The Ultimate Guide To Digital Membership Cards For Your Club

Growing up on my family farm, we had this ancient old trike, which I remember being red or at least that it had once been red. I also specifically remember that it had 125cc. I remember this because it meant it was technically more powerful than either of my cousins’ bikes, which were a PeeWee 50 and a PeeWee 80, a fact I clung to despite the fact that the trike was slower than Evolution. 

Often, while I was struggling to keep up with the boys on their bikes, I would push the trike too hard and crash it. Not once did one of the crashes hurt the trike. It was bulletproof. It had been crashed into a dam more than once by multiple different people and rolled countless times. I think I personally rolled it at least a dozen times, and I once crashed it through the wall of the dairy (I was an enthusiastic but untalented motorcyclist as a six-year-old) and despite all this, it never faltered. It would start the first time, every time. Why? I have no idea it was just the hardest thing in existence. 

So, I wrote the above, having genuinely no memory of what brand the trike was, but after a lot of Googling, I found it. It was a Suzuki ALT 125. I'm not sure what year, but it was an early to mid-80s model. 

 

 

By now, you’re probably asking why I am rabbiting on about a trike in this article about digital membership cards, and that’s a fair question. Old-fashioned plastic membership cards, like that old red-orange trike, might seem like an awesome classic when viewed through the lens of nostalgia, but in reality, they are impractical, expensive, time-consuming and bad for the environment. They can be updated to a much newer, easier and more versatile version for much cheaper.

So, let’s talk about that newer, cheaper, better version; digital membership cards. This article will cover in detail anything and everything you need to know about digital membership cards. My goal is to make this your one-stop shop for all your digital membership card-related queries. 

Also, it’s important to note that we at Member Jungle provide digital membership cards, both by themselves and as a part of our complete membership management system, so I will often refer to how the cards work in our system. However, I want to take this opportunity to assure you that this article isn’t just about our cards and that we aren’t the only provider of digital membership cards. There are other companies that provide them and do a great job of doing so. I’m basically just letting you know that everything in this article will still be useful and relevant to you, even if you do decide to get your membership cards elsewhere.   

For now, though, let’s break down every aspect of digital membership cards.

 

 

In this article, we will cover the following topics: 

 

• What Are Digital Membership Cards? 
• The Benefits Of Digital Membership Cards
  • They Utilise Modern Technology 
  • Digital Membership Cards Can Be Updated For Free
  • Digital Membership Cards Are Cheap
  • They are Better For The Environment
     
• Digital Membership Cards For Member Check-In 
• Custom Digital Membership Card Design Options
  • Standard Designed Digital Membership Cards
  • Custom Designed Digital Membership Cards
  • Custom Configured Digital Membership Cards
     
• How You Can Get Digital Membership Cards For Your Club

 

What Are Digital Membership Cards? 

Digital membership cards are virtual versions of traditional plastic membership cards. They are accessible via smart devices like smartphones or tablets. They offer the same functions as physical cards but with added convenience and features. They can display essential member information, including: 

• Member Name
• Membership Level
• Membership Expiry Date
• Club Name
• Member Number
• Region

Member Jungle’s digital membership cards also include scannable elements like barcodes or QR codes. These codes allow the cards to be scanned with the integrated Member Jungle mobile app to enable easy member check-in at events. They can also be integrated and scanned with point-of-sale (POS) systems to help streamline tracking member rewards and discounts. Some other digital membership card providers may or may not provide these features. 

They eliminate the need for physical card distribution, reduce costs, and enhance the overall membership experience. As standard, they are accessed via the Member Jungle app or if you would like you have the option of saving them to your Apple and Google Wallets. 

 

 

Member Jungle’s digital membership cards can also be displayed on Apple and Google smartwatches, giving your members another easy way to use them for event check-ins. 

 

 

So, that’s just a quick overview of digital membership cards. Let’s now get into the nitty-gritty. 

