The Boss Blog

Managing your user's information can provide data to identify patterns in the lifestyle/needs of your target audience. This can lead to better business productivity and efficiency, better decision making, better communication and better knowledge of customer needs.  A few topics we will cover during this video include: Why User Information Management is important to your online business; How to manage User Information; Where User Information can be applied.

If you’re taking the time to read this blog article, chances are you are an adult. You’ve gone through different stages of growth: from baby to toddler, from being a toddler to childhood, from childhood to being a teenager, and so on. As you grew from a baby to a teen, you had to change clothing size several times. The clothes you wore as a baby wouldn’t fit you as a toddler anymore. Your childhood clothes didn’t fit you as a teenager. Your legs grew longer and your old jeans couldn’t go below your ankles. Your torso grew and your old t-shirts looked more like crop tops. You had to toss away or donate your shoes because they became too tight. You outgrew your childhood clothes. It was time to get rid of them and get some new clothes that would fit you properly.

Same goes for a Membership Management Software. As your membership grows, you have to re-evaluate if your Membership Management Software is still a good fit for your growing organization. How do you know if it’s time to find a new, better fitting tool? Well, here are a few reasons why it would be time get a more suitable Membership Management Software:

Members Limit Reached

If it’s quite obvious that if you’ve reached the limit of members allowed in your Membership Management Software, it is time for a new one that will accommodate your organization’s size. It’s a high quality problem to have as an organization. It means you are on the right track and are providing enough value for people to want to join your organization. You’ve reached the limit and now you have to say goodbye to that old software that has served so well over the years.

Minimal Software Updates

Technology is changing and evolving at such a rapid pace. Not too long ago touchscreen technology hit the market. When the first touchscreen device became available, it was such a revolutionary step for the phone industry. People were beyond amazed. Since then, every cell phone now is a touchscreen phone. It became so common that the sense of awe we had has completely worn off. Touchscreen phones have now gone through so many changes and updates that the first touchscreen devices now look like ancient fossils.

Membership Management Software is no different. A good Membership Management Software should be changing with the times; it should adapt and keep up with the latest technological upgrades and breakthroughs. A software that is not compatible with today’s technology is absolutely useless. A good Membership Management Software must be updated fairly regularly and be compatible with new operating systems. If your software is not being updated, then rest assured that sooner or later you will have to get a new one.

Local Access Only

Nowadays, it is very impractical for most softwares to not have remote access. If your Membership Management Software cannot be accessed anywhere you have internet connection, then it is a very big reason to get a new one. In today’s world, there is almost no excuse for a software to not have cloud connectivity. Connecting to the cloud and allowing you to work from anywhere you have internet access is becoming crucially vital. Being able to access your work and information from anywhere there is an internet connection is not only an added convenience, but it can also tremendously increase your productivity. Just think about what is going on right now in the world. The coronavirus pandemic has made it so that people cannot come to the office. Those who have access to their work through the internet are able to stay productive and keep moving forward.

If you’re experiencing any of these: reaching the cap on the number of members you can have, minimal software updates, and no cloud connectivity, then you should be shopping for new Membership Management Software. Our Membership Management Software, MemberBoss, is dynamic, simple and effective. If you’d like to learn more, feel free to Book a Demo and don’t forget to subscribe to The Boss Blog to get more helpful tips for you and your members.

It goes without saying that at the dawn of the Internet Age, email was groundbreaking, unique and futuristic. Nowadays, email seems to be a basic function. Younger generations might even call it archaic. However, for a member-based organization that wants to thrive, email is extremely fundamental and highly essential. Email communication touches on almost every aspect of membership management. Factors like finances, newsletters, event hosting, membership tiers, etc. require some form of email communication with your members. Here are some helpful tips to optimize your email communication at different stages of an ordinary membership cycle:

Prospective Members

The main goal when communicating with a prospective member is to simply inspire them to join your organization. They haven’t made the commitment yet, but have shown great interest in becoming a member. Every email communication with a prospective member should highlight the value of joining your association. This is where newsletter-style emails come in very handy. As an organization, you should grow your prospective members mailing list. The bigger your mailing list, the more people will join. It’s simple math. A bigger mailing list alone isn’t going to cut it though. Content rich emails are the big difference here. Well-designed newsletters will attract more prospects to your organization.

Pro-Tip: Make sharing your content easy for existing members.

New Members

Earlier this year, we shared tips on welcoming new members to your association. The main objective when communicating with a new member is to inform them of important matters pertaining to their membership. Do not take sending welcome emails lightly. Ideally, to save you the burdensome task of sending individual emails, you should automate your welcome emails and payment confirmation emails.

