Association News

According to a new report from The UK Cards Association, the number of purchases using debit and credit cards has more than doubled in the past 10 years, as contactless payments and online retail have driven a change in the way consumers pay.

 

Debit and credit cards were used to make 16.4 billion purchases in 2016, up 146 per cent from 6.7 billion in 2006. It means that 518 card payments were made every second last year by cardholders both in the UK and travelling overseas.

 

Over the past decade the growth in the number of card transactions has outstripped the rise in the amount spent, showing consumers’ increasing preference for using cards instead of cash for lower value payments. Last year the average value of a card transaction fell to £43.47, its lowest level in 15 years.

 

The new report, UK Card Payments 2017, highlights the impact of the growth in online spending and contactless payments. By the end of 2016, four in 10 (39 per cent) card transactions were either online or made using a contactless card, compared to a quarter (24 per cent) the previous year.

 

Graham Peacop, Chief Executive of The UK Cards Association, said:

 

“Card payments play a central role in our economy, with spending equivalent to a third of the UK’s GDP. As consumers continue to make the switch from cash to contactless and with the rise of the app-economy, we forecast that the number of card payments will grow substantially over the next decade too.”

 

With card payments providing significant benefits to businesses, the number of retailers accepting cards increased to just over 1 million last year. The number of individual outlets accepting cards has jumped by 63 per cent in the last 10 years to 1.3 million in 2016.

 

A total of £709 billion was spent by UK debit and credit card holders both domestically and overseas last year. Debit cards represented 75% of this total, amounting to £530 billion. This month is the 30th anniversary of the introduction of the debit card to the UK.

 

Payment cards were used for three-quarters (77 per cent) of all retail spending in the UK last year. Cardholders spent the most on food and drink (£114 billion), followed by other services (£100 billion), financial services (£80 billion) and entertainment (£57 billion). A third of all card purchases in 2016 were made at supermarkets, while every fifth payment was on entertainment.

 

In 2016, there have been significant developments in the delivery of digital services to consumers, such as in-app purchasing and a new trend of fusing social media formats with payment capabilities.

 

In the next decade, the increasing use of contactless and mobile payments, particularly by younger people, will be a major source of growth for debit card payments, the report says.

 

The volume of debit card purchases is forecast to grow by 57 per cent to 18.2 billion in 2026, four times the number made in 2006. In a decade’s time, half of all debit card transactions (51 per cent) will be contactless. Credit card transactions are expected to increase to 3.7 billion by 2026.

http://www.theukcardsassociation.org.uk/news/CESFeb2017.asp

Association News

Organised by the charity First Story, education companies are coming together to celebrate creative writing across the UK, via many events, games and competitions…

 

Angela Byrne, UK Sales Manager, Prim-Ed Publishing Ltd:

 

“A celebration of writing! What more powerful way to promote a love of writing, and inspire the next generation of writers!

“As a platform for generating a community of young writers, a dedicated National Writing Day creates an impetus for children to write imaginatively for audiences within the classroom and beyond, and to develop and sustain this motivation. Through local, regional and national events, children are given the opportunity to work with writers, engage in workshops and be inspired by accompanying resources. These powerful energisers offer children the opportunity to find their own voice, to share the stories they write, to develop original ideas and explore possibilities through discussion, to use the power of their imagination and critically, instil a lifelong love of writing.”

 

She added: “As a publisher of teacher and pupil resources, it has been our privilege to contribute to children’s literacy learning across the UK and beyond. Prim-Ed Publishing resources are designed to inspire imaginative thought, and influence the quality of children’s writing. A love of writing is the single most powerful gift that a teacher can offer to pupils.”

 

Tonya Meers, Chief Storyteller, Little Creative Days Ltd:

 

“Writing can be used to convey information or as a means of relaxation. The pleasure you get from getting lost in a good book should not be underestimated. We would all be a lot poorer as a nation if we didn’t have those great authors and their stories. Whether it’s a classic, romance or psychological thriller the ability of those authors to tell a good story helps to enrich our lives.”

She added: “Being able to help inspire children to want to read and write, especially those reluctant readers and writers, is so rewarding and such a privilege.

“We always get a wonderful warm glow when we see children loving getting involved in our stories and seeing their excitement when we walk into a classroom with Pojo.”

