August 2025 Roundtable on Personalization
The presentation slides are available as an attachment at the end of this article.
The August 2025 roundtable began with participants sharing recent successes and campaign wins from their organizations. One client highlighted launching their second campaign after seeing good traction with their first, expressing excitement about onboarding other association members to the platform. Another participant proudly shared completing homework assignments and feeling more comfortable with campaign creation, while a third discussed building member acquisition campaigns that start on websites to capture potential members and guide them through email and SMS nurture sequences. The enthusiasm was palpable as participants recognized the growing momentum in their personalization efforts.
The session's core focus centered on moving beyond traditional demographic-based marketing personas toward genuine personalization driven by direct member feedback and engagement. The presenter acknowledged that while personas based on age, geography, and professional experience have their place, the real power comes from asking members directly what they want and then acting on those responses. This shift from assumption-based marketing to response-driven personalization represents a fundamental change in how associations can engage with their members more effectively.
The framework for personalization was organized into three distinct categories, each serving different purposes in the member engagement journey. Traditional personalization encompasses the familiar approaches of using first names, membership duration, and basic demographic data to customize communications. This might include referencing how long someone has been a member or acknowledging their geographic location. Immediate personalization involves automated responses triggered by specific member actions, such as clicking on interest areas, completing forms, or engaging with specific content. This creates real-time, relevant follow-up that feels responsive to member behavior. Long-term personalization focuses on follow-up campaigns and "bubble up lists" that identify members who expressed positive intent but didn't complete desired actions, allowing for strategic nurturing over extended periods.
One of the most compelling examples came from the American Society for Nutrition, which developed sophisticated website-to-email campaigns targeting non-members who had submitted articles to their journals. Rather than sending generic recruitment messages, they created personalized communications that referenced the specific journal where the person's article was accepted, congratulating them on their achievement while inviting them to join the organization. The campaign used personalization tokens to automatically insert the correct journal name, eliminating the need to create separate campaigns for each of their four different journals. This approach generated 20-30 new member conversions annually, demonstrating how specific, relevant personalization can significantly outperform broad-based recruitment efforts.
Geographic targeting emerged as another powerful personalization strategy, illustrated by the Missouri State Teachers Association's advocacy campaign focused specifically on Springfield School District members. Rather than sending a generic advocacy message to all members, they crafted communications that referenced local challenges and used member location data to ensure relevance. The campaign specifically mentioned classroom discipline challenges within the Springfield School District, making the message immediately relevant to recipients. This approach could be scaled further by using personalization tokens to reference different school districts, allowing one campaign to serve multiple geographic areas while maintaining local relevance.
The International Association of Assessing Officers presented perhaps the most operationally impactful personalization example with their lapsed member recovery campaign. Recognizing that many of their members have dues paid by their offices rather than personally, they created personalized payment links that eliminated common friction points in the renewal process. Each lapsed member received a unique URL that allowed anyone to complete the payment without requiring login credentials. This solved the persistent problem of office managers trying to renew memberships without access to individual member passwords. The campaign included multiple check-ins throughout the grace period and generated approximately 100 conversions worth $22,000 in recovered revenue, demonstrating how addressing operational pain points through personalization can have significant financial impact.
New member onboarding emerged as a critical area for personalization implementation, with multiple organizations sharing sophisticated segmentation strategies. The Idaho Society of CPAs created distinct onboarding paths for different membership types, including fellows who are certified CPAs with continuing education requirements, professional partners who serve as sponsors, and students preparing for certification exams. Each group received tailored messaging about relevant benefits, such as complimentary continuing education for fellows or networking opportunities for professional partners. Students received specific information about CPA exam preparation resources and licensing guidance. This segmented approach ensured that new members immediately understood the value proposition most relevant to their specific situation and career stage.
The Ohio Society of CPAs took new member onboarding a step further by not only segmenting initial communications but also routing members into ongoing nurture campaigns based on their stated interests. When new members indicated interest in networking, they were automatically enrolled in a networking-specific nurture sequence that would regularly check in on their networking goals, inform them about upcoming events, and provide resources for making professional connections. This approach creates ongoing engagement rather than a one-time welcome message, ensuring that the personalization continues throughout the member's early experience with the organization.
Profile update campaigns proved particularly valuable for organizations lacking comprehensive member data, as demonstrated by the American College of Healthcare Administrators. Facing a database with minimal personalization information, they launched a comprehensive profile update campaign that served dual purposes: verifying existing contact information and gathering new demographic and professional details. The campaign achieved a 4% engagement rate by displaying current information and asking members to confirm accuracy, while simultaneously collecting data about business size, number of locations, geographic focus, and service offerings for supplier members. This information then enabled sophisticated segmentation for future campaigns and partnership development opportunities, transforming their marketing capabilities from mass communication to targeted, relevant outreach.
The concept of "bubble up lists" was introduced as a powerful tool for long-term personalization, allowing organizations to identify members who expressed positive intent but failed to complete desired actions. These lists combine campaign activity filters with action-related field data to create targeted follow-up opportunities. For example, a renewal campaign might identify members who indicated intent to renew but whose membership records still show expired status months later. Rather than letting these members slip away, bubble up lists enable strategic re-engagement with messaging like "You told us you were interested in renewing - what can we do to help you complete that process?" This approach transforms potential lost members into opportunities for personalized support and problem-solving.
The integration between PropFuel campaigns and broader marketing systems emerged as an important consideration for maximizing personalization impact. While PropFuel excels at immediate response and targeted campaigns, many organizations still rely on broadcast email systems for certain communications. The key insight shared was the importance of feeding personalization data captured in PropFuel back into these broadcast systems, enabling more sophisticated segmentation and targeting even in mass communications. This might involve updating member records in HubSpot, Mailchimp, or other platforms with interest data, engagement preferences, or demographic information gathered through PropFuel campaigns.
Several technical updates were announced that enhance personalization capabilities within the platform. Advanced field mapping options now provide more sophisticated data handling, including conditional logic for when fields are empty or contain specific values. A new global search functionality allows users to search across all campaigns, potentially down to individual landing page text, making it easier to find and replicate successful personalization strategies. Each contact record now includes an activity timeline tab showing when members were added to campaigns, removed, suppressed, or answered questions, providing complete visibility into member engagement history without requiring support team assistance.
Web engagement capabilities received significant updates, including the ability to save themes for consistent branding across check-ins, mobile device compatibility for broader reach, and enhanced validation for email and phone number captures. Perhaps most significantly, the upcoming blackout dates feature will prevent emails from being sent during holidays and other specified periods, addressing a long-standing request from users who want to ensure appropriate timing for their communications.
The session concluded with an emphasis on the transformative potential of moving from assumption-based marketing to response-driven personalization. Rather than guessing what members want based on demographic data, successful organizations are directly asking members about their interests, goals, and preferences, then using those responses to create increasingly sophisticated and relevant communication sequences. This approach not only improves engagement rates and member satisfaction but also provides valuable data for strategic decision-making about program development, partnership opportunities, and resource allocation. The examples shared demonstrated that effective personalization doesn't require complex technology or massive resources - it requires thoughtful questioning, systematic data collection, and strategic follow-up based on what members actually tell you they want from their membership experience.