Member segmentation is a marketing technique that enhances member engagement, streamlines marketing practices, and increases sales. This approach involves identifying commonalities among members and grouping them based on their behaviors. By doing so, an organization can gain a deeper understanding of its membership, enabling its membership and marketing teams to personalize their efforts towards target groups.
Implementing member segmentation provides more than just insights into member purchasing behavior. The data collected can be used to develop a comprehensive plan to scale dues and non dues revenue and marketing practices aimed at these members.
There are numerous benefits for associations to segment their members, with the most common being the ability to create and execute effective sales and marketing strategies. By gaining a more in-depth understanding of their members and their needs, associations can provide them with the products and services they need.
However, the use of member segmentation is not limited to the marketing department. Associations can use the information to broaden their products and services offerings. With Member segmentation, an association can leverage the data to make informed decisions across all aspects of the organization.
Challenges
Member segmentation can become challenging when an association has multiple databases containing member data that is not integrated. In most cases, associations will have incomplete or inconsistent data on members, making it difficult to accurately segment them.
Without a fully centralized solution, organizations will struggle to develop a comprehensive understanding of member behavior and preferences across different channels or touchpoints. For example, a member may sign up for an event, purchase a product, and sign up for training for CEUs. If an organization is using an AMS, event solution and an LMS that are not fully integrated, it will be difficult to track the member’s journey and develop an accurate member profile.
Despite these challenges, associations should not give up on creating member journeys, as doing so can result in missed opportunities for engagement and revenue growth.
Member segmentation examples:
- Demographics
- Interests
- Purchase history
- Geographic location
- Web, marketing and social analytics
- Volunteer
- Committee participation
*Trade based organization: Industry profile, revenue, number of employees, location, etc.
How can Salesforce handle Member Segmentation?
Salesforce offers a variety of tools and features to help associations collect, store, and analyze member data, allowing them to segment their members based on a wide range of characteristics. These characteristics can be captured inside of the different product offerings (Sales, Service, Marketing etc.).
Salesforce allows associations to collect data on members through various touchpoints. This data can be stored in Salesforce’s database and used to create member profiles, which can then be segmented based on factors like demographics, buying behavior, and preferences.
Salesforce also offers advanced analytics capabilities, allowing organizations to perform in-depth analysis of member data and identify patterns and trends. With this data, organizations can develop targeted marketing campaigns, personalized messaging, and customized member experiences for each segment. This information can be easily accessible through Salesforce reporting and Salesforce dashboards.
In addition, Salesforce offers the Salesforce Appexchange pre-integrated third-party applications, custom integration through open APIs and Mulesoft. This allows associations to collect data from a wide range of sources and centralize the data inside of Salesforce.
Salesforce is a powerful platform that will allow associations to gain a deeper understanding of their members, improve member engagement, and drive revenue growth.
About Systems Rewired
Systems Rewired is a Salesforce consulting company that specializes in associations and nonprofits.