11/02/2022

Initial Steps for Putting Your Member Data to Work

Realize the benefits of leveraging members’ behavioral data

Data has long been important to associations as it drives fundamental operations like billing, renewals, and member information. In today’s digital world, data is everywhere and can be harnessed to empower teams to make more informed business decisions, better understand members, and to even predict future behavior like who might attend an event, consume a particular piece of content, or even renew membership. Here’s a look at how groups can act on their data.

Types of Data

Data falls into two large categories: demographic and behavioral. Let’s start with the different types of member demographic data:

• The first is the traditional data that most associations track—things like name, address, employer, job role, age, sex, and gender identity.
• An increasing number of associations are starting to also track DEI-related data. While this can be trickier to obtain from your members, it is important to make the effort. As the old saying goes, you can’t track what you don’t measure. In this case, you won’t know how well you’re doing with your DEI initiatives without having baseline data from which to measure advancements.
• The last category will be demographic data that is unique to each association. For example, specialty focus and practice ownership are tracked by many healthcare associations.

While demographic data has always been important, more associations are realizing the benefits of leveraging their members’ behavioral data, including products purchased, events attended, trainings completed, volunteer roles held, donations given, emails opened, website pages read, and certifications earned. Considering all of these behaviors together can provide meaningful and actionable insights for association marketers, including the following.

Please select this link to read the complete article from ASAE’s Center for Association Leadership.