3 Reasons to Outsource Your Membership Management

Direct Mail is one of the top three recruitment channels for new members (32%.) *

According to the 2017 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report by Marketing General Incorporated*, Word-of-Mouth WOM and digital marketing are the top two recruitment channels for recruiting members, followed closely by Direct Mail in the third position (32%.) The indisputable impact of Direct Mail is evident, so, managing your direct mail efficiently helps to meet your marketing acquisition goals. Read more 5 reasons to introduce more printed client communication.

How Outsourcing Membership Communication adds value?

There are a series of factors that you need to combine to produce a successful membership communication. First of all, you must know your membership lifecycle, plan how to create recruits, increase engagement and renewal.

You can do it on your own, which implies printing welcome letters and packs, and sending it to new members, preparing the monthly communications, managing the print, proofreading, ensuring distribution costs are favourable and coping with response management. Or you can outsource part or the whole membership programme to a proven supplier.

The benefits of outsourcing are many, from optimising the budget spent on releasing your team to work on strategy rather than order processing. We present you with some powerful reasons to outsource your printed membership communication management:

1. Timing - Increase Client Satisfaction.

A welcome pack is a must-have in the first step for a new members’ communication, as it provides recognition of a special status, providing them with the benefits to enjoy your exclusive programme and helps them to connect with your offer. The quality of the card, paper and the rest of content that you send impacts on their psychology and association with your brand. Moreover, the quicker they receive the welcome pack, the better the impression of your organisation and the sooner they start to use your services. 51% of membership associations send a mailed Welcome Pack in 2017 and 47% includes a membership card. *

Outsourcing the welcome pack production and despatch service provides the assurance that your member will receive their welcome pack in a certain period previously agreed with the Direct Marketing Supplier as an SLA.

Why is the timing important for a membership organisation? Because maintaining your high brand perception and prompting the first participation in your services. Is easy as that.

2. Automatise your printed communication – Save time.

By using a Direct Marketing Supplier, you save time in preparing the direct mail communication, proofing, printing, sending it, and managing the response. The huge amount of time saved is proportional to the number of different level of membership because every one of them requires a different offer or communication based on their status. For instance, there are some museums who have nine types of membership, as a result, more than 30 different texts for the same communication.

Thanks to automatisation software, your membership supplier will only require from you the list of members and the text and image for each, and they will prepare and send your communication.

The amount of time saved is massive, and the impact on your brand and your marketing team productivity is huge.

3. Save money on postage - £14,000 for instance.

Membership organisations send a large number of printed communications, welcome letters or welcome packs, monthly communication such as newsletter or activities programme, and renewal forms. You can benefit from discounts for volume using a Membership Management Supplier, who has deals with postal suppliers that provide you with a substantial discount for both UK and Overseas postage.

The amount of discount depends on multiple factors such as the type of letter or welcome pack, weight, volume, etc. but we are here to help guide you through that complexity. To put this in context, at Romax, we sent more than 96K printed communications for just one of our Art organisation clients, reducing their postage spend by £14,000. How many new members could you attract with this extra budget?

If you want to know more about outsourcing your communication management, let’s chat about how Romax's Membership Service helps clients like you to manage your membership communication.

Romax Marketing & Distribution has more than 20 years of experience managing membership and client printing and communication services for organisations such as Southbank Centre, DKMS and PlusNet. Contact us: hello@romax.co.uk, +44 (0) 20 8293 8550

Written by Nilda Cerna, Marketing Manager at Romax Marketing & Distribution.