Silverbear Membership Blog

Following on from last week’s blog post about the features of membership software, this week we’ll discuss what the core benefits are and what the important integration points are.

The key benefits of membership management software can be summed up into main points:

Increase membership acquisition and retention Increase financial control over membership subscriptions and activities Engage with members in a more appropriate way Communicate in a more efficient way Manage events more efficiently Provide more value to members Improve membership loyalty Cut costs Increase control and visibility Gather membership intelligence Many of these benefits are reliant on the ability to integrate the membership software with back end office systems and the corporate website.

Linking the corporate website with the membership software improves the level of service to both the organisation and to members. It means that members can interact with the member...

Membership organisations that rely on the acquisition and retention of members are now turning to technology to help manage their members and provide a higher quality service. Membership software can provide huge cost and time savings, but it is vital that it can be integrated into back end systems such as the finance system, CRM and the corporate website. These blog posts discuss the benefits of membership software and the specific benefits provided when it is integrated into key back end office applications.

Part One – The Key Features of Membership Software Many membership organisations are taking advantage of the benefits of technology by employing the use of membership software. Membership software enables member managers to organise, oversee and control their membership base with improved levels of efficiency and visibility. It can help to boost member enrolments and help reduce the number of members that fail to renew their subscription.  More often than not it pays for itself through the increase...

In our previous blog posts on this subject I have already covered Internal Communication Methods and Membership Web Portal . The third and final part of this blog will cover Reporting & Analysis and Integration.

Reporting & Analysis Increasing the efficiency in the level and type of service you offer to your members can really only be accomplished by measuring and analysing the feedback you get from your members. This can be a very complex and time intensive activity which is often pushed aside as there always seems to be more urgent matters to take care of! Being able to identify your membership clusters, such as geographic breakdown, job titles, profiles, dashboards and KPIs is fundamental. The segmentation of your membership base and the ability to analyse detailed reports will make sure membership managers are able to analyse their members such as the who, what, where and why, whilst still ensuring each membership group receives relevant and targeted communication.

As membership organisations...

In the first part of the blog we covered Internal Communication Tools. The second part of this blog post is Membership Web Portal.

A membership management solution that offers you a fully web based portal will allow your members access to their personal information at any time and from any location. Allowing your members to easily log in using their own unique username and password and edit/amend/update their personal information.

Amendments that are made by the member will automatically feed through and update the internal membership system of the record of the member, ensuring the information you have on that member is always accurate. A membership portal which is offered by a membership solution provider will enable each member to access relevant tools and content for each member type, such as blogs/forums/wikis etc encouraging member-to-member interaction and cross interaction between different groups.

Selecting a comprehensive membership software solution will ensure relevant information...

Most membership organisation’s vision is to host and provide information which their members can easily and simply access, being able to provide a platform where membership organisations and members can share knowledge, information and network through the integration of their membership system with the membership database and their website. More and more organisations want to keep members informed and are starting to create specialist-interest online communities which offer services such as forums, blogs, wikis, expert content and file libraries.

The key to a successful online community is really dependent on your internal systems and how you can utilise them efficiently, through the implementation of an online membership management solution you can seamlessly integrate with your website and develop an online network model reflective of your requirements.

So what should your online community offer?

Fresh, dynamic, collaborative, creative and engaging content An intuitive and straight...

In part 1 we covered why social networking is important for membership organisations and examined how effective LinkedIn could be. This post will look at Facebook and Twitter.

Facebook A Facebook page is a customisable presence for an organisation, product or public personality to join the conversation with Facebook users. The page focuses on the flow of content posted by the page administrators.

By influencing the real connections between friends on Facebook, a page lets fans become brand campaigners. Posts by the page will start to appear in News Feeds, giving pages a stronger voice to reach their fans.

Using Facebook as an effective...

As a membership organisation you consistently find yourself surrounded by issues such as retention of existing members and attracting and capturing new members. More conventional methods of marketing such as; direct mail and events are becoming increasingly expensive and therefore more organisations (not just membership ones) are turning to social media and online networking as a platform and channel to communicate with new members and as a means to add and show value to existing members.

Social networking is becoming more important to membership organisations because:

It facilitates engagement with specific targets It can help to amplify knowledge and awareness around various membership campaigns It can encourage...

As a membership organisation you are totally member-led. The key is to keep not only your current members happy but to find ways to grow your membership base. Utilising a web-based and comprehensive membership management software solution can help you maintain and attain your current membership base (increase renewals and subscriptions). I have put together my top ten reason why a membership organisation should invest and implement a membership solution. Clear Communication – Membership software will ensure you collate up to date, clean and accurate data on your members. The communication tool delivers relevant content to relevant members by allowing you to segment and target the appropriate members. Social Media – Communicating with your members is simple. Your membership software interacts with third party social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Digg, StubmleUpon etc. The mechanisms can be deployed within existing web sites where required or can dwell within the membership portal allowing...

