Membership Retention Strategies: From Value Propositions to Journey Mapping

For the last decade, the MGI membership benchmark report and ASIs Membership Performance benchmark report shared that half of respondents said they were growing, in terms of membership, retention rates or engagement rates – or all three.

This year, for the first time, these numbers have dropped. Don’t panic!

The drops in the numbers have been relatively small, but this shows a trend that there is work to be completed to improve retention.

Don’t wait to fall into the category of quietly losing members. There are ways to act before this becomes a problem.

The first step is making sure your association has a clear member value proposition (MVP). According to MGIs’ report, 90% of associations stated they have a ‘somewhat compelling’ MVP.

Whereas, less than 33% of respondents reported that they communicate this with their members. Your MVP shouldn’t be a secret – spread the word!

Amber suggested sharing your value proposition as much as possible, for example, in emails, social campaigns, and videos. The value of your organisation’s membership must be something that all your team need to be aware of and promote.

The report continues that members who understand the value proposition of an organisation are 3 times more likely to renew and advocate for membership.

Paul then asked the following question: if you could only choose one key measure for your improvement, what would that measure be?

The results from the quick poll were as follows:
– Engagement rate – 40%
– Retention rate – 33%
– Membership strength – 18%
– Member impact – 8%
– Member vibe – 1%

Zentso believes member engagement is fundamental to having a strong association. To learn more about this check out our post how to measure digital engagement.

Based on a structure outlined by Sue Froggatt, there are 3 main journeys within a membership, known as macro-journeys.

1. Into membership – recruitment, joining and onboarding.
2. Through membership – the ongoing membership lifecycle, which can include 10 journeys within it.
3. After membership – mentoring, alumni, continuing engagement

Making improvements throughout these journeys can support member engagement goals.

Creating a member journey map is the process of understanding the steps a member takes, from their point of view.

There doesn’t need to be a high volume of personas; 5 is often a good place to start.  As Amber shared, it can be helpful to name your personas like ‘George the graduate’. This simple trick makes it easier to connect with them and what they might want.

Mapping journeys needs to have the whole team involved, as each team will bring unique perspectives.

You need to consider the persona’s pain points and motivations. What are they looking for from their membership? What do they find challenging?

Based on these pain points, you can then map out areas of improvement. For example, if members find it hard to find information on your website, they might look at introducing a chatbot to support with member queries.

These are the steps for mapping out a journey:

– Persona – look at one small group of members
– Scope – Goal e.g. renewal rate
– Phases, actions, activities – touch points, pain points and ideas
– Tracking – how are you executing and tracking change?

When looking at making improvements to the member journey, new members are a great group of people to track.

New members need to be treated with a unique member journey. This is the point where they are most excited and engaged, so this should be built upon!

Having a strong onboarding process is essential to support new member retention.

The top three reasons to join a membership organisation are typically networking, education, and learning. Start early by showing them the MVP!

For new members, the journey can be split into 3 stages across their first 12 months and actions that can support engagement.

For the first 3 months, focus on welcoming members and sharing the opportunities available. It can be a good idea to introduce them to another member and help facilitate networking. You can use AI tools to make this easier – consider using AI to write email drafts and automate journeys.

Within 3 to 9 months, you can be making a personalised offer to the member, call them to check in, and ask them to complete a short survey about how they are getting on.

From 9 to 12 months, your messaging should focus on their renewal. Paul and Amber suggest that you should treat this group differently and have a separate programme to support these renewals.

If members do decide not to renew, are you tracking why? Tracking resignation reasons is important to make further updates.

Membership growth and retention don’t happen by chance, they come from consistently communicating your value, engaging members at every stage of their journey, and listening to their needs.

Whether it’s strengthening your MVP, improving onboarding, or mapping the member journey, small, intentional improvements can make a big difference.

By acting now, your association can improve the member experience and avoid quietly losing members.