 

Amanda Duncan, Founder, Scribeasy:

 

“Writing as a practice is vital for creative and holistic wellbeing. Words and how we use them affect almost every aspect of life.  

“Being able to articulate thoughts and seeing them on the page – to read them, to hear them – helps. The mind can use words to imagine, re-imagine, frame and re-frame; make connections. Being articulate and having an awareness of the impact of word choices are skills for life, which enable long-term opportunities and possibilities.”

 

Jon Smith, CEO and co-founder, Pobble:

 

“Writing is a critical skill for everyone – it helps us to communicate, to define and refine our own thoughts, and to express ourselves to the outside world.

“By celebrating writing in early years, we ensure that children understand the importance of developing their own personal communication skill set. We help to stimulate their creativity and self-esteem, and ultimately contribute to improving their ability to function as productive members of our society.”

Association News

The Creative Industries Federation – the national organisation for the creative industries, cultural education and the arts –  issued its General Election Statement on the 9^th June.

 

John Kampfner, chief executive of the Creative Industries Federation, said: “Today’s result raises concerns about the political stability of the UK in the short term. One thing is beyond doubt, however: Theresa May has seen that there is no clear mandate for the government to negotiate a hard Brexit.

 

“Federation members were 96 per cent in favour of remaining in the EU when surveyed before the referendum. They saw Brexit is a threat to the continued success of the creative industries, damaging growth and the UK’s global outlook. This general election vote now offers the opportunity to look at the issue again.

 

“The Federation will push for the UK to remain in the single market and the customs union and against undue restrictions on free movement, which we know will damage the capacity of the creative industries to deliver. Non-UK EU nationals are an important part of the creative economy.

 

“As we noted in our statement yesterday morning, as voters went to the polls, the Federation will work tirelessly to hold the new government, whatever shape it takes, to account.

 

“We will continue to advocate policies that maintain the UK creative industries’ competitive advantage and keep the nation outward-looking and international. It remains vital we secure the best possible deal for the sector during what will be a turbulent period of political and constitutional change.”

 

In subsequent remarks, a spokesman went on to criticise the ‘downgrading’ of the importance of the arts and the creative industries. Arts and culture have been separated from the creative industries in a restructure of ministerial responsibilities at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).  With former Culture and Digital Minister Matt Hancock’s remit slimmed to Digital, encompassing the creative industries, broadcasting and media, while arts and culture will now fall alongside heritage and tourism under the remit of Salisbury MP and first-time Minister John Glen. He will also take responsibility for public libraries, museums and the National Archives.

 

A CIF spokesperson is reported as saying: “The new ministerial titles and job descriptions at DCMS appear to downgrade the importance of the arts and creative industries and send a wrong signal about their importance.

 

“The creative industries are the fastest growing sector of the economy. The sector is generating jobs at three times the rate of employment in general.”

 

The spokesperson continued: “In terms of Britain’s global renown in the creative sector, there is no distinction between the publicly supported arts and commercial business.

 

“Policy-making should recognise that. Billions of pounds of revenues and our international success is built on both.”

 

It remains unclear what the changes will mean for the arts and culture in wider government policy, such as the upcoming industrial strategy, which cabinet ministers promised to put creative industries “at the heart” of.

 

http://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/arts-and-culture-downgraded-ministerial-restructure?utm_source=Weekly-News&utm_medium=email&utm_content=/news/arts-and-culture-downgraded-ministerial-restructure&utm_campaign=16th-June-2017

Association News

Breakfast event for non-profit organisations

 

Your members and supporters expect communications to be personal, relevant and engaging. The key to personalisation, relevance and engagement is data. And the key to having good data is integration – integration of your CRM and campaign email system.

For too many membership bodies and charities today, campaign email is a one-way street – the campaign emails are sent, but what the recipients do with them is a mystery to most users.

The benefits of modern, integrated engagement are clear:

• Improved relevance to members and supporters, increasing retention and revenue
• Improved understanding of member and supporter needs, leading to targeted services, cross-sell and up-sell
• Streamlined content and communications, saving time and money
• Improved business insight, resulting in timely decision-making and strategic management

The challenge is that many membership bodies and charities are working with systems that are not ‘joined up’ and which create barriers to staying competitive.