The Benefits Of Digital Membership Cards  

They Utilise Modern Technology 

The first and most obvious benefit of digital membership cards is that they are digital. Unlike old plastic cards, digital cards cannot be lost, worn down, broken, chewed up by a dog or a baby, set fire to or just generally fall apart from everyday use. Digital membership cards simply live on your phone. As long as you have battery and reception, they will always be accessible. 

According to research, 76% of people 65 and over have smartphones, 89% of those between 50 and 64 have smartphones, and 97% of adults younger than 50 have smartphones. The point is that no matter the age demographics of your club or association, the vast majority of members will have phones capable of displaying digital membership cards. 

Digital Membership Cards Can Be Updated For Free

Another significant benefit of digital cards is that they can be updated anytime with just a few clicks of a button. With plastic cards, if a member’s renewal date changes, they change membership levels, or any other host of things happen. You must get a new card made and posted to the member. However, if a member’s details change with digital membership cards, their membership card will automatically update to match. It’s that simple. 

So, with plastic cards, when your members renew their memberships, you will need to get new cards printed out and posted to them. Which is an expensive and time-consuming way to do business. With digital membership cards, whenever a member renews their membership, changes member levels or does anything else that will affect one of the fields on the membership card, the Member Jungle system will automatically generate an updated card. Neither you nor the member needs to do or pay anything to make it happen. Which is much easier and cheaper. 

Not only do digital membership cards automatically update when a member changes their details, but you, as an admin, can give your membership cards a quick refresh whenever needed. Whether that’s refreshing the cards every so often or customising them to better match the season, it is all just a click away. I mean, who doesn’t want to give their membership cards a spooky Halloween makeover for October or make them feel all Christmassy for December? 

 

 

Doing that is completely free, too. However, if you want bigger design changes, you can pay a one-off fee to us, and we can professionally design your cards to make them customised to your brand and needs. There will be more on this later in the article.  

Digital Membership Cards Are Cheap

We briefly touched on it above, but plastic membership cards can be pretty expensive. You need to get them designed, printed, and sent to you and then to your members. 

Let’s break the costs down quickly. I checked out a bunch of different companies that print plastic membership cards and got a range of prices. As expected, there was a range of different pricing, design options and optional extras like QR codes and barcodes, and one even charged extra for having cards made in full colour. So, an average price is hard to pin down, but I would say between $3 to $5 per membership card was about the average I found. That said, getting a plastic card with all the features of a digital one will likely push the price towards, if not past, $5 per card. Then, finally, you need to add the cost of posting your membership cards to your members. 

So let’s say $5 per plastic member card; I found a pack of 500 envelopes at Officeworks for $24, which makes envelopes worth 4 cents each, so basically nothing; Australia Post currently says it’s $1.50 to send a small envelope. So, printing and posting membership cards will cost roughly $6.54 per card. So times $6.54 by the number of members you have, and that’s about the cost of plastic cards. So, a club with 500 members is looking at $3,270 a year to send out new plastic membership cards and that’s before replacing lost or damaged ones.  

For comparison, digital membership cards are a free part of the Member Jungle membership management system. 

Even if you didn’t want the whole Member Jungle system and were only interested in the membership cards, you could still buy them for only $109 per month. This works out to $1,308 per year, saving your club $1,962 per year. Saving $1,962 per year is massive; think about all the ways you’d be able to help improve and grow your club with an extra nearly two grand a year.   

My dog only cost $50, so with an extra $2K a year, you could start an army of Staffies X unknown fluffy gremlins. AKA the dream. 

 

They are Better For The Environment

The vast majority of membership cards are made from or coated in polyvinyl chloride, better known as PVC. PVC is excellent at providing that sleek, shiny, hardy finish to our membership cards that we love so much. However, PVC is the least recyclable of all commonly used plastics and produces a great deal of chlorine in its production. This means that plastic membership cards are adding to the increased levels of chlorine and plastic in the food chain and us. Which in turn is starting to be linked to increased rates of cancers and birth defects. 

Unfun fact, microplastics have recently been found in human organs, blood streams, newborns, and even breast milk. Microplastics are shaping up to be the lead poisoning of the 21st century. 

My point is that sooner or later, for the sake of the environment and ourselves, we will need to stop using plastics like PVC. 

