By Ashly Stewart — Content Marketing Manager

From stellar keynote speakers to fun latte art, the 2021 ASAE Virtual Annual Meeting was one for the books

The ASAE Annual Meeting is THE event for association leaders and professionals to make new connections, forge new partnerships, spark new ideas, and put their strategies to work alongside the best and brightest in the industry.  

This year, ASAE continued this much-anticipated event — completely virtually. Like most events in 2020, attendees were excited and curious to see how ASAE would translate all the networking and educational opportunities their annual meeting is known for to a digital space.  

We’re happy to report that this year’s event delivered on the demo opportunities, the engaging sessions, exhibitor experiences, and space for authentic connection that attendees come to expect from the ASAE Annual Meeting.  

Here are just a few highlights from the ASAE Annual Meeting that our team loved. 

ASAE Day 1 — A day of welcome and recognition 

The ASAE Annual Meeting kicked off with a meeting of the board, a full day of scheduled association solution demos, a handful of pre-conference workshops, and a welcome reception for ASAE volunteers.  

The first day was interesting because the pre-conference workshops required an additional registration fee and the ASAE Volunteers Reception required an exclusive invite, so not everyone could or would choose to attend some of the first day’s events, but it didn’t detract from day one because it really put the association solutions front-and-center, and it gave attendees a good look at what to expect from the virtual conference platform. 

Day one was the perfect time to set your session agenda for the following week, explore the places to meet and chat about specific solutions, and enjoy the spaces meant for networking and engaging with other attendees.  

Standout of the day: We had fun playing trivia in the “Engage & Play” section of the virtual event site. It tested the knowledge we gained by attending the Community Pop-UP lounges that highlighted select cities like Cleveland, Ohio, and Puerto Rico.  

ASAE Day 2 — Moments of reflection and action 

In a recent Pewter Research Center report, one woman gave a positive view of the health and societal struggles of last year by saying,  

“It’s good to see how people come together in moments of crisis. Working together to ensure that we all stay safe and healthy.”  

But in the same report, another woman answered the same survey with,  

“People are weird and untrusting of others, social gatherings are nonexistent and the stupid masks are ineffective and just plain suck. I am DONE playing this game. DONE!” 

These two different sentiments and different realities reflect the confusing world we all have had to navigate, including associations and nonprofits who must serve members who represent, maybe even loudly vocalize, their conflicting opinions. 

Trying to reconcile the two opposing viewpoints of the pandemic and our country is what the opening keynote speaker, Baratunde Thurston, miraculously does so well. His eloquence, humor, and authenticity shined, and it’s no wonder he’s been nominated for awards for his work on notable shows like The Daily Show, advised the Obama white house, and wrote the New York Times bestseller, How to be Black.  

Barantunde gave attendees a real view of his world while also giving us practical steps to take to affect change. It was a moving and inspiring start to an event for people who make change and advocacy their business. 

I could write all day about Barantunde’s opening keynote, but I also want to point out how ASAE set a tone of celebration by showing acceptance videos from the individual award recipients. 

Later in the day, Personify’s Mark Sedgley and AMR’s Amy Thornburg continued the focus on building relationships by offering a quick roadmap to attracting new members and forming lasting bonds with existing members for modern associations in their session, “3 Keys to Success for Modern Associations: Relationship-Building Secrets That Drive Acquisition, Engagement, & Retention.”

We also attended a notable session called, “Let’s Declutter! How to Simplify to Deliver User-Centered Digital Experiences,” where speakers Sandy Marsico and Laura Chaparro gave us five steps to enhancing members’ digital experiences by cleaning up and polishing off our digital journeys.  

Standout of the day: Learning about Barantunde’s podcast, How to Citizen with Baratunde. We’ll definitely be tuning in for more of his perspective of what it means to be a good resident and neighbor of our communities.  

ASAE Day 3 — Impactful sessions and latte art 

Tuesday’s highlights were sessions that offered real use cases with clear calls to action. They also offer a look into how other areas of culture and society can inspire the programs and benefits we offer our members. And we took a break by feasting our eyes on some beautiful latte art! 

