How your trade association or membership organization can use Matchmaking CRM

• What is a membership organization and why personal introductions matter more than ever before especially for membership organizations?
• What is matchmaking and how to use Matchmaking CRM software for making personal introductions?
• Why use SmartMatchApp as your primary networking and introduction database tool for your business?

What is an association or membership organization model?

This might seem like a pretty broad question and, truth be told, it is. According to the Internal Revenue Service, an association is defined as a group of persons banded together for a specific purpose’. This, as you’ve probably realized, includes almost every kind of organization from sports clubs to matchmaking services. If you pay a membership fee or just have to sign up, it's probably a member’s association of some kind.

This means that member clubs and organizations are pretty much everywhere you look, and they’re only growing in number. According to the Economist,  subscription and membership models are the darlings of the modern business world, allowing businesses to bypass vendors and deliver goods and services directly to customers while also building a stronger and often more long-term relationship with them.

Have you got Netflix? Amazon Prime? Perhaps you get food delivered by companies like HelloFresh? Or maybe you’re old school and just get your newspapers and magazines delivered every day, week, or month? Every single one of those is a membership or subscription-based model.

So now, as well as sports clubs and trade associations, thousands of businesses are becoming membership organizations as well. It’s a model that works, and it works well.

What’s the goal of a member’s association?

Professional personal introductions matter more now than ever before, and membership associations are there to help their clients make those connections.

In any business, aiming to turn a profit is a good place to start. For some companies, that might mean selling products from a shopfront or stall. For others, it might mean being hired by some big-ticket companies or landing some blue-chip accounts.

For membership organizations and trade associations, turning a profit means getting and keeping members.  Every association and membership organization wants to increase its member value proposition, improve engagement, and get new customers interested in signing up or subscribing. Not only is every new member a source of direct income for the organization, but every new customer is also an extra person who will advertise the association by word of mouth, thus bringing in even more revenue.

In 2021, one particular kind of membership organization is taking the business world by storm – professional connections organizations. These are organizations that specialize in providing a very particular service to their members – introducing them to other members. You might be familiar with the idea in the context of romantic matchmaking, but these days the role of a member association can go well beyond that. Businesses can meet clients, startups can meet investors, managers can meet potential hires. Professional connections matter more now than ever before, and membership associations are there to help their clients make those connections.

This is why one of the fundamental aims of a member’s organization is usually to increase communication channels across their member base, making it as easy as possible for members to communicate with each other, as well as making it far easier for the organization itself to distribute information and advertising to its entire membership.

What is Matchmaking? Matchmaking is all about making personal introductions.

Matchmaking is all about making introductions. Now, you might be thinking that the only kind of connection we mean is the Romeo and Juliet kind, right? It’s a fair assumption. The online dating industry is reportedly worth almost $3.5billion and almost everyone knows about services like Tinder or OKCupid. But it turns out there’s a lot more to the matchmaking industry than you might think.

Matchmaking in 2021 is way more than boy meets girl, or girl meets girl, or boy meets boy or any other variation on a romantic relationship. As wonderful as it is to leverage the powers of technology to help people find love, beyond the world of online dating, the matchmaking concept and business model can be used for B2B Matchmaking, Investor Matchmaking, Business Speed Dating, or Brokerage Events. Matchmaking can be used to make sure clients find the right providers, businesses find the right personnel, and investors find the right project.

Taking inspiration from online dating, professional matchmaking through member associations allows organizations to introduce people and businesses in a more meaningful, personal, and productive way. By taking information about all involved parties, matchmaking models can ensure that the connections made by your association are the right ones, with as much chance of leading to successful business relationships as possible.

Think of it this way – the more successful a member association is at making connections, the more customers will find valuable professional partnerships, and the more successful they will become. This means that they will not only advertise the association by word of mouth, but simply by being successful in their own industries, they will serve as shining examples of what professional matchmaking, and the associations that use it, can do. This will likely bring in even more members which will, in turn, make you and your association more money in the process.

Self-fulfilling advertisement… cool, right?

Sounds great, but have you got any examples?

Of course, we do! You didn’t think we would tell you all of this stuff without backing it up, did you?

Let us introduce you to Lunchclub, one of the shining examples of professional matchmaking in action right now. The basic premise is simple, just like we described above. Professionals and businesses sign up to Lunchclub and then the organization’s AI sets to work introducing members to each other based on relevant information and requirements. They let members decide who, if anyone, they would like to meet, and then Lunchclub sets up a 45 minute 1:1 meeting for the members to get chatting.

That’s it.

Simple, isn’t it?

And yet, CNBC reported at the end of last year that the company, a 15-person start-up, had been valued at $100million.

$100 million just for introducing people…

Turns out matchmaking is worth billions outside of online dating too. And we bet that you’d like to get in on that action, right?

How to apply matchmaking CRM to boost your association’s membership and revenue

So now we come to the important stuff – how can you use this information to improve your business and how can we help you do it?

That’s where matchmaking CRM comes in. CRM (customer relationship management) software is an absolute game changer in the matchmaking industry. It’s what allows you to collect clients' data, manage and utilize it efficiently, and then implement matches accordingly. Regardless of what or who you’re trying to match, a good CRM system is probably going to be the difference between cutting yourself a piece of that growing industry pie or getting overtaken in the race to the future.

Now is the time to be investing in your matchmaking members association. The future of the industry is being built today.

Matchmaking CRM software, which we offer here at SmartMatchApp, allows matchmakers of all kinds to personally and automatically match members together with ease and consistency. Each and every one of those matches has the potential to become a successful and meaningful professional relationship, driving members' interests and, therefore, revenue towards your association or organization.

In an industry where making the right matches is the name of the game, a top-of-the-range CRM system is the number one way to rig the system in your favor.  A good system like SmartMatchApp takes the heavy lifting out of matchmaking so that you can focus on building relationships with your members, while they build relationships with each other.

Coming full circle with matchmaking and personal introductions 

Like we said at the very start of this article, the value of a trade organization or membership association is in its members. As the world moves ever more towards subscription and membership-based models, the ability to use and manage the information given to you to make the very best matches possible is vital. Members stay where they are best looked after and where they get the most value for their money, and with SmartMatchApp we know that we can offer you the very best CRM system for a reasonable price.

The beauty of membership models is that, when managed correctly, your members act as free advertising for your brand, bringing in new members simply by telling everyone about your business and how well it worked for them. To truly cash in on this effect, and to dramatically increase your membership and revenue, you have to be offering the best professional matchmaking service available. With the help of SmartMatchApp, we’re confident we can help you get there.

Visit SmartMatchApp to get a demo and set up a matchmaking CRM process and white label for your own association and membership organization, taking your very first step on the road to more members, more money, and more success.