How to Politely Ask Past Members to Become Members Again

As you prepare for this yr's membership renewal campaign, be sure to take the fourth dimension to review and update your renewal letter or e-mail.

For many organizations, this is the key tool in your renewal toolbox. Later all, dissimilar your newsletters or website, your renewal letter or email offers an opportunity to speak directly to your member. And since retaining members and keeping them active and engaged is critical — it might just exist the most important communications piece you lot'll send this year!

Wondering how to transport out membership renewals during COVID-19? Fill out the form beneath to get a template to help you out:

i. Write a Powerful Member Renewal Alphabetic character

Your renewal letter or email needs to speak to each member and make them feel they have a personal connection to and an integral part of an important organization.

Information technology should be a powerful bulletin that reminds and reinforces the value your organization brings to their personal and/or professional person life. Information technology likewise needs to acknowledge both the arrangement's commitment to the member and the importance of his/her support — from the moment they filled out your membership application grade onwards.

One way to ensure you are offering up a personal bear upon is to step back and think about what y'all'd want to hear if you were a member.  You lot could also consider involving members in the renewal letter process. Why non talk to your board, membership or communications chairs — mayhap they have some thoughts you tin can comprise? To brand it even more personal, you might fifty-fifty desire to have the alphabetic character or electronic mail come directly from i of these volunteers.

2. Get Members to Renew on Their Own

Want to make your life a little easier?

Why non get members to renew automatically?

The tiptop membership organizations get their members to renew on their own by setting up recurring dues. Recurring dues is a process that automatically charges a members' credit card at the end of each menstruation. A member just needs to be set up once, and that's it.

At that place are many advantages of setting up recurring dues, including:

• Time and money saved from processing dues yourself.
• An increase in cash flow from members' accounts being charged automatically the second a due is due (no belatedly dues).
• Since you won't take to nag your members about late dues, yous tin save your communication with them for when it counts.

The easiest way to set up recurring ante is to use a membership management system, which is designed to automate all the admin tasks for a membership manager (like ante, website updates, newsletter blueprint, event registrations, database updates, and more).

If you're looking for a great membership management system to use for your arrangement, WildApricot is the number one rated organization used by over 20,000 membership organizations across the world. The best role is that WildApricot has a gratuitous 30 twenty-four hours trial for anyone looking to use it. You tin get your free trial here.

"As our club grew from the sixty's to in excess of 150 members and the demand to collect dues and establish membership categories arose, it became very hard to manage everything with the paper organization we had been using. WildApricot solved all that perfectly."

- Fred Finney, Vistoso Cyclists

3. Practice This in Your Bulletin for Added Impact

If you're using a membership management platform, yous'll exist able to use your membership data to personalize renewal emails or messages.

Start the procedure by thinking well-nigh what sets your members autonomously - for example:

• Exercise yous have a number of membership levels or categories? (e.chiliad., student, active member, retired, affiliate, etc.)
• Do yous segment your listing based on membership status? (new member, agile member; long-standing member, inactive/ lapsed member, former/returning member)
• Exercise you lot capture engagement data? (east.g., volunteer activeness; omnipresence at events or professional development sessions; involvement in committees or task forces; etc.)

The more than you lot know nigh your members, the more you tin can personalize the letter or email to speak directly to them.

(And if you don't know which of your members fall into these segments... it'south time to start asking and tracking!)

For instance, if you know that a grouping of members have been active on your advocacy committee or interested in an initiative, yous might want to highlight the association'due south success over the past yr and thank and acknowledge their contributions that made this possible in their renewal letter.

This letter from Forterra (formerly the Cascade Land Salvation) highlights initiatives that this donor's support has made possible throughout the yr and explains exactly which initiatives their membership renewal tin can support in the year to come.

Alternately, if you have a student membership category, you might desire to highlight specific member benefits that this group finds most beneficial (e.thousand., such as professional development or networking events).

You might too want to consider creating separate letters or emails based on membership condition, for case:

• a powerful "nosotros miss you" bulletin (possibly from the Lath Chair?) for lapsed members
• a personal "couldn't do it without yous" note for long-standing members
• a welcoming annotation for new members renewing for the kickoff fourth dimension
• a "welcome back" note for former/returning members

If you lot are struggling to discover the best style to accost a specific segment, try reaching out to a fellow member or a volunteer who represents that group and go his/her feedback and insight.

Note for WildApricot users: y'all can customize your automated renewal emails  and create different versions to arrange membership segments, categories or levels .

4. Make Sure the Salutation Isn't a Show Stopper

Call up that famous line from the picture Jerry Maguire: "you had me at hullo"?

Well, your showtime two words – "Dear thirty" can have a huge impact on whether your letter or email are read or taken seriously.

