Top 10 Ways to Use AI to Supercharge Association's Membership Strategy

Last updated: December 29, 2023

Many organizations are turning to AI to find quick solutions to manage their workflows. In fact, it is expected to contribute up to $15.7 billion to the global economy by 2030.

The association world is no different, and AI presents a great opportunity to transform it. If you are wondering how, keep reading.

In this article, we are going to discuss 10 ways you can use AI to fuel your association’s membership strategy. We will also discover the tools (both free and paid) you can use to leverage the technology to its maximum potential.

Let’s dive in!

Key Takeaways

AI can be used to provide personalized communication to members at scale, leading to better engagement.
You can use Glue Up AI Copilot to create high-quality content like event titles, subtitles, SEO descriptions, summaries, survey prompts, and email marketing copies.
Chatbots and virtual assistants can automate 24/7 member support, freeing up staff time.
AI tools can predict membership churn, allowing associations to take proactive retention action.
Website optimization through AI can improve visitor-to-member conversion rates.
Analytics and reporting tools leveraging AI deliver insights to support better decision-making around membership trends and engagement.

1. Create Engaging Content for the Community

engaging content

Content curation is an arduous and time-consuming process. But using AI can make it relatively easy for you.

To make this process easy for you, Glue Up has launched Glue Up AI Copilot - the first AI-enabled community platform for organizations.

Glue Up AI Copilot is an intelligent writing tool that helps users effortlessly create high-quality content like event titles, subtitles, SEO descriptions, summaries, survey prompts, and email marketing copies.

Simply provide details about your project, and the AI Copilot will generate tailored draft text for you. You can then refine or reject the Copilot's suggestions until you have content that meets your needs.

This allows you to quickly and easily produce compelling content without having to start from scratch.

Read more: Achieving Growth: Best Practices for Using Glue Up AI Copilot

2. Personalized Communication with Your Members

personalized communication with members

One of the biggest advantages of using AI in your membership strategy is the ability to personalize your communications.

AI tools like Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Adobe Campaign, and Marketo can help in segmenting members based on their attributes. By analyzing your member data, they can identify common characteristics and behaviors, allowing you to create segments or groups based on similar interests and needs.

After segmentation, generate personalized email content through AI-writing tools like ChatGPT and Copy.ai. Once you have the content ready with optimized subject lines and a compelling call-to-action, you can use Glue Up email marketing software to build and send branded email campaigns, newsletters, and event invitations in seconds.

3. Give Your Events a Boost

AI algorithms can also help you provide personalized recommendations to your members.

By analyzing their past interactions with your association and comparing them to other members' behavior, you can recommend events, programs, and services that are likely to be of interest to them.

Additionally, certain AI tools help you improve your attendees' experience through gamification. The platforms use game principles like goals, points, badges, and leaderboards to enhance event engagement as attendees solve challenges.

Glue Up has also launched a speed networking platform that uses smart technology to connect attendees for a 1:1 call during the event. This allows people to build maximum connections in a short amount of time.

4. Automate Member Support

automated member support

Several AI tools are now able to automate member support for your association.

These chatbots provide 24/7 support for members, answer common questions and address concerns in real time.

For example, Dialogflow which is developed by Google, is a widely-used chatbot development platform. It offers natural language understanding capabilities, easy integration with various messaging platforms, and supports multi-platform deployment.

Microsoft Bot Framework is another platform that allows developers to build intelligent chatbots for use across multiple channels, including websites, messaging apps, and voice assistants. It supports integration with Microsoft Azure services and provides a robust development environment.

5. Streamline Your Membership Workflows

If you are an association still manually doing your administrative tasks, you are definitely missing out.

Many member-based organizations have now turned to membership management software for automating their workflows. The platforms are capable of automating finances, generating invoices, and accepting applications.

Some of these solutions also send renewal reminders to members through a centralized membership database, automated emails, and push notifications which increase their retention rates.

