Welcome to Executive Edge, a video series delivering expert insights on key technology trends shaping industries today. In this episode, we explore the power of data and how associations can leverage it to drive growth and engagement.
Joining us are Juan Ortiz, a data strategist specializing in analytics, business intelligence, and data governance, and Frank Anastasio, an experienced IT leader with deep expertise in association technology and digital transformation. Together, we’ll discuss how associations can harness data to enhance decision-making, improve member engagement, and unlock new opportunities for long-term success.
Lauren Langer 0:05
Hello and welcome to executive Edge.
I’m Lauren Langer, director of marketing at Hartman Executive Advisors, and I’ll be facilitating today’s discussion.
Today, we’re going to be exploring the power of data transforming associations for growth and engagement.
Data is a critical asset for associations.
Shaving member engagement, operational efficiency and long term strategic growth.
Joining us today are two distinguished experts of the Hartman team.
1st we have Juan.
He is a data-driven.
Technology strategist with deep expertise in analytics, business intelligence and data governance, one helps organizations harness the power of data to make informed decisions and improve operational efficiency, and then unlock new growth opportunities for them.
We’re also joined by Frank.
Frank is an experienced it leader with extensive expertise in the unique challenges and opportunities facing associations. Frank has worked closely with membership organizations to modernize their technology infrastructure and improve digital experiences and implement solutions that drive engagement and retention.
Hello Juan.
Hello, Frank and thanks for joining me today.
Frank Anastasio 1:25
Hi Lauren. Thanks for having us.
Juan Ortiz 1:26
Yeah. Yeah. Happy to be here, yeah.
Lauren Langer 1:28
Wonderful. Well, my first question I have for you guys are what are the biggest challenges today that our associations are facing when it comes to data management and strategy?
Like what type of issues are you seeing today?
Frank Anastasio 1:42
I think there are, you know, several, obviously starting with some associations, many have their data in silos and different systems and it’s difficult to marry up that data across those platforms.
Lots of associations have manual processes.
And they rely on those for data entry, membership, renewals, registration.
Events etc.
And whenever there’s manual operation manual data entry, there can be challenges with getting that information incorrectly with the right kind of quality. Scalability can be a problem as associations grow, their data becomes more complex, maybe more silos of data are added.
Data quality and integrity is an ongoing challenge for many associations.
And it’s an activity cleaning that data that needs to happen on on an ongoing basis. And then last data security, how do we make sure that we’re securing our data? We’re protecting our Members sensitive information from unauthorized access.
And disclosure but still being able to use that data to determine business insights.
Juan Ortiz 3:10
And Frank I?
I think many of those challenges that you talk about, I I think we we see them with many other clients, right, even outside the associations industry.
Frank Anastasio 3:18
Yeah.
Juan Ortiz 3:22
I think something that is perhaps unique about associations is that the the the stakeholders that they have to deal with right and and and in in other companies or organizations, it’s kind of clear who the customer is.
Frank Anastasio 3:31
Hmm.
Juan Ortiz 3:38
But in the case of associations, we have.
You know, Members, you have the conference attendees.
You have the exhibitors, the sponsors and you have all these different entities or or stakeholders and you’re collecting data from all of them, right?
And and sometimes you know an exhibitor is also a member or also has people attending the conference, right?
So you I think what’s perhaps a little bit unique about associations is having that complete view.
Of your your your customers, right?
You know, it can be attendee or or member or etcetera, right. And and understanding the connections between the different stakeholders, I think that’s probably one of the big ones.
Frank Anastasio 4:19
Yeah, I would agree, Ron.
In fact, I have a a client today that.
Has you know all three of those populations that that they need to engage and support and and figure out how to get, you know, an exhibitor for example.
To attend events, you know.
Many events versus one or a member.
Attending an event.
Or becoming an exhibitor or whatever it might be, and and certainly you know, as I mentioned with regard to data silos, the data for exhibitors and Members and attendees may be in different systems and it’s hard to to find the connections where you know that a member is.
Juan Ortiz 5:03
Right.
Frank Anastasio 5:09
An exhibitor and what can we do with that kind of information, for example?
Juan Ortiz 5:13
Yeah. Yeah, like simple right.
Lauren Langer 5:14
Agree.
Juan Ortiz 5:15
I’m. I’m sorry. Like a simple question, right?
Lauren Langer 5:16
No, go to hijab in.
Juan Ortiz 5:17
How many of our attendees are actually members, right?
Frank Anastasio 5:20
Right.
Juan Ortiz 5:21
Or how many new members we we we acquired? Yeah.
Lauren Langer 5:26
No, but I think that that’s a really great point on like, you know, if they had this data, what they could do with it and it makes me wonder like associations, I would say you know Amazon, they don’t have to worry about like what is on page one.
Of their site data tells them what’s on page one of their site.
Juan Ortiz 5:44
Mm hmm.
Lauren Langer 5:47
What can associations learn from commercial businesses on how they could use their data, like if they were able to get it together the way that they really should have it?
What could they learn from commercial businesses and how they’re using data and how they potentially could use their data?
Frank Anastasio 6:02
Yeah, I think that’s a good point. Go ahead, Juan.
Juan Ortiz 6:03
I have.
Yeah, I have some. I have some thoughts.
Frank, if I may, but I I think one big.
Learning opportunity is is the personalization right and and and you know personalization in terms of either marketing or increasing engagement, right?
So going back to our conversation of having different types of customers and sometimes they are the same.
Either person or institution.
That could be a member or an exhibitor. I think if you have that complete.
