What is Digital Engagement?

So what’s the difference between digital delivery and digital engagement?  It’s huge!

I sat in a conference several months back with some leading organizations sharing their digital strategy.  The ideas were great but it continues to be impressed upon me that there is a critical difference between delivery and engagement.  And from all of those presentations… I heard 100% delivery in the world of digital.  

Okay, so partially, that’s to be expected.  The digital space is largely a place to “delivery” or pushes the content/resources you have available.  And we most commonly think of engagement as being more in person and not in the digital space.  

I would offer the foundation that digital should always lead to interpersonal in-person connections… but we’ll save that for another discussion.

Most organizations have a digital strategy that’s 100% delivery.  

Most digital strategies look like this:

• Blog postings

• Facebook postings

• Instagram postings

• Twitter postings

• LinkedIn postings

• Webinars

• Virtual events

• Websites

Most digital strategies do NOT look like:

• Conversations

• Guiding people down a path

• Connecting people with each other

• Being responsive to the needs of others

• Making great connections

• People forming groups

• People moving from digital to interpersonal in-person connections

So this is where you have a choice.  Do you want to be all about running a digital delivery strategy or a digital engagement strategy.  And yes, it’s a choice.  Digital engagement is going to take more work but you’re also going to see greater results.  Here are some building blocks to help you start down this path.

• Define your Difference - start by defining what you mean by both digital delivery and digital engagement.  It’s good to have both and even if you’re great at engagement, you still need the delivery part.  Just don’t leave off the engagement!  

• Build a Path - create a path for where you are leading people and how you are guiding them there.  The path will help you (and your community) to see the direction forward. 

• Drive to Connections - the best way to wrap your mind around digital engagement is to think about personal connections.  What connections would you like to see people make and then reverse engineer how to get there.  

• Try Things - there’s no silver bullet for what digital engagement looks like and it’s often very different per each organization.  Dream up a few things and give them a try.  

I’ll close with this.  I truly believe you have a duty, stewardship, and responsibility to help nurture and engage your audience (with you and with each other).  May I challenge you to think well beyond the realm of just digital delivery.  It’s work but the rewards are amazing.

Cause Machine Solutions

The Cause Machine platform is built on a philosophy of digital engagement and a drive to see each community moving members from online connections to in-person connections.  While we love the benefits of what technology can bring to our lives… we believe nothing can bring more life to us as humans than connecting with each other.  That’s why we’ve built every piece of this platform with that goal in mind.  Schedule a demo today!

I’m not sure if you’re a church-goer or not, but that doesn’t matter.  I think all of us can picture a church with a choir singing and those people in the choir wearing choir robes.  And I think most of us think “wow, choir robes are so outdated”.  But here’s the point… at some point choir robes were a great idea, new, innovative, and people got excited about them.  I think if we unpack that story more we would go back in time to find there was some good reason for churches introducing choir robes and whatever that reason might have been… I’d put good money we probably still agree with the heart behind it… just not how it’s currently expressed.  

That’s the difference between the Principle - Method concept and the desperate need for leaders to help guide us to the principle over the method.  Let me try and better define this.

Principle - the reason, purpose, and vision for what could be.

Method - the tangible, strategy, and an executable way to bring a principle to life.

And here’s the key thing to know about the Principle - Method concept… principles never change while methods constantly change.  My challenge to you is to fall in love with the principles of what you more than your methods.  You will become a dinosaur if you fall in love with your methods.  They grow old and extinct.  

Think about the principle of needing to move/travel and all the methods - horse and buggy, train, car, plane, etc.

Think about the history of war - bow and arrow, gun, planes, drones, etc.

Think about communicating with each other - the pony express, telegrams, rotary dial phones, smartphones, etc.

Alright, why am I spending so much time making this point?  Methods are like gravity… they have this vortex-like a black hole.  Once methods are launched, we want to fight to keep them alive.  There’s often identity found in a method.  Creating new methods is difficult.  I’ll say it like this… methods are simpler while leading to principle takes a lot of work.  That’s why I challenge leaders to drive back to the principles that drive their methods.  Constantly evaluate if your methods are the best methods to activate your principles.  

Great leaders help guide their teams to re-invent and fall in love with the principles that drive things.  May I encourage you to do the same!

Cause Machine Solutions

The Cause Machine platform provides an environment to explore various methods of engagement with your constituents.  It’s your role to refine your principles for engagement.  Once you have, Cause Machine offers the means to deliver on the methods you narrow down engagement.  Schedule a demo today!

Event management isn’t easy. Event management software can be even more difficult to grasp. Things change so much and so often. I want to give you a look behind the curtain of event management software for this post. 

When it comes to event management and software, there are seven secrets I want you to be aware of. I think knowing these seven secrets will give you the advantage you need to thrive with your ministry or business. 

7 secrets behind the curtain of event management software 

Secret #1: Ask the right questions. 

You no doubt have lots of questions when it comes to event management and software. Let I talked about recently when it comes to online membership management software, asking the right questions for you and your ministry or business is important. Asking the right questions early and often can set you on the right course for success—and have you not get on the wrong track to start with!