I know that was a little bit of a mood killer, so to make it up to you, here is a picture of an extremely rare melanistic red fox who doesn’t know the first thing about the terrors of pollution. You can tell due to the hope in her eyes. 

 

 

In case you were wondering, Melanism is the opposite of Albinism, meaning that rather than causing a complete lack of melanin in the animal, it causes an excess of melanin. The most famous example of this is panthers, which aren't a species but just melanistic individuals of other species like leopards and jaguars. Interestingly, Melanism is not found in humans.  

Downsides Of Digital Membership Cards

So we’ve covered the benefits of digital membership cards: They can’t be lost or broken, are more flexible, have more features, can be updated quickly and for free, are cheaper than plastic cards, are better for us and the environment, and make better use of modern technology.   

However, digital membership cards have two downsides: They are heavily reliant on modern technology and will not be popular with older, more technophobic members. 

As dealing with people's resistance to new technology isn’t actually a downside of digital membership cards, I'm not going to go into detail here. However, I will add some links to other articles I have written about the subject, so hopefully, those are helpful to you. 

Membership Cards To Digital Membership Cards - How To Transition Your Club From Plastic Cards To Digital Ones. 

How To Deal With Resistance To Change From Members When Implementing Member Jungle. This one’s about the system as a whole. However, all the principles will apply perfectly here, too. 

Overreliance On Modern Technology

I cannot and will not deny that digital membership cards rely heavily on technology. They literally couldn't exist without phones or tablets. Your members need mobile phones to use the digital membership cards in the first place. While it is not essential to their operations, they are definitely designed to have a stable internet connection, and some features will not work as well without phone reception. Namely, while cards may still be able to display with little to no reception, the built-in scanner in the app won't, meaning that using them for member check-in will be reliant on reception. 

That said, I don't remember the last time I didn't have reception; even the last few camping/kayaking trips I've been on had surprisingly good reception. I'm not saying there aren't mobile black spots; they just seem to be getting fewer and further between. 

So, being unable to use the member check-in feature without reception will likely only affect a few bushwalking and 4WD clubs at their most remote events. The average club will most likely never encounter this issue. 

It’s worth remembering that Apple and Google Wallet will still be able to show your Member Jungle digital membership card without reception. 

For more information on this pros and cons of digital membership cards, check out Does My Club Need Digital Membership Cards?

Digital Membership Cards For Member Check-In 

Digital membership cards offer more than just convenience and sustainability; they're also a game-changer for member check-ins at club events. With digital membership cards, all members need to do is show their cards on their phones when they arrive at an event. A member of your admin team can then scan the code on their card using the built-in scanner on the Member Jungle mobile app. This will instantly mark off said members as being in attendance at the event, with their attendance being logged in the system for later referral. 

This is a much easier and more effective way of checking in members to events than old-fashioned head counts and pen and paper. Plus, doing it this way ensures you have real-time attendance data and accurate records of event attendance, allowing you to break down and analyse your club's events after the fact. 

This integration with the Member Jungle Event Module is a super useful addition to digital membership cards. It will save you a lot of time and effort and make examining and improving your events easier. 

For more information about how this works and to hear how a Member Jungle customer has found using this system to examine events, look at Easy Member Check-In Software For Your Club. 

Now, before we move onto the next topic, and because I went down a rabbit hole on melanistic animals, below are two more examples. On the left is a baby melanistic sea turtle, and on the right is a baby melanistic Galapagos Tortoise.  

Custom Digital Membership Card Design Options

Half the point of digital membership cards is that they can be designed and redesigned relatively easily and cheaply, as there is no need to reprint and post them. So, with that in mind, let’s look at the different levels of card customisation we offer at Member Jungle. 

 

 

At Member Jungle, we offer three different levels of digital membership card design options: Standard, Custom Designed, and Custom Configured. 

Standard Designed Digital Membership Cards

Unsurprisingly, standard-designed digital membership cards are the standard option, and as such, they do not cost anything extra. Even though this is the free design option, that doesn't mean you can't get your cards looking sharp and professional or even have a little fun with them. The example I used above of changing the card colour and logo to be Halloween-themed was done with the standard cards and would be entirely free to do. 

