Learn how Glue Up was instrumental in positioning the Payments Association EU for success.
The Payments Association EU is a young association that was founded in February 2020. It is the sister association of the Payments Association based in London and covers the 27 countries in the European Union. The Payments Association EU is essentially a business club of decision-makers in the payments industry. Unlike many payments associations in Europe that focus on influencing policy, future regulations, and lobbying, the association is primarily business-focused. It helps its members facilitate business and organize different events, projects, and doing business in general.
Thibault de Barsy, Vice-Chairman & General Manager of the Payments Association EU, gives an account of the organization’s success since it was founded despite facing limitations and challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The association gained 30 new corporate members within the first year it was founded. Continue reading to find out how Glue Up was instrumental in the association’s success.
Discovering Glue Up through the Payments Association Based in London
Our sister association in London was also looking for a new membership management system. After doing a search on the internet and creating a shortlist of the best vendors, they chose Glue Up, which was EventBank at the time. We trusted their selection process and benefited from our sister association’s entire selection process of the best providers of a CRM system that can support a typical association. We were very happy to discover that Glue Up met our needs.
From an Artisanal Style of Membership Management to Using Glue Up’s All-in-one Association Management Software
Glue Up was the first all-inclusive tool we used as a young association that was started in February 2020. Before Glue Up, we did things in a very artisanal way. We were using multiple tools that were not fit to be used as professional tools for managing an association. For instance, we had databases on Excel sheets, and we sent our newsletters via Outlook. Moving to Glue Up was easy as we had no migration process. We loved that we could start using it right away, and it was definitely a great improvement from the various tools we used initially.
Why Glue Up?
I have used different CRM systems previously, including more complex ones such as Microsoft Dynamics. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Glue Up was specifically adapted to running an association. Additionally, we liked that for the whole package, that is, the system of integrated modules, the solution’s price was within our budget.
Relying on our sister association’s selection process saved us a lot of time. The Payments Association based in London was motivated to solve the challenge that most associations experience using separate systems to run campaigns and manage databases. One of Glue Up’s biggest strengths is that it bridges your CRM system and mass mailer. This is because most vendors promise CRM and mass mailing integrations that are easy to use, but in reality, are quite complicated. Glue Up’s ecosystem of integrated modules, including CRM and email campaigns module, solved a major challenge for our sister association from the word go.
The Best Solution for Growing Associations
All the modules on Glue Up’s all-in-one association management platform are integrated, including Glue Up’s website solution. Because we are a young organization, we are a small team. This means that each team member must have the ability to perform multiple tasks such as sending campaigns, enrolling a new member, and updating our website. Moreover, during the holidays, we usually have one or two people available to do different tasks. This is why Glue Up is the best tool for a young association, as it automates most tasks and makes management simple yet effective.
Using Glue Up
We have trainees based in different countries such as Brussels and Italy working remotely through Glue Up. They can access the Glue Up platform remotely to run their day-to-day operations. When learning how to use the platform, Glue Up’s YouTube channel tutorials were very useful. We also used the manual provided to understand how to manage our website. It was a great learning process, and we were very happy about the service we got from Glue Up’s helpdesk when we required assistance. We could easily find solutions in Glue Up’s existing support materials. We also relied on our sister association by comparing our experiences and sharing knowledge on how we each performed different tasks and solved challenges during the learning process.
A Standardized Membership Management Platform for Associations
The power of the platform is that it is very standardized, which makes it quite easy to understand and use. This means that the platform sometimes cannot perform some of the more specific tasks to our association. However, we appreciated that Glue Up’s HelpDesk is very clear about the available features and functionalities, and we do not have to waste time looking for workarounds.
Keeping Members “Glued” with Glue Up
We founded the association in February 2020 during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, we used Glue Up to stay in touch with our members and keep them engaged by sending out different types of communications such as email campaigns. Glue Up’s flexibility enabled us to quickly transition to running virtual events that we could easily broadcast via email and website. We were also able to create new newsletters and campaigns to promote these events and other communications. We personalize our communications based on our members’ functions and use the campaigns report to monitor the performance of our campaigns and newsletters. The platform’s flexibility was just what we needed for the pandemic. Our members appreciate that the communication they receive now is more personalized and relevant, thanks to the smart lists on Glue Up’s campaigns module.
Successfully Achieving Goals with Glue Up
As a young association, we are happy that we managed to have almost 30 corporate members join the association in less than a year. We were successful during the pandemic year as most of our members joined during the onset of the pandemic. Glue Up helped us achieve this goal because even though we were a young association, we looked professional and well-established from the start. This was portrayed in the newsletters we sent, our email campaigns, events, and other formal communications. Our members could see that we were already developing the right tools and were impressed by how we run our events in a very seamless, organized manner.
Organizing Top-tier Virtual Events Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic
So far, we have only had virtual events due to the lockdown and other restrictions. We love that we can track our virtual event attendance in real-time. It is easy to promote our events through specific newsletters. We appreciate that Glue Up’s events module allowed us to organize virtual events more efficiently.
Glue Up’s Ecosystem of Interconnected Modules
Glue Up’s integrations are a fantastic unique selling point. It solves the challenges I have faced in bigger organizations where website management, CRM management, and digital communication were three separate functions run by three different software that have to communicate with each other. This presented many challenges such as high upgrade and maintenance costs and lack of synchronization that Glue Up’s ecosystem of integrated modules now offers our association. Thanks to this integration, a single person can easily run the entire organization.
Positioning the Payments Association EU for Success Post COVID-19 Pandemic
In the coming months, our biggest challenge will be to successfully manage our organization through the end of the COVID-19 pandemic by giving our members the right balance between physical and virtual events. Many of our members are willing to attend physical events. Still, they are limited by restrictions imposed by their organizations and the law, while other companies encourage their members to participate in physical events. This necessitates the need to be flexible enough to have the capability to modify a potential event from a virtual to a physical event.
A Comprehensive Platform Designed for Small, Medium and Large Associations
“Glue Up’s greatest advantage is that it is designed for associations. Glue Up’s association management software is specifically designed to optimize day-to-day operations. It saves time that would otherwise be wasted trying to customize other software to adapt to the typical functions of associations. Additionally, the price is competitive given the functionalities the platform provides. We found the price to be reasonable for us as a young association. It is also affordable to medium and large associations, which typically do not have many permanent employees.”
Thibault de Barsy, Vice-Chairman & General Manager of the Payments Association EU
With Glue Up’s all-in-one association management software, young, growing associations worldwide are positioning themselves for success by streamlining member communication, event management, and membership management from the word go. Get a demo and discover how you can leverage this all-inclusive platform designed for associations to achieve your organization’s goals.