Here are just a few questions you should be asking:

• What do I need my event software to do most?

• What experience do I want an event attendee to have?

• Who all is involved in my event—from attendee to manager to post-event?

• What is each person (or group) at my event looking for?

• How is my event different from other events?

• What tools do I need for my exhibitors?

• What tools do I need for my speakers?

Secret #2: Know the features that matter to you. 

With so many unique features to look for, what should you look for and what features are the things you might consider as part of your event strategy? 

I have a few ideas of some features that are both important and what features that might matter to you: 

• Turning event attendees into members (memberships)

• Keeping them engaged after the event in a group

• Ability to recommend content, exhibitors, and other attendees to participants

Secret #3: Know the tools that get the job done.

There are so many tools. Depending on which software you’re using, it’s tough to know what’s most important. Here are a few tools I’d consider to be core event module tools that are worth your time to review:

• Analytics and Reporting

• Financial Management

• Attendee Registrations

• Exhibitor Registrations

• Speaker Management

• Volunteer Management

• Email and Communication

• Live or Virtual Facilitation

Secret #4 It’s about your attendee's experience.

From the start of marketing your event, through the actual event, and on to post-event experience for your attendees, there are many things that are a must for your attendees when it comes to the event experience. 

It’s important you know what type of experience you’re hoping to deliver to your attendees. Here’s teh way to frame your attendee’s experience. I think of the experience in three stages: 

1. Preparing people well before the event

2. Creating a great live/virtual experience

3. Following up well after the event

Secret #5 Have the bigger picture in mind.

This is big! Is what you’re planning just an event or are you inviting people into more? I asked this to a 20,000 person event a few years back—one that has a global legacy—and they said they were simply an event and not a movement. Sadly, I think most events think the same way.  

But if your event is leaving a lasting impression and building a tribe then you certainly might have a movement on your hands. It’s all a matter of perspective. Is your event only about getting the most people to attend that you can? Is an event a one-and-done experience for people or some obligation or is your event a stepping stone to what’s next? Challenge yourself to consider shaping your events for the purpose of creating a movement. What do you have to lose?

Secret #6 Integrations are important. 

Integrating data is important. I’ve listed here a few vital questions worth your time at this state. 

What data do you need to bring over from your events to systems like CRM or automated marketing tools?

How is that data going to move from the event to the other system?

A few examples of what you might use are as follows:

• API

• Zapier

• Manual export and import

What data is actually needed? Seriously, ask yourself what you’re going to do with each and every piece of data before building any integrations. Unless the data is useful, you can get in trouble and spend lots of money and not have useful insights.

What best practices will you want to follow -- that will need integrations?

• Email automation: Create attendee drip campaigns once registered

• Contact information: Logging attendee data in your CRM system

• Text: Sending attendees text messages

• Event to CRM: Adding attendee to general marketing communications

Secret #7 Know your budget. 

I saved the best for last! Setting a budget is the best thing people forget to start with when it comes to event management software. Don’t start shopping before you have a handle on your budget. Keep that figure close in your pocket. 

Every event platform is different in how they charge, some things to consider:

1. Subscription costs - monthly, quarterly, annually -- many cases -- the longer you subscribe the lower the expense. 

2. Contract lengths

3. Per ticket charges

4. Exhibitor lead capture charges

5. Number of contacts expense

6. API charges

7. Zapier charges

So, we’ve covered a ton in this post. Did these secrets spur you to think? Trust me, if you start with asking the right questions, if you know the features that matter most to you, if you know the tools that fit your needs if you make things about your attendees' experience, if you start and keep the bigger picture in mind, if you understand the importance of integrations, and you keep your budget in front of you, you will thrive knowing you have done your due diligence when it comes to event management software. 

Need more help taking your community digital?

You want to have a dynamic and multi-dimensional community that thrives. In order to do that, you need a strategy of both online and offline engagement. This guide will help you think through your approach to engaging a virtual community. Download the free eBook: How to Take Your Community Digital.

About the author: Will Rogers is the Founder and CEO of CauseMachine. Will’s career has been spent leading organizations and helping to mobilize communities to a shared vision. He has served in various leadership roles to build community engagement and movements teaching him valuable hands-on skills and experience. Will has developed business and community engagement strategies for dozens of organizations in nearly 50 countries. He and his wife have two sons and now live in Kentucky after two decades in Colorado.

So you’ve built a thriving community around a bold cause or brilliant product. Great work! But you’re not done yet.

As your project scales up, one of the most powerful tools you can implement is a membership site, turning “users” into members, driving engagement to your cause… and even monetizing your work.

With the creator economy growing, all sorts of businesses use membership sites – which is really just website that features some sort of “gate,” beyond which only members can pass. 

Artists and influencers, nonprofit organizations, social clubs, associations, even retail businesses use these since they all need to present content that only members have access to. That could be special sales and exclusive products, digital classes, or even just a newsletter, and these memberships don’t even have to be paid – they could just involve opting in. But the point is this: Being a member comes with special privileges… and added consumer value.

From your perspective, this added value is the key. It can lead to more revenue for your business, repeat visitors to your site, longer session times, and greater sales numbers – and plus, you could even add a revenue stream if the memberships are paid. But like anything, there are different methods to building a great membership site for your community, and different strengths to each approach. 

