Marketing

There are a number of signs to look out for when it’s time to upgrade your membership management solution. Just like when you were younger and were constantly outgrowing your clothes and needing new ones, your software is no different. You too will get to the same point when you have also outgrown your software and here are a few tips of what to look out for:

Member Limit

Marketing and social media are great avenues for Associations to build member engagement, increase brand awareness, provide industry programs and improve industry standards. An interesting statistic highlights that 54% of associations do not have an allocation for a social marketing budget.

Association challenges:

• Not able to measure ROI
• Not enough integration of social media throughout organisation
• No budget allocated to social media marketing
• Not having social media goals

Step 1: Goals

It’s every association’s dream to have highly engaged members, but unfortunately this is not always the case. The aim for all associations is to get consumers to become members and then for those members to increase engagement with the organisation and then to retain those highly engaged members.

Small World Labs has established these six steps to form the member engagement pyramid [see image below]:

1. Observing 2. Following 3. Endorsing 4. Contributing 5. Owning 6. Leading

Observing Stage

The International Federation of Essential Oils and Aroma Trades (IFEAT) has launched their ME association membership software solution in London. IFEAT embraces the interests of the global flavour and fragrance industries worldwide. To cater for their large member based across the world they needed a flexible system. They also hold study tours and a conference each year with a focus on networking within the industry and a user friendly events system was a must.

Capterra has collected a great range of data that focuses on the intangible effects on real people from doing business rather than looking at what saves organisation time and money.

Aspedia and Member Evolution have had a busy year, and the management and staff of Aspedia would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our valued clients and partners for all of their continued support during 2015, and wish you and your staff a Merry Christmas and a safe and prosperous New Year.

We have gathered a few highlights that have been achieved this year, and we can’t wait for 2016 to achieve even greater accomplishments for our clients and our product development.

Software as a service (SaaS) is an application that is delivered over the internet as a service. It is a simply way of freeing your association from complex software and hardware management, as there is no need for installing and maintain software.

These applications have a few different names and can be called; Web-based software, on-demand software, or hosted software. The SaaS provider managers access to the application, including security, performance and availability.

Associations and Not for Profit organisations are faced with huge challenges when it comes to their accounting and financial membership management systems.

Findings from two new industry surveys of NFP finance and accounting professionals highlighted some key findings including; using outdated technology, small staffed; interruptions from other departments are costing associations both time and money.

Lack of Technology

Shopping can be a stressful process, with so many options available not to mention trying to keep to a budget, and when you do find something you like you have to make sure it’s the right fit.

One of the major driving forces behind organisations is information. The way information is used has drastically transformed over the past 20 years with the format, type and velocity and volume has grown at a rapid rate and continues to grow.

Is your membership association making the most of your data?