What Is Digital Transformation for Associations? + 3 Tips

There’s a lot that happens behind the scenes of a thriving association. Between hiring qualified staff members and creating engagement opportunities that appeal to your member base, you have your hands full. Fortunately, an easy way to lighten the load on your association’s team is to invest in technological tools that streamline your processes, automate manual tasks, and modernize your membership program.

That’s where digital transformation comes in. To remain at the forefront of your sector and provide your members with next-level experiences, your association needs to learn how to embrace technology that sets you up to conquer new challenges and pave the way for long-term growth. In this guide, we’ll walk through the basics of digital transformation for associations, along with three tips to guide your efforts.

Understanding Digital Transformation for Associations

iMIS defines digital transformation as “integrating digital technology into every corner of your association.” In doing so, you can:

• Increase your membership program’s value. Using digital tools, you can uncover emerging needs among members and provide personalized experiences that resonate with them.
• Improve and streamline your operations. Your association can incorporate technology that facilitates complicated processes such as member onboarding, event planning, and communications.
• Adopt user-friendly software tailored to your needs. The solutions you use should empower staff members to handle their daily responsibilities with ease and provide data insights that improve decision-making across the board.
• Strengthen your organizational culture. By implementing technological tools, you can inspire innovation and improve collaboration among staff, uncovering new skills or ways of thinking.

As modern technology continues to shift how organizations and people interact around the world, developing a digital transformation plan ensures that you maintain a competitive advantage despite what changes or challenges may await on the horizon.

How to Create a Digital Transformation Plan

If your association is ready to embark on its digital transformation, follow these steps to craft a plan that aligns with your needs and resources:

1. Conduct a self-assessment. Establish a “technology innovation team” with members from every department of your association. While these individuals should have varying backgrounds, experience levels, and skills, they should all be open to new ideas and creative thinking. Then, as a group, discuss where your organization currently stands on the digital spectrum and what you want to accomplish with technology.
2. Identify your digital member value proposition. Brainstorm ways to add value to your membership program by evaluating the resources and services you provide members across your digital platforms. Do you host virtual workshops or seminars? Do you use gamification tools to promote engagement? How do you create fulfilling member experiences online?
3. Pinpoint digital revenue streams to pursue. There are many ways you can connect with and provide value to members online. Take this opportunity to come up with digital revenue streams that you can cultivate, such as job boards, resource libraries, and merchandise sales.

Remember that major improvements do not happen overnight. By promoting flexibility and strategic experimentation within your association, you can nurture an environment that is conducive to positive transformation.

Navigating Your Association’s Digital Transformation: 3 Tips

To put a successful digital transformation plan into action, it’s essential to consider how it will affect everyone in your association. Keep these tips in mind:

1. Put your members first.

Technology can revolutionize how members engage with your association. To design experiences that encourage renewal and retention, focus your digital transformation around their needs and priorities. For example, you might decide that you need to:

• Update your website to improve the user experience.
• Offer new certifications and digital credentials to your training courses.
• Plan more hybrid or online events to boost participation.
• Add more educational resources and reports to your online store.
• Implement a mobile app that makes it convenient for members to access your resources on their phones.

If you’re not sure which benefits your members would appreciate most, don’t be afraid to ask them directly. Send a survey to learn more about their current satisfaction with your membership program and improvements they would like to see. Use their answers to narrow down which areas to focus on during your digital transformation.

2. Upgrade your technology.

Digital transformation is about more than just integrating tools across your association’s operations and processes—it’s about finding the right tools to power your long-term success. Take the time to determine if your membership software is up to par. The ideal platform should:

• Be cloud-based. With a cloud-based solution, your staff can access key information, interact with members, and collaborate on initiatives from any place, at any time.
• Provide a single source of truth. To make strategic decisions on engaging members, your team should be able to access real-time insights related to your events, subscriptions, online store, and more all in one place.
• Integrate with association-specific apps. Running a truly stellar membership program might require some specialty applications. Look for a platform that offers two-way integrations with other association-specific apps to tap into the full potential of the tools at your disposal.
• Make it easy to tailor the member experience. Your membership software should come with features that allow you to build an online member community, segment member communications, and share personalized content through individual member portals.

If you decide that it’s time for an upgrade, explore online reviews from similar organizations to create a short list of software options for your association. Then, reach out to the providers to schedule system previews or demos to get a better idea of how each platform will perform before you make your final choice.

3. Make data-driven improvements.

Through digital transformation, your association can draft a clear roadmap for refining your membership program and securing more revenue for your mission. At the same time, your digital transformation plan should be a dynamic document that evolves as you progress. 

Assess your plan at least every six months and track key metrics related to your membership program’s success, such as:

• New member acquisitions
• Member retention rate
• Product sales
• Event attendance
• Other non-dues revenue

As you make changes, Getting Attention’s membership marketing guide recommends creating member surveys and feedback opportunities to ensure that your association is exceeding their expectations and re-engage lapsed members.

While digital transformation is an ongoing process for many associations, don’t forget to celebrate your wins along the way. Highlight milestones and major improvements in your communications with staff and members. In doing so, you can demonstrate how committed your team is to providing top-notch member experiences and future-proof your member engagement efforts.

About the Author

Debbie Willis - VP of Global Marketing

Debbie Willis is the VP of Global Marketing at ASI, with over 20 years marketing experience in the association and non-profit technology space. Passionate about all things MarTech, Debbie has led countless website, SEO, content, email, paid ad and social media marketing strategies and campaigns. Debbie loves creating meaningful content to engage and empower association and non-profit audiences.

Debbie received a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing Information Systems from James Madison University and a Masters of Business Administration in Marketing from The George Washington University. Debbie is a member of Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority, American Society of Association Executives and dabbles in photography.