NUCLEUS ANALYTICS BLOG

Julie Sweet is the CEO of a 500,000-person consulting firm with thousands of clients, all of whom rely on her to be focused on changes, trends, and opportunities for the future.

In an interview on Oct. 8th, she made the following remarks, all of which we at Gravitate believe directly apply to our beloved association space:

For associations offering courses and certifications, having basic metrics on things like participation counts and revenue are critical - but just the start. To grow your education business, you need to take advantage of the sophisticated metrics now available through modern data analytics – trends, behaviors, preferences, popularity, geography and much more.

The Nucleus data analytics platform has two dedicated and ready-to-use packages for precisely these types of analysis: Learning Management and Certifications.

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. 

Marketing General, a leader in marketing research for associations, recently released their 2019 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report, a compendium of information regarding marketing and associations trends. Marketing General specializes in providing associations and non-profits expert guidance on growing and retaining membership. Every year, they release the Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report, an in-depth study of the strategies and tactics that membership organizations use to recruit new members, engage and renew those members, and reinstate lapsed members. 

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.”

When Gravitate CEO Tim Ward and I released Avectra’s NetForum in 2004, it was not uncommon for an Association Management System (AMS – or sometimes known as a Customer Relationship Management system - CRM), to join the organization’s accounting system and website as the three primary systems that an association needed to successfully operate its business. At the time, we had successfully stamped out most of the data silos that plagued associations in the past.

Excerpted from 6/12/19 webinar by Sandy Marsico and Rob Miller, CAE

Gravitate Solutions, provider of award-winning software services to association clients for more than a decade, are officially Salesforce® Registered Consulting Partners and are listed in the Salesforce® AppExchange. Now you can partner with Gravitates’ certified Salesforce® team to build out your association or nonprofit’s CRM, or to augment your AMS.

Renewing members can be arduous. Email follow ups, reminder calls, invoice mailings, and more. It takes time and resources to retain your members year over year. Auto-paid renewals can help streamline the process and generate more reliable recurring revenue and membership.