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If you read Cynthia D’Amour’s blog you will have seen multiple posts on a series of renewals that she has been receiving from a group she used to belong to. She was nice enough to share her reaction to their efforts, and in a sad way it has been pretty funny. I recently had a similar experience.

I had been a member of a local association on and off for over 15 years and recently decided not to renew. From what I recall their renewal marketing started 3-4 months before my membership lapsed, with a letter telling me to renew my membership. Pretty simple and straightforward, but it obviously did not get me to reconsider my decision. Over the next few months, I got an email or two along with a few more letters. The one that got me to write this is what I will call the “expire” letter.

The letter was all about them and nothing about me. It inferred that if I didn’t renew I would no longer be a member of the cool kids club. It told me about all the great things happening at the organization—events, my subscription to their publication, my complimentary listing in their directory and lots of discounts. Nowhere in the letter did it tell me anything about how membership would solve any of my needs or address any of my challenges yet it told me how I would value my membership all year long. To put icing on the cake there was a sentence in there that I didn’t even understand: “You won’t want to miss from free subscription to any more issues of our publication.” Huh?

The mailing also included a renewal form. The renewal form did have my name lasered in at the top with my member number and my expiration date, which was good. Unfortunately it also included a rehash of all the products and services they told me I would miss from the letter. Again, nothing telling me how I would benefit from my membership. The topper: At the end of the form it told me to keep my benefits flowing. What benefits? They didn’t tell me what they are.

I have 3 points here:

1. Do associations, or any organizations for that matter, no longer understand the difference between features and benefits? Benefits sell. Features don’t. Do members care that you sell a book? Or do members care that the book will help them go further in their career, or do their job better, stay up to date on all of the latest information or even make more money?

2. Are we doing the little things that we need to do to appear professional? Someone should have proofread the letter that I received. If I was on the fence with my membership, as I was, a bad impression can be the last impression.

3. Are we taking advantage of technology? The letter and renewal form I received was not customized to my needs; it was totally generic. They know my purchasing history so they should be able to tailor a piece of their renewal effort to me as an individual. I am not asking for true one to one marketing but something closer would be nice.

I am not writing this to beat up this one organization. I am writing this because I think that with everything else association staff members have to do on a daily basis, renewals sometimes get dumped into the “have to do,” not the “want to do,” category and are not given the attention they deserve. Retaining members is critical for the majority of associations. If we are not doing everything we can with our renewal series to get members to retain their membership, then we are not doing our jobs.