NUCLEUS ANALYTICS BLOG

When executives and data analytics think data analytics, the vision that likely pops into their heads is an executive dashboard. An executive dashboard is a collection of metrics and trends that shows the current state of a department, an initiative, or an organization overall. A common analogy is airplane's cockpit array (which have also improved dramatically). When used effectively, Dashboards can be invaluable in identifying changes, monitoring progress, timely decision-making and even strategic planning.

John Egan, Growth Engineer at Pinterest, believes that it is critically important to only track metrics that you are going to use. He says, “Don’t build metrics that aren’t going to be part of your day-to-day operations or don’t have potential to be incorporated as such. Building reports that no one looks at is just activity without accomplishment and is a waste of time.”

Having worked in the association space since 1992, I have attended my share of ASAE Annual Meetings – Detroit, Dallas, LA, Hawaii – too many to list. This year, I took part in more than a dozen sessions, some live and some on-demand, with most of my focus being on those sessions that were dedicated to the actual business of an association and better serving membership (as opposed to individual leadership improvement or similar content).

While the specific aspects of association business were varied, ranging from Non-Dues Revenue, Content Marketing, Increasing Member Value, Chapters and Components, Member Engagement, or Association Technology, a thread running through each and every one was....

Live Events, Virtual Events, Online Conferences... no matter what you call them, they are here to stay. If you have been following the American Society of Association Executives’ (ASAE) online communities, virtual events are the hottest topic – and for good reason. Most associations have been running their annual conference the same way for years but have had to swiftly move on-line and run their meeting virtually. Fortunately, our CAE training kept us from panicking!

InformationWeek just ran an interesting article titled “Why Everyone’s Data and Analytics Strategy Just Blew Up”. They sum it up starkly: "Customer behavior has changed and company operations have changed. If your data and analytics strategy isn't keeping up with what's happening, then you have important work to do, quickly." We couldn’t agree more – you need Fast Data.

Making the case for Data Analytics being budget-neutral in Year One

At most associations, it is difficult to argue that better information is not a good thing – that better understanding your current members, potential members, and the broader constituency would not benefit the organization.

It’s also difficult to argue that Data Analytics, in today’s era of so much member data spread across so many systems, does not provide better information. 

One of the ways in which Associations differ from many commercial businesses is in the requirement of associations to draft and approve an annual budget. The budget cycle drives the annual organizational cadence and often elicits protracted debates to establish the rates for membership dues, annual meeting registration fees, the price of a 10X10 exhibit booth and much more. The problem is that the data points to support the debate are often limited – mostly historical activity, some trend data, and some minor input from the association board. 

As data continues to grow at a phenomenal rate, data governance is becoming an ever-more important organizational activity for associations and for more reasons than ever should probably be an ongoing initiative at yours. Data Governance has been defined as “a collection of practices and processes which help to ensure the formal management of data assets within an organization. Data governance often includes data stewardship, data quality, and others to help an enterprise gain better control over its data assets, including methods, technologies, and behaviors around the proper management of data.”

We spotted a visualization published by MarketingCharts.com recently that is striking. They surveyed more than 200 marketers at major North American brands and asked, “if you had extra marketing budget, where would you invest it first?” They found that the leading response (more than double the next response) was to spend extra marketing budget on data analytics technology.

Community Brands recently published a large-scale study that detailed 8 strategies association executives can use to modernize their organizations for 2020. In recent years, “Modernize” has become a buzzword for associations looking to make the most out of available technology in the same way that “superfood” has become a buzzword used to sell kale and blueberries. While navigating the world of quinoa and chia seeds can be frustrating, difficult, and often tasteless, it is almost undeniably good for you - as is properly-executed “Modernization.”

Inefficient as it sounds today, it was not uncommon in the 1990’s to hear that an association was going to build their own Association Management System (AMS) rather than purchase an existing one.  When we heard that, we’d generally put a reminder in our sales tracking system to contact them again in 18 months. By then, most would have spent a lot of money, failed to achieve the goals established by the organization, and lost some or all the technical staff who were working on the project.  For those who persevered and were mildly successful, they were still challenged with retaining their key technical talent and keeping the system up to date. By the mid-2000s, you seldom heard of an association taking this approach.