Technology Trends in Associations

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Meet the Presenters

Tom Lehman Lori Ely Rob Kaighn Frank Klassen

© Lehman Associations, LLC 2015

Lehman Associates, LLC

• Associations, Nonprofits, and Supplier Companies

• Strategy consulting for technology and marketing

• Customer Satisfaction, Market & Member Research

• The Lehman Reports™ industry research series

• Founded 1992, Alexandria, VA


• AMS Use and Satisfaction 2006-2014

• AMS International: CA, AU, UK 2010, 2013

• Association Technology Study 2011-14

• Donor Management Systems, NTEN, 2013-14

• Snapshot Surveys and Special Studies


Evolving Role of Technology

Technology Introduction

Technology as Toolset

Technology as

Strategy™

Investment

Investment

Cost CenterLinear

Exponential

ROI Potential


Interlocking Content Marketing

Highest growth and most effective models are in the overlaps

Both internal and external perspective


A Greater Focus on Outcomes

Member Database

CRM Toolset Engagement


Third-Party Applications


Website Redesign Cycles


360° Member View


Integration Challenge


Move to Cloud-based Solutions


Changing Role of IT

More about– Being a strategic resource to help leverage technology to

achieve organization mission and goals– Management of the technology environment and providers– Big data, analytics, application integration– Technology education of possibilities, opportunities– A focus on outcomes, contributions

Less about– Operating technology– Purely reactive support function– Application training– Focus on input and activities


Importance of Senior Management in Technology

• Technology as the key component in achieving organization goals

• Technology as Strategy for greater ROI

• Vision of the organization drives investments in technology,

• Bring the long view to decisions

• Include technology strategy at the senior leadership level – hire at a strategic level


Technology Leadership Challenge


In-house Expertise Challenge


Content and Inbound Marketing


Informz =Opportunity

Results-driven digital marketing solutions for associations and nonprofits

Lori Ely, Director of Marketing

Circle of Engagement…

Today:

• 80% of associations using an email service today

• Significant number of organizations using more than one service

• Batch and blast, simple email triggering

Trend:

• Integrated marketing technology

• Behavior-based automated email campaigns

• Strategy behind technology

What is marketing automation?

Technology that streamlines and automates marketing tasks in order to be more efficient and more effective.

AKA: Marketing like Amazon – personalized & timely

Marketing Automation for Associations

Source: 2014 Lehman Reports™ Association Technology study

Marketing Automation for Associations


Benefits of Marketing Automation

Marketing Automation

Nurture Relationships

Align Teams

Integrated Systems

Increased Efficiency

Measure Effectiveness

Uses of Marketing Automation





Higher LogicThe Leading Enterprise Community Platform for Associations

Rob Kaighn- Director of Partnerships

Market Use of Private Communities• Results from Lehman 2014 Technology Study

• 35% of associations with at least $2M in budget have a private community

• Increase of 10% from last year• ~60% of remaining are looking to purchase or are

evaluating• Over 50% will have purchased by end of 2016• Moving from Email List Services

Association Views on Private Communities• Results from Lehman 2014 Technology Study

• Over 60% say leadership in their Association view the community as helping the association meet strategic goals

• Most feel it has strengthened engagement with members

• Most also feel it provides benefits beyond those of email list services

Why?

• It’s all about Engagement

• Engagement with peers is why people join

• Lack of engagement is why they leave

• Engaged members are promoters

Membership Growth

7000

8000

9000

10000

11000

12000

13000

14000

Community Functions Use

• Results from Lehman 2014 Technology Study • Discussions, Library, Profiles• Engagement Scoring not used

• AMS Integration is Key• Not just pulling data• Write back engagement

• Engagement Data• Scores• Actionable Business Intelligence




Brightfind

Formerly the Web Technology Division of Syscom Services

A specialized digital design and web development agency

Creating web sites for member-based organizations for 18 years

Specialize in organizations with deep, rich, complex content

Design, User Experience, Web Strategy, Development, CMS Implementation, Integration, Experience Insight

Sitecore, Ektron, EPiServer

Increases Discovery time and effort• Mobile first thinking• Wireframe the experience for desktop,

tablet, and smartphone (and more!)• Device-specific Analytics

Responsive Design

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Increases Front-End (FE) development costs• Increases QA time• Doubled our FE staff

Responsive AND Adaptive• Context• Targeting• UX – not just the device

Default development pattern• Bootstrap• This too will change• Google will add a “mobile-friendly”

ranking factor on April 21st

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Focus on UX – User Experience

“If you have no intuitive senseof design, then call yourself an‘information architect’ and onlyuse Helvetica.”

- David Carson

Search – its different for Mobil• Mobile results must be faster• Fewer facets• Fewer results? (paging is harder)• “Best Bets” is even more important

Focus on UX - User Experience

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Focus on Micro Interactions• How did that button make you feel?

Cross-over of creative and technical• Creative design HAS to think about the user’s

interaction, not just the visual

Shifting effort from back-end to front-end• BE – used to be 2/3 of the project effort• FE – used to be less than ¼ of the project effort• FE – is now at least ½ of the project effort• BE – is now less than 1/3 of the project effort

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Content Marketing and Marketing Automation

“Great Content is the best salestool in the world.”

- Marcus Sheridan

“Marketing technology budgets will surpass ITtechnology budgets in 2017”

- The Future of Digital Marketing, MONDO

Testing for Results• What REALLY works• A/B and Multi-variant testing

Content Marketing and Marketing Automation

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Marketing Analytics• Data driven approach to decision-making• Is your message being heard?• Do your products sell on the web?• Most effective way to sell on the web?

Inbound Marketing• Email integration• Landing pages• Integrated Analytics• Integrated with CRM/AMS

Digital Experience Marketing• No more CMS, just DMS, DEM• Marketing to the Persona• Marketing to the Individual (Beware!)

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Systems Integration

“Where’s my jetpack?”- Frank Klassen

Others• Job Boards• Learning Management Systems• Advanced Meeting Registration

Systems Integration

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Marketing Automation• Email Marketing• Inbound and Targeting• Contextual and Individual

Social Integration• Authentication• Content• Search

CRM/AMS• Why aren’t we here yet (jetpack/Cronkite)• Trend away from AMS as the transactional

hub• Connectors are essential

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Continuous Improvement

“Excellent firms don't believe inexcellence – only in constantimprovement and constantchange.”

- Tom Peters

Lack of Continuous Improvement• Technology changes fast• People don’t realize what works/doesn’t

work until they use it• Expectations are constantly changing• Lack of in-house expertise

Continuous Improvement

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Enter the valley of disenchantment• Within 6-12 months• Despair for the last 1-2 years• Why does this occur?

Everyone is happy at launch• Organization customers• Organization team• Development partner• Software provider

Redesign Cycle is a broken paradigm• Associations redesign (rebuild!) every 3-4

years• New technologies, new partners

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Continuous ImprovementYour organization must be willing to not only keep the content up-to-date, but also the User Experience up-to-date. If you consistently test, change, analyze –you will have happy customers throughout the redesign cycle, and your website investment (software, infrastructure, implementation) will last much longer.

Thank You!

Tom Lehmanwww.lehmanreports.com

[email protected]

Lori [email protected]

888.371.31842

Rob Kaighnwww.higherlogic.com

[email protected]

Frank Klassenwww.brightfind.com

[email protected]

http://www.lehmanreports.com/

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.informz.com/


http://www.higherlogic.com/


http://www.brightfind.com/
