Welcome Sequences, Annual Surveys & Renewal Campaigns
Takeaways from Optimum Contact’s Recent Lunch & Learn Series in Partnership with Answers for Associations and MemberBoat.
We recently participated in a series of webinars on the key steps in the association membership lifecycle. We talked about the three key points in the process, which are the welcome sequence, annual surveys, and membership renewal campaigns.
These webinars were hosted by Angela Shelton from Answers for Associations, and our Managing Director, Colin Perry, presented as an industry expert alongside Olena Lima from MemberBoat.
Welcome Sequence
When you acquire new members, it can be difficult to know the right way to make them feel like a valued member of your association’s community. This is why a welcome sequence is a key component for any association to have in their strategy. To create the perfect welcome sequence, it’s a good idea to use phone calls and automated emails to help your new members feel like part of the community from day one.
The welcome process is important because the first year’s renewal rate is always much lower than the following years, and it’s the same trend worldwide. Here, the importance of phone calls and automated emails can’t be underestimated. Opening up communication and the hand of friendship to a new member right from the start is something that your members will remember and take into consideration each time renewal season comes around.
“If you don’t get the momentum going at the start, you will start to think ‘what’s the point?” – Olena Lima, MemberBoat.
You don’t want to overload your new member with superfluous emails, you want to interact meaningfully and show that you care about them. Of course it’s important to include emails in your communications, but it’s also important to do something else on top of these. Having a real conversation via a phone call within the first 3-10 days of your new member joining is a really good way to keep them around and keep your churn rate down.
In your welcome sequence, you might want to include these three components.
- Send out a welcome email
- Make a welcome phone call within 3-10 days
- Send out an information pack and other resources
With membership phone calls, you have to be careful not to overload your new member. If they do become overwhelmed, this could stop them from going to stage two. However, normally once you’ve introduced yourself and had a brief conversation about their career and aspirations, and their life in general, everything seems to be relaxed and flows very well.
The more interaction you have in your introduction, the better your results are going to be. These first interactions, especially the phone call, is the first impression and the first chance to be human and get that momentum going with your new member. You’ll need to explain to your new member how to use your membership benefits, what you offer, how to connect to your community, and then introduce them to your community. If you don’t do these things, you just won’t get this momentum going and it will be harder to get things going down the track.
Annual Surveys
The annual survey is one of the most important aspects of any membership lifecycle. It reveals vital feedback about how your members believe your association should be going forward. But it isn’t always easy to have every voice heard within your member base, especially the fence sitters whose opinions about your association’s future matter the most. Therefore, associations should strategically use communication touchpoints to ensure annual surveys are completed by as many members as possible.
Emails and online surveys are very easy to delete or ignore. Whereas if you have a phone call, and you preface that phone call with an email saying they will receive a phone call in regards to the survey, you are going to get a much higher engagement rate. The quality of the answers is going to be so much better too.
In your annual surveys, you need to understand common pain points that your members are experiencing, and figure out how to fix these pain points. In online surveys, it’s very easy to just answer a question with yes or no, but with phone calls, you are much more likely to get a full open answer with your members true feelings. With a phone survey, you will see a great deal of conversation which can be tailored and more relevant to each individual member.
When designing your annual surveys, it’s important to remember general rules around the number of questions to include in your survey.
- Online surveys should be 5-7 questions max
- Phone surveys should be 5-7 questions max
- Email surveys should be 8-9 questions max
We know from experience that people are often happy to give you 5 minutes of their time for a survey, but they are not going to give you 20 minutes of their time. Your members are busy, and often taking calls on the go. A skilled interviewer can create nice and friendly conversations where people are more likely to give up more information.
Another reason why a phone survey might be the way to go is because having a phone survey stops inconsistent completion and survey fraud where people can just input random answers or complete the same survey multiple times. This can significantly damage the quality of your data. Phone surveys are cost effective, higher quality, and you have a significantly higher response rate to help you inform future strategies.
Membership Renewal Campaigns
When it comes to membership renewals, it can feel like a secret art that relies as much on luck as it does on effort. But the truth is, there are tried and tested methods that go into a successful renewal campaign. Often the key to retaining members is utilising effective communication touchpoints at strategic moments throughout the campaign.
Renewals are absolutely essential for every association. Members are the lifeblood of associations, so keeping your members happy and on board for another year is of the highest priority. And if your members leave, it’s very hard to get them back because often they’ve made up their mind or they’ve had a bad experience.
We can group the reasons for members leaving into four key groups.
- External factors. People change industries, retire or go on leave, move overseas. This is natural and is generally around 5-7% of lapsed memberships.
- Forgetting to renew. This happens, but it can be easily fixed with a membership renewal campaign and engagement.
- Difference in values and opinions. More frequent in associations that take part in advocacy efforts, but there’s not much you can do unless it’s happening often.
- Lack of service. If they don’t see value, interact enough or have events, are time-poor or don’t have the money. This too can be helped by showing your value to members.
However, on a more positive note, there are five main reasons that members will stay with their association:
- Results. Such as attending training and webinars for professional growth or promotions.
- Community. People love being connected to their industry peers.
- Convenience. Associations are a great hub for quality information and resources.
- Credibility. We all want to boost our credibility and add to our resumes.
- Sense of belonging. An emotional attachment and being part of a community.
The churn rate during the first two years of a membership is much higher than for the rest of the membership. So if you manage to keep people within the first two years of their membership, they will most likely continue for years to come. This is why a membership renewal campaign is so essential to your association’s continued success. Incorporating human connection into your campaign via phone call will bring you the best results, and you’ll find yourself keeping so many more members that may have otherwise lapsed for reasons such as forgetting to renew, or not seeing value in their membership.
Whether someone renewed or didn’t renew, you should stay in touch with them. So if they renew, say thank you and tell them what they can expect for the next year. Or if they decided to leave, ask them why and ask them how they felt about your services. Always have this human interaction so people don’t feel that they’re just another number in the system.
If you are looking for assistance with your welcome sequence, annual survey or membership renewal campaign, give our team a call on 1300 017 293.
