It’s time to put member data to work for your association

You’re collecting member data, but are you using it?

A recent association trends study suggests it’s time to do more with your association’s data.

By Kyela Bishop, Marketing Coordinator, Momentive Software

Even with a small staff, your association collects a lot of member data. But are you using it to its full potential?  

A recent association trends study by Momentive Software suggests that it’s time for associations to use their member data to make more informed business decisions.  

Let’s look at a couple of key points from this study about associations’ use of data. 

The importance of data analytics for associations

In the study, 55 percent of association professionals say it’s an important priority to invest in business intelligence and data analytics. That’s up from 35 percent in the 2019 association trends study. 

However, in the study, only 10 percent of association professionals list “Deliver business intelligence/analytics” as one of the top business objectives for their IT department to address.  

These findings suggest that associations have a growing recognition of the importance of using data to better understand their members, create a great member experience, and find opportunities for improvements. Yet, they aren’t necessarily connecting data analytics with their business goals and objectives. 

So, what does this mean for your association? Take these findings as a reminder to ensure your association is not only making data analytics a top priority, but also aligning that priority with your organization’s goals and business objectives.  

Here’s how that might look: 

• What are we trying to accomplish: Better understand our members so that we can deliver a better member experience and make more informed business decisions. 
• What’s our approach for accomplishing these goals: Put our member data to work by diving into the details to gain insights into membership trends and opportunities. 
• How will we go about implementing this approach: Invest in data analytics tools and strategies to elevate and support the use of data analytics in our organization. 

Usage of data analytics at associations 

The study also points to the need for thoughtful consideration when it comes to investing in data analytics tools. Consider these findings:

• Fifty-two percent of association professionals say their organization has invested in data analytics technology; 19 percent say their organization plans to invest. 
• Only 29 percent say their organization uses data analytics/business intelligence technology. 
• Thirty-three percent say their organization plans to spend more on data analytics/business intelligence technology in the next 12 months.  

 So why are some associations investing in data analytics technology that they aren’t using yet planning to spend even more on such tools in the next year? It’s likely that they don’t have the right analytics tools in place. 

 As you consider what data analytics tools to use at your association, be sure to look for technology that can give you the insights you need yet are still easy to use. That way, you don’t just spend money on them, but you actually use them as part of your daily work. 

 For example, YourMembership AMS includes dashboard and reporting capabilities that provide insights into your association’s data. With these capabilities, you can easily:

• Configure dashboards to view key performance metrics and the overall health of your organization at-a-glance.
   
• Select from pre-built reports for various areas of your association and analyze the results to make smarter decisions.
   
• Create reports for visibility into member growth and retention rates, active members by member type, and more. You can even create custom data queries, save them for next time, and share them with others in your organization.  

YourMembership AMS also offers advanced data visualizations to  bring your data to life, allowing you to: 

• Easily monitor your organization’s overall performance and fine-tune your strategy by digging deeper into your data to find answers to strategic questions.
   
• Provide analytics to everyone across your organization, making it easier to focus on member data for quick analysis and action.
   
• Save time and understand data with user-defined data visualizations that can be filtered to display different data to each user across the organization.    

When it comes down to it, using member data to make more informed business decisions helps you manage your overall organization by: planning personalized programs, making crucial improvements, and delivering a better member experience. It doesn’t have to be complicated – you just need the right approaches and tools in place.