As we know increasing member engagement and potential revenue is what we all strive for …..what if I said it is within your grasp?
We have been discussing new CRM/CMS systems and the pitfalls to watch out for during our last few blogs. Therefore, we felt it important to do a special focus on data, if this isn’t an integral part of the plan then you will not achieve your objectives.
When working through the discovery phase of your project, a workstream of activity should be happening in parallel to understand your data strategy and identify the gaps – this a critical part of the business requirements.
A lack of data within the organisation is commonly not the issue, in fact, the opposite is regularly true. How you want to use this data and its quality is generally the challenge. Often there is low confidence in the data you have, is this perception or reality? The GDPR directive has created a lot of confusion about what you can and can’t do, don’t hold it in abeyance.
Member engagement has been the top challenge for the last three years in Memberwise digital excellence survey 2019, closely followed by increasing member retention. To address these areas, you must understand what members want and their engagement patterns today. This will ensure you make more informed decisions and target them with messaging relevant to them.
Memberwise digital excellence survey 2019 – Top 4 operational challenges facing Membership organisations
Segmenting your membership will allow you to target them with the most relevant messages. If done right, it will immediately start to increase the member engagement rate. Creating categories relevant to your organisation can be really beneficial. For example, we have helped clients look at their members in 3 groups, thus increasing the satisfaction level within each group, through a better understanding of their engagement. We recently ran this in a large association within the finance area, allowing them to create a more informed communication plan.
Group one – Skimmers
Shallow users of their membership but happy to pay fees both for education and accreditation. Very low maintenance for the organisation.
Group two – Dippers
People that dip into activities, they require a bit more hand-holding but again they are not high maintenance.
Group three – Divers
This segment demands a lot and is fully engaged in their membership.
All three groups are very important to the organisation, by creating these segments using the data that they had collected they could provide each group with the right level of support and content – resulting in increased member satisfaction and engagement.
Improving the data will never tell you what to do, but it will help you make more informed decisions. In our blog focusing on supplier selection, we discuss the importance of ‘culture’ in your decision making as well as ‘fit’ in the organisation. Again, we want to emphasise this point! There is no point investing in a new CRM if the staff are not bought into collecting good data. Spending the time to educate the wider team is vital, having a solid foundation and the right skills will ensure you are successful.
We hope that this blog, combined with our thoughts on your journey to a new CRM/CMS provides you with some hints and tips to help you move forward. If you would like to read more of our thoughts and advice on your digital journey click here, the topics range from ‘how to’ start your digital improvement journey, through to helpful hints and tips on selecting suppliers.
Chrysalis Digital provides a digital transformation service designed to help build a more agile, efficient and innovative organisation. With its broad cross-sector experience Chrysalis has helped many organisations map their digital path and through careful planning and assessment, choose the right technology partners. Chrysalis Digital is 100% agnostic when recommending CMS and CRM suppliers to its clients.
If you need any help with the next steps in your journey please call Ben Sturt on 07469 768990 or email info@chrysalisdigital.co.uk