View of who your customer is, what type of organization they are. Are they frequent? You know, frequent attendees to your conferences? Then you can tailor the your offerings.
You know your courses, invitations, you know, webinars to that particular customer, right?
So that personalization, I think I think is is something that many other commercial companies are doing with all the data that they get.
From different places.
And and I think that’s an opportunity for for associations to increase member memory engagement.
Frank Anastasio 7:07
Yeah, I want.
I would agree with you in fact.
Not a commercial enterprise, but a very large membership association that I work for in the past.
You know, we year a decade.
Two decades ago, we were working on, you know, you know how to engage a person, not a group of people, but understand. You know what they were looking for from a personalization perspective.
And and engage one-on-one with a member to try to increase their engagement in addition.
We had.
I’ve had several.
Association Membership Association clients who mourn interfering enough would say to me we want to be like Amazon.
And how you know I want when I want it, when I have a member sign on, I want their experience to be like Amazon.
Juan Ortiz 8:06
Yeah.
Frank Anastasio 8:07
And it’s a great experience, but it requires a significant level of data integration and infrastructure and under even more understanding of the data and what it means and then how to use that data to engage one-on-one with a member or an attendee or an exhibitor.
Juan Ortiz 8:15
Yeah.
Lauren Langer 8:27
I was going to say and to the exhibitors like I would think their sponsors are a big source of revenue for them for the association.
So they’re probably trying to do some of that personalization and get more out of their sponsors and that you know, other commercial businesses are similarly trying to do those types of things and that they can learn a little bit from them in those cases.
Frank Anastasio 8:46
Hmm.
Yeah, correct. Yeah.
Juan Ortiz 8:51
Agree and and I think personalization also I mean so far we’ve been talking about memory information or or customer information from from operational systems. You know registration systems you know whether they attend or not where what what tracks did they attend.
But now we I think companies and commercial companies are also tapping into unstructured data, right.
Or or semi structured data right so.
Frank Anastasio 9:16
Mm.
Yeah, yeah.
Juan Ortiz 9:19
And in the case of association.
Have so much content, right and knowledge and and presentations and papers, articles, webinars and that is a very rich set of of of of data or knowledge that can be personalized to the needs of your members, right?
Some Members may be interested in one area.
Another may have a broader view, but if you can understand that connection and personalize the content that you deliver, I think that that would be.
Frank Anastasio 9:49
Mm hmm.
Juan Ortiz 9:51
That would help increase revenue opportunities for associations.
I don’t, frank what?
Frank Anastasio 9:54
Sure. Yeah. No, I I agree with that.
Juan Ortiz 9:55
What do you think?
Frank Anastasio 9:57
I think the more you make that experience, the experience that the individual wants, the more engaged they’ll be and and I’m sure I’ve seen data that shows that.
I’m sure you’ve seen that as well.
Lauren Langer 10:12
That’s a great question, guys.
So I mean like that potential we’re talking about like being of revenue stream, how else can associations use their data today in order to gather information to create more revenue streams that ultimately at the end of the day, we know that these these associations are constantly looking for.
How? What’s the next best revenue stream to not just add more for our like our Members, but also to help the association grow?
Frank Anastasio 10:43
Yeah, I think there are a couple different ways that I would think about.
Using tiered pricing models, maybe one way to help drive a new revenue stream. You know, a challenge that many associations have today is engaging new members younger generations.
Juan Ortiz 11:02
Yeah, right.
Frank Anastasio 11:05
And you know.
It’s clearly a challenge.
And you know.
One way to try to overcome that challenge is to perhaps have lower entry point prices for younger members.
You know, understanding who they are that may drive increases in in membership, educational content and webinars.
You know, reaching out.
With opportunities that are tailored for, you know, certain groups of Members may drive.
Increases in attendance at in those type of events.
Similar to you know structuring events.
For different.
Groups of members based on.
Juan Ortiz 12:01
Yes.
Frank Anastasio 12:02
Shared interest or?
Or other things that they have in common.
Juan Ortiz 12:09
Yeah, I think you have to segment your customers right.
I mean, there’s there’s I think that that is so important. And and I I think what many you know the big product companies the Amazons, I mean they do tons of segmentation and in the case of associations to your point Frank, you need to understand what what type.
Frank Anastasio 12:12
Yep.
Juan Ortiz 12:28
Of customers dealing with, you know, if you have a big conference, right?
Are the people attending that conference? Are those medium sized companies?
Are they large companies?
What else can ioffer today?
And and many of these large companies, they do this voice of the customer studies, right.
So they actually go and engage and and ask for feedback from from for your different.
You know customers or or attendees in order to understand what they liked, what they didn’t like.
You know what? What they would like to see, right?
So if you understand what they’re looking for and the type of customers that they are, I think you can match those two and and and and deliver something of value.
To to your your your.
High Tier customers, right?
Right. The ones that you know are gonna come back next year that have certain size of revenue.
Frank Anastasio 13:18
Mm hmm.
Juan Ortiz 13:20
So how do you how do you identify those, connect with them and engage with them to retain them, right?
And I think that’s gonna help them increase revenue over the long term, yeah.
Frank Anastasio 13:30
Sure.
Lauren Langer 13:32
That’s wonderful.
Well, thank you, Juan.
Thank you, Frank, for a great discussion today.
I’m very excited for our our future discussions and you know for all of our audience today.
Subscribe and continue following Hartman’s executive edge. For more great insights from our team.
Again, thanks Juan.
Thank you, Frank, you guys were absolutely wonderful today and enjoy the rest of your day.
