Insights & ideas.

Why “We Don’t Have Time” Is Costing You Member Engagement

Many associations avoid new tools because they feel too busy, but the real time sink is managing disengaged members with inefficient campaigns. Learn how PropFuel makes engagement fast, easy, and effective — without overhauling your tech stack.

Why Big Strategy Alone Isn’t Enough for Member Engagement

Focusing only on big strategic initiatives? Without regular micro-engagements, members miss key updates and your strategy won’t stick. Learn how PropFuel bridges the gap.

Top 5 ROI Campaigns You Can Try to Increase Engagement & Retention

56% of association members want personalized experiences — but most organizations aren't delivering. See how five ROI-driven campaigns used two-way member conversations to drive revenue, win back lapsed members, and boost retention.

Why Members Join & Why They Renew

Why do your members join? I'm surprised at how often I hear "discounts." It's pretty much tied with "content and resources." Instead, let's help them get connected with other members, with the staff, with mentors and mentees. Let's get them volunteering and interacting with their peers.

What is Profile Data and Why Does It Matter?

Of the various types of data gathered by organizations today, profile data is the most essential information gathered on members and prospective members. It seems straightforward, but what happens to this data year after year?

What is Intent Data?

For associations, one of the most frustrating and challenging aspects of member data is its static nature. Who moved last month and needs to update his address? Who gained a new credential? Why did these members decide to wait until after the early bird deadline to register for the conference? While the association might have some general idea of the answers to these questions, it doesn't really know what’s current and what’s not. And beyond basic information, the organization also doesn't know what each member intends to do.

The Hierarchy of Conversational Engagement

Conversational engagement is about finding and acting on opportunities for 2-way interaction with members. With traditional marketing and engagement tactics, the one-to-one connection is sporadic and by happenstance. With conversational engagement, you’re purposely harvesting connections with individuals.

What is Interest Data and Why Does It Matter?

While associations often know the basics about their members - profile data, for example - they know less about what interests their members. Why does it matter what interests individuals, outside of association-related benefits and offerings?

How to Improve the Exit Survey

I've been seeing a ton of questions online recently about how to improve the effectiveness and response rate of an exit survey after a member lapses.When I see these, it makes me scratch my head. Why wouldn't we focus on winning them back while also finding out more from the member? Otherwise, we're just presuming their status as a lapsed member is the end of the road and only sending them a survey asking them questions.

What is Satisfaction Data and How Can It Be Used for Deeper Member Engagement?

Satisfaction data can be gathered not only for the association to get big picture views and make decisions from them. Using PropFuel, satisfaction can be captured by associations to hear the Voice of the Member – unique feedback from each individual – and then act on it. A survey is limited in these individual listening and action-based steps.

Guessing vs. Knowing When Engaging Members

Thinking back on my decade plus of association marketing experience, it's clear to me the instances when I felt most impactful as a marketer. I was most connected when I communicated directly with members, whether it was at an in-person conference, on a webinar or on the phone. But our team wasn't always doing a good job of listening.

Three Tips to More Deeply Engage Your Members

At PropFuel, we're all about helping associations connect more personally with members and future members. Here are a few quick tips on how to do it!

Give Your Staff Conversational Superpowers With the PropFuel Integration

With this new Rhythm - PropFuel integration, you have the ability to create queries in Rhythm that feed contacts directly into PropFuel conversational engagement campaigns. These campaigns allow you to ask questions of your members, capture the Voice of the Member through structured and unstructured responses, and take immediate action with automated workflows.

Personalization is Not Personal: 7 Tactics to be More Human

The people in your organization are not units, or attendees, or registrants, or even members. They’re people. They’re not clicks or opens. We have loads of lists and buckets and bubbles and segments that we put people into to try to understand them better. We send out surveys to dissect them as if they’re deceased frogs in formaldehyde. It’s time to stop thinking about what we want and how to get it and start thinking about building stronger connections with people. With stronger connections, with true one-to-one interaction, we really start to understand each other. There’s a bond.

It’s About People, Not Personas

In association communications, generally we know how best to administer digital communications. We try to avoid bombarding members with too many messages. We know that we need to respond to direct messages that come in through our social channels, and promptly. We know that video and photo engage better than copy alone. We know which days of the week to send email for the highest open rate. It’s clinical, isn’t it? Do this, not that. Personas, behaviors, clicks and broadcasts. Our members still are cogs in a wheel, receiving what we spit out and being asked to consume it. In associations or in healthcare, can we afford to treat our members and patients this way? Is it true engagement?

