Maintaining membership rates is crucial for the health of any organization. You can build a base of supporters, but keeping your members loyal is an ongoing commitment. You can continually recruit new members, but if you have a leaking bucket, meaning members flowing in the top but slowly leaking out the bottom, you are wasting your efforts. It costs much more acquiring new members than it does keeping existing members. For that reason and many others, member retention is critical to the long-term success of your organization.
Here are a few ways your organization can start maintaining member relationships.
Contact Members Regularly
You should foster continuous engagement with your members. Regularly contacting your members is an excellent way for you to maintain a presence in their lives. You can keep your members engaged by reaching out consistently. The more engaged your members are with your organization, the more likely it is that you will maintain a lasting relationship with them. If you stop contacting them, they will feel forgotten and start searching for another organization that they may feel a better connection with than yours.
Always Send Personalized Content
Personalize your members’ experience. You can present your members with content that’s specific to their interests and needs. You will win your audience over by showing you understand them, and you’re working on delivering value to them.
Personalized mail is the perfect way for you to maintain member relationships because the members appreciate customized content. It makes them feel special, and they don’t feel like just another number within your community. Your targeted messages speak directly to each person, and the custom offers appeal to the right people each time. The personalized messages result is better responses too.
Celebrate Member Anniversaries
Celebrating member anniversaries truly strengthens a member’s relationship with your organization. Sending direct mail during an anniversary shows your member is at the top of your mind. You are creating an experience for them, which helps relationship building and member retention. Recognizing the anniversary of a member joining your organization shows your organization appreciates and values their commitment to your mission.
Show Member Appreciation
Thank your members! It’s a simple gesture, but thanking members makes them feel appreciated. You can thank members after receiving a donation or after they help with volunteering at an organization event. You should also thank members when they refer their friends and family members. They are helping your membership base grow and strengthen by making referrals, and a thank you is an excellent way for you to show appreciation and encourage more referrals. Showing appreciation by thanking members guarantees they know their contributions and interactions aren’t unnoticed.
Recognize Your Members
It’s natural for you to share as much as you can about your organization to connect with prospective members potentially, but you don’t want everything to be about you. After a while, it gets boring and can make the members feel alienated. Instead, you can showcase a current member and highlight what they have done to help further your mission. This gesture shows members you care about them individually and encourages them to stand out in your organization.
Provide Membership Cards
Membership cards show each person within your organization that they are part of something much bigger. With variable printing capabilities, you can customize every aspect of every member card. You can switch the images depending on a geographic region or other variables. You can even include personal details and print unique 2D barcodes. A membership card is a fantastic way to stay in your members’ minds each day. It’s a constant reminder of the connection they have with your organization.
Maintaining Members with Valtim’s Services
Valtim provides many options that will help you maintain member relationships. Our direct mail services allow you to send mailers regularly while offering personalized content for your chosen audience. We offer many direct mail mediums, including postcards, which are an excellent way for you to send thank you’s and celebratory messages to your members. We even offer high-quality membership cards that can be customized per member since we have variable printing capabilities with our digital printing hardware. Contact Valtim to get started with maintaining great relationships with all your members.