We have seen from the last post that social media is becoming one of the most popular areas of the Internet. People are using Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to communicate with each other and promote ideas and information. So how can membership organisations use social networking sites to communicate with their members? There’s more to sites like Facebook than just creating a business page and updating your status.

Facebook is one of the largest social networking sites on the Internet. It has more than 400 million active users, more than 5 billion pieces of content (such as web links, news stories, blog posts, photo albums etc) and Facebook pages (pages that are commonly created by businesses) have created more than 5.3 billion fans.

So the power of Facebook is immense. People are used to using it as a platform for communication, and membership organisations are starting to understand the value that lies within in.

The key to Facebook is its ability to communicate different messages and information...

Implementing a membership CRM software into your organisation can help improve your operational efficiency through standardising and streamlining your business processes. Ensuring the software has an adaptive and flexible work flow engine which will enable a business to automate business processes in a user friendly way will ensure you attain, retain & maintain your membership base.

Through the automation of time consuming and repetitive tasks you are able to relieve your employees of the mundane but vital work that needs to be carried out on a daily basis, thereby increasing employee efficiency.

The right membership software can be customised to work the way your business works, ensuring you give the right information to the right members. In this market it has never been more important to ensure your members are always kept fully informed and updated on any new business services or upcoming special offers so make it even easier and automate the following marketing tasks:

Building member...

Membership organisations such as charities, societies, clubs, gyms, churches or associations regularly host events for their members. These events can range from a targeted meeting of 10 people to a large event targeting their entire membership base.

Organising events is a crucial component of membership management, it provides a first-rate platform for open communication between you and your member and for member to member and it is also an excellent way in which member organisations can increase their membership subscription and participation. Members must feel that they are getting some benefit from their membership and by hosting regular, relevant events this will ensure you add not only value to their subscription but will help promote member engagement.

However, organising and planning an event is not easy and can be exceptionally time consuming. Many aspects go into managing an event such as;

Event Planning Booking a venue/room Managing presenters Organising catering...

This might seem like a very strong statement to make, however if you are a membership organisation (society, association, not for profit, gym etc) then you will understand that managing your membership base is not easy.

Implementing a powerful membership management solution provides organisations with a highly flexible “core” membership management platform that can adapt, grow and scale alongside your business.

Online membership software engages and connects you with your members and by utilising the enhanced communication channel (such as; email marketing, web portal, social marketing sites etc) you will start to see an increase in communication between the organisation and the member as well as  increased interaction between member to member.

Implementation...

Do you know who your members are? Do you know what your members are looking for? Do you know why they are looking for it?

Managing your members efficiently and effectively will help you answer these questions, however, in these economic times members are demanding a clearer “Membership ROI” and asking their membership organisations to demonstrate this.

So the question that really needs to be answered is; “how much value does your organisation provide to your members?”.

This is not any easy question to answer but it is essential you do answer it, and answer it well. As a membership organisation you need to connect and stay connected with your members, however, defining what you should be offering to your members is easier said than done, below are a few areas we have highlighted;

Highly targeted communication channels via; email phone website social media

Ensuring the information you have on your member is accurate and up to date so targeted and...

Are you a membership club? Government agency? Charity? Association? Society? Trade Union? Or any organisation that has members? Then this blog post is relevant to you.

In this modern and transforming membership-led society, membership organisations need to adopt mechanisms to measure their members engagement requirements and address them efficiently and effectively. Implementing a membership solution will ensure you address the following key issues of membership management:

Keeping good clean and accurate data on your existing and prospective members Communicating effectively with your members Understanding your members concerns and requirements Managing and recording membership contact data and information Utilising membership data information efficiently and resourcefully Reporting and analysing membership data and turning this into useful information Segmenting membership demographics simply Keeping control and managing your members throughout the entire...

Although we are reported to be coming out of these troubled economic times it has never been more pertinent to put in place contingencies to ensure you are fully prepared for the next economic downturn.

Membership organisations, NOW is the time to implement strategies to increase your membership numbers and ensure continued renewals and increased subscriptions.

Exchanging of information is the currency of any successful membership organisation. But how do you go about growing/attaining new members?

To attract new members you need to fully understand what motivated your current members to firstly subscribe and then renew. Once you have this information you need to utilise it within your member outreach strategy. So how do you attain & utilise this information effectively? Implementing a membership software will help you recognise and address your membership management needs. The right membership software enables you to understand the fundamental determinants of your members experience and will...

As a membership organisation understanding your members expectations through what you currently offer is crucial. However being able to improve on the service you deliver will not only help you grow your membership base but retain it.

To do this you need to utilise the myriad of information you collect on your members effectively & efficiently. Defining a clear analysis path to identify current & future membership strategies will give you a clear visualisation of your membership base and allow you to utilise these results effectively.

Therefore choosing & implementing the right Membership Management Solution is vital.

The “right” membership solution will recognise and address your membership management needs by providing you with;

Good, clean & up to date information on existing members Good, clean & up to date information on prospective members Good, clean & up to date information on members activities & requirements A clear & distinct outline of a member’s...