Your association’s marketing strategy should be updated regularly based on member interests, trends in your field, and advancements in technology. In particular, software can affect the types of marketing campaigns you can run, as well as how they’re hosted and what types of data are gathered. 

This article will explore three ways that your technology can improve your association’s digital marketing strategy. 

Enhanced Personalization

Organizations of all types have moved toward personalized communication strategies. This approach leverages member data to create messages tailored to each recipient, based on specific interests, location, and past event history. 

Use your membership management tools to create profiles for each of your members. Then, track their demographic data, interests, and all interactions they have with your association, such as attending an event or signing up for an online course. When you get in touch with your members, your communication tools can automatically pull from this data to add specific details to each message. 

You can also organize members in your database based on what is most likely to interest them, then send tailored messages to each group. For example, you would only send new members an email about your member benefits and how they can access them, which may be less interesting for a long-time member. 

This can be especially useful for retaining members who are at risk of lapsing. Members often leave associations if they feel their interests no longer align with the organization’s offerings. By creating an email series that promotes types of content they have previously interacted with, you can re-engage them and prevent lapse. 

Coordinated Campaigns

Before joining your association, prospects will likely interact with your association’s messages multiple times on multiple platforms. Rather than repeating the same experience on each channel, you can use your marketing platform to coordinate messages and ensure each one builds on the next, moving members through the sales funnel and towards making a conversion. 

Here’s an example of what a coordinated campaign might look like:

• You create a social media post promoting an upcoming event. 
• You take note of current and potential members who interact with that post. 
• Then, you send members an email highlighting the event with detailed instructions about how and when to sign up. 

In this example, the event is introduced on multiple channels, presenting members with numerous messages that show off different aspects of the event and several opportunities to act on the call to action and sign up. 

For potential members whose contact information you may not have, you can still use this strategy in your public messages to build brand awareness. For example, you may create a blog post sharing an interesting story about your association. Then, you promote it by posting a snippet and feature image to social media with a link to the full article. On a different platform, you create a short video about the story. You can also gain access to local mailing lists to send community members a direct-mail piece introducing your association. 

Your association’s marketing tools should equip you with a calendar to create campaign timelines and reporting and analytics features to track engagement. 

For a particularly complex campaign, or if you have yet to host a multichannel campaign, consider partnering with a consulting firm. Consultants who are experts in your software can provide tips for how to better leverage it and likely have training services, which can be especially useful for associations switching to a new system.

Automation and Streamlining

The more your association’s marketing tools can do for you, the more time your team can devote to other essential tasks. Invest in a platform that has automation capabilities, such as alerts and reminders, easy report compiling, and immediate email follow-up to various actions such as signing up for a new membership. 

Additionally, consider how you can customize your platform to streamline your internal processes. DNL OmniMedia’s guide to Salesforce consultants emphasizes the importance of working with a developer when implementing a highly customizable system. For instance, associations looking to use the Salesforce CRM or Blackbaud CRM will need a developer to customize their system to determine how everyday internal tasks are made, assigned, and processed. The consultant can also provide assistance with training and ongoing support if you encounter any technical issues or wish to change your system’s setup.

While these platforms do require an investment of time and resources, they can be fine-tuned to your association’s exact specifications. For instance, you might want separate task processes for teams hosting online campaigns and those planning an in-person event. Or, you may want to build out your marketing tools with more automation.

Technology evolves rapidly, and your association can make the most of modern membership management and marketing tools to reach out to your members. Explore new platforms and partner with industry consultants to leverage your software.