Stop Frankensteining!

When I interviewed for a position with PropFuel a few weeks ago, I told Dave that I wanted to be part of the team because PropFuel is the tool I needed but didn’t have for the past eight years as an association marketer. I’ve always known how important it was to communicate with members, but for so long I relied on products that only communicated to my members.

What's Missing From Today's Communications?

As association professionals with heaps of valuable information to share digitally with our members, we’ve all found ourselves asking “what’s missing?” That is, “why am I sending emails and not getting the response I need.” Whether event or education registration, membership renewals and everything in between, we all wish engagement was higher.

Two-Way Communications

Conversational Engagement is based on the premise that what your members have to tell you is just as important as what you have to tell your members. There are many ways to get your members to talk to you; we call them conversation starters.

How Well Do You Know Your Members?

Your members are not all perfectly representative pieces of your whole membership. They are individual people with individual needs. Knowing that 35 percent of your members are interested in online earning does not tell you what Britney is looking for right now. Statistics are useful for looking at the big group, but they do not apply to individuals.

What’s Missing After Personalization?

If you have a choice between sending personalized and non-personalized broadcasts, personalization is always better. But, there is still something missing: at the end of the day, you are still sending mass communication.

Mimicking How Humans Communicate

Every engaging conversation starts with a prompt and a question, leads to capturing an answer for context and then drives a relevant response.That's what this thing called "Conversational Engagement" is all about. It's mimicking the structure of real human interaction and creating an automated way of doing it with thousands of people, all at once.

Making Personalization Personal With Conversational Engagement

Conversational Engagement flips the personalization aspect on its head. Instead of deciding what your member is most likely to be interested in, you simply ask them! The goal here is to be personal, not just personalized. Ask questions, be curious, turn some of your one-way broadcasts into two-way conversations.

Using Technology to Have Conversations at Scale

The challenge in embracing Conversational Engagement is figuring out how to take a concept that works well when you have one person - or 10 people - to talk to, and make it work with 1,000 or 10,000 or 50,000 people. As is increasingly the case in today’s world, the solution can be found in technology.

Are You Inviting Your Members to Engage?

Chances are, if you’re only sending broadcast emails then your members are less engaged than you think, even if your open rates tell a different story. That’s because open rates and engagement aren’t the same thing. Open rates simply tell us that someone opened our email. We can’t tell whether they found it helpful or whether they need something more that wasn’t included in our email.

What is Zero Party Data Anyway?

You’ve probably heard something recently about “zero party data” (ZPD). The term is everywhere in the marketing and tech world, and it’s showing no sign of going away anytime soon thanks to increased consumer awareness of online privacy and some big tech privacy changes in recent years, like the anticipated release of Apple iOS 15 later this month.

Big Tech Changes and Open Rates: What Does it Mean for Associations?

Apple's anticipated iOS15 is expected to be released next week. Among its new features will be Mail Privacy Protection, which will stop senders from using invisible tracking pixels to collect information about the recipient, including when someone opens an email. This change will have a profound impact on your analytics if you're looking only at open rate and other tracking instead of having conversations with your members.

Questions: Asking the Right Ones at the Right Time

It can be hard to take the conversational approach that you’ve worked your whole life to perfect in face-to-face conversation and translate it to PropFuel to create a more meaningful member experience, especially since conversational engagement is such a new approach to email. We've created the PropFuel Question Guide to make it easy.

Creating an OrangeTheory Fitness Culture at Associations

It's no secret that OTF knows how to create a strong culture that translates to membership growth, but what is the secret sauce? I've learned a few things about member engagement over my four years as an "OTF-er", and I wanted to share why I think the OTF way works.

Striking the Right Tone in Emails to Build Member Relationships

Effective messaging isn’t all about what you say; it’s also about how you say it. Your tone can completely change your copy, so it’s important to strike the right balance in your member communications to convey the right tone, especially in our increasingly virtual world.

A Closer Look at Mail Privacy Protection

It’s been a few weeks since the release of iOS15, and we’ve been able to learn a bit more about what these changes mean beyond skewed open rates. Hint: if you’re still relying on tracking your members’ online activity to draw conclusions about what they need instead of just asking them, then MPP has real consequences that go beyond your open rates.

Introducing the Conversational Inbox

The Conversational Inbox is here! The PropFuel development team has been hard at work to bring you this brand-new concept, built to allow you to continue the conversation with your members after their initial response to a campaign.

