Data-based marketing is nothing new. All marketing is based on some data. Before you reach out to any audience, you have to know a little about what makes them tick.
And everything you know counts as data. Their likes, their dislikes, their needs, their preferences. Their goals and the obstacles to their goals. All of these are data points that will help you produce a targeted, effective method.
The only thing that’s changed is that there’s a lot more data around these days. We know what people read on our website, we know if they open our emails, we even know if they put something in their e-commerce shopping cart but didn’t click the Buy Now button.
All of that data can help associations to meet their marketing goals, whether that means recruiting new faces, or strengthening bonds with existing members. Here’s how to turn association data into conversions.
Before you get started, think about what you’re trying to achieve. Your objectives will define your strategy and help you decide which data to focus on. Common goals for associations include:
You’ll also need to establish accountability for achieving these goals. Ask questions like:
Knowing your goals is important at every stage in this process, but especially at the end. When you’ve got your marketing campaign up and running, you’ll compare your outcomes to your goals and see if you’re where you need to be.
Most associations have a ton of member data available to help guide marketing projects. But before you can use it, you have to understand it. Association data falls into four primary categories:
Many people make the mistake of thinking that demographic data is the be-all and end-all of data analytics. It’s certainly important, but all relevant information is needed to help you better understand your members.
You might have great data, but your project will struggle if it’s not all in the same place. Data integration is the process of harmonizing all of your data across multiple sources.
For associations, the main pillar of the data infrastructure is often the AMS (Association Management System). This system hosts much of the data about individual members, and it can collect information from other systems, such as Event Management Systems, Learning Management Systems, and e-commerce portals.
Other systems will hold other types of data. For example, your marketing automation and email automation platforms will have rich behavioral information related to any interaction or activity. Your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System, often integrated with your marketing automation platform, will track any interactions related to sales or customer service.
To achieve full integration, you need a full-stack audit of all available data systems. Often, you’ll need to bring in an experienced consultant to help manage this. The important questions in any integration are:
Think of data like water. You need the right pipes to ensure that the data flows from one place to another, providing a constant stream of fresh information.
Your audience contains identifiable sub-groups, or segments. If you understand your segments, you’ll understand the people within those segments.
For example, imagine you identify an audience segment based on existing data. This segment is:
From now on, when you make contact with someone who fits this description, you know what they need. You know that they have big career goals, and you know what kind of programming they’re looking for.
This is the basis of your segmentation strategy. A full segmentation plan looks like this:
Remember, every single journey is a chance to gather more data. Even if a lead fails to convert, you’ve still learned something that can help you get it over the line next time. Marketing automation needs to be an ongoing, iterative process that responds to new data as it emerges.
Now it’s time to compare your results to those objectives from the start.
To do this, you’ll need some metrics. In analytics, these metrics are often referred to as Key Performance Indicators or KPIs.
Common association KPIs include:
Ideally, you should define your KPIs at the beginning. For example, if your goal is recruitment, then decide whether to look at gross or net new members, and whether you’re focusing on a particular demographic. If your outcomes match your goals, you’re on the right track.
Remember, every interaction is a chance to gather precious data. If you use the right automation software, you can collect information while implementing high-value campaigns.
There are two key automation platforms that associations use: marketing automation and email automation. They can each gather data in the following ways:
Marketing automation:
Email automation:
All of these campaigns have clear outcomes that benefit the association. They also involve marketing communication with leads and potential new members. Each interaction will provide you new information about what your audience wants, what it doesn’t want, and what it wishes you would do differently.
Want to hear more about leveraging data for growth? Check out our on-demand webinar, Optimizing Your Data to Deliver Conversion.