As independent consultants, many organisations are asking Hart Square…

• What does integrated engagement look like? What should I be aiming for?
• Do I upgrade my current systems, or replace them?
• What about integrating my CRM and campaign email systems?
• What is the rest of the sector doing?

This workshop will examine the questions above, and allow you to hear from other non-profit organisations who are addressing the challenge.

Hart Square will facilitate the discussion and help derive some answers for you.

Click here to register for free and read more about this event

Association News

Increasing member acquisition is an ongoing challenge for NFPs, membership organisations and associations. It was the number two goal for respondents to the MemberWise Digital Excellence Summary Report 2017, the number two goal in 2016 and the top goal in both 2014 and 2015.

 

Why is it a challenge? Because whilst there is a plethora of ways to approach member acquisition, who knows what really works and how do you measure it? Even if you can figure out what works, what do you do when it stops working?

 

However, I would like to share my thoughts on what for me, are the key elements of a successful member acquisition strategy:

 

1. Make sure that your target audience (i.e. your potential members) know your organisation exists.
2. Ensure that you provide the services and products that ‘matter’ to your potential members to demonstrate that your organisation is ‘relevant’ to them

 

Making sure that potential members know you exist may sound a little like ‘teaching your Grandmother to suck eggs’ but it’s surprising how few NFPs, membership organisations and associations have an effective brand awareness strategy.

 

ProTech recently worked with a professional body looking to implement a new CRM solution and as part of our initial approach to identify potential members and what mattered to them, we uncovered some alarming findings.

 

We liaised with a selected number of people working within the profession our client represented and the findings were disquieting because:

 

• 60% were not aware that our client existed.
• 46% belonged to a competitive membership organisation.

 

It was apparent that awareness of our client was an issue.

 

We asked the selected professionals what they would value i.e. what mattered to them, what products and services they really wanted, from a membership organisation that supported their profession. Their responses were straightforward and included:

 

• Networking opportunities.
• High quality training – both specific and complimentary.
• Accreditation pathways.
• Community based peer support.
• Continuous professional development (CPD).

 

These responses were worrying as the ‘services/products described were not part of our client’s overall business strategy. Its focus was on developing a broader range of qualifications with little understanding of its potential (and existing) members’ needs, particularly regarding options around CPD.

 

The relevance of our client to its prospective and potentially existing members was also an issue.

 

So what could our client do to ensure potential members knew it existed? It put a strategy in place to engage with new members and ensured that its website was aligned with its internet marketing strategy to easily facilitate member engagement. 

 

The key to reaching prospective members is good inbound marketing that uses digital marketing tools like content, search, social and email marketing. It must be based on publishing quality content that attracts visitors to a website – the content must encourage sharing.

 

The importance of successful SEO.

ProTech’s digital platform ProWeb, with its Umbraco Content Management System (CMS), played a key role in helping our client raise awareness of its existence and to expand its reach to potential members as Umbraco utilises a Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) checker. This enables verification that content created as part of an inbound marketing campaign would indeed enhance the prospects of it appearing towards the top of an internet search.

 

Additionally, ProTech has expertise in creating page types allied to different styles of content which enables visitors to land on our clients’ websites as a result of keyword searches elsewhere.

 

Umbraco allows our clients to embed different content types within a web page to ensure that content, such as video, is as engaging as possible encouraging visitors to remain on the page for the maximum amount of time.

 

Data is the key to delivering relevant content.

 

ProWeb also helps our clients ensure that they are relevant to both prospective and existing members. 

 

By fully integrating with ProTech’s specialist CRM software, ProWeb enables the all-important capture of data provided by visitors to our clients’ websites. ProTech enables the segmentation of the data so that potential and existing members with similar profiles and similar preferences can be sent content that is relevant to them.

 

This ability to harness the data captured enables our clients to target potential (and existing) members with events, products or services that are relevant to their specific job, the qualification they need to attain, the event they should attend, the professional paper they should read, etc.

 

So, to drive member acquisition make sure you choose a CRM solution that allows you to raise awareness of your NFP, membership organisation or association and then enables you to harness the data you capture about potential and existing members to ensure that your products and services are relevant to them. 

 

ProTech can help do both.

by Jenny Parsons, COO, ProTech