Rebuilding Your Membership Base Post COVID: 5 Clear-cut Strategies to Get You Back On Track
There is no doubt that 2020 presented major challenges in the cultural sector. We’ve all had to adapt our methods of communicating and engaging with members and donors. This article will provide you with clear-cut strategies to help move your members and donors from lockdowns and quarantines to visiting while creating efficiencies to help increase the bottom line.
Your members, both current and lapsed, are anxious to hear when they can attend and what they will experience.
Whether they go out with their family, by themselves, or with a group of friends many members have not been able to experience in-person visits for over a year. People are itching to experience in-person engagement once again. Communicating about your capacity limits, exhibits, and what’s on over the next few months is key. When is your next exhibit opening? When is an exhibit closing? And how are you making that experience exciting, welcoming, and most importantly safe? There are many questions your visitors have and they are placing great value on the conversations you are having with them. There has never been a more important time to invest in the retention and recapture of your membership base through the art of conversation. A live conversation will give your most loyal visitors an opportunity to not only hear about what’s happening but give them the space to ask questions that can only be answered authentically with a live conversation. For many organizations, members have not spoken to you in over a year and they need to hear your voices as much as you need to hear theirs. They will spread the word of their conversations throughout their social circles, after all, they are your most vocal advocates and you need them to know what you’re doing.
The message has shifted from ‘support us’ to ‘visit us’
Back in the spring of 2020 when we first went on lockdown, we weren’t sure how long it was going to last, in fact, many of us may have thought it might last only a few weeks. Then we slowly realized the pandemic was going to last longer than initially anticipated and we needed to shift our focus from visiting us to support us. Investments were made in communicating the need for support. Emergency funds were created and donors, members, and visitors were asked to give so that when we are able to visit again, they would still have a quality experience. And many people dug deep into their pockets and supported the organizations they care so much about. But now, the time has come to shift the message back to the visit and thank them for their ongoing support. Getting them through the threshold of your gates and your doors is of the utmost importance. Don’t be afraid to sell your experience.
Discard the discounts, time is the new currency
Many membership organizations and clients we work with start their venture in membership retention and reactivation by offering discounts to create urgency. Renew early and save 20% is a common phrase in the messaging. And yes, financially this past year has been tough for a lot of folks. Yet, in our conversations with thousands of members throughout North America, we’ve heard that time is more valuable. We will emerge into a post lockdown world at our individual paces and having extra time to attend is desirable. Adding an extra month or two for renewing and reactivated members is more valuable than the 20% discount. In fact, we have seen an increase in yes rates and a decrease in objections to price when we offer an extra month instead of the discount. As you are putting together your strategies for rebuilding your membership we encourage you to consider giving time over discounts.
Multi-Year Members are 10-20% more likely to upgrade to the next membership level if you ask them
In our conversations with members of museums, zoos, aquariums, and gardens, we’ve found that multi-year members are much more likely to not only renew their membership but to upgrade their memberships to higher and more philanthropic levels. In fact, in our conversations, we’re seeing multi-year members upgrade to philanthropic memberships 10-20% of the time. Those incremental increases in support are vital. Targeting your messaging around an upgrade to a philanthropic level by building a case for support combined with the experience of visiting will help you build pre-pandemic revenue levels. Our recommendation through our scripting approach is to begin the ‘ask’ of your multi-year members two levels higher than their current membership level. Upgrading is more challenging with mail and email alone. We recommend reaching out to your members by phone prior to their expiration date to talk about upgrading their membership, enhancing their engagement with your organization.
Clean data is vitally important to efficiency
One of the most effective ways to increase the bottom line and use your budget resources more responsibly is to make sure you're working with clean lists. Every year people move, phone numbers change, email addresses change, and household sizes change as a result of the cycle of life. If you are not cleaning your database on a regular basis, you’ll certainly be wasting money on your membership appeals. One of the most significant hurdles we have to overcome in the first year of working with a client is filtering through their list and uncovering the not-in-service and wrong numbers. In case after case, we can experience upwards of 20-30% of contacts made are categorized as not-in-service or wrong number, which likely means they have moved as well. These results are consistent regardless of whether it’s an organization’s first time ever doing telemarketing or if they are simply switching vendors. By the second year of our partnership, those numbers drop nearly two-thirds and we see a more reasonable 10-15% not-in-service/wrong number rate. Artsmarketing Services works closely with our clients to provide them with regular reports to update their database and create cleaner records and a more efficient database. We cannot stress the importance of a clean list enough, it’s a money saver.
How can we help you re-build your membership base?
Artsmarketing Services 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.
From the moment Artsmarketing Services begins working with you, we will help you focus your message to bridge the information gap between you and your members and visitors. Working side by side with you, we become your direct line to increased membership rates and increased membership averages. Targeting the message to the person we’re talking to will not only increase your bottom line but will build a long-term and loyal membership base that will renew year after year.
In addition to renewing and reactivating members, our methodology regularly achieves additional campaign results including:
Making sure your members are clear on your current protocols so that they become vocal advocates for your organization.
Increased attendance by building their excitement about what’s coming up and what they’ll experience as they return.
Providing overall customer support in digital offerings and how to secure a timed entry ticket.
Making sure that everyone knows the good work you’re doing in the community to create philanthropic support for years to come.
To get a better understanding of how Artsmarketing Services can help you re-build your membership program contact us to set up a consultation.