Manage Your #Association Database

Maintaining a database can be a challenge. And if ensuring that data is entered consistently and that
no duplicates are created wasn't enough, data becomes obsolete at a rate of 30% or more per year.

Factors like economic activity and an industry’s rate of innovation will affect the rate of change - for
instance, a list of judges may remain current longer than a list of entrepreneurs.

Acquiring new data - new prospects, members, or sponsors - is costly, so it makes sense to maintain
your database:

1. Have a documented data layout and make sure all users know the rules. If your database allows organizations’ names to be abbreviated, what is the usual format? Will you follow Canada Post address formats (“St” rather than “Street” or “St.”) and possibly save money on mail distribution?
2. Make ONE person responsible. If one person is responsible, and empowered to enforce the rules, the job will get done.
3. Act immediately to correct obsolete data. Immediately pull and update records with undeliverable email or street addresses.
4. Plan to conduct annual audits. This applies more to non-member data like prospective members, exhibitors, or sponsors. Plan to audit at least 10% of your data (or a minimum 100 records). If more than 15% are out of date, plan a clean-up exercise.
5. Have clients, members or stakeholders update their own information. During your membership renewal process, ask people to review their data online to minimize your costs. But don’t assume the information is 100% correct. Review it before it goes back into your CRM, especially if you have established formats.

Want more tips?  We have 11!  Click here to download the full document.

Image courtesy of Mister GC at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Canada's Anti-Spam Law Comes Into Effect July 1... Now What?

You may have heard that Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) will take effect on July 1st, 2014.  Now that the government has announced the date by which sanctions begin, associations need to assess how it applies to them, and what to do about it.

The best advice that I can give to those who are not sure where to start is to think strategically, and start from the beginning, so you are not scrambling close to the deadline to ensure that you have tracked everything correctly.

What is CASL?

This legislation applies to any commercial electronic message that promotes your organization or even just informs recipients. Examples include emails or texts that:

• Promote a product or service;
• Invite recipients to sponsor, attend or exhibit at a conference or event;
• Solicit a prospect to join your organization.

Not only do you have to be careful about what you are sending, but you have to be careful about who you are sending it to.  That's because the law says you can only send an electronic message if you have the recipient's consent first:

• Express consent is the communication agreement you have with an individual member, exhibitor, or sponsor. If these contacts have bought or something from your association in the last two years, they are deemed to have explicitly agreed to receive electronic communication from you.  Any recipients whose last transaction is more than two years ago must be contacted for express consent.
• Implied consent on the other hand is a tentative agreement between you and a prospective member or other stakeholder.  They may have attended an information session, or dropped a business card off at your booth at a tradeshow.  This agreement has an expiry date, which after July 1st, 2014, is just six months from the date of the initial contact.  After six months, if you don't have express consent, you must stop communication.

Obtaining Consent:  Get express consent wherever possible, and once you have it, have the mechanisms in place to confirm, and obtain communication interests and preferences.

Managing Information in Your Database:  In the event of a complaint, you will have to provide the data to back up your claim of consent.  Ensure that your CRM is capable of keeping a field to indicate whether consent was express or implied, and the date it was obtained, along with any other information relating to the recipient's preferences.

Identification and Ongoing Communication Requirements:  Ensure that your messages contain the correct contact information required by the legislation, whether it is sent by you or your third party provider.
Unsubscribes and Revoking Consent:  If a recipient of your messages wants to revoke consent (i.e. wants to unsubscribe), the process to do so must be easy and clearly laid out.  To ensure that the process is seamless, we recommend ensuring that your email marketing software is connected to your CRM.

For more information on the Anti-Spam Legislation, please visit fightspam.gc.ca, or download our Tips and Best Practices for Associations on preparing for CASL.

Effective Associations: Beating the Odds to Boost Your Membership Numbers

These aren’t easy times for associations to try to increase their membership numbers. But with a strong message and smart strategy, you can beat the odds and be the organization that everyone in your field wants to join.

We all know the challenges, and they won’t be going away anytime soon. Budgets are tight, so companies and organizations are hesitant to pay for association memberships. Time is scarce, so people are less likely to join when they doubt they’ll have time to participate. And much of the information and networking we used to receive from our associations is now just a few mouse clicks away, at no cost.

Keeping the Connections Open

Here’s what some of the most effective associations do to keep their membership numbers strong and healthy.

• 30% per year: That’s the astonishing rate at which business databases go out of date. Without accurate contact information, you’re bound to lose touch with your members. But it takes eight to 10 touchpoints to reach a target audience with a message that requires a decision and action. A regular data cleansing program is the only way to keep in touch with any membership association’s most important list of contacts.
• The permanent campaign: Most associations sign up only a small percentage of the prospective members in their professions, sectors, and supply chains. That’s because it takes time and consistency to reach out to membership prospects, find out what motivates them, and help them arrive at the inevitable conclusion that they really ought to have joined years ago. New member outreach works best when it’s a permanent campaign that stresses listening over selling and shows the powerful benefits of working together.
• Personal contact: It’s the price of entry if you want a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship with the members you’ve already signed up. You should be thinking about renewing and retaining your members from the day they join, and reaching out to them with a contact program that shows you’re listening to what they need and want.

Thriving in Tough Times

It’s a tough landscape out there for associations. But your organization can thrive with the right plan for recruiting and retaining members. You’ll know you’ve succeeded when those members are so actively engaged that they become the cornerstone for your next wave of outreach, and for the idea generation that will carry you into a more certain future.

Image courtesy of  FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What is Data Cleansing?

Data cleansing is becoming a household term for association managers, online marketers, and database managers. But it can mean different things, depending on who you talk to or which website you visit.

• Data cleansing software can help you standardize and correct your mailing list, to make sure your message reaches your target list.

• De-duplicating (or “de-duping”) software flags possible matches in your database or spreadsheet, based on criteria that you set, to help you combine two or more lists and eliminate duplicate records (“merge and purge”).

• Data cleansing is also about knowing who within an organization should be in your database, and whether they’re the direct sales contact, the ultimate decision-maker, or a supporting contact.

These three definitions support and complete each other. By standardizing and correcting your data and eliminating duplicates, data cleansing software makes you more effective and saves you money.  But how much more impact could you have if you knew your list contained precisely the right contacts for every organization?

In a previous blog, I wrote about the mailings I receive from a company that was right to treat me as a business prospect…until things changed. Their programs and services focus on project management, and for a long time, that was my role at Greenfield. But times change, and I’ve moved on. If they had reached out to cleanse their list, the company would have learned that someone else had been in that role for more than a year—and that she should be on their list.

Their subject matter is valuable and relevant. My replacement would probably attend the occasional program, course, or seminar. But I hate to admit it—there are only 28 hours in every day, eight days in every week (I know…it’s a calendar thing), so I discard the mailings when I receive them, rather than passing them on. Data cleansing software won’t catch the problem, because the mailing address is correct. But the information isn’t reaching the person who needs to see it.

If you want to stretch your marketing dollars, maximize the impact of your next mailing, and eliminate the cost of duplicate distribution, you should make direct outreach a regular part of your data cleansing program. With business information stale-dating at a rate of at least 30% per year, it’s a lot harder to boost conference attendance, raise exhibit or sponsor revenue, or recruit new members with lists that aren’t quite all they can be.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Your Non-Member List May Need More Help Than You Think

I got an email the other day from an organization inviting me to their upcoming summit.

I had looked at this organization back in 2010, for my previous role with Greenfield Services Inc. At the time I was interested in obtaining a designation to increase my knowledge and expertise base in project management.

There were two things about this recent email that made me laugh:  First, when I contacted this organization back in 2010, I got a very abrupt response regarding my membership inquiry (something along the lines of “all of the information you need is on our website”…), and so I never joined because no one was interested in talking with me.  The second thing that made me laugh is that this communication arrived two years later – I have not heard from the association since my initial inquiry and now they are reaching out to invite me to a conference?

Yes, at least they are reaching out now – but it is clear that they have not done their research in quite a while to determine who (if anyone) on their non-member list is still worth marketing to.

It may be relatively inexpensive to send a text-only email out to a list of contacts, but at what cost to the association’s image and reputation?  The same goes for the course catalogues I receive offering me courses in Project Management, Employee Engagement, and other Operations functions.  Since these topics applied to my former role, the company sending these to me is wasting a lot of money!   I do not even take them out of the plastic packaging anymore; I just toss them in the recycling bin.

