I’m working with a number of associations that are experiencing higher than desired membership churn rates. In some cases, nearly 25% of the membership does not renew each year. That’s a lot of members to recruit each year, just to recover from the previous year’s loss.What to do? In this instance, we get curious about the new membership onboarding process and we ask these questions:
- Do the non-renewing members share demographics?
- Are there patterns in their activities? For example, we sometimes find that the members who choose to renew after just one year are often accidental members, or people who became members because they registered for a meeting or spoke at a conference. In these instances, these individuals sometimes don’t even realize they are members.
- Are there certain activities or campaigns that generate more non-renewing members? For example, perhaps a certain list that you rent or buy generates members but they tend not to renew.
- Do non-renewing members come from certain segments of your membership, e.g., a certain size company or type of business?
- How does the organization welcome new members? What do they receive in the mail and online? What exactly happens and when?
If you’re not already tracking this information, it’s time to start! You’ll get valuable into who is not renewing and get a head start on getting those renewal rates up. In future blog posts, I’ll share tips and strategies for creating amazing new member onboarding journeys. Make 2019 the year of intentional new member journeys!
