How can you increase the retention rate of your first year members by 12 percent?
Darryl Walter, formerly with the American Association for the Advancement of Science and now with The Wildlife Society shared how he did it in the November issue of DMAW Marketing Advents.
As you may have read in this blog before, the most likely members to leave an association are first year members. In marketing terms, these members are in their conversion year and need special care in order
The successful solution highlighted in the article featured a monthly ‘welcome’ telemarketing program. The new members were called and thanked for joining and asked if they had received their magazine and new member kit.
“In analyzing the effectiveness of the telemarketing call”, Walter writes, “we averaged a 12 percent increase in conversion rate for those who received the telemarketing call versus those we were unable to contact.”[1]
Why might this tactic have been so effective? Research shows that a key predictor of renewal for new members is generating a second interaction between the member and association after joining. So the goal of an engagement or on-boarding program needs to be to get additional interaction. The tactic used is not as important as the interaction that you need to achieve.
What are you doing to engage the new members in your organization?
[1] Darryl Walter, Show Your New Members Some Love, DMAW Marketing Advents, November 2008, page 5.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
1 comment:
I agree 100%. I recently wrote about recommending Private Clubs to create a one year connection program called, Recession Proof Your New Members in 2009. I find it hypocritical that so many Club's receive their new Member's initiation fee to become apart of a "Private" Club and then leave them to find their way around on their own.
What happened to Private and Special?
I see more and more Club's taking on new management positions in Member Relations
& Retention. Whose sole responsibility is to connect existing members and collect information on potential members through their referrals and Member’s guests.
Post a Comment