When it comes to renewal season, limited resources, set budgets and competing priorities can make it difficult to go outside your comfort zone and try something new. But what if we told you the keys to better retention results are in the data you already have?
Read on to learn how – using a data-informed approach to renewals – you can enjoy your most successful renewal season yet.
Why Don’t Members Renew?
Before diving into strategies, it’s important to have some context about the challenges associations face when renewal reason approaches.
When you ask former members why they didn’t choose to renew their membership with an association, they often cite price as a reason. However, the underlying issue is typically a perceived lack of value. If members feel they are not receiving enough benefit for their investment, they are unlikely to renew.
That makes the relevance and uniqueness of your association’s products and services especially crucial. If your offerings are outdated or not unique enough, members may seek alternatives elsewhere.
We also often hear that members don’t renew simply because they forgot or didn’t receive the renewal notice. This can be due to incorrect contact information or a history of irrelevant communications leading them to ignore emails.
That makes it even more essential to make sure your communication strategies throughout the year are of value, keeping members engaged and informed.
Five Types of Membership Campaigns
When communicating with members you’re trying to build a rapport with them throughout the year, nurturing that relationship before you actually go in and ask for a renewal or membership relationship.
When you’re dating, you don’t show up in a bar, sit down, and immediately ask the person next to you to get married. In the same way, you shouldn’t expect a member renewal to be a one email and done transaction.
It can be helpful to divide the types of communications you’re sending into five different campaigns with specific messaging for each. These include:
- 1
Membership Acquisition – Identifying prospects and converting them to members.
- 2
Member Welcome – Orienting new members to their benefits and updating their profiles.
- 3
Member Engagement – Connecting existing members to their membership to drive renewal.
- 4
Member Renewal – Invoicing members and collecting dues.
- 5
Member Win-Back – Reconnecting with dropped members and reinstating them.
The Role Data Can Play in Effective Renewal Campaigns
If you’re looking to make sure that your renewal communications reflect the value members get from your association – and stand out so they don’t miss them – there are several ways to use your data for more effective messaging.
Segmentation
Proper segmentation can significantly enhance the effectiveness of renewal campaigns. By segmenting based on member type and tenure you can tailor messages to specific audiences. Engagement scoring can also help identify at-risk members who haven’t fully engaged with your association’s offerings.Personalized and Targeted Content
Personalization in communication, like addressing members by name and highlighting benefits they’ve used, can create a more engaging experience. Tailor your renewal notices to emphasize the most relevant benefits to each member type to increase the perceived value. Here is an example of a personalized landing page with a name and specific benefits the member uses most often:
Tips for Better Campaign Execution
First off, it’s important to start renewal communications well in advance of the expiration date. A recommended timeline is 90 days out, with messages becoming progressively more urgent.
You’ll also want to adjust communication strategies seasonally, considering factors like summer Fridays when engagement might drop.
In the same way that timing matters, your copy and design also make a difference in the effectiveness of your communications.
Compelling subject lines and preview texts can significantly impact open rates. You also want to make sure you’re highlighting key benefits in a scannable format within the email body. Using colors and design elements that escalate urgency can grab attention. For example, moving from green to red as the expiration date approaches. On a recent webinar we held with Chris Gloede, Chief Consultant for marketing agency, Ricochet, shared an example of what this looks like as digital ad or website popup:
Another aspect to consider are unsubscribes throughout the year, which can make it difficult to reach members when it comes time to send renewal notices. For these reasons, you may want to investigate the use of transactional emails as part of your renewal campaign. Platforms like Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and HubSpot offer transactional email options so that critical messages are delivered even if members have opted out of promotional emails. (Be sure to discuss the use of transaction emails with your email provider and legal counsel as there are privacy protections in place that need to be followed.)
It’s important to continually test different approaches throughout the year to find what resonates best with your members. You may find more success using different channels, message timings, and segmentation strategies.
When considering digital options, pop-up ads or retargeted advertising using tools can also be really effective to make sure your message is reaching members.
With more traditional formats like direct mail, don’t be afraid to explore doing some renewal envelope design. The cost is negligible and gives double duty to the communication you’re already sending.
With all these strategies, just be prepared to adapt based on the results and feedback from your members.
A Data-Informed Approach To Renewals
A well-executed renewal campaign hinges on delivering perceived value and maintaining effective communication.
By leveraging data for segmentation, personalizing content, and using a multi-channel approach, associations can significantly improve their renewal rates.
Regularly monitoring engagement and adjusting strategies as needed helps you make sure that your value proposition is clear and compelling to members. With incremental improvements each year can lead to substantial long-term gains in member retention.
Don’t miss the final part of our Navigating the Member Journey with Data series as we discuss how your association can use your data to create, track and report your association’s key performance insights (KPIs).
