By Denis Bourmault 
During the health crisis, professional associations continued their activity with determination despite the uncertainty of the evolution of their sector. The time has come to take a close look at the results of the different levers that are useful for recruiting new members.
No doubt you have already relied on digital tools, in particular CRM software. This system has proved its worth during periods of lockdown. And all things considered, it reveals its benefits well beyond a 100% remote period. Here are the 5 benefits of a CRM for your acquisition strategy.
1. Consolidate the contact base of your professional association
Like any professional association, you will interact with various contacts (members, potential members, partners, journalists, representatives, etc.). Using a CRM will enable you to centralise them in a single location: your contact database. Each of them can be consulted in list mode or in sheet mode for a global view of their information (name, address, profession, membership fees, etc.).
In addition to centralising them, you must ensure that your data is reliable. And in this respect, CRM becomes your best ally. It will automatically update your information, clean it up and deduplicate it. Have you received external CSV or Excel files from a partner? In this case, it will be easy for you to integrate the useful data in just a few clicks in your CRM thanks to an import mapping. But above all, it will automatically check the quality of this new data using dedicated functions such as Verified Email. This ensures the integrity of your customer base over time.
Finally, you will have access to a detailed knowledge of the interactions and characteristics of your contacts with the help of a 360° view of each of them. In this way, you will increase your proactivity and your ability to advise your members.
2. Create multichannel campaigns to promote your federation
Multiplying your communication channels will significantly improve your relationship with your members. With your CRM, you will be able to create both email, SMS, or direct mail campaigns. Any performing CRM natively offers an intuitive email studio. By simply dragging and dropping, you can easily place different elements of your template (images, CTAs, titles, columns, etc.). You will create a functional and creative email in a user-friendly way.
Furthermore, it will be convenient for your professional association to manage its thematic-rich events thanks to the multiprogram function of your CRM. You can quickly create a landing page presenting a free plenary conference, one or more varied workshops, and even a paid dinner, for example. You can authorize your members to register for their chosen programs, add one or more guests, and even make their payment online. On your side, you will be able to automate the edition of your registration confirmations or badges with QR codes.
With your contacts’ “super” qualification, you will feel more confident to personalize your communications. All you need to do is insert merge fields such as #FirstName# #LastName# in your text, and you’re done. Moreover, advanced targeting will help you group your different audiences according to homogeneous criteria. You will personalize your messages even further.
With its marketing automation extension, you can then schedule the sending of your newsletters, sectorial information campaigns, and SMS campaigns according to a predefined monthly or annual calendar.
All your communication campaigns will help collect fresh information about your members, synchronize them in the CRM, and continuously enrich your database.
3. Manage and follow the prospection of your future members
Stakes are high when it comes to enriching your database with lead generation, and a CRM solution is essential in this process. With it, you will be able to structure your prospecting for more efficiency and follow-up. It will be easy for a manager to assign each prospect to be followed up to the appropriate employee’s task list.
Firstly, you need to gather qualified leads. The most effective practice is to carry out several communication campaigns on your website, on social media or through a partner. This way, you will generate inbound requests and capture new contacts. Make sure to centralize all lead inquiries in your CRM after the forms inserted in your messages have been filled out.
To increase the effectiveness of your prospecting, set up email notifications to be sent to a designated person in your association. This way, they will be informed in real-time when a new interest is recorded in your CRM. You will become much more responsive and capable of establishing a privileged relationship with your prospects from the start. You can also keep a record of the exchanges you have with each of them. In general, you will benefit from detailed monitoring of the relationship with each organization and its associated contacts.
4. Simplify the membership process for your professional association
Having a SaaS CRM means your professional association can verify and approve each membership request according to your own procedures. Once the membership form is completed, the request will be automatically and securely transmitted and listed in your CRM. This will give you a clear view of the progress of your memberships.
Create your own membership form with the fields of your choice. Designed to be responsive and in the colors of your professional association, you can integrate it on your website or share it on your social networks. Your future member will be able to easily fill out the form from anywhere. Their information will automatically enrich your CRM with an entry date for your follow-up over time.
In your CRM, you can see the status of each transmitted request throughout your membership cycle (“to be processed,” “accepted,” “refused,” “pending,” “validated”). At the same time, automate the sending of your follow-up emails with marketing automation for each status change (receipt, refusal, or approval). This will significantly simplify the management of the process and reduce the time it takes to process memberships.
5. Measure and steer the activity of your professional organization
Improving your actions is difficult without continuous analysis of your results. That’s why you need steering tools like dashboards or activity reports.
First and foremost, to develop a meaningful dashboard, you need a very precise idea of the metrics to show (KPIs). Then arrange your dashboard as you prefer and customize it from a choice of widgets (graphs, indicators, kanban, etc.). Determine the properties of each component and export the available data from your CRM using a series of advanced filters. These filters are created downstream from key indicators that you will have crossed with each other.
Choose from your menu whether you want to make it public or visible only to a group of users. You will get a dynamic table presenting in the form of graphs or statistics all the key indicators of your activity. This can be the evolution of the number of members, the amount of contribution funds, the number of mandates, the number of requests by legal themes processed, or of course, the number of membership requests in progress.
Does your committee request a presentation on membership-specific indicators? Export an automated report in PDF format that you can distribute to them at the beginning of the meeting. You will score points by presenting reliable statistics at a given time, conducive to making the right decisions for the development and representativeness of your professional association.
Do you have a CRM project for your Professional Organization? Let’s connect!
