What is member retention?
July 18, 2022
Member retention is often considered the most crucial tool for membership organisation success. By retaining members, you demonstrate the value that your organisation delivers and have a chance to create advocates from your membership group. You increase the opportunity for referrals and your reputation in the sector grows. Crucially, you also optimise operational costs because it is more cost effective to retain an existing member than to find a new one.
Passive acquisition
The most basic type of member acquisition comes when a user independently learns about your organisation or visits your website. They do a little desk research, find a value proposition that resonates with them and make the choice to subscribe. Optimising this user journey requires you to present an extremely clear and concise reason for joining, and to complement this with a compelling list of benefits that the new member truly values. Crucially, you must then remove all friction from the sign-up process.
This transaction, as well as any questions that arise along the way, need to be handled expertly and immediately. It acts as a trial run for the service the potential member can expect to receive and provides a positive perception for the new member.
Member retention metrics
There are two essential metrics in member retention that can quantify some of these benefits. Member Lifetime Value (MLV) is the annual revenue gained from a membership multiplied by the duration of that membership in years. Monitoring this metric quickly shows that retaining members for even a year or two longer, has a substantial impact. The second metric is the retention figure itself which is usually expressed as a percentage. To calculate this, we simply divide the total members at the end of a period by the total at the start, and then multiply the result by 100. Anything over 90% is considered excellent and places the organisation in an outstanding position for future growth.
How to drive member retention?
A proactive member retention strategy should aim to influence members ahead of their renewal date and increase the likelihood of them resubscribing. This is done by targeting the touchpoints where the organisation and its members meet, and by attempting to understand what our members feel about the value they’re getting. The simple act of asking the question has a positive impact but we should also actively gather feedback to steer improvements.
To reach members we can take a variety of approaches, but all should incorporate both the marketing and the membership departments . All too often, this task is left to the latter.
The exact approach tends to differ based on the organisation, their overall offering and strategy. In general, contacting new members by email soon after they join to signpost the available benefits is the first step to engaging them. Then we can follow up with various interactions such as telephone calls, networking events and in-person meetings throughout the year. As their renewal date approaches, we can check in with them, talk through membership options and make it easier for them to renew.
More sophisticated approaches can be undertaken for larger organisations. By examining user behaviour on the website against individual engagement with events and learning programs, we can identify those most at risk of leaving. We can then select the approach that might be the most successful. For example, some members may respond well to emails, others to more personal contact. We can also categorise the important data that will allow us to monitor performance and continually refine the strategy.
How does ClearConnect help?
This continual improvement loop of measurement and refinement is always a crucial element of any strategy. But having the resources to do the important work of reaching members personally, helping them to understand the continued benefits of membership and handling their renewals is the first step.
At ClearConnect, we have 10 years of expertise in supporting the full member lifecycle and offer a suite of member retention services that include:
- Conducting calling campaigns to help members renew
- Managing follow-up emails and mail-outs
- Handling the processing of membership payments
- Delivering on your strategies to optimise retention levels and position your membership organisation for growth.
- Providing additional support services in member engagement, acquisition and administration
Today’s trade unions and professional bodies are able to achieve levels of member service that would previously have been unimaginable without extensive support teams and huge operational budgets. A modern CRM combined with the latest association management systems (AMS) is able to automate so much of the daily workload that it’s easy to slip into a complete reliance on digital communication.
Much of the strategic emphasis in membership organisations is placed upon growth. Leadership teams support this with worthwhile discussions on value proposition, marketing and member acquisition.
