Good strategy, bad strategy: defining digital direction for the membership sector David Spector, Principal Technical Consultant, Precedent #MemCom17
Headline Sponsors:
Strategic Partners:
Defining
Digital
Direction
D A V I D S P E C T O R , P R I N C I PA L T E C H N I C A L C O N S U LTA N T
M E M C O M : M E M B E R S H I P 2 0 2 0 – S H A R P E N I N G Y O U R S T R A T E G I C V I S I O N
What does digital transformation
mean to your organisation?
• Better customer experience (CX)
• Integration across all touch points
• Continual engagement across multiple channels
• Transactional capabilities (online and mixed channel)
• Revenue generation
• Data-­‐driven decision making
• Centralised management
Optimising the customer experience
• Perform research with users of all types
•
Include a broad sample of actual members, not just a majority of internal stakeholders
• Definition of personas
• Creation of user journeys for all involved
• Mobile and geo-­‐location
• Localised content, where applicable
• Additional personalisation
But who are your customers?
• Members
• Non-­‐members
• Stakeholders
• Back-­‐office users
S.W.O.T.
S u m m a r y r o u n d t a b l e d i s c u s s i o n s a n d e x e r c i s e s c h a i r e d b y P r e c e d e n t a n d a t t e n d e d b y r e p r e s e n t a t i v e s f r o m a r a n g e o f m e m b e r s h i p o r g a n i s a t i o n s 1
1. Names withheld due to sessions running under Chatham House Rules.
Strengths
•
Reputation and strength of offering
•
Internal resource (ambitious, passionate and digitally fluent)
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Volunteers/members
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Financial security
•
Systems and infrastructure
•
Buy-­‐in regarding change/digital transformation
•
Already begun the process of transformation or investment in digital
Weaknesses
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Reputation, brand and strength of offering
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Offering/messages to audiences
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Internal resource (lack of digital fluency/buy-­‐in)
•
Culture (internally-­‐focused, siloes, resistance to change)
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Slow decision making
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Leadership (lack of buy-­‐in to digital/change)
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Process and governance
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Poor systems and infrastructure (technology and otherwise)
•
Lack of communication/effective inter-­‐departmental operations
Strengths & Weaknesses crossover
• Reputation and strength of offering
• Internal resource
• Buy-­‐in regarding change/ digital transformation
• Systems and infrastructure
Opportunities
•
New technologies
•
Opportunities to secure greater share of the market
•
Increased digital literacy amongst audiences
•
Effective and efficient processes
•
Innovation
•
Commercial growth (new products, better lead generation)
•
Knowledge/skillsets
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Investment in digital (at organisation level)
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Brand perception (reaching new audiences)
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Culture change
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Internal resource (new skillsets available)
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Demand/appetite for engagement from audiences
Threats
•
Remote membership base
•
Growing competition in market
•
Lack of/changes in funding
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High expectations and inability to deliver
•
Lack of confidence in digital/buy-­‐in
•
Attempting to change too quickly/acceptance of change
•
Not moving fast enough
•
Lack of direction/focus
•
Irrelevance (digital or otherwise)
•
Less impact or ability to deliver core services/support
•
Poor systems/technology
•
Lack of internal knowledge and digital skillsets
And what do we want?
• Ease of use
•
•
End users
Administrative users
• Single port of call
• Online support for all revenue streams
• Added value
•
•
•
Discounts
Exclusive content and access to resources
Personalised experience • Data and reporting
Typical revenue streams
• Membership subscriptions
• Events – delegates and exhibitors
• Content
• Resources, e.g. libraries, facilities
• Tangible goods, e.g. posters, guides
• Advertising, e.g. jobs
MemCom = Membership Commerce!
• Specific requirements not typically included with out of the box ecommerce solutions
•
•
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Membership discounts – reconciled against a membership id
Access to content based on subscription status
Bespoke CRM integration
Integration with other software, e.g. event booking, marketing suite
Renewals
Combined product types
Varied payment options, e.g. credit card, invoice, direct debit
CRM, CMS and other integrations
• One of the biggest technology challenges for membership organisations
• Should the CRM be the home of everything?
•
•
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Contact information
Product inventory
Subscription management
Sales history
Event booking
Marketing tools, e.g. email marketing
• How much should the CMS do?
CRM, CMS and other integrations
• Overall customer experience relies on execution of integration attributes
• Speed of third-­‐party systems can negatively impact website usage
• Multiple API calls carry significant overhead
• Maintenance of one system directly impacts others
• Complete reliance on CRM for record creation and data retrieval means that if CRM is unavailable (or API that connects to it), no transactional functionality will be possible
Tracking performance
• Essential data that feeds into future efforts
• Tracking effectiveness of marketing activities according to commercial objectives
•
•
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Lead generation
Renewals, e.g. membership subscription
Event bookings
• What is most important to your members and non-­‐members?
•
Identify opportunities to improve offering to members and convert engaged non-­‐members to paid members
Making better use of analytics
• Set up goals that reflect content consumption and other member engagement specific to digital properties • Track all Calls to Action (CTA) on the website, from source of interest •
Newsletter signups, purchases of all types, form submissions, event bookings, etc.
• Create segments that are representative of audience personas
•
Also include demographics, such as age and location as parameters Planning effectively for the future
• Avoid taking on too much in the short-­‐term
•
An overall vision typically includes a huge range of complexities. Try to break these down into what will add most value soonest and address those aspects as priorities.
• Avoid waiting to have everything done simultaneously •
Don’t let your research findings become out-­‐of-­‐date. Digital moves quickly, as do user behaviours and expectations.
• Use historical data to define future requirements
• Regularly solicit your members’ opinions
•
Be seen to feedback on these and, where applicable, incorporate with future endeavours
Preparing for future technology
• Automation
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•
•
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Identify opportunities for automation to provide value to members
Identify opportunities to aid understanding and sales of membership offerings
Capture interactions, e.g. to data store or CRM
Integrate with machine learning • Virtual Reality
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Opportunities for immersive experiences based on context of organisation
Remote event attendance Consultations
SOME OF OUR CLIENTS
Precedent is a full-­service digital agency with over 25 years of experience delivering world-­class solutions for our clients. Our services include:
DIGITAL
TRANSFORMATION
BRAND & DESIGN STRATEGY
DEVELOPMENT
& INTEGRATION
USER EXPERIENCE & INTERACTION DESIGN
HOSTING & SUPPORT
As specialists within the membership sector, we have an in-­depth understanding of the unique challenges that face membership organisations.
#MemCom17
Headline Sponsors:
Strategic Partners: