​Three Ways to Strengthen Your Membership and Marketing Data

by Gwen Garrison, PhD

Membership and Marketing data are the backbone of association work. Both create the connection and keep the association name and core activities in-front of core stakeholder audiences whether they be volunteer opportunities, educational information, or conference invitations. ​

Many technical improvements rightly concentrate on two activities that enhance the value of the data: tackling deduplication processes and flowing data as the source of truth between and among other systems. 

I want to suggest three other important tactics that can improve the value of your data both internally and externally. 

1. Do whatever you can to increase the accuracy of the data collection at the point of capture. Look at each of your web forms and identify where you can apply constraints to improve the data capture by the data entry participants themselves. Use dynamic search, specific pick lists, and validation tools that minimize or will not allow poor data entry. If you improve the data capture, the cleaner and stronger the data are at the point of entry and cut down the amount of clean-up activities later.  
2. Explore and adopt relevant data standards. Most IT (Information Technology) professionals are aware of data standards like the length of a field, the format, and permissible values. By adopting and aligning on standards it allows organizations to better connect to internal applications and to external systems that make available public data. This can be helpful for strengthening analytical processes and future automations. 
3. Adopt master data management (MDM) processes and practices. MDM work focuses on specific data elements that need to be exchanged between and among your systems. Data standards for names, addresses, and other key membership attributes are used widely among many applications in an association. Additionally, focusing on MDM helps your business intelligence work too by using the strongest data available to tell your organizational data stories whether they are in an annual report or on a dynamic dashboard. 

Finally, this type of work cannot be left to our internal IT professionals and external technology support contractors. It must include the subject matter experts on the business side who must complete analytical tasks, outreach activities, and often carry the responsibility of meeting organizational performance goals. Enhancing your membership and marketing data has tremendous benefits especially around collaboration and data culture building. Plan and push forward your goals for better data today.