Starting with the use case that has stuck with us, in the session, “How Live Education, Video Networking, and Analytics Created a Successful International Conference,” speakers Joanna Pineda, Gretchen Steenstra, and Elise Kuurstra (a panel made up of strong, female leaders, I’m proud to say) dove into what made The European Association for International Education annual conference — that went fully online this year — so successful.  

They shared so many good tips with us, but the biggest takeaways were that they gathered a full picture of their attendees’ behavior from past events with good data at their side, which allowed them to form a plan around their mantra, “Reinvention not replication.”  

We also learned in the session, “Paving the Way: A Central Park Analogy for Online Communities” led by Kara Adams that New York City’s Central Park is a perfect lesson in listening to what the people who are actually using your space want rather than following trends. It’s difficult to imagine that the beloved park was initially reviled by critics because it didn’t look like the manicured European parks that were all the rage at the time. Instead, park planners put New York residents’ needs and requests at the forefront and built a park that reflects their lively, active community. The session was a great reminder for the many associations and nonprofits that are exploring ways to launch a thriving online community. 

Standout of the day: The Partner Playground was a great way for members to connect with solution partners in a casual way with partners hosting live music events, ice cream socials, latte art, and more. The Personify team gathered to learn about the history of coffee and see our new brand logo over a cup of coffee. 

 
ASAE Day 4 — A call to live interdependently 

The last day of ASAE emphasized hot topics like ethical marketing and the magic that happens when you combine the human touch with clean data. And, of course, everyone was looking forward to the bittersweet closing of this year’s meeting with Michele L. Sullivan, a Fortune 100 business executive, motivational speaker, and author of the book, Looking Up: How a Different Perspective Turns Obstacles into Advantages.”  

The last day’s session that stood out to us was “The Association Algorithm: Leveraging Data with a Human Hand” hosted by Aimee Pagano. I admit that I was drawn to this session as a marketer, but as I listened to the session, what stood out the most is how important it is for marketers and association professionals to ethically harness the power of data that we use to understand and communicate with our members. Member data seems like an old concept now, so it’s easy to become numb to the fact that we know a lot about members. We should always be thinking of ways to view them and reach out to them with respect and with their best interests in mind.  

Finally, the day and the event closed as Michele spoke openly about turning obstacles into advantages. A timely topic as we’ve lived through a pandemic for over a year. And it’s an especially appropriate topic for Michele who was born with a rare form of dwarfism.  

Michele used her vulnerability (she shared powerful pictures of her and her family’s journey through her surgeries) to describe the advantages she has gained in overcoming obstacles related to her disability. She encouraged us all to employ active listening, take care of ourselves as leaders, and take an active role in our skills and development.  

Michele’s call to anticipate change and live an interdependent life — not necessarily an independent one — has stuck with us long after the closing keynote.  

We’ll see you at next year’s ASAE Annual Meeting 

The ASAE Annual Meeting may have been different from previous years, but it was still engaging, valuable, and a bright spot in our week. The Personify team enjoyed connecting with attendees and learning from the leaders of our communities.  

If you missed the ASAE Annual Meeting this year and didn’t get to see the big reveal of our new brand, check out our announcement of all the new things at Personify.  

And if we can help your association and nonprofit build stronger connections and deeper relationships with your members, please reach out. We’d love to talk with you.  

The post ASAE Annual Meeting Recap appeared first on Personify.

The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) has been dedicated to improving health data integrity for almost 100 years. “We deal with patient records, coding, privacy and security of health data, and all things related to a patient’s information,” says Vicky Betzig, Director of Meetings at AHIMA. “And since COVID-19, so many of the guidelines and regulations seem to have gone right out the window! So much has changed so fast for the members we serve, and in turn, we have had to change quickly in order to meet their new needs.”

Here are some of the innovative ways that the AHIMA is helping its members and
exhibiting companies at its annual events.

Knowing What You Don’t Know

Like many associations, annual events are a key revenue driver for AHIMA. But all of the
uncertainty of when states would re-open (and if anyone would come even if they were)
led AHIMA to do something they’ve never done in their long history: convert from in-person
to virtual events.

In addition to the internal staff, AHIMA brought in outside help to make sure the experience
was not just a stitched-together series of video calls and presentations. It was essential to
get the industry expertise to reinvent and rethink what they offered their members.

