The Biggest Change in Member Engagement Since Marketing Automation
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Time Magazine once declared that our attention spans are now shorter than that of a goldfish, citing a study in the realm of Health and Neuroscience. Growing up in the MTV era, I recall the doom and gloom predictions about our dwindling attention spans. However, now that I’m adult-ish, I believe there’s been a misinterpretation of the data.
What if, instead of a sign of our minds’ decline, our so-called short attention spans are actually evidence of a highly sophisticated filtering system? Every day, we’re bombarded with an overwhelming amount of information, yet we’re adept at sifting through it to find what genuinely interests us. This selective focus might have been mistaken for inattention, much like the famous optical illusion that can be seen as either an old woman or a young lady, depending on your perspective.
Here’s how I see it: In the 70’s we were exposed to somewhere around 500 ads per day. Now that number is closer to 5000 ads. If you look that statistic up there are several variations of the same thing… but it’s somewhere in the range of 10x the exposure to ads that it used to be. I would imagine that the same is true for data across the board.
- How many letters did you get in the 70’s and 80’s? How many emails and texts do you get today?
- How many pictures did you take in the 70’s and 80’s? How many did you take on your last weekend away?
- How many pages of a book did you read before bed in the 70’s and 80’s? How many images did you look at on social media before you told yourself to go to bed last night?
Ok, maybe you don’t have the bad habits I do but this isn’t about my bad habits; it’s about recognizing the transformation in how we interact with information. It’s about our ability to navigate through this sea of data, focusing on what matters most to us. This is not a flaw—it’s a finely honed skill.
And guess who else has this finely tuned skill to cut through the junk? Your members.
What Does This Mean for Member Engagement?
So what’s “junk”? It’s stuff that isn’t relevant to them. It’s the emails you send that you’re sending to a whole segment of people or, even worse, your entire membership list. One association I belong to sends me emails multiple times a week with (hang on… let me go count… ok, I’m back) 16 webinars promoted in one email. There are so many that I get the “view entire message” link at the bottom of my email. And they sent me 15 emails in the last 7 days. Time to turn on the filter and delete. Over and over again this happens. Delete… delete… delete…
So what gets through? If my mother emailed me, I’m engaged. Or If I get an email from a client, I’m engaged. If I get an email about the car I’m trying to sell, I’m engaged. If I’m collecting education hours for my certification, and I get an email with 16 webinars, maybe now I’m engaged. Why? Because they’re relevant to me and they’re specific to me. They’re personalized to me.
Personalization is a huge shift in the way we engage our members. And that doesn’t mean we add their first name tag to the top of the email. That’s not personalization. That’s a party trick – “how’d they do that!?!?”
How Should We Personalize Communications?
It’s time we really get to know our members by asking more questions upfront. Listen before you talk, like you (hopefully) do in a real conversation. How do you engage people in real life when it’s just you and them? You generally ask a question: “I’m so happy to see you. How was your drive?” “Wow, you look amazing. Did you change your hairstyle?” “Welcome! Can I get you something to drink?”
But, what do we do with new members? “Welcome to our association. Check out all the reasons why you should be glad you joined. Blah, blah blah.” How about, “Welcome to our association. Why did you join?”
This applies to just about every opportunity for engagement with our members. If you want to get their attention, think about what you can ask to gain more insight, rather than what you want to tell them. And yes, this is scalable with the right systems.
How Can You Use Data, AI, and Automation to Increase Engagement?
That’s exactly the topic of my session at Super Forum 2024. Join me on April 11 to learn more about the biggest shift since marketing automation, during my breakout session “How to Use the Data, AI and Automation Combo to Light Up Your Engagement.” Improving your membership, renewal and general member engagement doesn’t have to be tedious with questionable results. In this interactive session, I’ll explore experiments you can try, ideas for shifting your team’s mindset, strategies for collecting member data and putting it to work, and simple engagement tactics you’re probably not using but can implement easily.
Can’t wait to see you there!
Centered around community, Higher Logic’s 14th annual Super Forum, April 10-12 in National Harbor, MD, invites you to ignite the spark that drives high quality engagement.