Do You Feel as Though You Should Be Talking More With Your Members?

Talking to individual members of your association is really time consuming. It's exhausting, too, and I know you have limited resources. We all do.I feel like we should talk to our members as often as we can. I ask this question because it's a conversation I've been having with people more and more, as we're trying to help make it easier for you to talk to your members.

Creating Event Registration Campaigns to Sell Seats

I’m always excited when a new client goes “live”— what we at PropFuel call sending your first campaign out — and this past week was no exception! One of our clients, Oklahoma Society of Certified Public Accountants (OSCPA), went live with an event registration campaign last week and saw big success. Here are some things that worked and what we'll do differently in the future. I hope this jogs your creativity and encourages you to build a similar campaign.

📈 Key Insights from the 2024 Benchmark Report

We're breaking down key stats and takeaways from our first-ever Email Engagement Benchmarking Report, which was built specifically for bold, curious marketing and membership pros looking to turn emails into action.

How VPPPA Captured 1,065 Responses with a Single Website Pop-Up

Capturing real-time visitor intent helped VPPPA uncover hidden event interest, guiding smarter strategy and moving beyond what registration data alone could reveal.

Conversations to Help You Achieve Your Goals

Engaging your members and prospects in conversations isn’t just about touchy-feely vibes. It’s about communicating 1-on-1 in a way that mimics human interaction and drives action. That action could be collecting member dues or event registrations, getting member profiles updated, or identifying unique talents or interests among your community members.

What's the Difference Between PropFuel and Marketing Automation?

What's the difference between PropFuel and marketing automation? There are some very distinct differences between the two; and, you can use the platforms together to create a powerful, ongoing process of understanding member needs and delivering on them.

How to personalize the member experience? Make the member experience personal.

With the release of several industry reports, including MCI’s Association Engagement Index 2022, Higher Logic’s 2022 Association Member Experience Report and Amanda Kaiser’s New Member Engagement Study (NMES), there is a heightened buzz in the association community around how well members are being served, heard and valued. Across these reports, the consensus is that most associations are providing a C level experience. Associations are making some efforts, and members are recognizing them. For example, the Higher Logic report indicates that “64% of members said a personalized member experience is important to them, but only 46% said their association provides a personalized member experience.” There is hope, and still a lot of work to be done when it comes to fully serving members.

Ask Your Members to Hit Singles, Not Home Runs

Recently, an association leader who was on a call with our team re-stated the challenge of association member communications with a baseball analogy. His take: the majority of communications sent to members are “Home Run Emails,” or emails with calls to action that ask a lot of a member. when this communication style is the majority of how your members are interacting with the organization, they begin to tune out, no matter how great your copy is written and call to action is worded. It all looks and feels the same after a while, literally.

No Need to Fear the Software Scaries

Have you heard of the Sunday Scaries? I’ve suffered from this phenomenon myself. If you’re not familiar with the term, it refers to the anxiety - perhaps, dread - that many people feel on Sunday, in anticipation of the work week ahead. Ironically, in the process of anticipating Monday, having the Sunday Scaries actually robs one of the enjoyment of half of their weekend.

What Questions Should You Ask Your Members?

The next time you go to build a communication for members, whether it’s general engagement, for an event or some other purpose, try this approach and see what happens. Ask yourself, “What would be nice to know from members that they care about, and will help us understand them better?”

The 4 Reasons Members Pay Attention

We all get dozens of emails daily, so how can you stand apart from them and send what truly draws members in? The 4 reasons members pay attention; wants, easy, fear, and trust. It's important to understand the people you're trying to engage and give them something they want, make it easy, give them a fearless choice, and be a reliable source. By asking questions at the individual level about these 4 things, you can treat exchanges to maximize engagement.

The Single Key to Better Engagement

The key to better engagement is unveiled: treating association members as individuals with unique needs and emotions, just as you would in a face-to-face interaction. If you'd engage with a new member in person, why not carry that approach into your digital interactions? Explore how this "human" approach can work wonders across various engagement scenarios.

How to Free Up Time for You and Your Team (and do things better)

Unlock time-saving possibilities with Blueprints for campaigns in PropFuel. Easily transition from creator to editor, leveraging automation and AI to craft personalized onboarding campaigns that enhance member retention. In the midst of daily chaos, taking a moment to pause is essential. Follow a six-step efficiency plan: review goals, identify and prioritize issues, map processes, self-educate, and optimize through automation and outsourcing. Regardless of your role, you can implement these strategies to improve membership engagement and retention, even with limited resources.