Ultimately, AHIMA created many engaging and interactive components to make an
experience beyond the recorded sessions. A Concierge Desk with a live AHIMA staff to
answer questions, high-level staff leading dance breaks on camera and technology to
facilitate face-to-face virtual networking were just some of the ways the organization
reimagined their event.

Nurturing Relationships

AHIMA used Personify’s A2Z Events as their exhibitor and sponsor database, and they
relied on that technology heavily when they made the quick change from in-person to
virtual. Betzig explains that they saw competitors cancel events with little warning—
and seemingly zero regard for their partner relationships. “They did not offer exhibitors
any refunds or chance to recoup their losses, and that did not go over well,” she notes.
AHIMA learned from the reactions to that, and thanks to their database, we’re able to
efficiently and effectively communicate with their partners.

Having Empathy for Members

“We’ve had a lot of people in our profession who have experienced salary reductions
or lost their jobs entirely. So, at the association, there’s been a lot of advocacy around
helping them find resources for employment,” explains Betzig. In addition, AHIMA has been assisting out-of-work industry people in transferring their skills to new endeavors like contact tracing and knowing that the pandemic has put many
people in challenging financial positions.

This AHIMA profile was first published on the Associations Now blog on September 7, 2020 as part of an ongoing series profiling the COVID response strategy of Associations. Republished with permission, all rights reserved. 

The post How AHIMA’s adaptability allowed them to continue their mission during COVID-19 appeared first on Personify.

The economy is beginning to re-open, but as business leaders know, we are far from escaping the devastating health and financial effects of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Some organizations closed up shop during the first uncertain months of the crisis, while others, like the American Optometric Association, lept into action. Adam Reider, Manager of Technical Training & Support at the AOA, explains how they implemented a member first crisis response plan that put members’ resiliency above all else.

Sharing Critical Information

“When COVID-19 started sweeping across the United States, we knew instantly that the doctors we advocate for would take a hard impact,” explains Reider. “Overnight, they went from seeing their patients regularly to ‘emergency-only’ scenarios.” The AOA knew that the first thing their members would need is information on navigating this new normal of health care: everything from getting set up for telemedicine visits to applying to Paycheck Protection Program Loans.”

Utilizing Personify360 as their Association Management Software solution, the AOA decided to host instructional webinars for their members and non-members and offer them to anyone seeking information, regardless of their membership status. “This pandemic is impacting every healthcare professional in the world,” explains Reider. “So we did not feel it was appropriate for us to throw up a giant firewall. We want to be able to look back after this crisis is over and know that we truly stood for this profession.”

Waiving Membership Fees

Reider says that the AOA recognized the economic hit doctors would take from not being able to see patients, and so decided to waive members’ fees for two months. And believe it or not, it was hardly as easy as it sounds.

“Our finance team and our IT staff met on a daily basis to figure out how we could do it and track it. With technology in place and collaboration from the team, we found a way to roll this out smoothly for all of our 54 affiliates—plus extending it to new members. Any doctor that joins this year is eligible for that two-month waiver.”

Planning for the Future

Having all of their information in one system allowed the AOA to be proactive and effective, says Reider. “Technology is our digital truth,” he says, “it unites all of our affiliates and allows them to work together.” That connectedness has allowed the AOA to do great things in the here and now—and to plan for tomorrow. “As doctors sign up for our webinars, we are collecting that information and cross-checking it with our member database. It is extremely helpful in planning what we do next: What topics should we cover for future webinars? How do we market them? Which are more engaging for members and for non-members?”

Having a system in place that allows for quick pivots in times of crisis not only helps the members, but the people behind-the-scenes at associations, says Reider. “It’s been very rewarding—the horizon has been very bleak these past couple of months, and it gives you a sense of pride knowing that the work you’re doing is helping the entire profession move forward in this landscape.”

This AOA profile was first published on Associations Now blog on June 18, 2020 as part of an ongoing series profiling the COVID response strategy of Associations. Republished with permission, all rights reserved. 

The post The American Optometric Association’s Data-Driven Strategy for Resilience During the Pandemic appeared first on Personify.

