For most associations, membership dues represent the single largest source of revenue. So, it’s probably not too surprising that the latest Momentive Software research shows that 89% and 88% of association professionals identify increasing membership and improving membership retention as top organizational priorities.
So, what can your association do to retain, and even grow, membership dues revenue?
The state of association membership dues
How do your members pay their association dues? It might just impact how likely they are to remain in your organization.
Despite solid loyalty metrics reported in the latest Momentive Software Association Trends Study, more than half of members whose membership dues are paid for by their company today say that they would reassess the value of their membership or leave if they had to pay their own dues.
Most members (55%) currently pay their dues. However, 25% of membership dues are paid for by the member’s company.6 ways to deliver greater member value and keep members around longer
Looking to boost membership, enhance value, and increase retention? Follow these steps to get started:
6 ways to deliver greater member value and keep members around longer
Looking to boost membership, enhance value, and increase retention? Follow these steps to get started:
1. Be member-centric
To retain and grow your member base, members must be the priority. Momentive Software research found the misalignment of value placed by members and association professionals has either persisted or grown over the last six years, especially in career development benefits.
Members were also asked to indicate which benefits are most important when they think about renewing their membership. No one benefit stands out overall. However, a look at generational differences shows that job opportunities and help with career advancement rank highest for Generation Z, while information about the latest industry news ranks highest for Generation X and Boomers.
In addition to questions about benefits, members were asked how effective their organization is in key areas. They give stronger scores on their organization’s ability to send them content that is targeted to their interests/needs than on personalizing their membership experience over time.
Being aware of what your members want is important for increasing acquisition and retention. Start by asking yourself these important questions:
- Are you being member-centric or association-centric?
- Are you doing all you can to support and provide value to members from the moment they join to the moment they renew?
- Are you asking for and incorporating member feedback into your member benefits, programs, and communications?
With the answers to these questions in mind, review your messaging to make sure it’s member-centric. For example:
- Review your website copy. Is it all about your members? Or is it about your association?
- Evaluate and revise your communications copy. Make sure it’s more member-focused than association-focused.
- Incorporate pictures of your members. Your members are your association. So, be sure to include their faces in your website, emails, and other communications.
2. Offer a clear value statement
For people to make a purchase, they must believe they’re getting value for their dollars. In all communications, make it clear to members and prospective members what value your association offers.
Follow these tips to increase your value proposition:
- Explain in clear, simple terms how your association makes a difference for your industry or profession.
- Spell out specific results members will see by becoming a member.
- State your association’s value in a way that can be read and understood in a matter of seconds.
3. Use content to convey value
Your members look to your association as a trusted source of information in your industry. Providing industry-specific content and information about the latest news for the industry ranked as the top first and third benefits for association members, according to Momentive Software.
Capitalize on your members’ desire to stay informed by:
- Providing your members with the latest news, research, and reports for your industry or profession
- Letting members know how your organization is helping to raise awareness of their profession/industry
- Let members know about the standards you help to set for their profession/industry and the importance of a code of ethics
- Taking time to increase the quality of your professional learning opportunities, giving members a wider variety of ways to attain the education they need to fulfill requirements and further their careers
- Providing members with an online community, the second top way members love to connect with their organization, so they can access content, discuss topics, and share advice and learning experiences
4. Think strategically about membership pricing
It can be tempting to offer membership discounts to drive more new memberships and improve member retention. But proceed cautiously with discounts.
Here’s why: When you work hard to provide member value, offering discounts can make the membership seem “cheap”. If you’re offering great value, people will be willing to pay for the membership.
Selecting the right price for your benefits and services can show powerful results. For example, if you improve your prices by 1%, you can increase your profit by 10%.
Here are a couple of strategies for your association to consider when selecting the right price for your membership:
- Providing a discounted membership specifically for students and new graduates
- Offering a limited time discount for new memberships and/or renewals, such as “pay for one year and get an extra three months free”
- Offering a few levels of membership that include different benefits so that members can choose the combination of benefits that they value most
5. Make it easy to join and renew
Once you’ve made the value of membership clear, make sure you don’t lose the new or renewing member to a clunky process. The easier it is for members to join and renew, the more likely they will be to do so.
Here are some payment options you can offer to make joining and renewing virtually effortless:
- Auto-renewal – Sometimes members simply forget to renew. One of the best ways to address this issue is to offer an option to automatically renew membership, with the membership fee charged to the member’s credit card. Members can just set it and forget it.
- Installment payments – Allow members to pay for their memberships in budget-friendly monthly or quarterly installments.
- Scheduled payment option – Get a payment commitment from members now and schedule the payment for a convenient agreed-upon date in the future.
- Apple Pay and Google Pay — Stored payment options allow members to add, edit, save, and remove payment methods. Members will thank you when they don’t have to pull out their wallets and re-enter payment details every time they want to make a payment on your site.
- Express payment option – Allow anyone to pay any invoice online without needing to log in. With this option, you can generate a unique payment URL for any order with a balance due: membership, donations, event registration, etc. Then, a bill paying page is created for easy payment by the member, their assistant, accounting department, or anyone making the payment on their behalf.
- Account updating – Automatically update the expiration date for stored payment methods. This way, members won’t be rejected at check-out just because their credit card date expired.
6. Predict (and avoid) the lapse
While providing value and making joining/renewing easier are effective ways to improve member retention, sometimes there are still members who are headed out the door. Using Artificial Intelligence and predictive analytics tools you can understand why members are lapsing and, even better, which members are in danger of lapsing so that you can take measures to avoid the lapse.
For example, Marine Corps Association & Foundation (MCA&F) was seeing about 1,000 lapsed members each month. Using Nimble AMS and AI tools, the organization implemented a solution that automatically identifies members at high risk of lapsing and presents staff with suggested actions to take to prevent non-renewal.
Once the association rolled out the AI process and trained staff, it was then easy for MCA&F staff to see warning signals for members at risk of lapsing. Now, when an at-risk member is discovered, staffers are automatically presented with actionable steps to take with the member. As a result of this approach, MCA&F found that 25 percent of their members at high risk of non-renewal were saved.
The American Orthopaedic Society of Sports Medicine (AOSSM) is another association that leveraged Nimble AMS and AI tools to hit its membership goals and improve retention. With Nimble AMS and AI, AOSSM created a membership lapse solution to track its membership data, gaining insight into engagement, and building the best membership predictions.
After gathering enough data and completing the necessary membership predictions, AOSSM staff determined that low engagement led to increased lapse risk. With this information in mind, AOSSM staff built a proactive strategy to enhance member engagement and target at-risk members.
Growing and retaining membership dues is all about demonstrating member value and making it easy for members to join and renew. The approaches in this article will help you get there. And Nimble AMS will give you the technology foundation you need to put these approaches to work.