3 popular membership site approaches:

1. WPQuickStart

WPQuickStart for Membership Sites is a plug-in service designed especially for WordPress – the website builder used by almost half of all websites worldwide. If you already have a website, and it’s running on WordPress, this offers a way to add membership functionality.

Key Features 

• Fast and easy set-up
• Multi-level subscription packages
• Built-in tools for payment, marketing, and analytics
• WordPress Security

2. CMS Hub from Hubspot

On the other hand, creating a membership site using CMS Hub from Hubspot can help you create a customized experience. More than a plug-in that works with your WordPress website, this standalone content management system is fully hosted by Hubspot (and fully integrated with its marketing, sales, and service tools). The possibilities are endless. You can create multiple membership tiers, with unique perks included in each. But the downside is higher cost – and the fact that one-of-a-kind creations take time and expertise. 

Key Features 

• Hubspot hosting and systems integration
• Full design flexibility
• No plug-ins necessary
• Personalize membership experience

3. WildApricot

Creating a connected membership site usually comes down to whether or not the platform can truly meet your needs. Another solution that has membership capability is WildApricot. WildApricot has a variety of ways to build and run your community. One is a built-in member database that allows you to manage how members interact with one another, share exclusive member-only content and more. You can create multiple tiers of membership and encourage users to join up with membership applications. WildApricot is a solid option for launching a membership site.

Key Features 

• Member database
• Event management
• Mobile app
• Online store

Transitioning from casual users into highly-engaged members is crucial to growth and monetization, and so is using the right platform to do it. Ideally, you’d keep everything from website building to e-learning and membership controls in one place (with a little marketing prowess and analytics thrown in), so you don’t have to piece your digital footprint together. 

Get Started With Cause Machine

Starting with a community engagement strategy is the secret to building a successful platform in the long term. Cause Machine helps customers build the plan of engaging a community well and then begin mapping out the technology to help support that strategy. We’re certain that you’ll find some great resources and powerful tools in Cause Machine to better engage your community. Learn how it can work for you here.

For any nonprofit organization, events are a big deal. Landing somewhere between the lifeblood and litmus test, each one is simultaneously the best chance to promote your mission, network with potential supporters, and raise funds. But as important as they are, running an event management software for a non-profit can be very challenging. 

So many things must be skillfully addressed, from promotion and registration to ticketing, day-of communication, seating, and more. That’s why having the right event management software is so important.

Discover how Cause Machine can help you manage events and keep attendees engaged in between.
 

The right event management software for nonprofits helps ease a painstaking process, getting more people in the door and making the event itself impact attendees. These days, event managers know the right tools can even help raise more money, simply because the event-going experience is so much better. Ultimately, if your business has an all-in-one solution event management software that will let donors know your nonprofit has its act together, it's worthy of support.
 

Here are 5 things you should look for when choosing event management software:

1. Mobile responsive website design 

2. Easy registration and promotional tools

3. Engaging and authoritative day-of communications

4. Highlight speakers and exhibits

5. Convert attendees into community members 

6. Host virtual events 

The best event management software for nonprofits [Top 5]:

1. Wild Apricot

Wild Apricot is an event management platform meant to de-mystify the hosting of a nonprofit event, from website creation to payment processing, email reminders and post-event reporting. 

Key Features:

• Free app featuring mobile registration and payments for users
• Fully searchable contact database for managers
• Easy to use website builder

2. Eventbrite

Already a trusted name in the event space, Eventbrite also offers software tailored to nonprofit needs. Along with a free registration app, managers can employ Eventbrite's full suite of promotional tools.

Key Features:

• Easy to use and trusted by both managers and attendees
• Built-in marketing and promotion tools
• Ticket sales on your own site
   

 
3. Cvent

Sometimes effective event management comes down to effective time management, and in that case, Cvent can help. This software automates many of things needed to run a successful event, so you can focus elsewhere.

Key Features:

• Automated marketing, registration, and analytics
• No need to be a techno-wizard 
• Workflow management

4. Bizzabo

Bizzabo is another useful example of event management software for nonprofits, aimed at impressing attendees in the run up, and thrilling on the day of. But what about after everyone goes home?

Key Features:

• Website builder with smooth ticket selling and registration
• Mobile compatibility with user-friendly feel 
• Hybrid events

5. Eventzilla

It’s true that any event can become a monster, but with Eventzilla, managers can minimize the carnage. This full-service software handles everything from ticketing to reserved seating. 

Key Features:

• Mobile or print-at-home ticket
• Barcode scanning and registration
• Seemless checkout

Whatever event management software for nonprofits you choose, it’s sure to make your next event run smoother – and help improve results. But for something so essential to nonprofit success, the right platform is key.
 

Get Started With Cause Machine

Starting with a community engagement strategy is the secret to building a successful platform in the long term. Cause Machine helps customers build the plan of engaging a community well and then begin mapping out the technology to help support that strategy. We’re certain that you’ll find some great resources and powerful tools in Cause Machine to better engage your community. Learn how it can work for you here.