As someone who has worked in marketing and membership longer than I’ll ever admit publicly, ASAE’s Marketing, Membership & Communications Conference, kicking off later this week in Washington D.C.’s Walter E. Washington Convention Center is among my favorite events of the year.

In addition to having the opportunity to connect with association professionals the topics discussed are always top-notch. Each session is uniquely targeted to address the needs of marketing, membership and communications professionals as they look to optimize their efforts across the various stages of the membership lifecycle, from acquisition to retention.

There are no shortage of amazing opportunities for learning but here are the five sessions I’m looking forward to the most this year:

Thursday, June 6^th:

Viral Business Starts at Home

9:00AM – 10:00AM

We know both from our research into young members and anecdotal feedback from clients that few things are as effective in building buzz and in the acquisition of new members than word-of-mouth endorsements from peers. In his keynote, entrepreneur Johnny Cupcakes will share what he learned from the launch and success of his own business but also the implications for associations who need to ensure their staff will engage with their brand on a deep-level for an exceptional member experience.

How Issue Advocacy Can Increase Member Engagement

2:45PM – 3:15PM

We’ve seen in our own Personify Community how advocacy can only drive an organization’s mission forward by mobilizing members in support of a specific cause but also serve as an important opportunity for engagement. I’m looking forward this session, which will dive into issue advocacy and how associations can leverage social media and digital tools to further the reach of their advocacy campaigns and engage members.

Bringing Member Personas to Life – Hollywood Style

3:30PM – 4:15PM

What kind of marketing person would I be if I didn’t use this opportunity to plug my own session? Personas have become a critical component in the success of marketing teams, but often they’re authored in response to a single situation or in the context of a specific need. How can we take our understanding of personas to the next level and given them new life? I’ll be taking a trip to the TV stages, writer’s rooms and Hollywood studios for this exciting session. You don’t want to miss it!

Friday, June 7^th

Making a Splash With an Integrated Campaign

10:15AM – 11:00AM

At Personify, we’re big fans of the integrated campaign. This session will share a real-world example of how one organization leveraged an integrated campaign to stand out among brands with flashy booths and global name recognition to make themselves not only relevant, but cool!

How to Capture the Attention of the Generation Z Constituent

2:45PM – 3:30PM

Another Personify-led workshop that you don’t want to miss! Our young member research looked not only at Millennials but also the emerging Gen Z audience. While Gen Z may bring new energy, ideas, and opportunities, they also bring the NOW Effect: information must be mobile, transparent, and delivered in real-time. Personify’s VP of Marketing, Teresa Zimmerman will dive into the art and science behind creating compelling campaigns that resonate with Gen Z. With a focus on content, social media, analytics, and more, we’ll share the necessity of using the right and left side of your brain when marketing to younger generations.

We look forward to seeing you in our sessions and on the show floor! If you’re attending ASAE MMCC please stop by booth 121 on the show floor. We’d love to hear what you’re learning and what’s resonating!

The post 5 Sessions to Check Out at ASAE MMCC appeared first on Personify.

We’ve all done it. From using Google docs at work when Sharepoint is the approved document sharing tool, to using Dropbox instead of the approved storage solution, the use of “Shadow IT” is a growing issue in today’s associations and nonprofit organizations. In fact, Symantec found that organizations typically have 1,232 apps on their extended network, most of which were adopted without IT approval or oversight. And, 72% of IT executives admitted that they were unsure of how many Shadow IT applications are being used in their organization.

Whether it’s a personal preference for specific tools or a lack of training or access, staff tend to use the tools that make them feel the most comfortable, despite the effects this can have on an organization.

User comfort with certain products comes in many forms including familiarity, ease of use, speed and accuracy. Employees can feel frustrated and overwhelmed with the task of learning how to use a new tool and the training and learning curve that often comes with it. While some technology can seamlessly be integrated into organizations, other times users may feel the burden of these new processes. This can push employees into using Shadow IT – turning to their preferred free or low-cost tools instead of solutions provided by IT.

Unfortunately, these tools or programs might not always be the most secure and can leave data skeletons in your association’s closet – from critical member data to employee information – that are vulnerable to threat actors. Gartner predicts that by 2020, a third of successful attacks experienced by enterprises will be on their shadow IT resources. When employees choose to use tools outside of what IT supports, it creates more weak points for the organization’s security. If your organization’s security team isn’t aware of all the additional tools being used, they cannot effectively protect employees and the association against potential threats.

