6 Smart Tips to Boost Member Retention at Your Association

Nowadays, with so many associations and organizations around, membership priorities have changed. How would you like to learn that focusing on your existing customers or members will provide higher efficiency than acquiring new ones?

While it’s important to grow the number of association members, your existing ones will provide more value than you think! Working on building strong relationships with your members and engaging them will boost the efficiency of your association faster. Why? Mostly because people tend to go where they are appreciated and taken care of.

But how can you achieve it?

That’s what this article intends to discuss. We will cover how member retention is a more effective strategy than acquisition. Plus, you will receive actionable tips on how you can increase membership retention at your association.

So, without losing time, let’s get right into the core of an effective member engagement strategy that eventually helps in membership retention strategies!

Member Retention vs Member Acquisition

The advantages of member acquisition are numerous. It costs 5 times more to acquire a new member than to retain a current one. There are many reasons why you should focus your efforts on member acquisition as part of your project management skills and customer retention strategies. For one, there are might be lesser chances of members joining but there more ways to retain customers with solid member benefits.

Let’s discuss the major ones.

• Member retention provides a better ROI. Especially when you’re just starting, it’s essential to keep track of your budget and expenses to make sure the results won’t let you down. Existing members are very valuable, and with a little extra care, they will easily make it to your loyal members’ list.
• Retained members keep it active. If you have a loyal group of people, they are more likely to be engaged during your events, various activities, and discussions if you have any.
• Loyal members provide new ones. Humans are more likely to believe in other humans’ experiences, advice, and opinion. As you retain more members, more people become dedicated to the community you’ve created, and they will most likely bring in new members. An alternative to this would be to craft a referral marketing campaign for acquiring new customers and members.

Membership retention strategies, therefore, help in getting more engaged members, enhance customer experience, brings like-minded individuals together, and help foster long-term relationships.

Switching up your current member acquisition strategy and focusing your marketing on retaining existing members will bring you better results for the long term. But what do you do to increase retention? What are some of the proven best practices?

6 creative ways to retain your members

1. Plan interactive events
2. Provide membership benefits
3. Use customized communication channels
4. Avoid overdoing
5. Discover why members leave
6. Consider membership management software

Let's scroll down and get to know these six super good customer retention strategies to keep getting better at membership retention and membership management.

1. Plan interactive events

Events, discussions, and other types of gatherings within your community are well-thought-out ways of keeping your members engaged. From hot topics in your industry to show off the values of your association, you can use networking events, monthly meetings, or host events to excite and engage existing current members more and, at the same time, acquire new ones.

Here are some useful tips to help organize unique events:

• Define your perfect member persona. This will be your guide to gathering people who will be interested in your association’s activities and events. This is one gateway to actually building a community!
• Set a clear agenda, relevant content, and guest list. Depending on your goal and the audience you want to reach out to, implement relevant event ideas and optimize content at its best. Make sure to provide networking opportunities, invite industry experts, and don’t forget about the fun.
• Reach out the right way. Organizing an interesting event is extremely important but spreading the word out plays an equally important or even a better role. Once you’ve perfectly set your event activity list, promote it to your audience through the right channels and social media networks.

Association events are considered primarily to engage members from the current list. However, you can use these as a strategy to attract new members too. You can even build a website for your association and share upcoming event news and updates.

2. Provide membership benefits

Whether new or existing, members are always looking for benefits and comfort with your association. The efficiency of your member retention strategy also depends on what makes you stand out from other associations in your field. To increase member retention or enhance customer loyalty, it is significant to focus on how you make your members feel about your association

After all, existing customers or a member is the social proof that drives the renewal process or fresh acquisitions to the next level. One organization gets a new member a lot because of social aspects. If an organization would provide current members new benefits then that helps in getting retention numbers high and also close a potential member.

The question remains: what membership advantages can you offer?

Here are some irresistible ideas you can try out.

• Research what your members want and expect from their cooperation with the help of surveys and discussions.
• Provide virtual member engagement opportunities so that it’s easier to communicate, share, and network.
• Introduce mentoring opportunities simply because most people join associations for professional networking.
• Prepare volunteering opportunities that will help members gain experience and meet professionals in your industry.
• Make unique offers that are specific to your industry: insurance coverage, travel opportunities, and shipping benefits are all examples of outstanding benefits.

In short, benefits that your members can’t ignore are the ones that provide clear value. Whether you’re trying to help members use their budget smartly or give them some career boost, it needs to be specified to help retain members for the long term.

3. Use customized communication channels

To retain members and build strong relationships with them you need effective communication methods. This also includes choosing the right means and channels to keep in touch.

Even though this might be challenging, it helps improve member retention and conversion optimization rates. Your association needs to determine the most effective ways to connect and resonate with members. And with so many channels out there, it gets confusing sometimes.

So, let us help you out a little by giving you the following tips.

• Customize the channels of communication that you’ll use for your members. Find out which methods are most convenient for them by asking through surveys, during discussions and conferences, or newsletters. Another option is to use your existing database or take a look back to see which channels helped you the most.
• Send personalized messages so that your members feel valued. Getting into deep research and learning about your members, their wants and needs will help craft the content they’re expecting. And, the more personal your message gets, the more members are to trust your association and stick around.
• Give existing members extra attention and care. As a member of your association, people need to feel appreciated. A simple check-in message or a small postal card will help keep them by your side and be loyal.
• Make sure they are warmly welcomed. When your members come on board, introduce them with a welcoming kit. Design them with attention to detail, just as you would when creating an employee handbook.

4. Avoid overdoing

Speaking of communication, it’s important to know where the threshold is. Sending out irrelevant newsletters, messages that don’t resonate, and numerous check-in calls within a week won’t do any good.

We’ve all been in a cycle of never-ending promotional emails that don’t even seem to resonate with you. Yet, we’ve been lazy enough to not hit the ‘Unsubscribe’ button...

Overdoing contacts contains the risk of appearing spammy, boring, and will drive off existing members. Instead, focus on quality communication that helps create a bond with your association members.

5. Discover why members leave

Coming back to appearing irrelevant, make sure you learn why members have left your association.

Effective member retention is what we constantly think about. And with so many associations craving the attention and time of people, it gets even harder to make members stick around. According to a study by Marketing General, 43% of associations say that members leave because of lack of engagement.

While there can be various reasons why existing members don’t renew and leave your association instead, here are some possible motives to consider.

• Lack of value. People join your association because they expect some form of value. And, if you don’t provide them with enough benefits, you might lose them.
• Lack of communication. Another reason for memberships is building relationships with your association, with other members, and with possible partners.
• Lack of activity. Avoid keeping it all quiet. Instead, organize engaging activities, fun events, and valuable discussions to retain members for the long term.

Beyond these, surveys and interviews are the best ways to find out the causes of membership abandonment. Make sure you do this before losing valuable members who want to engage and communicate more.

6. Consider membership management software

How to make sure you’re all prepared for your member retention strategy? Simple management software allows you to complete the following: contact potential members, gather specific databases for future use, organize the interaction with existing members.

Additionally, this software will help to:

• Schedule event calendar and share with members
• Track attendance and member activity
• Use built-in tools and features for better productivity
• Manage all your operations from one spot

We all have to admit that membership retention becomes easier and more simple with specific tools. If you’re not using one yet, you should definitely give it a try! With just a few clicks you can organize the whole membership of your association and improve retention in a relatively short period.

Conclusion

For all the points discussed, one thing is clear: customization, care, and communication are the main keys to boosting member retention at your association. Plus, great organization and management come in handy as additional tools.

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