You buy a mystery jigsaw puzzle with 1000 pieces. About 200 are hidden in the couch. 500 are "somewhere" in the basement. And 300 have been chewed to annihilation by your puppy.
This is pretty much how it goes when associations run off of disparate data and martech stacks. All clues remain a mystery. All insights into their members, their prospects, and their futures are lost. They have disjointed pictures and unintelligible stories about their audiences.
Consolidating data and finding that single source of truth can be tricky. Luckily Spark has a solid and evolving solution to mapping your data across your entire stack.
HighRoad Spark offers the ultimate solution for bridging martech stacks together and synchronizing data through one-stop. Only through Spark's data connectivity can associations get the whole picture whether they're using association management systems (AMS), customer relationship management (CRM) software, marketing automation platforms, just to name a few.
Through data centralization, leaders and practitioners can:
Segment audiences with precision
So how would your organization best use Spark? Let's dig in more so that you can see the benefits of Spark first-hand.
It's designed to broker movements between data sources and destinations. For instance, campaign development teams trying to maximize conversions can use Spark to synchronize flows between their AMS, where member profiles and transactions are stored, and their marketing automation platform (i.e. HubSpot) where they track behavioral data.
So how does it work? Let's dig in.
Now let's say you've recently moved from Chicago to New York (another source entirely). You're now leaving from New York but traveling to D.C. once again. You're able to "unplug" from Chicago to D.C., and "plug-in" from New York to D.C. Or let's take it further—maybe you're a snowbird and you want to plug-in from both Chicago and New York (both your sources) into D.C (your destination). All this is possible through Spark. That's the Spark value.
Through Spark, users can choose from nearly any Association Management System (and some CRMs), in the marketplace as their source, with HubSpot as the primary destination.
What's even better—Spark's roadmap will continue adding more source lines on the more immediate front (i.e. Event Management Systems) and will look long-term into future destinations.
As Spark continues adding in new source lines, organizations will be able to plug their AMS, their EMS, their LMS...and so on, into their digital marketing platforms so that they can activate on entirely centralized data.
Keeping this in mind, organizations with AMS' or CRMs as their source can now invest in Spark, and reap the benefits of consolidated sources and destinations in the future.
Our resources, workshops, and workbooks all provide a comprehensive learning experience for association martech teams, all the while giving us the ingredients that we need to implement each unique integration.
For every Spark installation, the organization can then expect the following after the initial intake:
1—Business Requirements Gathering: In this session, our data activation experts dive into organizational objectives, along with the campaigns and approaches that underpin those goals, ultimately translating everything into data. During the session, we discuss:
For example, a client's objective may be to engage new members. As such, there may be a field or a set of fields needed within the integration that defines a "Member" along with a field or set of fields reflecting when a new member has joined (i.e. Join Date). During this session, data gaps may also be uncovered. All of this is captured in a Business Requirements Workbook.
2—Technical Specification Review: Once the Business Requirements Workbook is complete, this is where the Mar experts converge with the Tech experts. A hand-off will take place and all of the fields collected during the requirements process will be drawn into a Technical Specification document. This document illustrates exactly how the integration is to be built, and details how the organization should provide their technical assets for sync configuration.
3—Sync Configuration: Driven entirely by HighRoad's tech team, this includes checking technical assets, configuring, and testing.
4—Data Tour: Once the sync is configured, HighRoad will walk the organization through the data sitting in various areas within the digital marketing platform (i.e. HubSpot), and will demonstrate where and how to pull data for lists and workflows depending on their audiences and needs.
5—Sync Reconciliation: After the Data Tour, organizations will get a 2-week period of concentrated consulting time to help them trouble-shoot counts, and assess source queries, reports, and stored procedures.
6—Ongoing Sync and Data Support: Once the Sync Reconciliation window is complete, Spark clients will be handed off to a dedicated Strategic Account Manager who will meet regularly with each organization and bring in subject matter experts on data integration, data activation, and/or digital marketing consultation.
Note: only Spark clients can take advantage of digital marketing and data activation services.
The onboarding workstreams work synergistically so that every organization gets a prescriptively designed configuration and educational experience that helps them optimize their data and platform.