When it comes to Shadow IT, what you don’t know can hurt you. Here are a few ways today’s associations can mitigate the challenges it brings.

Employee Training

To better safeguard your constituents’ (and your own) data, it’s imperative that everyone from senior leadership all the way down to new hires are on the same page. Employee training on cybersecurity best practices is crucial in helping to protect an association’s assets – especially when Shadow IT is in play.

By educating employees on how and why Shadow IT can be detrimental to an organization, as well as common threats to look out for, companies can better safeguard against those threats. For example, a single phishing email to an unsuspecting employee or a Google doc holding intellectual property that falls into the wrong hands can be harmful to an association. Ongoing employee training helps to strengthen both their knowledge of potential threats and the use of best practices to avoid them.

Build Trust and Ensure Open Communication

Open communication is key to tackling Shadow IT in any organization. Security teams should work to build a relationship of trust so that employees feel empowered and knowledgeable about the tools at their disposal, and have a way to address solutions that are not easily remedied by a tool within an association’s technology portfolio. This goes beyond training to create an ongoing dialogue with employees in your organization.

Instead of seeking out Shadow IT offenders and punishing the actions, provide avenues for employees to flag necessary tools that fall outside of IT’s purview so that they can be evaluated and tracked, instead of creating a continued unknown risk. If IT is aware of tools in use that are not sanctioned by the organization, they can ensure these digital skeletons in the closet don’t come back to haunt you or your association.

Turning Threats to Opportunities

Shadow IT isn’t all doom and gloom. Identifying the use of Shadow IT can have a positive outcome for your association. In fact, it can help organizations reevaluate technology and better prioritize tools and their investments. Are your employees often turning to Dropbox to store and share larger files? Perhaps it’s time to invest in enterprise document storage. Do your employees rely on Google Docs to share information? Microsoft Teams might be a logical next step for secure collaboration or an enterprise agreement with Dropbox or Google might, in fact, be the best fit.

No matter the outcome, training, communications and ongoing dialogue are key to minimizing the risks that Shadow IT can bring and helping associations stay secure in today’s threat landscape.

The post Are There Data Skeletons in Your Closet? appeared first on Personify.

Technologists like those attending this week’s ASAE Tech event in National Harbor, MD may prioritize the underlying tools and systems bringing their organization to life for members, but design plays a critical role. Good design has a powerful effect on a user’s experience, judgement and behavior. If the experience is a poor one, they won’t come back. For association professionals, the risks introduced by poor design have a significant impact for member engagement and retention.

The good news is design thinking isn’t about design, it’s about thinking.

Source: ideatehighacademy.com

Opening their ASAE Tech session, Master Design Thinking to Capitalize on Unmet Member Needs, Bean Creative’s Layla Masri and Katherine Matthews of the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) positioned design thinking as accessible and highly relevant to all areas of an association.

How to get started. Design thinking, according to the Interaction Design Foundation is not a linear process but is completely attainable. Similar to another session covered for this blog, 4 Steps to Digital Marketing Transformation, this session appealed to the common sense of attendees while challenging them to try new things as well:

Empathize

Associations are in the business of relationships and empathy should come naturally…right? While the ongoing dialogue created as part of membership is helpful, it doesn’t replace the activities necessary to build an understanding an appreciation for a member’s experience with your organization. Take the time to interview members specific to what you want to learn, going beyond rapport to evoke stories, explore emotions and question their responses.

What happens when you design without empathy? Marsi and Matthews offered the example of Google Glass and this quote from MIT Technology Review as a cautionary tale, “No one could understand why you’d want to have that thing on your face, in the way of normal social interaction.”

Define

With user interviews complete, synthesize the feedback into concise problem statements that help you home in on the problems that design may help you address. Ensure they’re human-centered and broad enough to allow for creativity but narrow enough to ensure they get done. To write problem statements, articulate:

• What problem are we trying to solve?
• How do we know this is a real problem?
• Why is it important to solve?
• Who are our users? What are their goals and motivations?
• How will we know if we’ve solved the problem?