There are several lessons here for associations, but here are my top three:

• Know the Statistics:  In working with data cleansing, we’ve estimated that data becomes obsolete at a rate of 30% per year (or more in some cases).  This ratio is very industry dependent, but knowing what your industry or profession’s average turnover is very important.  Your prospective member or conference attendee may still be in the same job function, but what if they transfer departments, or move to different cities/companies?

• Do your research:  Whether it is internet research to find if the person is still at the company, or if it is a call that needs to take place to update information, it needs to be done.  No matter what amount of money you are spending on marketing to your non-members, a lot of what is being allocated is being wasted if you cannot keep your list up to date.  We recommend that this is done annually, and that it is consistently planned for in your budgeting process.

• Take the Leap:  A prospective member is more likely to provide you with their updated contact information if you demonstrate that you offer them some value.  As an example, if the association I reached out to for my initial inquiry had provided me with the assistance I was looking for, or even bothered to follow up on a regular basis, I would be more likely to have told them by now that I have completely changed roles and as a result am no longer interested.  I may have even given them the name of my replacement.

If you are looking to improve your numbers – whether it is for courses, conferences or membership – you need to know who you are marketing to – and that starts with a clean list (additional tips can be found here).  From there, you can assess the real costs of creating a strategic marketing plan.

What have been your experiences with your non-member list?

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A New Sheriff In Town: Part 3

We’ve been talking about Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL), Bill C-28, and its impact on email marketing. We’ve seen that the difference between expressed and implied consent is going to be crucial for associations, and that it will take some time database management systems to catch up with the new legislation.

But while we’re looking at best practices for email marketing, here are a couple of other points to keep in mind:

·         Every bulk email you distribute should include an unsubscribe link. It should be conspicuous, in a clearly contrasting font colour, so anyone who’s looking for the link can find it right away.

·         Your unsubscribe system should get the job done in a single keystroke. You don’t have to confirm that they really, really meant to unsubscribe, and there’s probably no need to ask them why they’re leaving unless the information will support your future work. (There’s a difference here between unsubscribing from a distribution list and letting an association membership lapse.)

·         You can prevent a share of your future unsubscribes by clarifying peoples’ content preferences as soon as they join your organization or subscribe to a list. If you send each of your audiences the tailored information they need, at the frequency they prefer, and nothing more, you’ll be more likely to retain their confidence and their participation.

Consumer preference isn’t a new concept, and neither is privacy protection. Both re-emerged as business communications issues when email surged into the market. But if you want to comply with CASL and do the right thing for your members and subscribers, “do unto others…” is a surprisingly simple place to start.

Go back to earlier installments of this series: Part 1 and Part 2.

A New Sheriff In Town: Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation, Part 2

When Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL), Bill C-28, was implemented in December 2010, it took most associations by surprise. Now, the challenge is to make sure your database complies with the legislation.

The first post in our New Sheriff series explained the important issue of consent in email marketing, but understanding the rules is just the first step. Here are some questions to help you align your database with the new law:

·         How do you capture the information that goes into your database?

·         Does every member file distinguish between expressed and implied consent?

·         After a member consents, do you keep supporting proof on file, including the statement to which they consented?

·         Do you have a double opt-in process to make sure your members are really signing up?

If your database management system was designed before CASL was introduced, it may not be set up to easily accommodate the changes it requires. If you introduce a new management system in the near or more distant future, you’ll want to build CASL requirements into your plans. Until then, you can use user-defined fields or text boxes to keep the best records you can.

Once your records are organized, the next step is a plan for encouraging your contacts to convert from implied to expressed consent. If that sounds like a chore, we can help.

Still wondering why this is worth doing? Apart from staying within the law and preventing future complaints, a permission-based strategy really does make you a more effective marketer and deliver better results. You might start out complying with CASL because you have to. But some day, you may look back and decide the legislation was one of the best things that ever happened to your marketing strategy.

Ready to read more?  See Part 3 of this series.

A New Sheriff In Town: Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation, Part 1

There’s a new sheriff in town for anyone involved in email marketing in Canada.

Its name is Bill C-28. It’s been setting up shop over the last year. Its main purpose is to enforce the email behaviour that Miss Manners would always expect of you.

Except that, since the government adopted Bill C-28, the new privacy provisions known as Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL), this is one area where good behaviour is now the law of the land.

