Membership Renewals and Lapsed Reacquisition
Membership management can be like running in place if your renewal rate is too low. To achieve membership growth you need to combine a healthy renewal rate with an aggressive member acquisition program.
Lapsed members have been there, they know what it is like to belong...you just have to ask, repeatedly and consistently! It is easier to recapture a lapsed member who already knows about your organization than to acquire someone who is hearing about your program for the first time.
Membership Consultants can help increase your renewal rate by designing and implementing a program that works for you and your members, utilizing all the tools of the trade:
Direct Mail
Lapsed members should be part of every acquisition campaign, and should receive a special lapsed member appeal that invites them to be part of your organization again. Lapsed appeals should be part of the recapture mix, performed 2 to 4 times a year for maximum recapture.
Telemarketing
A telephone call is a great replacement to a third or fourth reminder letter, or as part of a lapsed member phonathon after memberships expire. It is a friendly reminder, a customer service call and a request for a membership gift – all rolled into one. Using professional telemarketers with membership fundraising experience can lead to a successful campaign!
eReminders
Enhance your lapsed campaigns with well-placed eAppeals which support the mailed or phone appeals to recapture members.
Membership Consultants will:
- Analyze your renewal program
- Perform renewal testing
- Write successful copy
- Design the entire renewal package
- Manage the timeline
- Create compelling offers
- Utilize direct mail, the phone and email
- Monitor the results
- Make recommendations for continual improvement
- Developing Renewal Tracking
- Utilize or develop membership market research that informs members’ renewal decisions
Did you know, it is easier to recapture a lapsed member who already knows about your organization than to acquire someone who is hearing about it for the first time? Lapsed members have been there; they know what it is like to belong...
There are two ways in which you can effectively recapture your lapsed members. A phone call is a great replacement to a third or fourth reminder letter or as part of a lapsed member phonathon after they expire. It is a friendly reminder, a customer service call and a request for a membership gift. Using professional telemarketers with membership fund raising experience can lead to a successful campaign!
Direct Mail: Lapsed members should be part of every acquisition campaign and receive a special lapsed member appeal inviting them as former members to renew their memberships.
Using an enticing premium offer, such as an umbrella, Membership Consultants has generated $2.30 per $1 spent for the Missouri Historical Society.
Membership Consultants has been able to help its clients increase their renewal rates for 3 to 8 percentage points by testing offers, redesigning packages, offering online renewal options, and changed timing. For a history museum client, Membership Consultants helped increase the renewal rate from 72% to 80% in just one year! For a zoo client, renewal rates grew from 65% to 72% with strategic changes to their renewal program.
Check out the following Membership Renewals and Lapsed Reacquisition Membership Consultants portfolio items: