How often do you send a specific one-to-one communication to your members? Maybe a "welcome" letter when they join and then an invoice when they need to renew...right? Most other communications are newsletters, "mass" emails (even if customized) or other generic method.
Surprise them. Send them a valentine. Wish them a happy St. Patrick's Day. Call them just to say "hi" and see how they are doing. Try something unexpected to show them that you're glad they're a member. Send them a $5 Starbucks gift card and tell them you'd like to meet them for coffee. How about a personal email that you typed just to them?
Yes, you are busy and they are busy, but in today’s world of media overload, I'll bet they'll appreciate a genuine out-of-the-blue, personal communication. Sure, this will be hard to do for all your members at once....so do it in chunks. Do something special and different each month or each week for a few members and cycle through them over the course of the year. Break up your members into segments using your membership management software to help you create more personal communications.
I think you'll enjoy the results.
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Posted by: Beth Brodovsky on Monday, December 8, 2008
Curt, My whole focus is that ongoing communication with members is what drives them to stay, spend and bring their friends. People who feel welcome get involved, people who are involved are a lot more likely to renew. We do a lot of mass communication, and variable print personalization, but this old-school real-touch is a great thing add into the mix. We all just don't take enough time to do this anymore. Higher Ed, which is much like membership has started sending letters from board members whose kid wet there about the great experience their child had at the school. It seems that the human touch is becoming a prominent marketing concept in many industries.
Posted by: Curt Moss on Monday, December 8, 2008
Beth, I completely agree on the ongoing communications being vital to the relationship. Members need to hear from you more than the blast emails and the invoices you send. I'm trying to do similar things with our clients at WebLink...contacting them out of the blue with fun messages or just a sincere "thank you." Thanks for your comments!