The Case Against Segments

Everyone says, “We need to segment our audience,” as if that’s the solution. It’s not. All that does is puts people in buckets. Nobody puts Baby in a bucket #PatrickSwayzeRules I’m not bashing segments completely. Naturally, segmentation is way better than mass emailing everything to everyone, but it’s far from the end-all. Segmentation is a good start, and it does get us closer to the goal, but experts in our space need to do better in terms of thought leadership on this topic.

The Magic of Member Retention

Unlock the secrets to boosting member retention rates with inspiration from the world of magic. Discover how to create enchanting member experiences by eliminating friction in their journey, streamlining processes, and engaging in digital mind-reading. Learn the art of building lasting connections, acknowledging milestones, and fostering a sense of belonging. Embrace the magic to make member attrition disappear and transform your association into a captivating success story.

Transform How You Connect with Your Members

Elevate your member engagement strategies with insights from Dave Will, Co-Founder & CEO of PropFuel. Dive into PropFuel where the art of conversation meets cutting-edge technology. Learn how our question-based listening platform revolutionizes engagement and transforms how associations interact with members. Discover how PropFuel collects member data and acts on it immediately, paving the way for more relevant, personalized interactions. Embrace the future of member engagement with PropFuel and transform how your organization connects, retains, and grows its membership base.

How to Show Your Association Members the L.O.V.E. - A Strategic Guide

When it comes to association engagement, the key to thriving is not just in offering value, but in deeply understanding and cherishing your members (just like real-life relationships)! Effectively engaging members is all about building a community where members feel heard, valued, and connected. 

The Art of Winning Back Lapsed Members

Member-based organizations face a common challenge: keeping their members engaged and retaining them year after year. A significant part of addressing this challenge involves winning back those who have lapsed. The reasons behind a member's decision not to renew can vary widely, from a perceived lack of value to simply forgetting to renew. PropFuel, a conversational engagement platform for email and SMS engagement, offers a unique approach to not only understand why members lapse but also how to win them back effectively.

The Biggest Change in Member Engagement Since Marketing Automation

Time Magazine once declared that our attention spans are now shorter than that of a goldfish, citing a study in the realm of Health and Neuroscience. Growing up in the MTV era, I recall the doom and gloom predictions about our dwindling attention spans. However, now that I'm adult-ish, I believe there's been a misinterpretation of the data.

The AI Magic Wand

Over the past year, AI has been a hot topic, with people deciding how much to invest in learning and utilizing it. AI is most commonly seen in tools like ChatGPT or new apps using similar technologies. While these apps are fun, AI's main impact will be in enhancing existing tools we use daily, such as AMS, marketing automation systems, Canva, Microsoft products, and PropFuel. For PropFuel users, the magic wand icon indicates AI integration, helping with tasks like creating campaigns, email content, or subject lines. The takeaway is that AI will seamlessly integrate into everyday tools, so there's no need to stress about adopting it—just keep an eye out for the magic wand.

Unleashing the Power of Email Campaigns: Insights from PropFuel’s Association Email Engagement Benchmark Report

In this post, we’ll highlight key findings from the report, including successful campaigns, response rates by various criteria, and practical tips for enhancing member engagement. If you’re a bold and curious marketing or membership professional in the association space, you’ll want to read on.

AI Updates in PropFuel

We recently rolled out some AI-mazing new features that use AI to boost your workflow and creativity when creating campaigns in PropFuel. From generating engaging text to streamlining your template management, these updates are all about simplifying your workflow and making your campaigns shine. Discover how the new AI-powered features can transform your approach to campaign creation and communication.

Nurturing Student Members as They Transition to the Workforce

How can associations keep student members engaged as they step into their careers? Learn key tactics like using personalized engagement methods and offering meaningful career support to create lasting connections. See how associations can meet student members where they are, ensuring a smooth transition into professional roles and fostering loyalty for years to come.

Strategies for Optimizing New Member Acquisition

Discover how associations can optimize new member acquisition by blending meaningful connections with proven strategies. Learn how personalization, warm lead nurturing, and technology like PropFuel can transform recruitment efforts, helping associations create impactful, data-driven campaigns that resonate with prospective members. Explore the importance of growth and connection in building a thriving, sustainable community.

Why Personalized Onboarding is the Key to Member Retention

New members join with expectations. They want to feel welcomed, find value quickly, and understand how to make the most of their membership. But too often, onboarding campaigns miss the mark. Instead of guiding members through an intentional journey, they’re met with a flood of emails, each packed with links, benefits, and generic information.

