4 Ways a CRM Product Can Optimize Association Management

Associations must gather, store, and organize a variety of data points to effectively manage their membership programs. For example, the organization must track members’ personal information, their membership type and status, event attendance, financial data, feedback, and more.

To effectively manage this information and securely store members’ sensitive data, associations need a robust CRM system designed specifically for associations. CRMs differ from association management software (AMS) because they are used primarily to store and organize information about members and your interactions with them. An AMS, on the other hand, offers tools needed to manage association-specific tasks and daily operations.

The first step is to understand the benefits of using a CRM product, which we’ll discuss in this guide. With this knowledge, your association can start contacting technology consultants and association management experts for help with implementation and data migration. 

1. Consolidate and organize data.

Consider each of the tools in your association’s tech stack and the various communication channels you use to engage members. Each of these tools and channels captures valuable member data. However, this data can be fragmented across multiple systems, making it difficult to completely understand your members’ preferences.

This is why Fonteva’s guide to membership management recommends choosing association management software built directly on a powerful CRM. This way, your organization can:

• Centralize information from various sources in a single, unified platform.
  
  
• Leverage more accurate, timely, and comprehensive data to glean actionable insights.
  
  
• Easily integrate with your other systems to automatically compile data.
  
  
• Ensure stronger data security via compliance, user permissions, and access controls.

Automatically funneling data from external sources to your CRM also saves staff time. This will free up more time for them to work with members, brainstorm new offerings, and plan for conferences. 

2. Easily access actionable insights about members.

As mentioned, unified data makes it easier to gain complete, actionable insights about the health of your organization, trends, and opportunities. This way, your association can make data-driven decisions to bolster its marketing strategies, member engagement, retention initiatives, and more.  

Some of the insights you can gain quick, easy access to include:

• Member engagement levels: Understand a member’s engagement level based on factors such as event attendance, participation in meetings and discussions, or use of association resources. Identify those at each level of engagement, and create segments to target each group of members accordingly.
  
  
• Renewal rates: Monitor average membership renewal rates, changes year-over-year, and trends or patterns in retention. For example, perhaps you retained more members the year you held two conferences rather than just one.
  
  
• Demographic details: Track members’ demographic details, including age, location, occupation, education level, and more. Use these details to segment members and share targeted communication. For instance, invite members living in the southwest to attend an event in southern California.
  
  
• Event participation trends: Review attendance rates, participation trends, and feedback from events. Identify successes and opportunities to improve, and use these insights to make future events more effective.

A CRM doesn’t just give your association more functionality—it can also provide better user experiences, streamline membership management, and more. In other words, the right technology can positively impact your association’s bottom line, save you time, and maximize your resources.

3. Create tailored communications and experiences.

Using the insights uncovered in the CRM, associations can provide more personalized experiences to their members. Start by referencing the member segments you created based on shared traits such as their engagement level, demographic details, position in the membership life cycle, or retention risk level. 

Next, leverage insights and craft tailored outreach and content that align with each segment’s preferences and interests. Some ways to do so include creating:

• Personalized email campaigns: First, ensure your emails greet members by name. Next, add a personal touch to campaigns by mentioning the recipient’s interests, location, or profession. For instance, a marketing association might create segments for creatives, analysts, and strategists and create separate campaigns for each. 
  
  
• Engaging, relevant content: Identify trending topics and interests among your supporters and create content that aligns with those preferences. This may inform meeting and discussion topics, the kinds of member resources you create, conference sessions, and more.
  
  
• Exclusive offers and benefits: Exclusive offers are one of the most effective ways to infuse value into association memberships. However, they are most effective when they closely align with members’ interests and will help them achieve their goals. Keep in mind that you will need a member portal or other exclusive, secure space to host these resources. 
  
  
• Customized welcome series: Automatically launch an onboarding sequence for new members. Leverage the data these new members input into your membership form to shape the series to members’ needs. In addition to basic welcome resources, point these members to upcoming events and involvement opportunities they are likely to enjoy.

Similar to the welcome series, your association should tailor retention appeals to members as well. A personal and authentic appeal, paired with your other customized experiences and communications, is a solid formula for member retention.

4. Make accurate financial predictions.

Because a CRM can offer an accurate and comprehensive view of data over long periods of time, associations can use it to improve financial planning and predictions. Analyze past trends in revenue, dues, and retention rates. Identify the strategies, events, and other offerings that have been the most successful. Going forward, your association should prioritize these activities to maximize resource allocation.

These insights can help your association accurately budget and make more accurate revenue and expense projections. By referencing past years’ growth, you’ll also be able to predict financial expansion.

Additionally, your association can apply reasonable pricing to its membership benefits or membership tiers. Based on historical patterns, you’ll understand average costs, revenue, new memberships, and retention rates. Work back to determine ideal membership prices, recruitment targets, and, if applicable, fundraising goals.

A CRM system is one of the most basic—yet impactful—pieces of association technology. This platform helps you effectively leverage data, which is the most powerful asset your organization has. Using these insights, you’ll be able to better understand members, effectively meet their needs, seamlessly plan and improve association events, and continuously enhance and grow your offerings.