 

 

With standard membership cards, you can change the logo and header image colour for free whenever you want. They will also display the following fields on the card: 

• Member Name
• Member Number
• Membership Type/Level
• Member Expiry Date

These fields will automatically update if and when a member’s details change. So, if a member renews their membership and their expiration date changes, or if they change membership levels or names, the cards will automatically update to reflect those changes.

Custom Designed Digital Membership Cards

Custom Designed digital membership cards are the middle of our three options and by far the fanciest-looking version. With these cards, you get to have them professionally designed to look exactly how you want them to. They cost a one-off fee of $599. 

You should bear in mind that you can have your cards designed like this whenever you want, so if you don’t want to spend that money on custom cards at first, you don’t have to. You can stick with the standard cards, see how your members go and come back for the custom design whenever you’re ready. 

 

 

With Custom Designed cards, you can have our professional designer change your card's colours, logo, background image, and layout. You can even add sponsors' logos to your cards if you wish. The only thing you can't change is the positioning of the white bar with your members' information on it. Speaking of member info, these cards can display all the same information as the standard cards.

What your card looks like at the end of this is entirely up to you. You can do pretty much anything you like with this design option. For some context, below are the custom-designed digital membership cards of three different clubs and associations that use Member Jungle. 

 

Custom Configured Digital Membership Cards

Finally, we have the Custom-Configured digital membership cards. These are your top-of-the-line fancy boys. The point of these cards is custom fields. Each card can contain up to six custom fields or up to five custom fields and a member profile picture. These custom fields can also contain more complicated and specialised information than either of the previous two options.  

Custom Configured digital membership cards are charged per membership level. The first membership level costs a one-off fee of $999, and subsequent levels cost $399 per level. Just like Custom Designed cards, you don’t have to buy these initially and can always pick them up down the road. 

 

These cards include all the previous field options: member name, member number, membership type/level, and member expiry date. However, the stand-out feature here is the ability to add a member profile picture and any fields that you track with your Member Jungle database, such as the member’s company's name (for chambers of commerce or associations), region, qualification, etc. 

These cards are designed for clubs and associations with specific needs who need very particular things to be displayed on their digital membership cards. As long as this information is tracked by your main Member Jungle system, these cards will automatically update if and when members’ details do. 

You can find all the information you need about these different card options by going to the Member Jungle Optional Setup Page or the Member Jungle Custom Cards Page. 

Digital Membership Cards Display Options On Apple & Google Wallets

Due to limitations of how Apple Wallet and Google Wallet display digital cards, they will revert to a more basic design when displayed through either of those. The phone on the left in the image above is an example of how a standard digital membership card will look on an Apple Wallet. Keep in mind that this won't change the way your card looks elsewhere; it will only change the design on Apple and Google Wallets.

We understand this can be a little bit annoying, but this isn't our limitation but rather a limitation that Apple and Google implemented. We will keep an eye on this in the future in hopes that those companies will update their display options. 

For more information on how our digital membership cards work with Apple and Google wallets, please see Member Jungle’s Digital Membership Cards Are Now Available On Apple & Google Wallets. 

How Can You Get Digital Membership Cards For Your Club?

As I already mentioned, we at Member Jungle offer our digital membership cards completely free alongside our membership management software. We also sell them separately for people who only need the cards and aren’t in the market for new management software. 

You can find all the details you need about the cards on their own at Member Jungle Digital Membership Cards, or you can read an article I wrote on them called Digital Membership Cards By Themselves. 

If you are interested in seeing which other providers are out there, then check out Best Digital Membership Cards For Your Club, where I talk about the best digital membership card providers that aren’t us. For more information on how our digital membership cards work with POS systems, see Digital Membership Cards, POS Systems and Your Licensed Club. 

Finally, if you want to know more about Member Jungle in general and our all-in-one membership management system, please see What Is Membership Management Software For Nonprofits? - All Your Questions Answered.