5 tips for organizing your member data

 

Your members should be your highest priority. With more members, your association gathers more support and opportunities to network and share knowledge. People join associations to interact with others in the same professional field or with similar interests, so you should be actively engaging as many members as possible. READ MORE. gravtechnology

However, the more members your association attracts, the harder it is to organize, manage, and juggle all of your member data. From recording basic personal details to having accurate contact information to compiling event metrics, your association team needs an effective association management solution (AMS) to best make sense of all this data.

Additionally, with the right AMS, you can compile reports on specific trends and engagements. This saves your team time from manually organizing member data, so they can instead focus on creating educational programs and hosting engaging events. Learn how to manage your member data with these tips:

Store member data in one place.

Provide members with a dedicated place to interact.

Track member engagement.

Consistently review your association data.

Don't forget about the events!

Don't let your team become overwhelmed with your growing membership — it should be a cause of celebration, not anxiety!

Store member data in one place

A common mistake associations make tracking and storing member data in different places. Your association's member data should be centralized in your member database or customer relationship management (CRM) system. From there, add other tools and build your membership management plan.

Some of the most popular CRMs have specific association management tools available. We recommend doing some additional research on membership tools native to your CRM — here's a quick guide to help you get started.

With your data centralized in your CRM, you can easily oversee and manage members and automate manual and tedious tasks, freeing up more time to work on strategic initiatives. As members continue to engage with your organization and each other, the data will flow effortlessly to your CRM system, ensuring your information is always accurate and up-to-date.

Provide members with a dedicated place to interact

In addition to maintaining an effective, centralized database for your staff to reference, your association should offer an easily accessible directory that members can access.

Providing an association member directory helps you ensure that:

Member details are correct. Allow members to log in to the directory themselves and update their profiles. This is valuable because it gives your members autonomy and reduces the risk of mistakes in each profile. Members can conveniently edit their profiles as their lives change.

Members can showcase what they've accomplished. Your association most likely already offers educational opportunities, classes, and events that lead to official accreditation. Ensure badges, awards, and certifications are publicly displayed in member profiles.

Member profiles reflect your association and mission. Using fields that your association team can configure, customize your member directory to your specific association. For example, if your association is for teachers and other educational figures, you can include a field describing what grade the member teaches.

To create an online member directory that works with your website and fits your organization, look into content management systems made for associations. Track relevant member engagement

As you're figuring out how to manage your member data, don't forget about member engagement. You can't predict when someone might change professions or move to a location your association doesn't reach. Still, there's a lot you can do to keep existing members interested and fulfilled — and keeping track of these types of engagement should be integral to your member management strategy.

Providing them with intuitive tools (like a navigable member directory!) will ensure they feel a sense of ownership in their association experience. You can also track specific metrics, including. READ MORE. digitalfitnessworld