We’re not lawyers, but we’ve already begun helping our clients navigate Bill C-28. Most of them have never heard of it—when the legislation passed in December 2010, they were too busy running their associations or businesses to notice. The government and the Canadian Marketing Association are still working out details of how the bill will be implemented. But it’s time to get ready, and the difference between implied and expressed consent is a good place to start.

·         If someone has joined your organization, they’ve given you expressed consent to receive your communications. You’ll have a more satisfied member if you invite them to choose the topics, formats, and frequency of communication they want to receive from you, and periodically remind them that the choice is theirs to make. But under CASL, you’re covered.

·         If you meet a prospective member at a dinner or collect their business card at a trade show, you have implied consent to communicate with them—but only for two years. That means your booth representatives have to note the date of contact and your database has to track it.

·         Expressed consent is only valid if you clearly explain what your contact is agreeing to receive, and provide a link to your privacy policy. After they agree, you have to send them a confirmation email, and we strongly recommend using a double opt-in format to make sure they’re sure about signing up.

The same distinction applies to funders, exhibitors, and all your other partners. If they sponsor an event, buy an ad, sign up for a booth, they’ve given you their expressed consent to communicate. If they haven’t signed up to a formal business relationship, the consent is implied, and the two-year clock is running.

On the surface, CASL sounds like a relief for anyone who’s been buried in a deluge of email spam. But implementation is complicated, and we’ve already begun advising our clients on the database issues that result. We’ll deal with those issues in Parts 2 and Part 3 of this blog series.

Did a Mistake Happen While B2B Marketing?

Much to my chagrin, it just happened to me.  Recently promoted, I embraced my new role and decided to start with an email marketing campaign to attendees from a conference I attended recently.  A lot of time went into preparing a series of targeted messages, stressing the value of creating a membership renewal process, member engagement and keeping your database clean.

A fellow team member researched each organization on my list, so I could select the best organizations to target from the entire list of conference attendees.  Since I had not met these people at the conference, the plan was to send introductory messages with educational resources about our company's services, with appropriate follow-up calls.

I was so excited press the “send” button (on my birthday to boot), only to find out a few hours later that data was corrupted during the list upload.  Somehow the marketing automation software used to deploy emails changed about 20% of my recipients' first names to "Sylvie".  Yes, all those important association Executive Directors, many of them men, received a "Dear Sylvie" message.  I was HUMILIATED!

Getting over the initial shock (and avoiding my first instinct to crawl under my desk and pretend this was not happening), I had a great conversation with my boss and realized that these circumstances were beyond my control.  Still, something needed to be done.

I have now come up with my apology note, that will accompany the correct message (as it was supposed to look), advising that there was a technical glitch and that while it was unfortunate, there are some great lessons to learn here.

What are the lessons? Everyone is human, things happen.  No software solution is perfect.  Even after testing, some things may go wrong.  And while the software Help Desk people heard an earful from me, they cannot 100% guarantee that it is going to work 100% of the time.  The human element is always there, and with that, come mistakes.  I hope now that I will get more respect owning up to it instead of pretending it didn't happen. Oh, and I think it’s time to start taking the day off for my birthday…

Canada Post Changes Could Affect Association and Event Mailings

Canada Post will be making some very important changes effective January 2012.  Association and meetings industry professionals should pay attention to these as they could affect the deliverability of membership renewal and event promotion material.

New guidelines were introduced regarding standardized mailing addresses.  This change was to come into effect January 2011, but due to overwhelming response from businesses, changes were postponed until January 2012, to give businesses more time to prepare.

They will be looking for more exact mailing information going forward; otherwise, mail will be returned.  Here are a few examples of what will no longer be an acceptable mailing address:

1234 Main Street, 10^th Floor
Toronto,ON M2M 2M4

Going forward, this address will need to be changed to reflect the exact suite number:

1001-1234 Main St
Toronto,ON M2M 2M4

OR

1234 Main St Suite 1001
Toronto,ON M2M 2M4

Another example is if you mail to a company headquartered in a building with multiple other companies.  Unless you indicate which suite number they are located at, your mail will be returned even though it was the right building and right postal code.

How will this affect you?
If you are a professional or trade association, you likely mail materials at least annually to all your members, exhibitors or sponsors.  If you are a meetings industry supplier – a hotel, event venue or DMO, you may use mail to distribute meeting promotions or destination planning guides.