Ideate

The fun part of the design process for many, ideation is where an organization takes the time to imagine potential solutions to their problems. In designing creative solutions to their stated problem, an organization may question an assumption, change a perception, play devil’s advocate, engage an unexpected resource or break the problem into smaller, more addressable pieces.

Prototype

In today’s fast-moving world, prototyping has become part of everyday operations for many organizations, especially within their IT and marketing departments. But prototyping provides value when applying design thinking to larger challenges as well. How can you improve post-event engagement? How can you create a meaningful, high-impact member onboarding process? Creative thinking is encouraged but constraints are introduced to ensure final options are desirable, feasible and viable. And prototyping is intended to be fast – the session suggested a rapid approach, where teams were challenged to create 100 solutions in only 10 minutes!

Test

With a prototype solution ready it’s time to set it live. Your team thinks their application of design thinking will solve your problem statement but will your members feel that way?

As mentioned, design thinking is a non-linear process and at every stage there are opportunities to stop, revisit previous decisions and adjust to better understand the problems facing members but also to ensure the designed solution you’re introducing is the right one. Testing isn’t the end of the process but a new beginning, with opportunities to learn more about users, validate your definition of their problems and generate a new batch of ideas to carry your organization forward.

In their session, Marsi and Matthews shared a quote from American investor Charles Kettering, “A problem well-stated is half solved.” Design thinking not only provides the framework for an immediate solution but for an ongoing culture of transparency and rich understanding that will fuel excellence for years to come.

The post Design Thinking – 5 Steps to Capitalizing on Unmet Member Needs appeared first on Personify.

The Personify team at the ASAE Tech Conference.

If you think ASAE Tech is just for I.T. staff, think again.

While historically the industry’s marquee event for showcasing association technology of all kinds, as the impact and reach of the various tools powering today’s modern nonprofit continues to expand, so too have the opportunities for learning about how to optimize these systems across all areas of an organization.

One of the sessions kicking off today’s agenda 4 Key Steps to Digital Marketing Transformation at Your Association, led by the American College of Radiology’s Dave Martin, is one of the sessions breaking the mold.

While digital transformation has long been a cornerstone of conference programming for a technology team, Martin’s session explored best practices marketing teams can adopt to ensure they keep pace.

1.    Get the Right People on the Bus

The right approach begins with the right team. To ensure the right mindset, Martin encouraged attendees to explore the DARC model, originally introduced by HubSpot to help their CMO screen talent for their industry-leading inbound marketing team:

• D – Digital Marketers who live their lives online and are familiar and comfortable with blogging, the growing variety of social media and the Internet.
• A – Analytical: Marketers who are data-driven, always measuring what they do and making decisions based on the available information.
• R – Reach: Marketers who have a knack for growing their network with savvy for topics and the ability to create a natural, gravitational attraction to their work.
• C – Content: Marketers who are natural content creators, with a strong interest in – and willingness to – write.

Once you have the right people in place, Martin suggests organizing the team around the funnel:

• Attract (Top of Funnel): Personas, content strategy, SEO, PPC, blogging, webinars, social media
• Connect (Middle and Bottom of Funnel): Analytics, CRO, landing pages, marketing automation, lead scoring and nurturing
• Engage (Bottom of Funnel): Website, messaging and persuasion, sales enablement, case studies, collateral, partnerships
• Inspire (Member Marketing): Member retention, education, member-focused content, eNewsletters, online community

2.    Be Agile

Borrowing another term from the I.T. lexicon, Martin suggests that marketers need to mirror their technology peers in being more agile in their planning and execution. Instead of a “waterfall” approach, Martin suggests teams should:

• Respond to change as opposed to following a rigid plan
• Introduce rapid iterations organized around themes instead of leaning on big campaigns
• Test constantly and learn from data
• Commit to many small experiments instead of placing many large bets
• Focus on the individual and their interactions instead of broad target markets
• Collaborate across the marketing team and organizations rather than be constrained by silos

3.    Outcomes over Outputs

In one of my favorite takeaways from the session, Martin urged attendees to, “market with a magnet, not a megaphone.” While association marketing teams are often highly experienced and deeply familiar with their audiences, there’s an opportunity to change the conversation and ask strategic conversations around goals and objectives. Don’t be afraid to poke holes and leverage data to drive your decision making and support your point of view.