If y'all fumble the salutation, your member may never go to your wonderful prose nigh how important he/she is or the amazing work your organization has achieved over the last year.

So, here are a few tips on getting the hullo or welcome right:

• Never say "love member" — it needs to exist personal
• Dear [showtime name] – is probably all-time, but ensure your database has correct showtime names for all members so y'all don't end up with a "Dearest bare" or worse, "Beloved first name"!
• Avoid using Ms., Mr., or Mrs. since any glitch in your database can exist the "kiss of death" when a staffer or the system gets the member'due south gender wrong! Mistakes similar those certainly suggest you don't know this fellow member.

Want more tips like this? Before yous lick that envelope or hit the send button, check out ourMembership Renewal Letter Checklist.

5. Bear witness Them the Benefits

Receiving your renewal letter of the alphabet or email may take your members thinking near another line from the Jerry Maguire movie: "Show me the money!".

When they receive your yearly renewal alphabetic character, electronic mail or invoice, they're automatically thinking, "What has my association/club done for me lately?" They'll exist thinking about the value of membership and the benefits you lot've provided, in terms of the value that's being added to their businesses and/or lives.

So, when crafting your renewal communications messages, take care to be sure they resonate with your members — and shows them the benefits of belonging.

For example, this table from the PMI Kansas City Mid America highlights the differences between being a member and a not-member.

To present this effectively in their renewal letter, they could look at which benefits a member has taken advantage of and point out how much money they've saved throughout the year.

Another benefit that most organizations provide and that'south easy to highlight: the chance to be part of a community.

Simply reminding members of the emotional and professional connections they tin form throughout your organisation can frequently be more than valuable than a elementary list of discounts.

For example, if your organization has a member directory, you can indicate it out. If non, you could potentially inquire members how they've benefitted from having the run a risk to network with other members — Have they gotten new business contacts? Have they learnt something new? — and and then highlight those testimonials in your letters and website to encourage renewals.

In sum: your overview of your benefits doesn't have to be long-winded, just it does need to be relevant and outcomes-focused. If yous've washed some thinking well-nigh customizing to suit your audience, it can be a brief, bullet-indicate listing that speaks directly to the member.

half-dozen. Make Your Ask Urgent and Honest

Yeah, this is a renewal alphabetic character or e-mail... but you don't want to spring right in and ask them to renew in the outset line since that can come up off as aggressive and brand it look like y'all're only in it for the money.

Nevertheless, once you've made a welcoming get-go, and reminded your member about the benefits of belonging, then you lot need to "make the ask".

Of grade, even if they have scanned through your email or letter, your fellow member is waiting for "the pitch". So make it urgent and honest — ask them to renew their membership today.

Information technology should also include the ways in which they tin practice this quickly and easily, whether it'south via cheque or online. If yous're sending an email, you can even include the link to your fellow member portal so that they can click through immediately.

7. This Reminder is De Rigueur

Nosotros're talking renewal letters and emails here, but your organization may remember about renewals in terms of "renewal notices", "renewal reminders" or fifty-fifty "renewal invoices".

No affair how your process or membership management systems work, you should accept the opportunity at renewal time to achieve out to all of your members with a personalized bulletin.

If your organization is using online membership direction software, many of your members might have taken advantage of signing up to have membership fees automatically paid on a regular (yearly, quarterly, monthly) basis.

Merely fifty-fifty though technology can save enormous fourth dimension and effort with renewal administration, if members are paying through your membership direction organization's recurring payments processes, it's still important to take the opportunity to connect with members. After all, it's a courtesy to notify them that their membership renewal is coming up and that their credit card will be charged. It's also an opportunity to re-connect with them on a personal level as you are with your other members who are receiving the renewal letter or e-mail.

Read More than: 5 Steps to Build a Membership Site (No Tech Feel Required)

8. Don't Forget to Say This

Your renewal letter or e-mail offers an opportunity to outline the benefits of membership and admit your member'southward valued support. But it can also instill some excitement for the coming twelvemonth – activities, programs or events made possible past their member dues or fees.

Employ your closing equally the opportunity to offering a 18-carat note of thanks to the member. If you can, customize the endmost to suit the member type or the profile of the member so that it is warm and personal – offering up that emotional connection and a sense of membership value that reminds them why they became involved with your organisation in the first place.

ix. A Membership Renewal Letter Sample to Follow

Looking for a membership renewal letter that you can use that implements all of these suggestions?

Well, look no further: here'southward a template for you!

Nosotros hope you find it helpful while you're sending out renewal letters!

Here'southward a Great Infographic Summarizing Everything in This Post:

reavesminat1977.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.wildapricot.com/blog/improving-membership-renewal-letters

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