With the new guidelines, some of your data may no longer be deliverable,  and it could affect first class and bulk mailing discounts. Please follow the link below for more information:

http://www.canadapost.ca/cpo/mc/assets/pdf/business/aa_qa_en.pdf

What can you do?

• Encourage your staff to update your database with the new standards.  Help them by posting what the new addresses should look like;
• If you have an annual mailing campaign at the end of this year, provide an incentive for recipients to update their information with the full address;
• If you use a mailing house for a mailing before the end of 2011, ask them to send you the “questionable” addresses report so you can have your staff call members, clients or other stakeholders, to update the information;
• Or give us a call at Greenfield.  We will be happy to scan your list and help you determine a strategy to update the information effectively and efficiently.

These changes will affect everyone, whether it is a small portion of your list, or a larger one.  To ensure that you get the biggest ROI on your mailings, take a look at your mailing list and implement changes now to increase your reach in 2012 and beyond.

When You’re Stuck with the Boss’ Son…

We help dozens of organizations every year to update their database.  At times we come across some clients who aren’t able to outsource the cleansing process.  This was the case recently with a law enforcement association who couldn’t export their data for cleansing because their CRM had limitations that required too much of their IT consultant’s very expensive time.

We would have loved to do the work, but it just wasn't mean to be.  Our recommendation was for them to hire temporary help.  This project would have taken us just two weeks to complete, and now this is going to take them all summer.
Fortunately we were able to connect them with a candidate with roots in our area in Glengarry County.  Nygel Pelletier is a former AHL referree (that's him pictured above!) whose next dream is to get into law enforcement; he was only too eager to get the experience for his résumé!

At times association administrators cannot convince their board or their senior executives that outsourcing is a more efficient way to go.  They are simply told to “hire a student”.   We love students, but what if what if you’re stuck with the boss’ son as your intern to help you clean up your database this summer?  Our client was very happy with how things worked out with Nygel, so we compiled the tips we gave them for your reference:

1. Establish a clear goal – What information needs to be updated?  What titles/positions or functions are you trying to get information on and why?  For instance, if you’re trying to update a list of potential exhibitors for your tradeshow, outline those potential titles who may oversee the decision to exhibit at events.  Make sure your intern understands how to explain this purpose to the receptionist.
2. Write out a script – Have your intern write out exactly what they’ll say.  Play act with them any potential objections so they can present themselves professionally.  (e.g. Receptionist: “I’m sorry; I have no idea who would want to exhibit at your Widget Association Show.” Intern: “I understand.  Perhaps someone in your marketing department would know.  Can you please transfer me?”)
3. Define phone vs. online approaches – The internet is a great tool, but don’t assume contact names are easily found online.  Sometimes it’s quicker to call up a company and talk to a human being than to search for people online.  Also decide whether the intern will have an email address to send requests for update.
4. Take the time to train – Supervising a less experienced staff member doing tedious work is often a challenge for busy managers.  Updating a list is not rocket science, but it is an art to convince people to give you the time of day to update any information.  Make sure you take the time to show the person what you want, and how they should sound.  Have them listen to you updating the information so they hear how it’s done.
5. Keep track of progress – If updating is taking place “live” in your database (and not just on an Excel spreadsheet), make sure you print out a master list, by account/organization name or whatever order makes sense.  Have your intern keep track of their progress by checking off organizations as they are completed.
6. Spot check – Make sure the information is updated correctly and thoroughly.  It’s stating the obvious, I know, but it’s easy do a great job updating names and forgetting to check that the company is still at the same address.   Spot check records if you can by verifying zip/postal codes, and clicking through to websites to make sure the information is correct.  Have someone else check on a few records, just to make sure things are going smoothly.
7. Establish metrics – After 3-4 days, your intern should be able to tell you how many records he/she has been able to update per hour.  An experienced person should be able to update 10-15 records per hour (we define one record as one contact per company; so 2 contacts at the same location = 2 records).  If the information is particularly dated or obscure, the pace may be closer to 8-12 records per hour.  A pace less than that and your intern may have productivity issues or may be overwhelmed with the task.

And last but not least, make sure your intern realizes how vital their work is!  A clean list is the starting point for any effective and sustainable direct marketing effort.  Don’t let them think you undervalue their work!