Today’s guest blogger is Cuseum, an online platform for museum visitor engagement.

The world around us has been undergoing a radical digital transformation right before our eyes. Technology has changed the way we communicate, socialize, see the world, and much more. By 2020, the workforce is going to be dominated by millenials, which will bring us even further into the digital age. Museums might contain artifacts and stories from the past, but that doesn’t mean they’re not getting on board with the technology trends of today and the future. Every department at museums is following along with these trends, and even membership departments stand to benefit from going digital.

At Cuseum, we’re strong believers in digital membership, and we specialize in helping organizations leverage technology to engage their audiences more dynamically. Wondering whether digital membership cards live up to the hype? Here are the top three reasons going digital can give your org the boost it needs.

**Save Your Resources**

Membership is an important source of revenue for natural history museums and nature centers. From the steady income that comes from dues and renewals to the heightened engagement and increased donations that membership programs bring, membership is vital for keeping these organizations afloat.

But as anyone involved in administration knows, there’s a flip side: the manual and tedious chore of membership service. Membership onboarding is time-consuming and expensive. After a visitor signs up, the process of syncing membership information across databases, sending print requests, assembling the welcome packages, and shipping via snail mail can take up to weeks and involve a huge amount of production and labor.

But membership doesn’t have to involve this kind of drudgery. By going digital, you can put an end to the endless tedium of envelope-stuffing and save time, money, and paper.

Don’t believe us yet? Hear it from one of our clients, Cheekwood Botanical Gardens: “We modernized our membership program by integrating digital membership cards, saving $50,000 per year in operating costs and reducing the amount of plastic going into the environment.”

**Strengthen Your Values**

At Cuseum, we’ve been partnering with an increasing number of natural history museums, nature centers, zoos, and aquariums whose commitment to the environment is a core part of their mission. If sustainability, stewardship, and environmental education are what your organization stands for, switching to digital membership cards can be an effective way to practice what you preach. According to Clearwater Marine Aquarium, digital membership cards have been “a great match for our new annual pass because we’re an environmental organization, and the administrative function of printing, reprinting and issuing membership cards is really cumbersome and tedious.”

In recent months, we’ve worked with the Florida Museum of Natural History, the Fernbank Museum of Natural History, and the Carolina Raptor Center to introduce digital membership cards. Going digital is key to eliminating the paper and plastic waste that goes along with physical membership cards and sending out countless snail-mail solicitations to your members. Check out here justhow you can go green with digital membership cards!

**Speak the Language of Your Members**

More than ever, your members are all about convenience, and digital membership cards deliver just that. Digital cards can be sent via email or text message, with just a single tap to add them to the mobile wallet. Once they’re downloaded, they can hang out in members’ mobile wallet (on iPhone or Android), where they take up less storage than a single photo.

Your members will love this how easy this is, and we have the stats to prove it.More than half of consumers have used a mobile wallet pass and 69% of consumers are more likely to use a mobile loyalty card when it’s on their phone. What’s more, digital membership cards fix the two major hiccups that go along with membership and loyalty program participation: members forgetting that they’re even members (40%), and members forgetting their physical membership cards (43%). Digital cards can send push notifications straight to your members, and people carry their smartphones with them everywhere they go. Problem solved!

One of our partners at the San Francisco Parks Alliance put it best: “Printed membership cards are so 1990!” Going digital is the key to streamlining your organization, strengthening your values, and staying with the times to give your members what they want. Now is the time to take action and think about which digital membership launch strategy is right for your org!