4.    Build Your MarTech Stack

Here at Personify we’re no strangers to the power of the MarTech stack and the transformational effect it can have on an organization (check out our recent webinar and blog post on the topic).

While nonprofits include a number of nuances specific to the work we do, there’s a great deal to learn from the commercial sector when it comes to marketing technologies. As of 2018, there are over 7,000 technology tools designed to bring marketers closer to their buyers! For-profit businesses invest heavily on systems to support data gathering, automation and conversion.

The benefits of a strong MarTech stack are just as clear for nonprofits. A MarTech stack can help an association:

• Increase membership renewals and retention
• Drive non-dues revenue, especially when it comes to events
• Attract new members
• Engage and inspire membership
• Position your organization to cross-sell and up-sell products and services

Where should you start? Martin suggests beginning with your database, whether a CRM, AMS or Constituent Management Engagement (CME) solution like Personify. Connecting your systems to your database is an essential next step in supporting activities across the funnel, from early attraction of that new lead through inspiring their continued journey as a member of your organization.

5.    Analyze and React

But I thought there were 4 steps! Martin surprised attendees with a fifth suggestion that may be the most important of all. The old adage says you can’t manage what you can’t measure. Understanding your organization’s marketing performance by the numbers is a critical step in ensuring digital transformations provide ongoing value to an association. Key performance indicators (KPIs) like website traffic, new contacts, visitor-to-new contact ratios, new contact-to-member ratios, blog traffic, organic search and keyword rankings are only some of the metrics marketers should look to.

People. Process. Results. Technology and a commitment to measure it all. While not necessarily new to marketers in the association space, Martin’s unique way of packing up his 4 (really 5!) steps in digital marketing transformation paves the way for alignment of teams across an association and success in the year to come.

The post Live from ASAE: 4 Steps to Digital Marketing Transformation appeared first on Personify.

That simple question opened Monday’s “Research. Solve. Repeat” session at ASAE Annual in Chicago. And while many organizations believe they know the answer, retention efforts or low-engagement levels may reveal a different story.

The good news? Getting back on the same page can be a relatively simple process and one with long-term benefits.

Before you get started, the presenters recommended some initial prework to help set the stage for the research to come. As noted in the presentation, an informed board is a supportive board and one important tool for helping your board (who may not talk to members on a daily basis) develop a strong, foundational understanding of who your organization serves are member personas.

While your board may have good visibility into others who have shared their membership experience or may be at the same stage of their careers, how well do they understand the collegiate members you’re trying to convert into a professional tier membership? Or maybe a demographic with whom they have little in common?

Personas can paint the picture and help provide the context for the full breadth of your organization and the audience its programs serve. It can also refine the focus of any member research you embark on by creating a common vision for what you’re hoping to learn.  But once you have that in hand, it’s time to get started with four straightforward steps for effective member research:

1. Ask the Question: And ask frequently. Develop a business model that includes constituent research when making critical decisions. Take the time to prioritize your questions, ensuring you’re starting with the end in mind, and being thoughtful in what you’re asking. What problem are you trying to solve? Take the time to digest all of the information as well. Early returns on data can lead to inaccurate conclusions and giving everyone the opportunity to absorb member feedback ensures that each stakeholder has total visibility into valuable information.
2. Hear the answer: Listening can be hard, but hearing an answer can be even harder, especially when the answer is one you may not have expected. Prepare to adapt and to respond efficiently and effectively to industries and/or audiences that change quickly.
3. Act on the Answer: Create a culture of leveraging research to solve real problems with data-driven decisions.
4. Listen Again: As the presentation reminds us, there’s always another question to ask! Being proactive instead of reactive provides the opportunity to better align on the big issues, but a regular cadence of surveys and outreach can set the stage for asking additional questions with answers to questions you may not have thought about – especially when the answers are viewed alongside your personas.

Acquisition, engagement, retention. All of these activities, which represents the lifeblood of an organization, benefit from the value member feedback can provide. Research, solve and repeat offers a simple approach to get started!

The post 4 Best Practices for Engaging in Member Research (and a recap of ASAE Annual) appeared first on Personify.

