Choosing the right membership management system is critical for any student organisation. Whether you are looking after 100 or 100,000 students, selecting the right system will help support, engage, and enhance your members’ experience while easing the administrative burden and freeing up time for your other tasks.

Of course, choosing a new system is some work in itself. It’s a big decision, and knowing what to look for is crucial to getting it right. That said, we wanted to help make things a little easier.

Why is membership management software essential for student organisations?

It may not be the highest thing on your list of priorities, but having quality membership management software is essential for your student organisations. Having a good system in place can help streamline operations, improve member engagement, improve communications, consolidate your data (removing silos) and provide you with insights into your students. Ultimately, they help you enhance the student experience.

With the “why” out of the way, let's move on to what to look for.

Five key things to consider when selecting the best solution for your organisation.

1. Ease of Use for Students and Staff

When it comes to membership management systems, ease of use is vital. Both your students and staff need a platform that’s intuitive and straightforward.

• User-friendly student interfaces: Your student members are often juggling their academic studies alongside their other activities, so your forward-facing system should be intuitive and needs to be easy to use. If students struggle with a confusing platform, engagement levels can drop. A simple (mobile-friendly – A big one in 2024) interface that allows members to sign up for events, book appointments or vote is essential.

• Ease for administrators: On the flip side, students and staff who access the admin side of things need a system that doesn’t require significant technical knowledge to use. It should streamline processes like membership tracking, event management, and communications without making them overall complicated.

2. Customisation and Flexibility

Every student union or organisation is unique. While you may share some common challenges as your sector colleagues, you also have your own specific needs. Customisation and flexibility in a membership management system allow you to tailor the platform to fit these varying requirements.

• Diverse membership types: Your system should be able to accommodate different types of memberships. Flexibility in structuring access levels or offering different membership tiers will ensure that all users receive the appropriate service. You also want a platform that can empower the leaders of each group to manage their members – so the burden doesn’t fall to your staff.

• Tailoring the experience: Students engage with their union or society in various ways, and your system should reflect that. A flexible membership system allows for personalised experiences where members can receive targeted information or resources based on their interests. This could be through customised event recommendations, tailored news updates, or even specific benefits for different member categories. If your student membership management platform can also facilitate the communications around these events, then even better.

• Just the things you need: You might not have every service offered by a membership solution. It's important that what is being shown solves your main concerns. For example, MSL offers a module approach. Our core offering allows for a well-rounded foundation. You can then build upon this with additional modules as and when you need them. If one of these modules is actually all you require, then they are available stand-alone. Giving you the flexibility to have what’s most important.

3. Seamless Integration with Existing Systems

To get the most out of your membership management system, it shouldn’t exist in a silo. To maximise efficiency and avoid duplicating efforts, it’s crucial that the system integrates seamlessly with your existing tools and platforms.

• Integration with university systems: Your university has a lot of information on your student members. Being able to integrate with this not only improves the data and insights you can gather but it also allows your students to benefit too – through Single Sign-on (SSO). With SSO, your students only need to remember one set of login details – removing barriers to entry for all the great things you do. It also means that they can use their student IDs to register for events, buy tickets and more.

If you’re at a student organisation that can’t utilise SSO, its important the system you choose has alternatives to capturing data and ensuring the process for both staff and students remains as simple as possible.

• Event and communication systems: Whether you’re using email marketing platforms, social media, or finance software, your membership management system should integrate with these to ensure all your operations are working in harmony.

4. Data and Reporting Capabilities

Data is an invaluable resource for any student organisation. The ability to track and analyse data can be the difference between good engagement and great. With data at your fingertips, you can make informed decisions and plans for the future.

• Tracking engagement: A good system will allow you to monitor how students are engaging with your organisation, whether it’s through event attendance, membership sales, volunteering hours logged or other activities. Knowing which events are popular and what services are most valued can help you tailor your offerings to meet student needs better.

• Data-driven decision-making: With access to accurate and detailed reports, student organisations can make data-driven decisions to improve operations. For instance, identifying trends in event attendance can inform future programming, while group feedback themes can help you identify and action patterns.

• Monitoring key metrics: Membership management systems should allow you to track key performance indicators, such as active members, engagement rates, financial transactions, and event participation. These insights can then be used to fine-tune activities and services, ensuring they continue to meet the evolving needs of students.

5. Member Engagement Tools and Communication

Keeping students engaged and informed is one of the most important aspects of successful engagement. Your membership management system should include tools that help you communicate effectively and foster a sense of community among members.

• Effective communication tools: Look for systems that offer multiple communication channels—email, SMS, and even social media integrations. Being able to reach your members in ways that are most convenient for them is critical to boosting engagement.

• Boosting participation: Engaging with students doesn’t stop at sending out emails. The best systems will help you foster a sense of community by making it easy for students to find and sign up for events, campaigns, or volunteering opportunities.

• Student voice: Communication is a two-way street and your students want to communicate with you and each too. Your membership management software should provide tools that allow your students to express themselves and their opinions. Surveys, polls and feedback are all great ways for your students to engage and share their thoughts on what’s going on and the things important to them.

Secret 6th consideration – Customer Support

Ok, we lied. We actually have 6 things to take into consideration when choosing a student management system, but we feel particularly passionate about this one.

When choosing your system, you want to make sure you have someone to turn too when you need help. At least they should have a support email, but ideally, a phone number or live chat is even better. When things need fixing you want the peace of mind that help isn’t far away.

We pride ourselves on our customer support at MSL. We support you during set-up with training and guidance. Then, when you’re all set up and ready to go we have a dedicated team for queries. You’ll also gain access to a support portal for raising tickets and live chats and a comprehensive knowledge base filled with page upon page of guides and insights to keep our clients on track!

Ready to choose a student membership management system

Selecting the right membership management system can significantly impact how student organisations operate, engage their members and the experiences students have at university. When choosing your system, be sure to take the above points into consideration.

With that in mind, why not consider MSL as your student membership system of choice?
 

MSL is a partner, not a vendor

Not to brag but we check all of those points above and more besides. When we work with you, we become your partner for success, working with you to ensure you can enrich and enhance the experience of every student.

Why not reach out to us and learn how you can join the MSL community?

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