Data, data, everywhere! It has been amazing to see where the association world has gone in terms of its appreciation for and understanding of all things data. Only five years ago, my team and I were in Dallas for the ASAE Annual Meeting and conversations around data were few and far between. This year in Toronto, seemingly everywhere we turned, from learning labs to breakout sessions to the exhibit hall floor, we kept hearing enlightening conversations around how associations are wanting to make data-driven decisions.
We are thrilled by the strong interest in data. It means that you’re relying more on what your members say (surveys, interviews, focus groups) and do (transactional, behavioral data) than what long-standing beliefs and gut instincts have led you to in terms of decision-making. However, even with the strong amount of interest in data, a concerning theme remains: with AMSs aplenty and the amount of “member engagement” data skyrocketing, associations are still struggling to mine and make sense of the information.
With all of this data at your disposal, ineffectively mining the data may be leaving dollars on the table. Here are questions you can be asking yourself about your data to make sure you are maximizing the value of the information:
- What does it really mean to be “engaged” with your association? If “weakly engaged” members are just as likely to attend your annual conference as “strongly engaged” members, annual conference attendance does not equal engagement in our book. Look for usage, readership, participation that certain groups are doing while others are not. Make sure you are separating the signal from the noise and then prioritize those key behaviors for your leadership team. You are, in essence, defining the dollar value of your membership.
- Who are your most and least engaged members? Data can paint the picture, it is up to you to have the discipline to use it. If your least engaged members expect something from you that you’re not built to deliver, what is their ultimate value to your organization? They may end up being a net expense than benefit. Turn down your recruiting of those types of members and instead focus on similar types of individuals as your strongly engaged members. Focusing on “good fit” members will inevitably reduce your annual churn and drive up dues and non-dues revenue.
- You know your current level of engagement, but how do you change it? This is where all of the data in the world cannot replace a human perspective. Ultimately as an association, you will be responsible for making difficult decisions on how you will allocate resource to get the biggest bang for your buck. You must be able to identify high value or high potential member segments, the distinct needs they have, and how you must deliver on those needs in order to show the value they expect. It is all about prioritization and where you choose to place your chips to get the highest return on investment. By migrating members with weaker levels of engagement to stronger levels of engagement, you increase the value of the member to your organization (see point #1).
- Is the (right) information getting into the hands of the people who need it? Leaders don’t want the raw data, they want someone to tell them what it means and how decisions should be made with it. Data synthesis means confirming the validity of the information and telling a story that is relevant to the challenges or opportunities at hand – answering the key business questions that were established at the outset of the project. Then, it is ensuring that the insights generated by your data diffuse across any organizational silos, especially to the top. This will keep your research and analysis investment from going to waste, empowering you to achieve points #1-3.
I could give a specific example of each one of these questions from various conversations Jackie and I had last week in Toronto. Many were both enlightening and disheartening at the same time. We don’t like to hear that associations are “drowning in data,” but unfortunately the situation will only get worse as data becomes more accessible.
Most associations have cleared the first hurdle: recognizing the value of information. Many associations have cleared the second hurdle: collecting the information. The third hurdle presents the biggest challenge of all: developing a strategy for synthesizing and taking action on the information. If your association is struggling with any of the three hurdles, or you’ve asked any of the aforementioned four points, let’s set up 15 minutes to talk. We’ll help you turn that data into dollars for your association.