Make Sure Your New Members Feel The Love

02/15/2023

First impressions are everything! Connecting with new members immediately after they join is crucial to ensuring they receive the value they expected when joining and then hopefully renew their membership when it comes time.

When a new member joins, you can easily enroll them in an automated drip marketing program. These initial emails have a much higher open rate, so make sure you are clearly filling them with pertinent information about the resources they now have easy access to by becoming a member.

Continuing to engage with them with phone and email touchpoints throughout the first year increases the chance of them renewing for the following year.

Set up an automated admin reminders series in your new members' records to keep you on task.
Maybe a few days or a week after a new member joins, ask your membership chair to call them to see if they have any questions about your organization.
A month to two after they join, ask your executive director or president to call them to see they are getting the value they expected when joining.
Perhaps a six month check in call could be helpful.
Before your renewal notices go out, you can again check in with them.
For your organizational members, make sure you are also reaching out to key personnel within the organization instead of just communicating with a primary contact.

You should also be encouraging them during their first year to participate in your message boards and committees, so they can engage with other members. Our engagement report shows just how engaged they are. Are they registering for your events, serving on your committees, chairing a committee, opening your emails, or clicking through to links in your emails?

Ernie Smith, who is a senior editor for Associations Now, a former newspaper guy, and a man who is dangerous when armed with a good pun, has written a three part member onboarding series that offers some suggestions.