Museums and cultural attractions spend a lot of time searching for creative and effective new ways to attract new members while retaining and engaging their existing constituents.
With everything that goes in to expanding your reach, sometimes it is easy to forget that keeping members in the long-term is just as important as getting new members to sign up (if not more)! Research shows that it costs five times as much to acquire a new member than to retain a current one. Additionally, over a five year period, the average total value of a renewed member was worth 35% more than that of the average total value of a newly acquired member. The numbers are clear: reducing membership turnover is well worth the investment.
Here are five ways to help reduce membership turnover at your organization!
1. Become their “Third Place”
In the hustle and bustle of modern life, third places refer to the spaces where people spend time between home (‘first’ place) and work (‘second’ place). Third places are essential for offering respite from busy home and office life, building community, and fostering relationships and a sense of belonging. Your organization can serve as this third place!
Your members signed up for a reason – they enjoy coming to your museum! Give them a reason to come back often. Events like public programing, family nights, and community outreach events are a great way to remind your members why your institution is an important part of their lives.
The possibilities are endless. From speakers, late night events, or community service oriented projects, your institution has the opportunity to show members that you are committed to providing an engaging experience that benefits the entire community. Keep in mind that your members want to feel something special, social, and connected. Make your museum more than just a place to visit on a rainy day and offer programming that makes your institution an integral part of the community. This not only benefits your members, but also creates connections within the community as a whole.
For example, at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the museum goes beyond its galleries and offers community partnerships, neighborhood initiatives, and “study sessions,” an ongoing event series. Yale University Art Gallery has a thriving calendar of events, including “Mindfulness at the Art Gallery” and “Art and Social Justice” nights involving other local organizations. The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston offers themed “First Friday” parties every month, which are a special perk for their members. Poster House in New York offers “Drink and Draw” nights, which are free or discounted for members and help members develop camaraderie and their artistic skills.
Events like these allow organizations to offer an engaging experience beyond your typical museum visit and underscore their special value for bringing people together. By building a community and go-to “Third place,” you are not only bringing in new members, but you are also creating connections with your current members that will encourage them to stay in the long run.
2. Offer Something for Everyone
Audiences and members are becoming more and more diverse, and have wide arrays of backgrounds and interests. One of the best ways to retain members of all ages and interests is to offer a variety of tailored experiences. Museums like Children’s Museum of Tacoma have begun offering “parents night out,” where parents can enjoy a night out while their children play at the museum. The Yale University Art Gallery offers programming especially for teens. And the Virginia Museum of Fine Art allows members to personalize their membership profile to receive information and invitations relevant to their own interests!
By offering a wide range of events from teen nights or parents night out, you can make your institution a place members and visitors alike are excited about. You’ve worked hard to create a community, so make sure members have a reason to come back!
3. Remind your Member of their Benefits
As we’ve explored previously on our blog, a great way to remind your members that you value them is to offer exclusive benefits and member only events. From free admission to a big upcoming exhibition to a late-night members-only event, there are many ways to show your members they are important. This not only ties back into creating a community your members will want to be a part of, but it will also show members why their membership is valuable. You can even offer special discounts at the bookstore or a free birthday beverage at the café to keep members coming back, and reward them for their loyalty. These benefits are helpful in not only driving visitors to sign up for membership, but they will remind your current member they are an important addition to your institution.
Pro Tip: You can keep your members looped in to all their awesome benefits more easily than ever with digital membership cards. Digital cards can display special discounts and reciprocal benefits and pop-up that information at the right time and place, tailored to each individual’s membership level.
4. Use Social Media to Stay Top-of-Mind
In today’s world, social media plays a huge role in how we discover and consume information, so why not use that to your advantage? With platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, it is easier than ever to keep your members up to date in real time.
Have an upcoming speaker series? Tweet about it! Opening a new exhibition? Share some behind the scenes photos and videos on Facebook and Instagram! Museums like Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City have started using platforms like Instagram (they have over 4.8 million followers!) to share exhibitions and events with their followers. They have even started posting Instagram Stories to promote events and exhibits! Engagement on Instagram Stories is through the roof right now, so strike while the iron is hot.
This content will help you connect you with your members, especially millennials and tech-savvy families!
5. Make it Easy to Renew
While it is important to take steps to show your members what value your institution brings to the table, don’t forget about creating an easy way to remind members to renew their membership. Even the most informed members often have no idea when their membership expires, so it’s important to let your them know before they lapse!
The data shows that solicitation telephone calls are the top-rated dissatisfier among members. For this reason, many membership departments turn to email to notify members of their soon-to-be-expired membership. Yet, due to the volume of emails that people receive these days, these emails often wind up unread, collecting dust in your members spam folder.
So, how do you prompt members to renew? Make sure your reminders are personal and impactful – you want your members to be inspired by the personal connection that they have with your institution! Show your members what value your membership adds, and set yourself apart.
Additionally, make sure you send out renewal reminders through the channel your members want. One way is by using push notifications via digital membership cards. Push notifications are a direct form of communication with a high open rate, where you can be sure your member receives your communication at the optimal time. They’re less intrusive than a phone call, and more likely to be opened than email!
Pro Tip: By introducing a digital membership card option to your members, you can use the push notification feature to drive loyalty and make it easier for your members to renew!
The Takeaways
With the push to continue to bring in new members, it can be easy to lose sight of retaining the members you already have. While it may seem daunting at first, there are many simple ways to keep your current members coming back and show potential members what your institution brings to the table. From community outreach, to a surprise discount, or a day of family fun, the possibilities are endless when it comes to showing members and visitors alike why your membership program is valuable!