Membership Engagement & Renewal Ideas

These tips & best-practices can help improve your membership renewal and marketing programs, showcase specific benefits that you provide, and generate ideas to improve membership engagement.

Engage Members with Personalized Messaging

  • Print number of years each member has belonged, e.g. Jane, thank you for your membership during the last X years or since 2007
  • Highlight career benefits to younger members
    • Job boards
    • Career advancement stats
    • Local members in high positions
  • Show number of members at their facility, e.g. 15 of your associates at XYZ Hospital belong to your association, make sure you are one of them
  • Highlight the specific benefits or programs the member has used during the past year
  • List local networking opportunities and professional development programs
  • Provide contact information of local leadership, thought-leaders, volunteers, or other “evangelists”
  • Promote local events based on the member address (you provide the event locations and we can target the message)
  • Customize your messaging based on member type (e.g. Student, Affiliate, Fellow, etc.)

 Encourage Prompt Renewal

  • Create a sense of urgency to Renew
    • Offer an incentive if they pay within 24 hours via email or by a specific date if mailed
    • First 1,000 to renew get this discount (you can increase the cut-off number as needed)
    • Target those who paid late in prior years
  • Make the notice look like payment is expected
  • Include the date their membership expires (if not too far off)
  • Provide option for semi-annual payments if enrolled in auto-renewal with credit card on file
  • Integrate personalized URL’s (PURLs) that include the member name.  PURLs can automatically login a member to their renewal page and/or allow them to provide additional demographic information or identify services or benefits most important to them

 Ideas for Presenting Member Benefits

  • Highlight benefits that members cannot obtain on their own or through other sources
  • Discuss 1-2 benefits or features members receive and the outcomes the benefits provide
  • Humanize the benefits as much as possible with stories or examples of taking advantage of membership
  • Mention the most common problems that membership will solve for the member

 Follow-up, Final Notice, and Lapsed Member Messaging

  • I’m sure this was a mistake, but your membership lapsed on December 31, 2021.
  • Here is what you missed…show most popular items based on website clicks, e.g. top articles, programs, webinars, etc.