From Clicks to Connections: How ISAE Transformed Engagement with MemberClicks 

With the vast number of members and services ISAE supports, they needed a robust, all-in-one AMS to keep pace. ISAE sought out MemberClicks Professional for a modern, configurable and  all-in-one solution to deliver value to members where it matters most. As a long-time partner and collaborator with MemberClicks, ISAE has completely integrated its operations within the MC Pro interface, making the solution a crucial part of day-to-day and big picture operations. According to ISAE Executive Director Grant Carpenter, the results speak for themselves — to the point where members frequently ask which AMS they use.

To see the impact of MC Pro in action, we sat down with Grant to learn how ISAE leverages the platform to cut costs, reduce staff time spent on routine tasks and connect their members with the community and resources they need to thrive.

All-in-one integration  

Before partnering with MemberClicks, Grant recalled working for an organization with an AMS that lacked certain features and capabilities. “I’ve worked with one other AMS prior, before my time with ISAE, and it was tough,” said Grant. “It was bare bones, you had a little bit of member data, maybe. You had a profile that you could see on the backend, but it wasn’t our front-end website. We used a different third-party mailing management system. We were also invoicing through another system, which was tough.”

By contrast, MemberClicks Professional provided ISAE with everything they needed, all in one platform. “When I came to ISAE and got to use MemberClicks, it was like a whole new world of efficiency,” Grant said. Rather than having everything scattered across disparate systems, ISAE can access all their member data in one place. MC Pro acts as a member database, ISAE’s front-facing website, event registration system, email platform and so much more. With everything in one place, day-to-day operations become much easier, streamlining operations and increasing efficiency for ISAE employees and members alike.

“MemberClicks, to me, is the best because it’s an all-in-one platform,” explained Grant. “Everything is built in. So, we don’t have to worry about going over to MailChimp or another outside solution and building some program and then going to WordPress and creating a website. It’s all there for us. It increases efficiency and allows us to connect with our members way more easily than if we had all these disparate systems.”

To illustrate the power of this integration in action, Grant told us about a time when he needed to market an upcoming workshop specifically to supervisors and managers. Instead of simply sending out the invite to everyone on their mailing list and risk not reaching the right audience, the ISAE team was able to leverage data that members had provided themselves, do a quick advanced search for titles like “manager”, and pull a curated list of potential attendees the workshop would be relevant and interesting to. From there, all ISAE staff had to do was draft an invitation using one of the system’s pre-made templates and schedule the send. MC Professional plays a central role in ISAE’s daily operations, from event registration to marketing to member communications.

Tracking Engagement  

For ISAE, MC Pro’s engagement score feature has had a significant positive impact. By assigning each member a unique number based on how frequently they engage with the platform, this feature allows ISAE to take a peek under the hood of member engagement. Personalized data allows the team to understand the “why” behind higher-engagement activities like event registration or email click-through rates. The engagement score acts as a sort of magnifying glass and a reporting tool in one, zooming in on each individual member’s data to create a more complete picture of how members are interacting with the platform and the community.

“We look at the list of the highest engagement and sometimes it’s obvious, like of course that person is at the top of that list, but other times we get some surprises,” Grant told us. “For example, we might see that maybe someone can’t attend any in-person events, but they’re opening every email, they’re clicking through, they’re going to our partner’s websites. And that’s a really great way for us to know that even if they can’t make in-person events, they’re still actively engaging with us. So, that helps us to make a lot of those strategic decisions.”

Leveraging the power of member data, engagement scores can help answer important questions like which members are attending the most events, which emails are resonating with a certain member demographic and why, or even, are our emails coming through at all? This last question was the subject of a particularly prescient anecdote Grant told us about.

A few years ago, ISAE launched an organizational membership program that allowed associations to purchase bulk membership for their employees. “I had an executive come up to me and ask if the people in her organization were actually using ISAE,” Grant said. “And I thought, well, let me just use their engagement score to find out among her 20 employees, how many of them are actually using ISAE.” Grant was able to pull up the exact information the executive asked for. “We were quickly able to see that there were about 4 or 5 people who hadn’t opened any emails, hadn’t gone to any events, hadn’t even logged into the system.”