But we also appreciate the opportunity to learn and engage, alongside organizations, in the various workshops and sessions offered to attendees. While the topics are wide-ranging, there are always a few that pique my curiosity and this year was no exception.

For example, the idea of being a futurist.

What is a futurist? Per the ASAE Annual Sunday session, Think Like a Futurist to Become Your Association’s Change Agent, futurists look systematically at change and how to understand how things happen. Futurists explore broadly, providing peripheral vision, identifying the deep forces of change, and synthesizing information from disparate areas. It’s not necessarily about gazing into a crystal ball to predict what’s going to happen but considering the various scenarios that may (or may not) play out to help shape behavior and influence change.

The role of the futurist may be easy to understand when it comes to topics like climate change or technology or even consumer behavior. But the futurist plays an important role for associations, providing the insight necessary for strategic planning, anticipatory learning, risk analysis, innovation and business development. Futurists always seek to understand:

• What do we think will happen?
• What might happen instead?
• What do you want to happen?

The work of a futurist starts wide and goes deep. At first, the futurist amasses data by going wide, going deep to create the scenarios and then going long to understand the potential implications of those scenarios. Going wide can include demographic information, social trends, economic data or other statistics available to you within your organization.

Futurists then go long, refining these scenarios and organizing them into horizons to provide additional context and develop a perspective on how the future (or futures…did you know there’s more than one?) may evolve over time. For example:

It’s one thing to develop this perspective, but how can associations share it internally to become a true agent of change? Being a canary in a coal mine isn’t enough – without effective communication, a futurist is unlikely to build the level of consensus needed for real transformation.

The session laid out a practical approach to documenting the wide, deep and long observations for a broader audience in four, easy-to-consume pages:

• Page 1: Overview with a short summary description of your primary forecast, the expected futures and the uncertainties you need to follow moving forward.
• Page 2: Evidence! Supporting data including the key trends and weak signals that initially drove review in the first place and any related drivers of change.
• Page 3: Strategic insights including the all-important “so what” factors, thoughts on maturity and speed of change and other potential futures that may present additional risk.
• Page 4: Action page with information on who will be affected, specific, notable changes the organization may experience and useful terms for additional research.

Winston Churchill once observed, “If we open a quarrel between past and present, we shall find that we have lost the future.” There are many different models for transforming an organization, but ASAE’s bold session on becoming a futurist may hold the key to changing the future but also optimizing the present.

The post #ASAE18 Session Recap: Are you ready to become…a futurist? appeared first on Personify.

We had a great time in Washington DC for the ASAE Marketing, Membership & Communication Conference! You could feel the buzz of energy as attendees discussed the latest marketing trends and best practices for the association space. The year’s theme was New Perspectives and many speakers and industry leaders shared their input on how to approach organizational challenges from a different point of view.

I spoke with many attendees who are focused on growing collaboration and engagement among their members. At the conference, we introduced the new Personify Mobile Events App, an industry-leading technology designed to help organizations engage with attendees at tradeshows, conferences and events of any size. It’s easy to connect with someone when you have them at your fingertips! At ASAE MM&C, we shared how the Mobile Events App allows for a personalized event experience and real-time engagement.

Connecting with familiar faces and meeting new ones during the Lunch and Exhibitor Showcase is always the best part of any conference. A topic that we discussed with several visitors to our booth is the generational shift for association membership and how to attract and engage millennial audiences. Our Small World Community platform helps empower and mobilize an organization’s member base. Nonprofit organizations can leverage Small World Community to provide a digital space where members can connect with one another and feel more invested in their organization.

The rain couldn’t hold us back as we continued our conversations from the show floor with a happy hour at Morris American Bar. We enjoyed getting to know ASAE MM&C attendees over light hors d’oeuvres and artisan cocktails; we toasted the end of the night with some champagne and were excited to leave the event with new friends and a promise to see them in Chicago for ASAE Annual.

We are already making plans for the ASAE Annual Conference in August. If you or someone from your organization will be attending the event, please visit us at Booth 539 and learn how Personify can help create more meaningful relationships with your members, donors and constituents. We look forward to seeing you there!

The post My Takeaways From the ASAE MM&C Conference appeared first on Personify.