Make your association known , create an audience, recruit members, funders, volunteers and retain them? Here are so many issues that require having created a database upstream.
Exit the multiple Excel files which are lost within your
team and which are not updated. We will dissect in this article the tools and
structuring methods to manage the database of your association.
Have a database management tool
First step for any association: have a tool to store the
data of your prospects and your members (current and former).
This tool is called CRM (for customer relationship
management software) and even if you don't have clients but members and donors,
it is just as essential.
Unlike your good old Excel file installed locally, this tool
can be used by several members of your team simultaneously and from anywhere
(as long as you have a wifi or 4G connection), and is designed to record
everything information and behavior of your future member:
• His
coordinates
• His
interests
• Exchanges
of emails or calls
• The
visited pages of your website
• etc.
And no need to have a big budget, we have also listed our
TOP free CRM software for associations .
Segment your database
Once your database software is installed, determine your
marketing personas .
If you've never heard of it, the marketing persona is a
semi-fictional character representing a set of people who share the same
problem with your offer. They can also have similar consumption and lifestyle
habits, which allows them to be better segmented.
Here is a free template with 40 questions that will help you
create your marketing persona as well as an article to define your marketing
persona in 4 steps .
Take the example of a charity company, which helps
underprivileged children. She could have 3 personas:
• Directors
, members of the management committee
• The
volunteers , who are on the ground distributing leaflets or on site with
children
• The
donors , companies or individuals investing, fund, donate to the association
• Partners
: providers or sponsors for example.
You can then determine the important information to segment
your base. These will then become form fields (go to the next part).
• For
volunteers, as part of a recruitment campaign, ask them for their CV, cover
letter, their date of availability
• For
donors, ask for the name of the company, the size to find out if they are
eligible for tax exemption for donations.
Feed your database
As with businesses, social networks are essential to recruit
members for your association.
• Are you
an association of professionals? Prefer LinkedIn!
• Do you
run a charity that seeks funds from individuals? Instead, turn to Facebook,
Instagram, or even Tik Tok!
To grow your prospect base, exit “vanity metrics” , in other
words likes and shares on your posts, which make you blush, but which in the
end, do not directly bring “business”.
Instead, use “ call-to-action ” in each of your posts on
social networks to forms hosted on your website or directly on Facebook. These
will allow you to retrieve qualified data on your prospects (name, email, interest
...) in order to continue the conversation, create a bond of trust, and who
knows, we hope, convert them into members!
You will say to me: “But say Jamy, how to convince a future
member to fill out my form? It's simple: bring it value!
• Are you
an association that promotes international relations? (nod to our client Club
Export Réunion , offer a business directory.
• Are you a
basketball sports association? Why not offer a series of 3 videos on the basics
to know?
Ditto for Adwords or display campaigns : place a form to bet
on conversion, and not just views and clicks.
For your events , database management (CRM) tools like
Hubspot allow you to link your CRM with other tools that allow you to generate
leads, like Eventbrite. Profit: as soon as someone registers for one of your
events, bingo, they enter your prospect database!
Completed the purchase of databases on the internet, the
forms allow you to retrieve the data of your prospects with their consent, in
full compliance with the GDPR .
Send targeted communications (option 2: Animate your database)
You have now retrieved the contact details of your future
members, congratulations!
It is now important to keep the link, by continuing to send
communications (email, sms, call), to the right person at the right time . This
is called the lead nurturing made possible by marketing automation software.
Good news, you have segmented your database and stored
information through forms. Plan communication campaigns with content adapted to
your target:
• Depending
on the personas, because their issues and needs are distinct
• Depending
on their life cycle:
o Send a
promotional campaign
o Bet on a
loyalty campaign.
o Are they
prospects? Have they already shown an interest in your offer?
o Already
members? Their membership is ending soon?
To send emails, use professional tools like Sendinblue ,
Mailchimp or even Hubspot which not only allow you to easily analyze the
results of your campaigns, but also to manage unsubscribes, commercial pressure
...
Clean your base from time to time
Indeed, every year, companies lose an average of 10% of
their customers, or 50% every 5 years, according to a study by the Harvard
Business Review . All sectors and companies are impacted by customer
volatility, and by extension, associations.
To keep a healthy and up-to-date database, it's important to
clean it up every now and then.
Our method: make segmented lists taking into account
criteria such as:
• The
distribution rates of your marketing emails : if someone never receives or
opens your emails, it may be time to delete them from your database (or create
a list of inactive people, so as not to lose the information. 'history of your
exchanges).
• Activity
on your website , if no activity has been recorded for more than 12 months
while you send it a newsletter and monthly offers, this is a strong signal that
the person is no longer interested
• Etc.
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