Upgrade Members to the Next Level and Beyond: High Touch = Higher Results

Artsmarketing Services has been privileged to work with museums, arts organizations, zoos, botanical gardens and aquaria for decades. You know what that means? It means that we have learned a lot about you, your members, and your industry. In this post, we plan to address one of the biggest challenges facing our clients: member retention. We’ll look at how your organization can increase membership retention, upgrade members, and make them your cheerleaders.

How do we get *new* members to renew? 

If this is a question you’ve been asking, you’re not alone. Our experience shows that no matter how successful a membership drive is, up to 75% of new members fail to renew. That’s a lot.

First Time Member Behavior

In general, only 50% of all members renew. This means that membership departments are in the position of having to replace at least half of the membership base every year. Talk about stress…It’s like you’re trying to fill a hole that just keeps getting deeper.

We don’t have to tell you why members matter. You already know that. 

Our clients tell us:

• Members spend 4 times more at your museum than occasional visitors

• Members spend more on retail, more on food, and more on gifts with every visit 

What if you could focus your energy on engaging your members?

Do you ever close your eyes and imagine all the things you would do if you didn’t have to spend all your time signing up new members? You could arrange special tours. Put more energy into education. Organize little get-togethers.

What if you could spend more time getting your members through the door rather than finding thousands of new members every year? 

Acquisition is at least 5 times more expensive than activities focused on engagement and retention. Yet, when membership departments are constantly trying to fill the hole that lapsed members have left behind, it’s hard to be creative.

Artsmarketing knows investing in the engagement and retention of members will actually free up your time to offer better programs, which will increase engagement and loyalty.

What do we already know about your members?

We’ve spoken with many people who belong to membership organizations, especially lapsed members. That’s one of our specialties, after all. We help organizations build their membership base.

One thing we have discovered over the years is that if you take a transactional approach to membership, you often develop a transactional relationship. 

What do we mean by transactional? Well, when price point and material benefits are the main selling points, memberships are viewed as a kind of loyalty card. This means that people often consider the actual costs and benefits to themselves when deciding to renew. They ask themselves if they made use of their card and whether discounts outweigh the cost of membership. That’s a transactional relationship. Instead, we urge our clients to celebrate the impact of membership.

Celebrating impact turns a member into a cheerleader

When membership is designed and communicated in a way that celebrates its impact, members see its value differently. The card is no longer a source of discounts and free admission; it’s now a source of pride and contribution. This is true even when people don’t make it through the door that often. Their membership becomes a demonstration of their dedication to your mission and to the community. 

We all know that members help fund activities, scholarships, and programs, but members don’t always know this. When Artsmarketing talks to potential members, we tell them how their membership dollars are being used. In some cases, this may mean scholarships to attend science camp, arts classes for children with Down syndrome, or wildlife conservation activities. Whatever your organization does to benefit others is done with the support of members.

Think of it this way: the membership card is no longer only valuable when you walk through the door. It’s working all year to benefit the community in which you live.

So how do you take an existing membership program and incorporate a more philanthropic approach without taking focus off encouraging attendance? And how does this help you increase retention of first year members? Let us tell you.

We have recommendations!

Good news! This post offers actionable advice. We’re not going to hold back on recommendations. Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work.

Life can be chaotic for your members

Your members are busy. Of course they are. Some would even describe themselves as over-committed.

On top of that, everyone has more choices then they have ever had before. There is always too much to do and too many opportunities competing for a family’s disposable income. 

Think back. Some of you grew up when there were few things families could do together with their kids. Now parents are overwhelmed with scheduled events. Yet the membership model of most organizations is still rooted in the past, when parents were desperate for kid-friendly activities.

The era of lazy Sundays is over

Being bored is a thing of the past. Now it’s one scheduled activity after another for many of the kids growing up today.

And yet, families still want outings that take them out of their regular existence. They still want to create opportunities for their kids to use their imaginations and explore. 

We have a plan for busy families

We want you to imagine yourself on the other side of the membership equation. It’s you, with your kids, your job, your kids’ soccer practices and music lessons, scout groups and playdates. Some days you feel like you can’t catch your breath. 

And yet, even with all of this scheduling, you feel like you don’t have any time just to be a family. If only there was something you could do together that didn’t require a calendar and an excel spreadsheet.

A membership to a zoo, a museum, an aquarium, or something equally family friendly is just the ticket. Some days the programming will pull you in. Some days the jellyfish. Some days there’s an exhibit you just can’t wait to experience. And it’s all happening without you having to plan for it, whether you show up or not.  There’s something liberating about that. You don’t have to plans and things still happen.

