The Importance of Data-Driven Leadership for Associations

Your members expect a seamless, personalized digital experience: is your association poised to deliver? Data-driven leadership –defined as the process of using data to inform and guide decision-making–is key for positioning your association for future-focused success. By implementing a data strategy designed to help you make sense of your member data, associations can gain insights that can be used to improve engagement, increase revenue, and drive strategic decision-making.

Key Trends in How Businesses are Using Their Data to Win

Most associations are not leveraging the data they’re collecting to its fullest extent so it is helpful to look at data strategy trends from the private sector for guidance. At UDig, we’re seeing 4 key themes in how businesses are leveraging data:

Improving customer engagement & satisfaction through personalization of messages and experiences and improved feedback collection and synthesis.
Reducing marketing & operational costs by optimizing marketing spending toward efforts that yield the highest ROI and automating quality assurance activities.
Retaining customers through predictive attrition modeling and preventive action.
Improving employee efficiency & satisfaction by automating routine tasks and increasing autonomy via data self-service capabilities.

Applying Data Strategy Trends to Associations

With a smart data strategy in place, the same concepts can apply to associations as well. We can leverage the trends that we’re seeing in the private sector by using data to:

Segment members & personalize the user experience: Utilize data to identify different segments within your membership base. This will allow you to personalize the website experience and offer the right programs to the right members, increasing engagement and satisfaction.
Improve engagement: Analyze member interactions to understand what events and resources are most valued and what kinds of members are most active. This information will help you tailor your offerings and engagement strategies accordingly.
Identify dissatisfied members & eliminate issues: Dive into data to identify the root cause of complaints and reach out to members who are not engaged. By addressing their concerns and offering relevant resources, you can enhance satisfaction and retain more members.
Increase value: Your member data can be used to identify new opportunities for your association. For example, data can be used to benchmark performance across the organization, offer anonymized data for planning, or increase its value by combining with 3rd party data.
Drive strategic decision-making: Data can be used to identify your association’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This information can then be used to develop strategic plans that will help your association achieve its goals.

Ready to Become a More Data-Driven Leader?

With data as your guide, your association can thrive in the ever-evolving landscape of the professional industry. By implementing data-driven approaches, such as personalized experiences, data analysis for decision-making, and issue elimination, associations can thrive in a data-centric world.

If you’re ready to become a more data-driven leader, explore our data strategy accelerators. Our accelerators enable your organization to make the most of your data to make better decisions and help you achieve your business goals.

Additional Resources