How to retain members and improve membership renewals in 2024?

Retaining members is essential for any association aiming to establish a committed community over the long term. However, implementing an effective retention process is not always straightforward.

How can you ensure a positive experience for members facing the challenges of association life? Today, we first offer simple and quick ideas to maximize short-term membership renewals. We also suggest ways to optimize your time and undertake a comprehensive approach to loyalty. Enjoy reading!

 

3 Tips to Maximize Short-Term Membership Renewals in Associations

 

1 – Simplify the Re-enrollment Process

If the enrollment process and fee payment are complex and time-consuming, your members may quickly become frustrated and may not renew their membership. They might even turn to another association. To avoid this, it is advisable to simplify and automate the enrollment process as much as possible, using a free software solution dedicated to nonprofits like Yapla.

This allows you to have an easy-to-fill registration page and offer flexible payment methods: credit card, cash, or check.

 

2 – Offer Discounts to Loyal Members

Another tip is to reward the most loyal members. For example, you can grant a preferential membership fee or a discount to those who have been with you for a long time. Another option is to provide more flexibility in the payment methods for their fees, such as online installment payments without charges. Note: Offering a small discount is often a good idea, but it requires reviewing the association's bylaws beforehand. If your bylaws mention the amount of fees, you need to plan an update.

 

3 – Provide Attractive Benefits and Small Gifts

Retaining members also involves a significant incentive strategy. For instance, you can communicate that you offer certain benefits to the first x members who renew their membership. These benefits can take the form of invitations to private events, discounts with partners, or even small items and gifts (such as association-branded goodies or clothing).

 

Strategies to Foster Long-Term Membership Loyalty

The process of retaining association members is a long-term endeavor that requires substantial groundwork and organization. Faced with time constraints and the numerous challenges of association life, we propose a specific approach, already adopted by thousands of associations, which involves combining process automation with member satisfaction.

 

1 - Optimize Your Time in Association Management

Having plenty of ideas to retain your members is great, but finding the time to implement them is crucial!

It's essential to allocate your available resources efficiently and prioritize actions that will have the most impact.

The complexity of your administrative processes can not only be a time drain but also a source of frustration and disengagement from your members. This is why automating and simplifying your processes is a solution worth exploring/continuing to develop in 2024.

Note that automation will never replace you! The goal is to enhance your members' experience, promote membership renewals, and allow you to invest the time saved by providing more quality moments or content alongside them.

Tools like Yapla can help achieve this by facilitating membership management and offering attractive services to support loyalty.

 

2 - Anticipate and Automate Membership Renewals

In reality, you don't have to wait until the membership expires to focus on renewals. The follow-up begins in advance, through anticipation, to maximize membership renewals.

For example, you can plan a message a month before the end of the membership period to inform your members that their registration is expiring. If this period occurs at the beginning of the year, take the opportunity to wish them a Happy New Year. This message is also the perfect opportunity to remind them of the benefits of membership, its tangible advantages, and your future projects!

Using a platform like Yapla allows you to automate membership renewals, including sending reminder messages to members.

You just need to define key moments for sending them; it can be 1 month to 15 days before the membership end date. To make your messages more personal, you can add elements of customization, such as the first name at the beginning of the email, for example: "Hello [first name],".

Once your messages are in place, at the right time, your members can renew and pay their fees online in a few clicks, without your intervention, through a process designed to simplify their renewal as much as possible!

With Yapla, it's easy to apply our 3 tips mentioned at the beginning of the article and go even further: Your form can adapt to contexts you define:

• You can create a form that adapts to your members' contexts, making re-enrollment faster and simpler than the initial enrollment, with less information and fields to fill.
• Payment-wise, it's flexible and 100% secure. You even have the option to offer installment payments and preferential rates for renewing members.

At the same time, you can keep an eye on your member base, which is automatically updated in real-time.

 

3 - Cultivate a Sense of Belonging

The sense of belonging to your association is probably the cornerstone of loyalty. In addition to optimizing membership renewals, a sense of belonging improves engagement and can lead to increased participation in your activities. Here are some ideas to foster a strong connection between your association and its members:

• Multiply small gestures by adopting a personalized approach throughout the year. Ensure that members are warmly welcomed when they join, offer, for example, a welcome kit, items branded with the association's logo, etc.
• Turn each renewal into a unique and fun moment. The loyalty strategy necessarily involves valuing the people who trust you. In this regard, remember to thank your members when they renew, especially through personalized messages, premium access to certain content, invitations to exclusive events, or benefits such as discounts with certain partners.
• Finally, take advantage of the time saved through automation and simplification of your processes to enjoy quality moments, meetings, and sharing with your members!

 

4 - Go Further to Retain Members with Yapla

Gradually, you can use the time saved to go further and further improve the services offered to your members.

At Yapla, we support you in this dynamic by giving you the means to develop, communicate, and continually enhance the value of your member services.

For example, with Yapla, you can:

• Offer a Member Section on your website: each member can access exclusive content and preferential offers if you wish; they can also update their information or renew their membership independently.
• Showcase your services and share your news massively through newsletters.
• Collect feedback and suggestions from your members through satisfaction forms. This type of initiative shows your members that you listen to them and that you want to continue to constantly improve your services to satisfy them every day.

 

In summary, retaining your members is a long-term process. To initiate the subject, you can start by implementing small actions in the short term that will help you maximize your membership renewals. Then, gradually, you can structure your strategy. To give yourself every chance of success, we recommend equipping your association with a suitable tool like Yapla. The platform is specially designed to make your life easier and promote an engaging experience, conducive to retaining your members. It would be a shame to miss out!

 

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Solène, marketing manager