How to Increase Your Association’s Membership Renewal Rate
Membership renewals are now an automatic process, thanks to your AMS. Renewal invoices go out and dues payments come in. However, that’s a best-case scenario. The harsh reality is that sometimes renewals and payments don’t come in.
What can you proactively do to create the conditions for more renewals? I’ve been nosing around and gathering ideas for improving the membership renewal strategy and process.
Lay The Foundation for A Proactive Renewal Strategy
Renewal depends on meeting and exceeding a member’s expectations plus ensuring they know about and take advantage of membership benefits.
Value proposition. You can only “sell” value if you understand what members value—that’s where data comes in. In our world of accelerating change, we can no longer make assumptions about anything or rely upon historic data—and these days, “historic” means two years ago.
You have to review your member value proposition more frequently than ever before. Involve members in this exercise. Analyze behavioral data so you understand how members in different segments are engaging with the association. Define your overall value proposition based on what members value, not what you think is valuable. You can then create more detailed value propositions for member segments.
Member engagement. Members who are not proactive about their membership are not likely to reap its benefits. Your member engagement strategy should tell members how membership can improve their lives and how to start taking advantage of their benefits.
Onboarding. Renewal is the goal driving your member engagement strategy. Engagement starts as soon as members join, when you add them to onboarding email campaigns that are tailored to different member segments.
Perpetual membership marketing. Associations often forget about delighting members and turning them into advocates—the last two steps of the buyer’s journey. After a new member goes through the onboarding process or an existing member renews, they’re often forgotten—until the renewal period comes around again. Your marketing work never really ends. Throughout the year, keep selling the value of membership.
How To Use Your AMS To Increase Membership Renewals and Retention
Sometimes the breakup is really not about you, it’s about them. Per Marketing General Inc.’s (MGI) 2022 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report, 34% of associations said members did not renew because they forgot, that’s up from 29% of them in 2021.
Is everyone more distracted and forgetful now? I’ve got to admit, I’ve done it. I’ll see renewal notices in my inbox, figure I’ll get around to it, then it falls off my radar until I get a call about my expired membership, whoops.
Your membership renewal tactics must remind busy, distracted members to take action now.
Profile Updates
First, you must have accurate contact information in your AMS so your reminders and invoices end up where they should. Here are some tactics for keeping up with members on the move.
- Run regular reports to identify incomplete records and bad emails.
- Ask members to provide a second email address on application, registration, and renewal forms.
- Schedule profile update campaigns using newsletters and pop-up alerts that invite members to review and update their contact information.
Email Campaigns
Email is the most effective channel for renewals, per 82% of associations. The MGI report says, “Associations typically include about five emails and four paid digital advertisements in their renewal campaigns.” The most common time to start an email campaign is three months before the expiration date.
Don’t use one generic renewal campaign for everyone; segment your messaging according to the member’s engagement history: online education, in-person or virtual conference, community, newsletters, etc. Remind them of the impact those resources or programs likely made on their job and career. Choose members-only benefits, when possible.
Identify at-risk members for a special email campaign. Describe how membership can make a difference in their job and career in the coming year. Choose benefits and resources that would interest them based on the demographic and interest/behavioral data you have.
Member Portal Alerts
When a member up for renewal comes to your website, display an alert to show within your notifications icon/section informing the person that their membership is going to expire soon—that way they can easily take care of it right when they click on the notification. MemberSuite enables your staff to set these alerts to display for a specific length of time.
Auto-Renew and Other Payment Methods
The easiest way to increase your membership renewal rate is by using automatic annual credit card renewal—37% of associations participating in the MGI survey offer this benefit to members. Distracted and forgetful members, like me, like having this payment option for entertainment and software subscriptions and would appreciate having it for our memberships too.
Another method used by 34% of associations is installment plans for membership dues payments, which are especially appealing to early-career professionals with tight budgets.
Online Renewals
I almost forgot to mention online renewals because it seems so obvious, but if your association doesn’t yet allow members to renew and pay membership dues online, get on it. Your members and customers are used to handling business transactions online elsewhere and expect the same with your association.
And if All Your Membership Renewal Tactics Don’t Work?
If a member doesn’t renew, you don’t want to burn any bridges. I’m sure you know there are many good but unfortunate reasons someone doesn’t renew.
- They’ve had budget cuts at work, so their employer no longer pays for membership.
- A new employer doesn’t pay for memberships.
- The member is unemployed and can’t afford dues.
- The member left the profession or industry.
However, members also don’t renew, according to the MGI report, because of lack of engagement (52%), lack of value (34%), or expensive dues (22%). These three reasons all relate to not finding enough membership value for their money and/or time. The response rate to exit surveys is low, so try to reach out to the member to learn where you missed the mark.
Once the renewal grace period is over, your AMS should automatically update their record so the former member loses access to member benefits.
But you’re not done with them. Put them into a lapsed member email campaign, in which they receive informative emails and newsletters with relevant non-member resources. Let them see how you can still be a trusted career resource. Ideally, you retain them as a learner, attendee, or customer. And perhaps one day, if they can afford to join again, they will because you made the effort to stay connected.
Request a demo to learn how you can stay on top of renewals, payments, and membership workflows with MemberSuite’s unmatched configurability.