At increasing rates, associations and alumni organizations are launching Digital Membership Cards (also known as Digital Alumni Cards). Just what is a Digital Membership Card? Hosted in the mobile wallet, Digital Membership Cards are an easy way to provide digitally accessible member and alumni benefits. Already, leading institutions including University of Tennessee Alumni Association, University of Michigan Alumni Association, and Museums Association have begun issuing digital cards.
For organizations that traditionally issue physical membership cards, replacing paper or plastic cards with a low-lift mobile solution can provide enormous time and cost savings. However, that’s just the tip of the iceberg! For all associations, Digital Membership Cards offer fresh value and facilitate deeper constituent engagement in myriad ways, starting with dynamic “back of card text.”
What is Back-of-Card Text?
Unlike physical membership cards, digital cards offer special functionalities, including digital access to alumni and member benefits.
Within the mobile wallet, digital cards have a front and a back. Similar to a physical card, the front features the colors, logo, and branding you have selected, as well as each member’s name and information.
Digital Membership Cards can also be flipped over to reveal the back, which offers unlimited space to list key information, benefits, and more!
What Can You Include on the Back of Card?
Many associations use the back of their digital cards to list member benefits and discounts, upcoming events, special invitations, important links, and more. Moreover, this digital card text can be updated dynamically, and you can customize the text copy to different segments of your constituency, as well as include links and hyperlinks to more information.
For instance, if you have different alumni chapters or membership levels, you may wish to include special invitations to particular events. Perhaps you’d like to include personalized information for graduates based on their degree program or affinity. Or, maybe you’d like to target members by their professional affiliation. With back-of-card text, this is all possible. Here’s just a few examples:
“Go Team! Every Saturday from August 31st to December 7th, join your fellow Boston alums for a Game Watch Party @ 100 Main Street. Visit [INSERT LINK] for more information.”
“October 13th at 6PM EST, join fellow School of Pharmacy alumni for a virtual evening of networking - sign up here.”
“Donate today to the Black Alumni Association Scholarship Fund, and help provide assistance to students who have demonstrated a commitment to the culture, education, and history of the Black or African American community!”
With back-of-card-text, you can choose to update fields like Upcoming Events, Virtual Programming, and Opportunities to Give regularly, while some benefits, discounts, FAQs, and contact information may remain relatively static.
Why Use Back of Card Text?
In 2020, the VAESE Alumni Relations Benchmarking Study revealed that 75% of alumni associations “believe our organization needs to update the technology solutions/benefits we offer our alumni/ae.” With this in mind, offering convenient digital access to benefits can provide enormous value to alumni.
The same goes for associations! Increasingly, rolling out new products and services to members is becoming a top priority for membership associations: according to the MGI’s 2021 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report, an impressive 78% of associations reported that they developed new products and services to assist members and member companies over the past year.
Beyond this, for everyday consumers, interest in dynamic, mobile wallet-based loyalty solutions is becoming widespread. For example, recent research shows that 67% of adult smartphone users want a digital loyalty card, and 77% “were interested in having expired coupons automatically updated to new offers on their phone.” Just like a self-refreshing coupon, an easily updated digital card can afford alumni and members convenient and instant access to the latest discounts, events, and more!
As organizations work to meet the ever-changing expectations of their constituents, Digital Membership Cards can help facilitate the heightened engagement that institutions are striving to achieve.
Ready to get started? Schedule a free consultation with Cuseum today.