February 2025 Product Release Notes

AI-powered tools are making it easier than ever for associations to engage members, save time, and create personalized experiences at scale. This update highlights the AI features launched in the past year, including AI Copywriter for smarter content creation, Campaign Blueprints for faster campaign setup, AI-Powered Reporting for instant insights, and a customizable AI Assistant to match your organization’s voice. Learn how these tools can help streamline your engagement strategy and improve efficiency.

The End of "One-Size-Fits-All" Member Engagement

VPPPA redefined how they engage members by moving beyond assumptions and traditional surveys. Using PropFuel’s conversational engagement approach, they created personalized pathways instead of one-size-fits-all personas. The result? Higher engagement, more meaningful connections, and a strategy that truly reflects what members want.

Q1 Product Update: Faster Syncing, Smarter Engagement, and a Better Experience

Smarter syncing, better campaigns, and more ways to engage—see what’s new in PropFuel this quarter.

New Website Engagement Feature: Contact Capture

Capture anonymous website visitors and turn them into engaged contacts

12% Response Rate on a Website Pop-Up? Here’s How ALA Did It

Capturing real-time visitor intent helped the Association of Legal Administrators guide more members to action and gather insights traditional tools missed.

New Website Engagement Features: Improved Analytics Are Here

Smarter targeting, better insights. Explore the latest Website Engagement updates, including real-time analytics and new behavior-based conditions.

PropFuel’s Formula: The Science Behind Better Member Engagement

It’s not luck, it’s psychology. See how PropFuel uses simplicity and surprise to boost engagement and cut through the noise.

How Website Personalization Drives Member Engagement for Associations

Associations are shifting from static sites to guided experiences. Discover how website personalization can enhance engagement and drive better results.

The Problem with Treating Renewals Like a Last-Minute Sales Push

If your renewal strategy starts 90 days out, you’re already behind. Learn how to earn member renewals year-round by building relationships that make renewal the obvious choice, not a desperate pitch.

How to Engage Every Generation Without Losing Your Mind (or Your Message)

Learn how to engage and retain a multi-generational membership using conversational engagement strategies that personalize onboarding, networking, and career support without creating five separate journeys.

Why Your Member Emails Aren’t Driving Engagement (And What to Do Instead)

Most associations blame “email fatigue” when members stop engaging, but the real problem isn’t your members; it’s one-way communication. In this post, we break down why sending more emails doesn’t equal engagement, what members actually want instead, and how a conversational approach can turn silence into meaningful responses.

What Works (and Why) in New Member Acquisition

Learn what’s actually working in new member acquisition today, with real examples of cross-channel strategies that turn anonymous prospects into engaged new members.

The Future of AI for Membership Teams

Membership teams are under more pressure than ever to grow, retain, and prove impact with fewer resources. This post explores how Membership AI is changing the game by unifying fragmented data, surfacing real-time engagement signals, and helping teams focus on the right members at the right moment. Learn how AI brings clarity, direction, and capacity to renewals, onboarding, acquisition, and beyond—without replacing the human touch.

What We Learned Talking Honestly About Online Community Engagement

Beyond the Binary: Why Members Lapse and How to Win Them Back Before They're Gone

78% of lapsed members didn't know they'd lapsed. Discover how VECCS used intent-based engagement to recover $286K in revenue and boost member retention by 22% in under seven months.

A New Conference Revenue Opportunity

A Closer Look at Mail Privacy Protection

It's been a few weeks since the release of iOS15, and we've been able to learn a bit more about what these changes mean beyond skewed open rates. Hint: if you're still relying on tracking your members' online activity to draw conclusions about what they need instead of just asking them, then MPP has real consequences that go beyond your open rates.

8 Trends That Will Engage Your Members

5 Ways to Increase Your Feedback Response Rate

5 New Features in PropFuel to Help you Drive Revenue

4 Ways to Improve Staff Engagement

3 Examples of How to Turn Data into Revenue

160 Questions to Ask Your Employees and Customers

12% Response Rate on a Website Pop-Up? Here's How ALA Did It

Capturing real-time visitor intent helped the Association of Legal Administrators guide more members to action and gather insights traditional tools missed.

1 Trend That is Changing Member Engagement

Effective Strategies for Member Engagement

This blog post discusses effective strategies for enhancing member engagement in organizations, focusing on understanding members, creating meaningful content, and encouraging participation.