Pro-Tip: Nothing compares to a personal touch. If possible, consider reaching out to new members individually if it makes sense. At the very least, personalize your emails.

Active Members

The objective here is not only to share important info, but also constantly provide added value. This is your time to shine and express what your organization is made of. A great tactic to optimize your email communications with active members is to target your members based on membership type. You can tailor your content to each different membership tier. The key part in email communication with active members is to be diligent about adding and removing members in these lists. Be mindful of having your members in the appropriate membership tier mailing list and remove those who are expired. This process should, ideally, be automatic.

Pro-Tip: Let members in lower tiers know about the benefits of upgrading their membership.

Expiring Members

Here the objective is to get them to renew their membership. Simply knowing that their membership is about to expire can be enough in some cases. It would be erroneous not to inform members that they are nearing expiration and that it’s time to renew. This process should also be optimized by automating renewal notice emails. Members might need a couple of reminders to renew. Experiment with how many reminders you should send to find your sweet spot, and by all means make sure that once renewed, the members do not receive another renewal notice.

Pro-Tip: Try to include a renewal button in your email. The simpler the steps to renewing, the higher the chances of renewal.

Do you notice a pattern yet? Most of these communications will require automated emails with lists that are in sync with the category where your email recipient belongs. Our Membership Management Software, MemberBoss, has tools that can help you achieve just that. If you’d like to learn more about MemberBoss, feel free to Book a Demo and don’t forget to subscribe to The Boss Blog to get more helpful tips for you and your members.

Gift Cards are an easy to create and manage feature you can use today. Digital Gift Cards are not only liked by consumers but also by eCommerce merchants. This video will teach how Digital Gift Cards are one of the most effective marketing tools for a brand.

One thing about member retention is that it is constantly on the mind of associations, no matter the season. Earlier this year, we emphasized the benefit of using surveys to improve membership retention. Surveys can prove vital when implementing a strategy to retain members, but what do you do once you have all this feedback? How do you effectively use the responses from your members in order to keep their interest in your organization? Here are some helpful ways of using survey feedback to increase membership retention:

Ideas for Content

One of the toughest and most enterprising things for member-based organizations to do is to stay on top of the modern, current and developing trends in their respective industry. With the world moving at a faster pace each year, it becomes even more important to be able to sift through everything that is in vogue and adopt what is valuable and desirable to your membership base.

Feedback from your member surveys is a fantastic way to find out what your members are missing. Optimally, your survey questions should not only be designed to find out what content your members want to see from you, but also provide some practical, directional examples. More than likely, your members will give you some bare minimum answers for your questions. In order to have more clarity, it will behoove you to give more context for your members by including some detailed options such as useful technologies, marketing trends, etc.

Once you have the survey feedback, it’s just a matter of determining the level of interest throughout your membership and bringing the content to your members.

Provisional Committees

It goes without saying that the more a member participates in your organization, the more likely they are to stay a member of your organization. Member participation increases member retention. However, just like figuring out what content your members are interested in seeing, it can be quite challenging to figure out how to entice your members to devote their free time to your organization. You have to be convincing and make a rather compelling case for why your members should actively participate in your organization.

With the feedback from your surveys, you should be able to determine what your members’ main goals and priorities are for joining your association. You should use your survey feedback as a starting point to assess all your committees and discern which ones are useful and which ones are not. Furthermore, based on the survey feedback you can pinpoint which committees would be perfect to welcome member participation.

Provisional committees are the most suitable for member participation. They keep members engaged without disrupting the structure of your organization. Think of special events committees, specific research committees, etc. Rely on your survey feedback to figure out which committee your members would most likely want to be a part of, and do not be reticent in creating one if need be, no matter how novel or unconventional the committee may be. The beauty about provisional committees is that if they do not perform well, they can always be adjusted for the next time.

Survey feedback is extremely advantageous to get into the minds of your members and that information is essential to boosting membership retention. Nonetheless, you can only acquire that kind of feedback if you actually send out a survey. Our Membership Management Software, MemberBoss, has an easy-to-use survey tool that can hand you that specific feedback on a silver platter. If you’d like to learn more about MemberBoss, feel free to Book a Demo and don’t forget to subscribe to The Boss Blog to get more helpful tips for you and your members.

Customer reviews can be an organization's greatest marketing tool, but they only work if your members can find them. This video will show you how to display your most recent reviews on your website and how those reviews can work in your favor.