As Grant explained, there could be a plethora of reasons for this, anything from lack of interest to ISAE simply not hitting the mark on what resonates with members. However, as the engagement score revealed, this was not the case. “We were able to see that, for those 4 or 5 employees, our emails were going straight to their spam folders,” Grant said. “So, just by using the engagement score, we determined that they hadn’t opened anything simply because they haven’t received it yet, not because they weren’t interested or didn’t care. That was helpful both to show her that the membership was worth it, but also for us to be able to fix some of those communication issues.” In the end, ISAE was able to answer specific questions the executive had about member engagement backed up by data, improve communication and prove the value of a membership with ISAE to stakeholders.

Aside from the here and now, engagement metrics have also been a tremendous boon when it comes to forecasting. The MemberClicks email reports let ISAE see engagement levels by tracking which links are most and least popular in each email. Based on these metrics, ISAE is able to tailor their engagement strategy to the needs of members as they emerge, testing what resonates and what doesn’t and ensuring their content is always fresh and relevant. “Those engagement metrics are really vital for us as we forecast for the future,” said Grant.

Forms and templates 

For ISAE, one of the most valuable benefits of using MemberClicks has been efficiency. Improving processes and cutting down on time spent performing routine tasks has been nothing short of a lifesaver for an organization with plenty of members but limited staff. As Grant explained, MemberClicks has a form or template ready-made for nearly every situation.

“Renewals are at the top of mind because we’re in it at the moment,” Grant said. “The fact that it’s all built-in for us gives us the ability to send out a renewal reminder 30, 60 or 90 days before a membership lapses.” Once the renewal window closes, the grace period begins. ISAE has also built a separate set of templates and hyperlinks to convince members to retain their memberships and help them do so quickly, so all they have to do once the grace period begins is hit send. “It’s all done for us, and that’s made our renewal process so much easier.”

Payment processing always goes hand in hand with dues renewal. Like many state associations, ISAE offers paid memberships, so having a processor built into the same platform has made collecting payments a breeze for staff. “It sends out quick reminders when payment is due and even sends automatic thank-you notes whenever a member renews their membership.” Grant said. “So that has made things super easy in terms of renewals.”

Of course, what would ISAE’s members be renewing for if not events? Events are the pumping heart of any member-based association, and a big reason why many members join in the first place. ISAE is no different, hosting weekly online webinars and workshops alongside a calendar packed with in-person events all year long. And with so many events to plan and promote, it helps to streamline as many processes along the way as possible. “Building out the forms is easy,” Grant said. “We have a template that we can just copy and paste and change a couple of things out for each event.”

With MemberClicks, ISAE can also create invites, web pages, online registration forms on the front end and dashboards and email automation on the backend. These built-in dashboards give ISAE staff instant visibility into event attendance and performance in real-time, while also allowing staff to make accommodations for attendees with specific preferences. “It has a really great dashboard feature where we can go in and see, for example, that 12 people have dietary restrictions, so we can easily pull that out and send it to the venue,” Grant explained. “It also tracks the discount codes that have been used and the expected revenue from the event, making it super easy for us to plan for the future in both the long term and the short.”

The partnership between the Indiana Society of Association Executives (ISAE) and MemberClicks exemplifies the power of an all-in-one AMS in transforming association management. By integrating critical functions like event registration, member engagement tracking and payment processing into a single, user-friendly platform, ISAE has been able to streamline operations, reduce administrative burden and create a more personalized experience for its members.

From leveraging engagement scores to optimize communication strategies to utilizing ready-made forms and automation tools for increased efficiency, MemberClicks has helped ISAE enhance the value it delivers to members—strengthening connections, improving retention and ultimately fulfilling its mission.

For associations and nonprofits looking to simplify processes, maximize engagement and drive long-term success, MemberClicks is more than just an AMS—it’s a game-changer. See how MemberClicks can empower your association to achieve similar results and take your member experience to the next level.

Schedule a demo today!