Direct-mail Tips for Membership Organizations

Direct-mail Tips for Membership Organizations

Dec. 6, 2005

By Abny Santicola

Membership organizations, such as zoos, museums, botanical gardens and arboretums, have a unique set of concerns when it comes to direct mail, says Dana Hines, president and chief executive of St. Louis, Mo.-based Membership Consultants, a full-service marketing firm that serves membership organizations. Some of these concerns include:

1. Seasonality. Hines says her company has found success mailing acquisition pieces heavily -- two or three mailings in a very short time span -- at the specific times of the year that relate to the membership organizations they serve. For example, the strong season for zoos and botanical gardens is the spring, whereas museums are more of an indoor activity and more popular during the fall and winter and the academic calendar.

2. New building openings. Hines says her company has found great success doing concentrated mailings for membership organizations that are preparing to open new buildings or venues. This entails sending out mailings prior to the opening, during opening and then shortly after they've opened. When the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati opened a new building in 2003, Hines says it did "three very timed, concentrated mailings, one right on top of the other." The CAC had hoped to up its membership from 2,500 to 5,000 and wound up instead garnering a total of 7,800 members by the opening's end.

3. New exhibits. The Missouri Historical Society created a national exhibit that celebrated the bicentennial expedition of Lewis and Clark that originated at the Historical Society and later toured the country. Hines says the organization mapped out four direct-mail campaigns, coupled with intensive on-site membership sales. The efforts resulted in an increase in membership from 9,000 to 18,000 in a nine-month period.

After acquiring these new members, membership organizations face the challenge of getting them to renew.

"Usually the first-year renewal rate of a new member or a new donor is about half of what the overall renewal rate is for people who've been with you for some time," Hines says.

One solution, she says, is to preempt a new member's decision not to renew by contacting him by telephone before the regular renewal process starts and talking about his experience with the exhibit or opening, relating that to the benefits of membership, asking him to renew his membership and giving him the opportunity to do so on the spot. Hines says that this approach resulted in a first-year renewal rates of 40 percent to 45 percent for one of her clients.

Dana Hines can be reached by visiting http://www.membership-consultants.com or calling 314.771.4664.