Profile Update Campaign Guide

Profile update campaigns are a powerful tool for cleaning up or enhancing data in your AMS or other systems. These check-ins provide contacts an easy way to view and edit missing or outdated profile fields right in the email instead of logging in to their profile, which can take time and often leads to drop-off in the process. Once your contacts answer the PropFuel question, that information is written back via an action you set up to update fields in the individual's AMS profile, without manual effort by the association.

Profile update campaigns are unlike most PropFuel campaigns because they're  transactional in nature, taking information from the contact instead of the more conversation-focused renewal campaigns, new member onboarding campaigns, and many others that PropFuel clients have built. Still, these campaigns are high-value to both the recipient (because they don't have to log in to complete their profile) and the association staff (because there is no manual effort and/or no multiple emails asking contacts to log in and update information).

PropFuel profile update campaigns allow you to meet your contacts where they are (email) and provide a quick and easy way for them to complete or update profile fields (without ever hitting a login screen) and have that information automatically write back to your AMS.

Sending profile update Campaigns via PropFuel makes sense, and here's why:

• No other system has automated profile update ability. Marketing automation systems can't offer profile updates, as they are not question-based systems. They're designed to tell instead of ask.

• You use this data to operate. And members aren't logging in to complete their profiles at the rate you need.

• It allows you to capture the most up-to-date information at different points in time versus only when they sign up for membership.

• It doesn't require manual updates into your AMS.

PropFuel is one tool in your tool belt when it comes to membership communications. You may still send broadcast event emails outside PropFuel. Similarly, you could mimic what PropFuel does using other systems, but "frankensteining" systems together is time consuming and rarely yields the desired results - from both a member experience and data analytics perspective.

AMS write backs can differ based on your AMS. Visit the PropFuel help desk to find out how profile updates work with your system or speak with your Client Success Manager.

Write-back campaigns generally consists of only 1-2 questions at most, but could have as many check-ins over time as needed.

In a profile update campaign, instead of asking questions and pointing contacts to resources based on those answers, we're asking questions, capturing answers, and writing that data back to your AMS in the background. That means a more seamless experience for your contacts than logging in and completing their profile (which typically doesn't happen), but it also means you'll need to dig a bit deeper to communicate the "what's in it for me" to encourage them to answer.

• What is your preferred first name?

• Is this still your title?/What is your current title?

• Is this still your correct graduation date?/When is your anticipated graduation date?

• What is your alternate email address?

• What is your alternate phone number?

• Net Promoter Scores from year to year

• Is this still your correct mailing address?/What is your current mailing address?

• Would you like to opt-in to receive X?

• What is your birthdate?

• We want to make sure we're providing you with the most relevant content. (title)

• We'd like to make sure we're addressing you how you'd prefer. (title, first name)

• It's been some time since you've provided your title and we'd like to make sure it's up-to-date so we can provide you with the most relevant networking, education and job postings. (title)

• We want to make sure we stay in touch should you ever change jobs. (alternate email)

• We won't mail you anything unless we have to, but we'd still like to make sure we have your correct mailing address.

Doesn't mean you should! You've had empty fields in member profiles for too long. We totally get it! That's why write-backs can be exciting. But, we suggest being a little picky about what you're writing back. If not, your AMS can quickly become unruly with unnecessary data that could live elsewhere. Try to focusing your write-backs on the fields you'd include in the member profile. Other PropFuel answers can still live in PropFuel instead of your AMS, as they don't go away as long as your PropFuel account is active.

When asking PropFuel write-back questions, it's a good idea to display the information you already have in your AMS, right in the email. That way, your contacts can confirm whether that information is already correct and change it only if it isn't. You'll do this using personalization tokens. Check out this how-to video.

Surveys! That means you'll want to keep it short, choosing 1-2 profile fields at a time to update. You can always create additional check-ins later to update additional fields. We suggest prioritizing the most important ones first.

Profile update campaigns don't have to be standalone campaigns. In fact, a whole campaign of profile write-back can be overwhelming to your audience. Instead, you can sprinkle write-back questions into other campaigns, such as New Member Onboarding, renewals, and general member engagement—to name a few.

PIHRA used PropFuel write-back functionality to add alternate email addresses to member profiles in 2021, during "The Great Resignation," when many professionals were leaving their pre-pandemic positions. The association was at-risk of losing contact with their members, who typically provided work email addresses when joining. They needed a quick way to collect personal/alternate email addresses so they could keep in contact with their members.

Questions:

• Do you have a personal email address to note in your member profile in case your primary email no longer works?

Results:

Out of the 3,050 contacts enrolled, 218 profiles were updated with alternate email addresses.

Oklahoma Society of CPAs sent a graduation date write-back campaign to all students with an approaching graduation date in AM.net. The information was useful to membership in knowing who to contact about a full membership and who should remain a student member for another year.

Questions:

• Would you like to update [your graduation date] now?

• What is your expected graduation date (MM/DD/YYYY)?

Results:

Out of the 1,403 students enrolled in the campaign, 131 provided an updated graduation date.

VMUG sent a check-in to all members asking for role and title, writing it back to Salesforce.

Questions:

• Which of the below best describes your current role?

• What is your specific role?

Results:

Out of 191,020 contacts who received the check-in, 5,925 contacts updated their role.

MSTA sent a check-in asking members how they'd like to receive the magazine, via print or digital copy. This allowed MSTA to uncover those members who had no interest in receiving the print magazine, ultimately saving money on printing and delivery costs.

Question:

• How would you prefer to receive School & Community magazine?

Results:

Of the 33,917 members enrolled, 4,639 (14%) answered. What's more, 60% told MSTA they'd prefer the digital version only.

MSTA included the same question in two additional campaigns, which resulted in more than 9,500 additional responses as of January 2023.

MSTA said in response to the campaign: "We have 11,677 members who could receive the physical magazine but instead have opted for digital only. A conservative estimate for the cost of the magazine for printing and mailing is $0.67 per issue. We do three issues per year, so our current savings are $23,120.That represents a cost savings of $23,120 per year for the organization."

Tennessee Bar Association sent a profile update campaign to all members asking for primary and secondary areas of practice.

Questions:

• What is your primary area of practice? (Select one.)

• What is your secondary area of practice? (Select one.)

Results:

Of the 8,693 members who received the check-in, 2,303 (26%) provided a primary area of practice and 1,754 provided a secondary area of practice, resulting in a total of more than 4,000 updated profile fields in a single email sent.