Chamber Software

I was recently made fun of for saying "Google Analytics is cool!" I guess I could see someone saying that, but I could easily say the same thing about people who think hockey is cool. People tend be scared, and ridicule, what they don't understand and I don't know a thing about hockey - with the exception that David Beckham is the best player in the league, right?

Understanding your website is not only cool, it’s really smart.

If you're looking for way to uncover value from your association...

By Lauren Bashaw, Senior Manager of Customer Adoption

One of the best qualities about a full membership management software solution like WebLink is its ability to handle it all – your membership data, your event registrations, your aging reports, your website content – it’s a one-stop shop.  Unfortunately, this can cause some fun features and helpful tools to get overlooked in the day-to-day of managing your database.  As a trainer, I see several of these rise to the top as the most underused...

Managing your website analytics is already difficult, but when you don’t understand the traffic metrics, then it’s just about impossible.  Bounce rate is a commonly misunderstood metric.

What is a Bounce?

A bounce is a visitor who arrives on your site, views one page, and immediately leaves your website. By this definition, the bounce rate is the total number of visits with only one page view divided by the total number of visits to your site.

The key word in the definition is “page”.  Most people...

By Chris Phillips, Software Engineer/Systems Analyst

In these days of extreme internet availability, it’s hard to think back to a time before the internet was a large part of our lives - even though it’s barely been 20 years ago. In 1993 the World Wide Web standard had just been created and there were only 50 HTTP web hosts.  If you weren’t in academia at the time, there was a good chance you hadn’t even used the internet. 

Jump forward 20 years and we now use internet technologies constantly in...

By Tao Stadler, Senior Membership Management Executive

In a meeting a few months ago, my CEO, Terry Dwyer, made a point about progress that strongly resonated with me and has been in my mind ever since.

In discussing a feature that we all agreed would be a dramatic improvement for our association clients, a litany of reasons why it would be hard or even impossible to accomplish came rushing forward, as though months of research had already been done and the answer was set in stone.

After a few...

By Lauren Bashaw, Senior Manager of Customer Adoption

A common question we hear from our association management software clients is with such a robust AMS system, how can we be sure we are getting full value for ourselves and our members?  The simplest answer is to make sure your staff are well-trained on the features, functions, and best practices that will ensure your AMS success!

And your next thought – I can almost guarantee it – is “we don’t have time for training.”  In the association world,...

By Bryan Long, Relationship Manager

Is your chamber of commerce or business association website doing all it can to promote your members? Could you be improving member retention, generating more leads for members, producing more revenue, or even increasing event attendance with a more powerful website and online membership directory?

The single biggest reason businesses join your organization is to gain more business.  Through networking, professional learning opportunities and the exposure gained...

WebLink recently launched a brand new iPad app designed for associations and chambers of commerce using the WebLink Connect membership management system to conduct mobile commerce by accepting credit card payments for new memberships, current member invoices and event registrations when away from your office. The WebLink iPad app has only been out a few days, but the feedback has been amazing!

By streamlining the interface and workflow, we've created a intuitive tool for sales teams, events staff...

By Chad Bouslog, Membership Management Specialist

About 45 days ago, I was just like a lot of you reading this blog today. In fact, today, I’m probably similar to a lot of you as well, being human and all. But 45 days ago, I was introduced to WebLink International.  I wasn’t actively seeking new employment opportunities, so I probably wouldn’t have considered myself as a “hot lead” for the sales world.

Just the same, not every association or Chamber of Commerce that comes into contact with WebLink...

By Matthew Bugnacki, Membership Management Specialist

The What:

Recently my family and I were invited to a friend's house for breakfast. One of them asked if I would be writing another blog post for WebLink. I mentioned I would be writing one on dashboarding…silence…blank stares...I decided more information was needed. As I paused and searched for the best way to explain what I was writing about I asked myself whether or not this even applied to him; he’s a professional photographer. It did. In...

What is the one thing your Chamber of Commerce website can't do? Lose a prospective member of course!

If your website is the 24/7/365 salesperson it's supposed to be, you need to make sure there is no chance a prospect is going to walk away because they can't find your join button. This button will lead your site visitor to your defined target page to be a member. The resulting page can also serve as a sales pitch to why they should become a member and what the ROI is for membership.  Here is an...

By Mike Lobue, Membership Management Executive

If you are involved in technology decisions for your association, more likely than not, you’ve engaged with multiple vendors, each providing a separate technology solution. You’ve probably talked to a company that provides an association management software solution, while engaging with another that will handle your association website needs and another for your mobile app and so on. All the while being promised all the systems will ‘talk to’ and...

By Rory Beall, Membership Management Executive

When is the last time you reflected on your association’s membership management technology? Have you ever? Frequently, associations find themselves too busy preparing for the next big event, looking to add their next member or keeping existing members happy to do a thorough self-assessment of how they maintain their most important asset, their association membership database. Event history, financials and profile information of members,...

By now, you're probably sick and tired of PSY's Gangnam Style video. But after watching this video become the first in history to hit 1 billion views in December 2012, it's hard not to take notice of the explosion of online video. While your Chamber probably won't aspire to go viral on this scale, online video can have a tremendous impact on new member sales, member retention, and member engagement in your Chamber.

A recent infographic from SundaySky and research from comScore showcase the video...

Recently, my son was helping me with his homework (yes, you read that correctly!) and it made me think about ways that business associations and chambers of commerce can solve problems with their data.

His 5th grade class is learning pre-algebra using tokens and dice to represent the Xs and the Ys to help them "break down" the equations into manageable chunks and ultimately lead to the solution.  Being in my mid 40s, it took me a while to grasp the concepts, but once I did, it made understanding...

By Chris Landis, Vice President, Finance and Operations

As a decision maker in any organization, one of the most important decisions you make for the health and success of your association is related to the tools and technology in which to invest. Whether you are leading a Fortune 500 business, a professional association or a local Chamber of Commerce, the choice you make will have lasting implications on your staff, your budget, and the way you run your organization.

As an association management...

By Travis Tetrault, Membership Management Executive

Like most people, I will play the victim and blame software for performance issues and causing unwanted frustration. Time and time again when I reflect on the issue, it is proven to be a manual error and not the software causing the compounding frustration. I get it, taking responsibility for user error is difficult and almost inhuman (especially for the male species), but when you take the responsibility, a world of software opportunities...

By Matthew Bugnacki, Membership Management Specialist

Recently, while I was walking with my ten year old son around our neighborhood, we discovered a tree house that seemed to be falling out of its respective tree. The tree house was not uncared for. In fact, some of the boards seemed new while some seemed a bit worn with age. My son easily identified that there was a substantial problem with the tree house as it looked warped and about ready to collapse. This led to some very...

By Terry Dwyer, CEO

As 2013 begins, it is the perfect time to assess your association, set new goals and plans to lead your team, as well as your members, to success in the new year.  I use this time of year to quietly think through where I, as CEO, can have the greatest impact. This effort can take real discipline since, if you are like me, you might want to make sure “all the important items are included.”  Most of us will lean toward making this list too long and, as a result, find ourselves...