACGI is here for you.
Modernize your association management, and take advantage of the technology that certification software has to offer with ACGI. Contact us today to request a demo.
