Renewal email campaigns cannot be successful if they stand on their own. Before we ask members for money, make sure they have been onboarded well, and been contacted if their engagement is low.
I’ve been a member of an organization where they didn’t onboard me, and didn’t do any low engagement touches. Rather they just threw me into a high volume of emails, with no way to opt out of things I wasn’t interested in, and then suddenly said “we know you are getting so much value out of our organization, it’s time to renew”.
That sent the wrong message.
Once you have your onboarding and re-engagement campaigns in order, dive into renewals.
What does your previous data say? When do members renew the most? Frame your campaign around the data as much as possible.
Here’s the campaign we recommend:
40 days out: Mailed postcard or invoice notifying the member the need to renew.
30 days out: Email 1 - Sincere thank you for being a member, how they are important to the association and top 5 benefits they will continue to receive when they renew.
15 days out: Email 2 – Reminder, your membership is expiring in 15 days. Highlight your top benefit that will keep them around.
1 day out: Email 3 - Today is the day, renew. Simple: don’t lose access to your member benefits & how to renew.
15 days post: Email 4 - Your membership ended 2 weeks ago, here are some benefits you are missing out on.
30 days post: Email 5 – We’re reaching out one last time to ensure you continue to have the access and guides you need to succeed.
Many associations have a 90 & 60 day before notice as well, let the data decide if those are necessary or not. In most cases where we build the campaign, they are not. If the grace period is longer than 30 days out then I recommend taking a break after 30 days post, and send one more email a few days before their real expiration date.
Cross Promote
If your email platform can do it, also put dynamic content blocks into regular newsletters that inform the member that it’s time to renew.
If your website or community can do it, put a banner at the top for the logged in member reminding them that it’s time to renew.
Complete Marketing
In addition to emails, targeted ads, calls, texts, and video should be incorporated into the full marketing plan. No sales company gets a lot of sales by just sending emails. Here’s some of our favorite vendors:
Feathr: The best paid ad platform for associations & non-profits that corresponds wonderfully with email.
Direct Calling & Mailing: Both pay off, Scott Oser Associates are great at it.
Video Request: Our go to vendor to get great member testimonials to put into emails, social and online.
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