6. Conduct Market Research

Do you know that you can leverage AI to keep an eye on your competitors?

Brandwatch or Talkwalker are a couple of advanced AI tools that collect and analyze market data, such as industry trends, competitor information, social media discussions, and online reviews.

Their algorithms can process large volumes of data quickly, identify patterns and insights, and provide a comprehensive understanding of the market landscape.

Additionally, some AI tools can also automate competitor analysis by monitoring competitor websites, social media accounts, and industry publications.

They can track and analyze competitor strategies, pricing models, product/service offerings, and member engagement to provide insights and benchmarks for your association's positioning.

7. Predict Membership Churn

Artificial Intelligence (AI) can also help you predict when members are likely to leave your association.

AI can recognize correlations and trends within data that are not evident in manual analysis alone. It analyzes historical membership data, including demographics, engagement levels, participation patterns, and membership tenure, to identify patterns and factors that contribute to churn.

It can also help you identify potentially dissatisfied members through sentimental analysis. AI-powered sentiment analysis evaluates member feedback, surveys, and social media conversations to identify issues that might lead to churn.

This proactive approach can help you address concerns proactively and take appropriate action to retain members.

Since AI can continuously learn and adapt based on feedback and outcomes, you can incorporate new data to refine its predictive analytics and recommendations, leading to improved accuracy and better outcomes.

8. Optimize Your Association Website

An AI algorithm can identify the most effective methods for converting your visitors into members by analyzing their behavior and testing different design elements.

AI tools like Dynamic Yield and Optimizely can analyze data about how potential members are interacting with your website and provide personalized content or recommendations. This could increase engagement, retention, and conversion rates.

Some of these AI tools can also help run A/B tests on different parts of your website, like color schemes, layouts, or copy, to see which versions users respond better to. This can help you continually improve your website based on data, rather than guesswork.

Also, If you’re using Glue Up’s membership management software with website integration, events you add to your database are updated seamlessly on your website.

Also, you can use Cloudflare (with AI-driven security features) to detect and prevent security threats, like spam or hacking attempts.

9. Recruit Volunteer and Committee Members

AI can also help you in recruiting volunteers and setting up membership committees.

Tools like Power BI, and Google Data Studio analyze applicants' data to gain insights into the characteristics and qualifications of successful placements. ML algorithms like scikit-learn can also build recommendation systems that suggest suitable volunteer or committee positions based on individual skills, preferences, and historical data.

There are several collaboration tools including Asana, Trello, and Monday.com that can facilitate collaboration among volunteers and committee members. These tools offer AI-powered features to assist with tracking progress, assigning tasks, and coordinating activities.

Keep in mind, however, that these tools can only facilitate your search. So make sure to scrutinize selected applications thoroughly and conduct interviews in order to find the right candidate. After all, AI has limited capabilities in evaluating a person's knowledge and perception.

Also don’t forget to adhere to data protection laws and ethical guidelines when handling personal information.

10. Improve Decision-Making

You can utilize AI-powered analytics and reporting tools to gain insights into membership trends, event participation, and overall engagement levels.

Contrary to manual spreadsheets, these AI-powered tools can process and analyze large volumes of data in seconds, helping you to uncover patterns and trends, as well as identify opportunities for improvement.

Hubspot and Salesforce are two robust CRMs that use Artificial Intelligence (AI) for analyzing customer data. Tableau is another advanced AI tool that allows you to assess your member data using generative AI and personalized insights.

However, if your primary goal is to gain insight into member satisfaction and growth specifically, you might need to consider Glue Up’s association management software.

Designed exclusively for associations, the platform collects and analyzes member engagement data from events, community involvement, and other activities, thus allowing you to make informed decisions.

If you are not utilizing AI despite all the benefits listed above, you are losing out on opportunities.

Artificial intelligence doesn't belong in the future, it belongs now! And the good news is that it’s within your association’s reach.

If you’d like to know more about how you can leverage AI to easily deliver a more valuable membership experience, feel free to contact us here.