Accurate, targeted membership engagement retains loyalty.

If you’re responsible for an organisation that has members there are two ways to give them an experience that will keep them loyal whilst enthusiastically recommending you to others whilst retaining their loyalty.

The first is to make them feel special. Members like to feel they matter (as, of course, they do). They want to get the Rolls Royce treatment that reminds them why it’s so good to be part of your organisation.

Exceptional Communication

The second is exceptional communication. If you asked your members what they like about being a member, efficient administration that details their benefits and timely reminders of what events or activities they personally might be interested in is very likely to feature high on the list!

It can be easy to think that one is a human activity and the other is mostly to do with automation, but actually automation can make a dramatic difference to the member’s experience.

Think how you feel when the coupons and vouchers that come through the letterbox (or by email) are not only from your favourite shops, but relate directly to items you frequently buy. It makes you happy to be able to benefit from these.

If the offers are for items you never buy or from shops you don’t visit, they’re just useless bits of paper. That’s why excellent data management counts in improving how your customer feels.

Patrons, fund-raisers, volunteers, and more

• If a volunteer for a charity likes to invest their time in attending events to represent you, sending them opportunities to do bucket collections doesn’t make them feel as special. If they get more opportunities to do what they enjoy, they’ll do it more often and continue to do so.
• If a patron gets notices of a production that’s a light comedy, but they’ve only ever attended dramas, that communication is going to be ignored. If they mostly get notices of the kind of production they enjoy, they’re more likely to buy tickets.
• Appropriate communications based on the data that you hold, across your organisation that allows you to target accurately messages that have resonance with the recipient, are much more likely to create a positive response.

You may look at all these and be thinking ‘great in principle, but incredibly time-consuming to deliver’. That’s only partly true; the data needs to be available. It’s usually easy to collect, but it doesn’t require a whole team of people to manage it. In today’s digital world, all the data can be automated. You probably guessed that this is also possible with electronic communications across web. email and sms – there are platforms that offer a version of personalised communication that ensures brand guardianship across all media types. And, did you know that even when you don’t have a large volumes to send, that printing of personalised material is possible?

Imagine the impact on your members when they get highly bespoke information in every direct mail or email from you? That’s what will make them feel really special.

Want to know more about this? Please talk to us about what you want to achieve – and we’ll find a solution that works for your organisation.