Renewals and Lapsed Campaigns

I recently attended a webinar on the title of this blog.  The following are my notes from what I found as helpful tips.

Early engagement is a key component in your retention efforts.  Start right after they join.  Here are a couple of ideas mentioned.

• Start a conversation with your initial onboarding communication.
• Enroll them in the members only part of your website.
• Conduct quarterly conference calls with the president with these new members.
• Have a special event for new members/first timers at your annual meeting.

They went on to discuss different ways to engage your members in the renewal process by sending a series of three emails.

• 60 days prior to due date – do you plan on renewing?
• 30 days prior to due date – what have you found most valuable?
• 20 after due date – did you know you're pass due?

Obviously, each of these emails will allow them to renew.

When it came to lapsed members, they suggested:

• A quick three question survey on why they lapsed.
• Conduct a “we miss you” campaign six months after they’ve lapsed.
• Use telemarketing for those lapsed members over a year and bring them back by credit card.
• If appropriate, use your board members to make lapsed members calls.  They know the value of membership.  They’re your best ambassadors.
• All your membership renewal communications should come from the President and CEO.

As a final comment, it’s always good to review your renewal and lapsed member campaigns to make sure you’re taking full advantage of best practices.

Good luck!

Staying Relevant in a World of Decreasing Attention Span

I attended a webinar based on the title of this post and took the following notes that I wanted to share on this blog.

Bill Sheehan with Multiview started out with asking the question “what is your pain point with member engagement” and how do you define member engagement.
 
The new bottle neck is the attention with our members.  Or put a different way, we live in an “Attention Economy.”
 
After reading multiple sources, on average, people speak at a rate of 150 words per minute, while our brains can process up to 1,000 words per minute.  Now you know why our attention can be diverted.
 
How do you get through the clutter?  Here are his tips:
 
Be a trusted source of information.  Think like a media company and focus on 4 main commonalities – your audience, distribution channels, content, and advertising platforms.
 
Audience – where do your members spend their time?  Collect as many data points as you can on your members.
 
Distribution channels – social (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.), your website, blogs, videos, influencers, podcasts, newsletters, annual meetings, etc.
 
Content – what is your expertise?  Focus on what your members want and need.  And don’t forget the quality and consistency of your content.  Stay in your lane (i.e., your mission).
 
Advertising – working with your members on sponsorships to promote their business and generate revenue for your chamber.  What platforms are you using to get your message out to your members and community while generating non-dues revenue?
 
Develop a strategy to maintain the attention of your members.  Get all entities within your chamber rowing in the same direction with your program of work and your communication vehicles.  At the end of the day, it’s about communications.  Are you communicating in a direct and consistent way?
 
You need to be agile and know that you can’t be all things to all people – one size does not fit all.  Remember, there are five different generations out there in today’s workforce and they can consume information through different channels.
 
My final comment, stay on message and grab your member or prospective member’s attention!
 
For a great book on effective communications titled Smart Brevity go HERE.