Proven Ways to Increase Member Retention
Having a robust membership retention strategy is often just as important as your membership recruitment strategy. If you can’t retain members, you’re going to end up spending a lot more money on your recruitment campaign, resulting in a cycle that isn’t sustainable for long-term growth.
Your goal should be to create an energized and active membership strategy so that your members are happy and, in turn, bring in more members for you.
Below are some proven ways to increase member retention and bolster your overall member retention strategies.
Why Do Members Leave?
If you’re unhappy with your current membership retention rate, the first question you should ask is: why are your members leaving?
One effective strategy to assess membership dissatisfaction is to provide perennial surveys to your members and guests, or at least an exit survey when they decide to end their membership.
You can segment your members into categories based on why you think they might become a member. Some of these reasons might include:
- Networking with others and becoming a part of a community
- Access to educational resources
- Discounts and other membership benefits
- Gift memberships for their kids, friends, or family
- A deep interest in the cultural institution or subject matter of your organization
When you establish some reasons as to why guests become members, turn your list into a survey that can help you gain a better idea of what your members value and what they perceive as possible strengths and weaknesses in your organization.
Membership Retention Strategies for New Members
It’s important for your members to see the value in their subscription with an energized, active, and well-thought membership-welcome strategy. The point of this to twofold: first, it provides your new members with a good first impression and helps reinforce their decision, minimizing any buyer’s remorse. Second, a membership-welcoming plan will help inform your guests of all the benefits, discounts, and details of their memberships.
Ideas to improve your membership retention strategies for new members include:
- New membership welcoming email
- Membership card packet with information, calendars, and brochures
- New membership tours
- Membership orientation/event
- Bring a friend for your first membership visit benefit
Membership Retention Ideas and Best Practices
Membership retention ideas and membership retention best practices come in many forms and sizes. Below is a list of some proven and effective methods to increase member retention.
- Membership Events: Even beyond a welcoming membership event, you should be holding events throughout the year for your members. A robust membership event strategy will provide your members and guests with everything they look for in memberships: a community, valuable resources, and an energized organization they can be proud to be a part of.
- Easy Renewal and Account Program: It should be easy for guests to subscribe for their memberships and for your members to renew their membership. You want to make sure the software you’re utilizing is sleek, simple, and reliable. Investing in the technology that allows your members to easily renew memberships will remove another hurdle in the way between your organization and a strong member retention strategy.
- Publish Content and Provide Resources: An often overlooked membership retention best practice is to provide a steady stream of content and information to your guests. Creating a blog, magazine, or stream of articles on your website will keep your guests informed and engaged in the industry that your institution is a part of, ultimately boosting your value as an organization.
- Emphasize Your Benefits: You should always be coming up with new benefits and emphasizing those benefits to your guests in emails and through events. Reminding your members of all the benefits they have will reinforce the value of a membership subscription, helping you retain those members in the months and years that follow.
Final Thoughts: Member Retention
While there’s a lot that goes into a robust membership retention strategy, you can start improving your retention rates with these simple best practices.
With ACME, you’re guaranteed a reliable, simple, user-friendly ticketing software that will make sure your membership benefits are instantly updated and your members have an enjoyable experience navigating through their online portal.
ACME ticketing utilizes cloud-based technology to minimize crashes, keep your data safe, and create automated updates and changes so you don’t have to. Embrace the technology that you and your guests deserve with ACME ticketing today.