The European Union’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) goes into effect in May 2018. In a nutshell, GDPR creates all kinds of new regulations for how any organization manages data on individuals residing in the EU. Here is a great outline of GDPR from ASAE. (For ASAE members only; requires a login.) The law goes into …
Long ago, I was a membership director in a couple of different trade associations. And as any membership professional knows, the most difficult members to retain are first-year members, those who have joined in just the past year. The reasons should be obvious. Unless you have several programs designed especially for first-year members, most first-year members …
Use your data to communicate with first-year members differently Read More »
One of the more common requests I hear from my clients is that they’d like to be able to compare year-to-year membership data (e.g., current number of members vs. same time last year or same time three years ago). What they often find, however, is that pulling historical data from their primary transactional database can be …
Take snapshots of your membership data for historical review Read More »
Working with a client last week on their selection of a new AMS, I was again reminded of how important it has become for associations to be able to track in their AMS not only transactions (e.g., membership joins and renewals, event registration, product sales, etc.), but interactions with members and customers (e.g., tracking phone …
Many of my clients track “areas of interest” within their database (maybe you do, too). These are typically checkboxes of dropdown menus that the customer can use to select the different topics or issues that are of interest to them. Associations typically use this for marketing and communications purposes, and may also use them for identifying volunteers …
I was working with a client recently and the issue of webinars came up in the conversation. The association represents a medical speciality and presents monthly webinars on different topics important to their members. When I asked how many people register for the webinars, their response was “Anywhere from 50 to 200.” When I asked how many …
Although I’m a marketer at heart, I know that sometimes it doesn’t make sense to do certain types of marketing. For example, sometimes you may dominate a market so thoroughly that additional marketing has diminishing returns, and your efforts should be directed elsewhere. When I was membership director at NACUBO (College and University Business Officers), …
Over two decades ago, I worked for a small trade association whose primary product was a very large trade show put on every two years. The association itself had been around for over 100 years, and the trade show was in the top 50 in the US in terms of square footage. And yet, ten …
This article, co-authored by Scott Oser and myself, outlines some highlights from our sessions at the recent ASAE Membership & Marketing Conference.
In my almost-ten-years as an association professional, I worked for three different associations whose membership was based on organizations rather than individuals (commonly referred to as “trade” associations). One of the biggest challenges that trade associations have is that very often, membership in the association hangs on the relationship with one individual at the member-company. …
How a good AMS can help trade associations with membership Read More »