Being busy and overcommitted actually makes a two-year membership more appealing, rather than less so. The one-year membership is just another thing to stress over, another thing to plan. A two-year membership gives you the flexibility to become better acquainted with the museum. It’s a relief.

It can take up to 2 years for new members to see value

With a two-year membership, your organization becomes a part of the lives of busy families. It gives them the flexibility and the time to become loyal members who are more likely to renew. They’ve had time to get to know you and see the value you bring to them and the rest of the community. 

Let’s dive into the data Artsmarketing gathers during our conversations with members all across North America.

For context, renewal campaigns focus on members that our clients have not been able to reach. Most clients attempt to renew and reactivate members on their own so we’re only calling households that have not responded to our clients.

Renewal campaigns generally start 3-4 months prior to the expiration date. Members who have not responded to renewal requests are usually contacted at the expiration date or a bit later.

What the data shows us

Comparison of Conversion Rates on Contacts in 1 Year & 2 Year Members

One-year members

27% of the renewal members we contact with a one-year membership renew their membership

5% of the lapsed members we contact with a one-year membership reactivate 

Two-year members

46% of the renewal households we contact with two-year memberships renew their membership

10% of the lapsed member households with two-year memberships reactivate

Pay attention here: 46% of two-year members versus 27% of one-year members renew. That’s almost double the response rate for two-year members.

What does this tell us?

Higher renewal rates tell us that the two-year membership gives you an opportunity to spend more time on engagement and less time on retention. It means you can now invest more into growing your overall membership base.

Build your base

You’re going to love this. We asked our clients who offer a two-year membership to share some overall renewal rates of first time members who chose to join at the two-year membership level. One organization we spoke with tracked the renewal rates over a four year period and what they report is astounding.

First time members who joined at the two-year membership level have an average renewal rate of 85%

Did we just hear the sound of your jaw dropping? Because 85% renewal is a lot better than the 25% renewal rate of most new members.

Sign me up

If you don’t have one already, our guess is that you're probably thinking that you need to start offering a two-year membership. 

Artsmarketing uses a story-based and integrated approach to increase upgrades. We let people know that a membership isn’t a loyalty card.  It’s not just about visits and discounts. It is about education and what membership accomplishes for the community. An integrated high-touch gives way to a conversation about the mission of your organization. Your members want to see themselves as part of something larger. They want to know the value of their membership to the community and families in need. And this conversation helps them realize their value to the community as a whole.

Integrated communication works

When we include a live conversation, we’re able to build a stronger case membership. By following up mailings with live conversations, we have been able to upgrade 30% of the households who renew at the halfway point of their membership year. 

Good stories compel people to change

Stories change us when they engage our emotions. Well-told, a story can impact our thinking, bring vitality to a message, and encourage us to take action.

Good stories drive the audience to action

Artsmarketing has a team of highly trained writers who work with your membership team, curators and educators to uncover the stories that move your members to upgrade.

After identifying the story, we get on the phone to tell those stories. This approach works.

It doesn’t only work with the upper levels of members. All levels of membership respond. Even 9% of student members upgrade when we tell them the story of your organizations.

TOO LONG, DIDN’T READ: High Touch Gets Big Results

Calling ain’t cheap. It requires time and effort. Artsmarketing doesn’t simply use a set script in order to get good results. We interview people at the museum or membership organization and make sure we know what we are talking about. It’s high touch, and high touch gets results.

“We obsess over every call.”

After reviewing the results of both the upgrade campaign and the renewal campaigns, AMS has these recommendations that should help membership departments grow:

• Offer multi-year memberships
  Two-year memberships work. They increase revenue and the chance of renewal.

• Provide a discount on the two-year membership
  Why do we say this? Because the more members a museum has at any one time, the less time and money it has to spend on renewing them. When we look at our data, we can see that offering more than a 10% discount leads to more sales. Members with multi-year memberships are more likely to renew. Having more members with multi-year memberships means that museums can focus on growing the membership base rather than replacing lapsed members.

• Celebrate the impact of membership
  Tell your story in a way that inspires and makes members understand the impact of their membership. Don’t be shy.

Upgrades require high touch communication and an integrated approach
There is no urgency for happy members to upgrade. This is why mailers and emails often go ignored. Adding telephone conversations into the mix means that more members will renew and more members will upgrade.

Artsmarketing Services Membership Campaigns

Building and maintaining loyal, long-term members

AMS specializes in sales and development of membership programs by acquiring new members, retaining current members, upgrading and engaging members in multi-year memberships that solidify their long-term commitment to your organization. Our membership programs are tailored to your organization's overall budget and objectives — designed to build loyalty and encourage advocacy.  

Contact us today to build a loyal and sustainable membership.