Renewal campaigns tend to start a month or two before the renewal date and consist of a sequence of increasingly urgent emails. If renewal rates are falling, the answer is often to add more of them. That rarely works for long.
By the time the first reminder goes out, most members have already decided. The decision was made over the previous twelve months, based on whether membership was useful, and at the moment of renewal, based on whether it was easy.
Look at the year, not the reminder
Map what a typical member actually experiences between joining and renewing. How often did they log in? Did they use a benefit? Did they receive anything that felt personal to them, or only newsletters? For many members, the renewal notice is the first time they have heard from the organisation in months, and it is asking for money.
- Members who have not logged in for several months
- Members who have never used a benefit
- New members who have not completed their profile
- Members whose engagement has dropped compared with last year
These signals are available long before renewal. They give the membership team time to do something useful: point a member to a relevant event, remind them of a benefit they have not used, or simply ask how things are going.
Then make renewing effortless
Once a member has decided to stay, the renewal itself should take seconds. Too often it involves finding an old login, resetting a password, checking details that have not changed and navigating a payment page that does not remember them.
- Link directly from the reminder to a renewal page, already signed in where security allows
- Pre-fill everything that has not changed
- Offer automatic renewal, clearly explained and easy to cancel
- Make it simple for employers to renew on a member's behalf
If lapsing is easier than renewing, more email will not save you.
Measure the right things
Track renewal rates by joining year, membership grade and engagement level, not just overall. A small fall in renewals among second-year members tells a different story from a fall among long-standing ones. And test changes to the journey the way you would test a donation form: one change at a time, with numbers before and after.
